2004 in Canada

Events from the year 2004 in Canada.

Incumbents

January

January 1 – Montreal Dorval Airport is renamed, after some controversy, Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
January 5 – Canadian dollar value climbs above $0.78 US, for the first time since July 1993.
January 12 – Stephen Harper enters leadership race for the new Conservative Party of Canada.
January 13 – U.S. President George W. Bush allows Canada to bid for contracts in Iraq.
January 16 – Race begins in 2004 Nunavut general election.
January 19 – Government of Canada challenges Department of Justice against repayment of benefits to same-sex couples dating back to 1985.
January 19 – The Sûreté du Québec announce a new police force to fight organized crime.
January 22 – Montreal's Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine warns of a former surgeon who may have infected 2,600 patients with HIV, by letter.
January 27 – a Canadian soldier, Corporal Jamie Murphy, is killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. Three other soldiers are also injured.
January 29 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization 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 – The Supreme Court of Canada upholds a law allowing parents to spank their children within "reasonable limits".
February
February 2 – The Speech from the Throne is read by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in the Senate chamber.
February 6 – Canadian SPCA finds 100 dead cows and 100 more being improperly cared for, on an Alberta farm.
February 6 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announces it will use a broadcast delay during Don Cherry's Coaches Corner on Hockey Night in Canada, after he makes anti-French and European comments, a possible violation of the Official Languages Act of Canada.
February 10 – Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser releases a study on the federal government's advertising and sponsorship in Quebec which notes millions of dollars were mishandled..
February 12 – The 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. It is 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 Internet service providers to hand over names of 29 suspected illegal fileswappers.
February 16 – Polling day, 2004 Nunavut general election. Of the 19 members of the consensus government, 1 is acclaimed and 18 elections are held. Eight members of the previous government are re-elected, 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 in the House of Commons of Canada, resigns from the party due to the Prime Minister of Canada's sponsorship scandal.
February 17 – Canada donates $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 accuses 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 – The Saskatchewan Minister of Justice, Frank Quennell, announces Alberta Justice Edward P. McCallum will head an inquiry into 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 is found. It is not linked to H5N1, which was blamed for killing 22 people in Asia.
February 20 – Canada is part of multi-national delegation with the United States, France and Caribbean nations sent to Haiti, to help end the conflict.
February 21 – A 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 Société 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 three 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 announces $1.4 million expansion.
February 26 – Canadian Forces send nine members of elite counter-terrorism unit Joint Task Force 2 to Haiti to aid in evacuating Canadians.
February 28 – Canadian businessman James Sabzali, living in Philadelphia since 1996, fined and sentenced to a year probation for violating the United States embargo against Cuba.
February 28 – Royal Canadian Mounted Police 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 drug users 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 2004 Nunavut general election.
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 I Company 2nd Battalion 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 Central Intelligence Agency as an informant.
March 6 – Sheila Copps loses nomination to Tony Valeri to represent the riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek in the 2004 federal election.
March 7–8 – UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visits Canada to meet with Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson, Prime Minister Martin, 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 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 influenza 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. 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 CEOs for Crown corporations.
March 15 – Quebec government warns 1,144 people who attended an acupuncture clinic 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, after British Columbia had to destroy 57,000 chickens.
March 17 – Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan announces increased patrols outside the 320-kilometre 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.
March 18 – Kickbacks discovered in free flag giveaway discovered from 1996 promise by Sheila Copps to give away one million free flags.
March 20 – In the 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, 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 a bill to protect public service worker whistleblowers.
March 23 – The 2004 Canadian budget is announced.
March 23 – The 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 influenza outbreak.
March 24 – Myriam Bédard 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 cannot 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 House of Commons of Canada 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 29 – The federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act is signed into law.
March 30 – Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser criticizes 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 Provincial Sales Taxes from 6% to 7%.

2004 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

Federal government

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Premiers

Territorial governments

Commissioners

Premiers

Events

January

February

March