2004 in Canada

2004 in Canada

See also: 2003 in Canada, other events of 2004, 2005 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Table of contents

1 Incumbents
2 Events
3 Births
4 Deaths

Incumbents

Events

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 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 $1212 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 Canadian dollar 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 Canadian dollar 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, afer 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 Carribean 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 $600600 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 LeFran�ois and Canada Post president Andr� Ouellet
February 25: Vancouver International Airport (YVR) announces $11.4 million expansion.
April 1: Federal redistricting comes into effect
April/May?: Canadian federal election, 2004
June 13: 2004 Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, Quebec

Sports

January 25: Chris Benoit of Manitoba 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.

Television

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

Births

Deaths

January 7 - Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun

January 7 - Doug Morton, member of the Regina Five (Painter)

February 9 - Claude Ryan, former Quebec Parti lib�ral du Qu�bec leader

February 9 - Janusz Zurakowski, First man to fly the Avro Arrow