Live blog recap: Canada celebrates its Olympic and Paralympic athletes

TORONTO – Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes celebrated in downtown Toronto Friday afternoon with a big parade.

The festivities started at 11:30am near Bay and Queen Streets, and wrapped up in front of the Air Canada Centre.

Many Olympians spent much of Thursday meeting with fans, showing off their medals and signing autographs.

See how the day unfolded in our live blog recap: 

The parade closed down several streets on Friday from 6 a.m. until 1 p.m.:

-Elizabeth Street, from Dundas Street West and Hagerman Street
-Hagerman Street, between Elizabeth Street to Bay Street
-The east curb lane of Centre Street, between Dundas Street West and Armoury Street
-The west curb lane of Bay Street, between Dundas Street West and the lay-by at Nathan
Phillips Square

A few streets will be closed until 3 p.m.:
-The north curb lane of Bremner Boulevard, between Rees Street and Navy Wharf Court
-The south curb lane of Bremner Boulevard, between Lower Simcoe Street and York Street

Bremner Boulevard, between Maple Leaf Square and Lake Shore Boulevard West, will be shut down until 10 p.m.

The following streets were closed from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.:
-The southbound lanes of Bay Street, between Hagerman Street and Wellington Street West
-The westbound lanes of Wellington Street West, between Bay Street and York Street