I'm not Canadian and don't know the rules of this league but if this happened at the NCAA Championships, there would be some disqualified athletes.
People, it's not about what is entertaining or what would make for more popular races. If you want change then lobby for it to your governing body until change is given. Otherwise, what we are left with is that we must abide by the rules as they are presently written.
In the NCAA a runner may not impede the progress of another athlete, this rule was broken early on in the buildup when the 3 Guelph runners went to the front... the last one cut in too soon and could have been subject to dq upon protest. Much of the race was what I call "normal" aggressive assertion of position. HOWEVER, it becomes more and more obvious that the intent was to impede other runners from passing. This is proved by the athletes from Guelph who look over their shoulder, then deviate, unnecessarily many feet for no other reason than to impede the runners behind them. (if you don't need to go to lane 3 to give yourself a chance to pass then doing so will look suspect if there is a runner behind you trying to get by.)
It could be that the Coach said to his athletes: "don't let anyone by you no matter what".... then the athlete misinterpreted the proper/legal way of doing so. That is all on the coach. If you don't explain legal racing tactics to your athletes and train them to do it within the means of the rules, then you are subject to criticism.
In this case, the coach has disrespected himself by showing he is either a cheat, or a poor teacher of the rules and racing tactics. Either way, its a disgrace and there is no room for it as the rules currently read.