2004 in Canada

See also:

Incumbents

Events

January

January 1: Montreal Dorval Airport is renamed, after some controversy, Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
January 5: Canadian dollar value climbs above $ .78 US, for the first time since July 1993
January 5: World Junior Hockey Championship Team Canada is defeated by Team USA 4-3 in the Final at Helsinki, Finland
January 7: NHL suspends Toronto Maple Leafs's Mats Sundin after he threw his stick into the stands after it broke, no one was hurt and he was only suspended one game.
January 7: Randy Ferbey wins Canada Cup opener
January 12: Stephen Harper enters leadership race for the new Conservative Party of Canada
January 13: President George W. Bush allows Canada to bid for contracts in Iraq.
January 16: Race begins in Nunavut general election, 2004.
January 19: Government of Canada challenges Department of Justice of Canada against repayment of same-sex benefit dating back to 1985.
January 19: Quebec Provincial Police announces new police force to fight organized crime.
January 22: Montreal's Sainte Justine Children's Hospital warns of a former surgeon who may have infected 2,600 patients with HIV, by letter.
January 27: Canadian soldier Corporal Jamie Murphy is killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. Three other soldiers are also injured.
January 29: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer requests Canadian soldiers to keep a presence in Afghanistan after the scheduled return of troops in August.
January 30: Supreme Court of Canada upholds law allowing parents to spank their child within "reasonable limits".

February

February 2: Prime Minister's Speech from the Throne read by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson from the Senate of Canada.
February 2: Wiarton Willie the groundhog predicts six more week of cold weather on Groundhog Day.
February 6: Canadian SPCA finds 100 dead cows and 100 more being improperly cared for, on an Alberta farm
February 6: The CBC announces it will use a broadcast delay during Don Cherry's Coaches Corner on Hockey Night in Canada, after he made anti-French and European comments, a possible violation of the Official Languages Act of Canada
February 10: Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser releases study on the federal government's advertising and sponsorship in Quebec which notes millions of dollars were mishandled. (See: 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal)
February 12: World Health Organization endorses a Health Canada plan to deal with a potential influenza pandemic
February 12: A Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan woman, now 18, who became a quadriplegic after being hit by a vehicle at age 4, is awarded $12 million in a lawsuit against the driver, the city and the former police chief. The largest lawsuit awarded in Saskatchewan history
February 13: Jane Stewart, former Human Resources Development Canada Minister, announces her retirement from politics, to work for the United Nations International Labour Organization
February 16: Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament Elsie Wayne announces her retirement from politics
February 16: The Canadian Recording Industry Association ask a judge to order many Canadian ISPs to hand over names of 29 suspected illegal fileswappers.
February 16: Polling day, Nunavut general election, 2004 Of the 19 members of the consensus government, 1 is acclaimed and 18 elections are held. Eight members of the previous government are reelected, five are defeated, and five who did not run again are replaced. MLAs will choose the premier from among themselves on March 5; incumbent Paul Okalik is challenged by Tagak Curley.
February 17: John Bryden, Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Aldershot County in the Canadian House of Commons, resigns from the party due to the Prime Minister of Canada's sponsorship scandal.
February 17: Canada donated $ 800,000 to the World Food Program and $ 350,000 to the International Red Cross, to help with the current food and medical needs in Haiti, following the recent coup there.
February 18: Auditor General of New Brunswick Daryl Wilson reports Premier of New Brunswick Bernard Lord lied about the province having a budget surplus of $ 1,000,000. Lord accused the Auditor General of "accounting semantics".
February 19: Jeremy Hinzman, a US soldier from the US 82nd Airborne Division in North Carolina, seeks refugee status in Canada as a conscientious objector to serving in Iraq. He currently lives in Toronto with his wife and child
February 19: Starting in Buffalo, New York and ending in Niagara Falls, Ontario, a cross border police pursuit results in dead Canadian woman
February 20: 2004 CN Rail workers strike (Canada)
February 20: Saskatchewan Minister of Justice Frank Quennell announces Alberta justice Edward P. McCallum will head inquiry of David Milgaard's wrongful conviction.
February 20: South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong ban poultry and birds imports from Canada, after the virus H7 (virus) is found. It is not linked to H5N1 (virus), which was blamed for killing 22 peole in Asia (See also: avian influenza)
February 20: Canada is part of multi-national delegation with the United States, France and Caribbean nations sent to Haiti, to help end the current conflict
February 21: An joint investigation into the February 19 cross border police chase is made by Niagara Falls, New York Police, Niagara Falls, Ontario Police and Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, to determine if proper procedure was followed
February 23: Microcell Solutions Inc. sues TELUS Communications, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Societe Tele-Mobile, in a Quebec superior court, for violating its trademark Fido dog image.
February 23: Toronto nurse Andrea Williams files a $600 million lawsuit against the governments of Canada and Ontario due to her contracting SARS, during the 2003 outbreak
February 24: Prime Minister Paul Martin suspends 3 Crown corporation heads in steps dealing with the sponsorship scandal. Those suspended are Michel Vennat, president of the Business Development Bank of Canada, Via Rail president Marc LeFrançois and Canada Post president André Ouellet
February 25: Vancouver International Airport (YVR) announces $1.4 million expansion.
February 26: Canadian Armed Forces send nine members of elite counter-terrorism unit JTF2 to Haiti to aid in evacuating Canadian nationals
February 28: Canadian businessman James Sabzali, living in Philadelphia since 1996, fined and sentenced to a year probation for violating the United States trade embargo against Cuba
February 28: RCMP Corporal Jim Galloway shot dead during a standoff

March

March 3: United Nations International Narcotics Control Board criticizes Canada for having a provincially run safe house for drugusers in Vancouver, British Columbia
March 3: RCMP investigate threatening letters sent to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island government and media buildings
March 3: Former Jean Chrétien aide Jean Carle linked to 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal
March 5: Paul Okalik re-elected as Premier of Nunavut in Nunavut general election, 2004
March 5: Canadian Forces plans to send 450 troops, including three infantry platoons and six helicopters from 430 Squadron in Valcartier, Quebec, and members of India Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, based at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, to Haiti for a 90 day mission
March 5: Prime Minister Paul Martin fires the President of Via Rail Marc LeFrançois
March 5: Abdurahman Khadr, who admitted recently to having Al qaeda and Osama bin Laden links, alleges to working for the CIA as an informant
March 6: Sheila Copps loses nomination to Tony Valeri to represent the riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek in the 2004 Canadian election
March 7-8: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visits Canada to meet with Prime Minister Martin, Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and Louise Arbour, who was recently named UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Topic of discussion with the PM will be the Haiti crisis
March 8: Vancouver Police investigate a National Hockey League incident involving Vancouver Canucks Todd Bertuzzi and Colorado Avalanche rookie Steve Moore. Moore was hit by Bertuzzi resulting in Moore's receiving a neck injury and concussion. Moore is out of the lineup indefinitely.
March 9: Sheila Copps files an appeal of the Liberal nomination loss and a complaint to the RCMP
March 9: Belinda Stronach wins Conservative Party of Canada nomination for riding of Newmarket-Aurora, defeating Lois Brown 512-412 in total votes
March 9: Second form of avian flu found on British Columbia farm
March 9: Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan admits involvement in investigating Maher Arar before he was deported to Syria
March 9: Protests across the country against Citizenship and Immigration Canada for arrest of Algerian refugee Mohamed Cherfi by Quebec City police for failing to report an address change. He had been hiding in a church, which is normally considered a refugee safe house
March 9: 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal investigation finds $2.3 million missing which was to be used to fund the Bluenose 2
March 12: Canadian Forces begin deployment to Haiti to support peacekeeping force
March 12: CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick Colonel Barry McLeod named Chief of Staff of United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). He will arrive there in July
March 12: 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal investigation results in firing of Michel Vennat, the Business Development Bank of Canada's President
March 15: Treasury Board of Canada President Reg Alcock announces a "merit-based" system to appoint new CEO's for Crown corporations.
March 15: Quebec government warns 1,144 people who attended an acupuncture clinic (owned by Suzanne Sicotte) in Montreal to take blood tests for HIV and hepatitis
March 15: Brad Wall appointed leader of the Saskatchewan Party
March 16: Equifax confirms security breach resulting in the illegal access to files containing credit information of 1,400 Canadians
March 17: House of Commons committee summons 11 federal bureaucrats in investigation of the sponsorship scandal for a private hearing, later to become a public hearing
March 17: Canadian Food Inspection Agency creates a programme for routine testing of poultry for avian influenza (bird flu), after British Columbia had to destroy 57,000 chickens
March 17: Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan announces increased patrols outside the 320 kilometres limit off Canada's east coast
March 17: A stamp is created in honour of former Governor General of Canada Ray Hnatyshyn
March 17: 170 Canadian Forces soldiers sent to Haiti to provide security (See Operation Halo)
March 18: Kickbacks discovered in free flag giveaway discovered from 1996 promise by Sheila Copps to giveaway 1 million free flags
March 20: In the 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, Stephen Harper wins on the first ballot to become leader of the party and the official opposition
March 22: Federal government announces an aid package worth almost $1 billion to farmers hurt by mad cow disease
March 22: Conservative Party of Canada leader Stephen Harper appointed Peter MacKay as Deputy Leader
March 22: Supreme Court of Canada jurist Frank Iacobucci announces his retirement effective June
March 22: Canada condemns Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Shaikh Ahmed Yassin
March 22: Canada introduces bill to protect public service worker whistleblowers
March 23: 2004 Canadian budget announced
March 23: Government of Canada will sell its stake in Petro Canada within next twelve months
March 24: RCMP release documents detailing investigation of newspaper reporter Juliet O'Neill telling how they searched for details of her knowledge of the Maher Arar case. A January 2004 raid of her house was also documented
March 24: Canadian Food Inspection Agency orders slaughter of 275,000 chickens and turkeys in British Columbia to fight avian flu outbreak
March 24: Myriam Bedard testifies to a committee investigating the sponsorship scandal that she heard Jacques Villeneuve was paid millions of dollars to wear a Canadian flag on his racing suit; Villeneuve calls this allegation "ludicrous"
March 25: Supreme Court of Canada rules 9-0 in not holding Catholic Church of Canada responsible for sexual abuse of altar boys by a Newfoundland priest Kevin Bennett
March 26: Supreme Court of Canada upholds legitimacy of pre-nuptial agreements saying it can't be considered unfair at the time of signing
March 26: Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham speaks at a memorial conference at the United Nations for the 1994 Rwanda massacre, reminding people to not forget the genocide
March 26: Canada makes One-Tonne Challenge
March 29: The Progressive Canadian Party registers with Elections Canada to elect members into the Canadian House of Commons in the 2004 Canadian federal election
March 29: RCMP raid an Ottawa area home, arrest Momin Khawaja on terrorism charges.
March 29: Peel Regional Municipality, Ontario police officer arrested for possessing $2.5 million worth of cocaine.
March 30: Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser criticises flaws in national security
March 30: Ottawa area man Momin Khawaja arrested on March 29 is charged with acts of terrorism under the Canada Anti-Terrorism Act
March 31: Colin Thatcher is denied early parole
March 31: 170 people, including 29 Canadians, arrested in drug bust across Canada and the United States
March 31: Discovery finds that million flag promise in 1996 by Sheila Copps was organized by GroupAction
March 31: Federal Court of Canada rejects Canadian Recording Industry Association request to obtain names of music fileswappers, making the sharing legal
March 31: Saskatchewan government releases 2004 budget, raising the PST from 6% to 7%.

April

April 1: RCMP confirms arrest of Mohammad Momin Khawaja is related to arrests in United Kingdom
April 1: Canada is exempted from list of countries on United States Department of Homeland Security for fingerprinting and photographing visitors to the US
April 1: Federal riding redistribution comes into effect: number of seats rises from 301 to 308.
April 1: Same-sex marriage in Canada: the first legal same-sex marriage in Quebec is celebrated; Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf wed in Montreal.
April 6: Canada orders slaughter of 19 million British Columbia poultry due to avian influenza
April 6: 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal - Jean Pelletier, former PMO chief of staff, alleges there was "no direction" in the federal sponsorship programme
April 7: Fadi Ihsan Fadel, a Canadian humanitarian working in Iraq, taken hostage among group of other nationals
April 7: Former Member of Canadian Parliament Jack Ramsay's son Spencer found dead in their family home
April 8: Nine Hell's Angels members from Montreal are convicted of drug trafficking and gangsterism.
April 8: Department of Justice considering extraditing alleged mafia leader Vito Rizzuto to the United States. He is accused of three murders in 1981.
April 14: Prime Minister Paul Martin announces extension to deployment of current soldiers in Afghanistan until summer 2005
April 15: Member of Parliament Svend Robinson confesses to stealing a ring from an auction firm. Takes medical leave.
April 16: The auction firm from where Svend Robinson stole the ring says it won't pursue charges against him
April 16: Canadian hostage in Iraq, Fadi Ihsan Fadel, freed
April 16: Canadian Member of Parliament John Cannis (Scarborough Centre Liberal Party) calls for deportation of Abdurahman Khadr
April 17: Dalai Lama visits Canada for 19-day tour
April 17: Canadian peacekeeper in Prnjavor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, injured in road accident, one civilian also injured. Cause under investigation. (See: Operation Palladium)
April 19: Canadians Edge and Chris Benoit win World Tag Team Championships on Monday Night RAW (WWE)
April 20: Rifat Mohammed Rifat, a Canadian citizen, taken hostage in Iraq
April 27: Air Canada flight 109, a Halifax to Vancouver 767, is escorted by two CF-18s after a suspicious threat is received by NORAD
April 27: Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Anne McLellan introduces new $690 million national security and foreign security initiative
April 29: Prime Minister Martin speaks at a US conference reaffirming position not to join coalition in Iraq, but says Canada wants to aid in rebuilding Iraq
April 29: A NAFTA panel rules in favour of Canada in the US - Canada softwood lumber dispute against the United States

May

May 3: Canadian businessman Naji al-Kuwaiti is reported to have been taken hostage in Iraq on April 28; he is released May 4
May 10: 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal - Jean Brault, president of GroupAction, and Charles Guité arrested by the RCMP for fraud
May 17: Ken Dryden announces his candidacy in the 2004 Canadian election representing the Liberal Party in the Canadian electoral district of York Centre, Ontario
May 18: Supreme Court of Canada upholds law on spending limit by special interest groups during elections
May 18: Karlheinz Schreiber ordered extradited to Germany on charges of fraud, bribery and failure to pay taxes
May 27: Conservative Party of Canada official languages critic Scott Reid resigns after making comments suggesting reduction of French language access
May 27: Former Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano launches $4.5 million lawsuit against Prime Minister Martin and the federal government
May 27: Farmers' income hits 25 year low in 2003 from drought and mad cow crisis
May 30: Vandal(s) spraypaint anti-gay messages on the office of Liberal Party of Canada candidate Glen Murray (Charleswood-St. James). Murray previously made history by being Canada's first openly homosexual municipal leader as the mayor of Winnipeg (1998 - 2004).

June

June 3: US - Canada softwood lumber dispute: United States Commerce Department will cut it's tax on softwood lumber exports, effective 2005
June 3: Peel, Ontario Police charge another 13 officials at HRDC in fraud, bribery and receiging secret commissions investigation
June 10: Elections Canada's Chief Electoral Officer announces changes to allow televised results of upcoming election without delay after closing of local polling stations
June 13: Michael Schumacher wins the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix held in Montreal, Quebec
June 17: Michael Briere pleads guilty to the murder of Holly Jones, admits to viewing child pornography immediately before the murder.
June 18: The Conservative Party of Canada issues, retracts, reissues, and reretracts a news release entitled "Paul Martin Supports Child Pornography?"
June 28: The Liberal Party of Canada wins a minority government of 135 seats in the 2004 federal election (155 seats was needed for a majority). The Conservative Party of Canada wins 99 seats, New Democratic Party 19, Bloc Quebecois 54, and one seat is won by an independent candidate.

July

July 2: Nine-year-old Djamshid Djan Popal arrives in Toronto. Early diagnoses suggest Popal suffers from patent ductus arteriosus, a condition he can't get treatment for in his native Afghanistan, but will be able to in Canada thanks to fundraising efforts by the Muslim Association of Hamilton and volunteering doctors.
July 6: Five-year-old Tamra Keepness, of Regina, is declared missing; massive police search ensues.
July 11: Hail and terrential rain causes flooding in Edmonton; damage to the West Edmonton Mall is estimated in the millions.
July 14: Same-sex marriage in Yukon: Yukon territory becomes the fourth province or territory to legalize same-sex marriage.
July 14: Foreign affairs minister Bill Graham orders the withdrawal of Canada's ambassador to Iran after Canada is denied attendance at the trial of Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, alleged murderer of Canadian-Iranian citizen Zahra Kazemi.
July 16: Iran announces it will allow some diplomatic observers at the trial of Zahra Kazemi alleged murderer; Canada suspends the withdrawal of its ambassador to Iran.
July 18: Trial of Zahra Kazemi's alleged killer abruptly ends; Canadian ambassador to Iran is recalled.

Arts and Literature

Awards

Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson, Loop
Stephen Leacock Award: Ian Ferguson, Village of the Small House: a Memoir of Sorts

Film

February 29 - Denys Arcand's film the The Barbarian Invasions wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Television

January 12: Rick Mercer's Monday Report and This is Wonderland debuts on the CBC

Sports

January 25: Chris Benoit of Edmonton wins the WWE's Royal Rumble.
January 29: Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League jointly announce Vancouver will host the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship.
February 9: Canadian Clara Hughes wins bronze in the world speed skating championship.
February 10: The Canadian Softball Team won silver in the world softball championship
February 10: Canadian Francois Bourque wins bronze in the world junior alpine ski championship.
February 29: Colleen Jones wins the Scott Tournament of Hearts, in curling Red Deer, Alberta, 7-4
March 6-14: 2004 Nokia Brier at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
March 11: Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi suspended without pay for remainder of regular season and playoffs for injuring Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche
March 14: Canadian Chris Benoit wins the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania (WWE)
April 6: Canada wins the IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship defeating the United States, 2-0 in Halifax, Nova Scotia
April 19: Canadians Edge and Chris Benoit win World Tag Team Championships on Monday Night RAW (WWE)
April 24: Canada wins the Women's world curling championship

Births

Deaths

January 7 - Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun
January 7 - Doug Morton, member of the Regina Five (Painter)
January 15 - Alex Barris, actor and writer
February 9 - Claude Ryan, former Quebec Parti libéral du Québec leader
February 9 - Janusz Zurakowski, First man to fly the Avro Arrow
February 21 - Guido Molinari, artist
February 29 - Toni Onley, painter
March 5 - Tooker Gomberg, environmentalist and former politician commits suicide by jumping from a Halifax-Dartmouth bridge
March 18 - Harrison McCain, co-founder of McCain Foods Limited
March 19 - Mitchell Sharp, politician
March 20 or March 21 - Pierre Sévigny, war hero
March 24 - Ontario Liberal MPP Dominic Agostino

Deaths

July 11 - Frances Hyland, stage actress
July - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet School