Shawinigan is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 50,060 as of the Canada 2011 Census.

Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Shawinigan. Its geographical code is 36. Shawinigan is the seat of the judicial district of Saint-Maurice.

The name Shawinigan has had numerous spellings over time: Chaouinigane, Oshaouinigane, Assaouinigane, Achawénégan, Chawinigame, Shawenigane, Chaouénigane. It may mean "south portage", "portage of beeches", "angular portage", or "summit" or "crest". Before 1958 the city was known as Shawinigan Falls.

In 1651, the priest Buteaux was the first European known to have travelled up the Saint-Maurice River to this river's first set of great falls. Afterwards, missionairies going to the Upper Saint-Maurice would rest here. Before Shawinigan Falls was established, the local economy had been largely based on lumber and agriculture.

Samir Khullar, better known as Sugar Sammy, is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer and producer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His irreverent style is what sets the tone for his brand of unique and off the wall comedy. He is known as much for his no holds barred style of comedy as he is for his charm, wit and improvisational abilities with audiences. He does comedy and is fluent in English, French, Punjabi and Hindi.

Sammy was born and raised in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec. As a young and impressionable kid, his comedic inspirations came from watching Eddie Murphy’s "Delirious." He was only 8-years-old when he got his first exposure to Murphy’s racy material. He persuaded his mom to rent "Delirious," one of Murphy’s stand-up comedy specials from an Indian movie store. Sammy credits Eddie Murphy’s 1983 comedy special as being a defining moment in his life. From then on, he knew what he wanted to do. Also influenced by other Black-American stand-up comedians, Sammy names Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle as some of his other comedic influences. Even though Sammy knew from a young age that he wanted to pursue a career in comedy, it wasn’t until the age of 17 when he got his first taste of the limelight. While some of his friends organized a high school fundraiser for the black student association they asked that the young class clown be the night's entertainment. Soon after high school, Sammy earned a degree at Marianopolis College while occasionally performing at open-mic nights at the Comedy Works and the Comedy Zone. Although Sammy struggled for almost a decade to gain recognition on the comedy circuit, he later continued his studies at McGill University in cultural studies while working as a night club promoter in Montreal. Here he received what would later become his stage name after letting many of the women into the parties for free.