January 1 – The CBC News Service officially begins operations in English; operations in French begin the following day. CBC's board of governors determined that a national news service would assist in reporting the war.[3]
April 29 – Quebec, the last province to exclude women from the legal profession, allow women to practise law. The first Quebec woman lawyer is Elizabeth Monk, who is called to the bar the next year.[5][6]
July 24 – Workers began an illegal strike at the Alcan aluminum complex at Arvida, Quebec, when 700 workers walk off the job. Some 4,500 workers occupy the factory the next day. Minister of Munitions and SupplyC.D. Howe says that enemy sabotage was responsible for the work stoppage, and soldiers are sent to secure the facility. Work resumes on July 29 as workers and management negotiate, assisted by federal conciliators. A subsequent royal commission rejects the sabotage theory and finds that the strike was the result of worker dissatisfaction with wages and working conditions, as well as a heat wave that occurred immediately before the strike.[7][8]
December 7 – HMCS Windflower collides with a merchant ship and sinks in the North Atlantic, killing 23 sailors.
December 7(North America time)/December 8 (Hong Kong time) – Battle of Hong Kong: On the same morning as the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack British Hong Kong, with relentless air raids for the next 17+1⁄2 days. Hong Kong surrenders on December 25. Some 1,975 Canadian soldiers are posted in the colony, mostly infantry with the Royal Rifles of Canada and Winnipeg Grenadiers, who had arrived to reinforce the colony on October 27 aboard the Awatea, escorted by HMCS Prince Robert. The Japanese attack is a disaster for the Canadians, who were greatly outnumbered by the Japanese. Of the 1,975 Canadians who went to Hong Kong, more than 1,050 were killed or wounded, and many are taken prisoner by Japan.[12][13][14]
December 8 – Immediately following the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, Canada declares war on Japan, on the same day that Britain and the United States do so.
December 8 – The day after Japanese attacks on Hong King and Pearl Harbor, all fishing boats owned by Japanese Canadians are impounded by the Royal Canadian Navy.[15]
^Ross Eaman, Historical Dictionary of Journalism (Scarecrow Press, 2009), p. 100.
^Mitsuo Yesaki, Sutebusuton: A Japanese Village on the British Columbia Coast (Peninsula Publishing, 2003), p. 100.
^Fiona M. Kay & Joan Brockman, "Barriers to Gender Equality in the Canadian Legal Establishment" in Women in the World's Legal Professions (eds. Ulrike Schultz & Gisela Shaw; Hart Publishing, 2003), p. 52.
^Joan Brockman, Gender in the Legal Profession: Fitting or Breaking the Mould (UBC Press, 2001), pp. 6-7.
^Peter S. McInnis, Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950 (University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 225.
^Peter Neville, Historical Dictionary of British Foreign Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2013), pp. 33-34.
^Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia (UBC Press, 2005), p. 100.
^Naomi E.S. Griffiths, The Splendid Vision: Centennial History of the National Council of Women of Canada, 1893-1993 (McGill-Queen's Press, 1993), pp. 218.
^Robert Craig Brown, in "Full Partnership in the Fortunes and Future of the Nation", in Ethnicity and Citizenship: The Canadian Case (eds. Jean Laponce & William Safran), p. 22.
^Terence Morley, "The Government of the Day: The Premier and Cabinet in British Columbia" in Politics, Policy, and Government in British Columbia (ed. R. Kenneth Carty; UBC Press, 1996) p. 144.
^John T. Saywell, "Lieutenant-Governors", in The Provincial Political Systems: Comparative Essays (eds. David J. Bellamy et al.; Methuen Publications, 1976) p. 300.
^M. Jane Fairburn, Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto's Waterfront Heritage (ECW Press, 2013), p. 179.
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