1941 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

Federal government

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Premiers

Territorial governments

Commissioners

Events
  • January 1: The CBC News Service officially begins operations in English; operations in French begin the following day. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's board of governors determined that a national news service will assist in reporting the war.[1]
  • March 4: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin to register Japanese Canadians; registration is completed by the end of August.[2]
  • April 29: Quebec, the last province to exclude women from the legal profession, allow women to practice law. The first Quebec woman lawyer is Elizabeth Monk, who is called to the bar the next year.[3][4]
  • 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 Supply C.D. Howe says that enemy sabotage was responsible for the work stoppage, and troopers 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.[5][6]
  • August 9–12: The Atlantic Conference meeting between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins, as well as their civilian and military advisers, is held secretly aboard the USS Augusta docked in Ship Harbour, Placentia Bay, Argentia in the Dominion of Newfoundland. The leaders discuss Lend-Lease and the war in Europe. The conference was the first of nine wartime meetings between FDR and Churchill. On August 14, the leaders publicly issue the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration of Anglo-American aims, including freedom of the seas, self-determination, free government, and liberal trade.[7]
  • August 12: All Japanese Canadians are ordered to carry identity cards with their thumbprint and photo.[8]
  • August 13: An order-in-council (PC 6289) establishes the Canadian Women's Army Corps. The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service is established the following year.[9]
  • 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 is forced to surrender on December 25. Some 1,975 Canadian troopers, 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.[10][11][12]
  • 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.[13]
  • December 9: John Hart becomes Premier of British Columbia, replacing Thomas "Duff" Pattullo, after a Liberal convention dumps Pattullo as leader and replaces him with Hart. Following the October 21 provincial election in which the Liberals fell to 21 seats while the CCF won 14 and the Conservatives 12, Pattullo's government had faltered. Hart forms a coalition between the Liberals and the Conservatives.[14][15]

Undated

Sports

Births

January to June
  • January 12 - Long John Baldry, singer and voice actor (d.2005)
  • January 20 - Pierre Lalonde, singer and television host (d. 2016)
  • January 21 - Gary Beck, two-time World champion drag racing driver
  • January 26 - Doug Rogers, judoka and Olympic silver medallist
David Kilgour, 2008
Denys Arcand at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
  • June 25 - Denys Arcand, film director, screenwriter and producer

July to December

Deaths

January to June

July to December
William Howard Hearst

Full date unknown

See also

Historical Documents

"The American Republics [are] in serious danger" - President Roosevelt calls for defence of Western Hemisphere[18]

"War is approaching" - Roosevelt warns American republics of Nazi intentions of subversion and enslavement in hemisphere[19]

PM King agrees it's important to convince Latin America that Nazis are as menacing to South America as to North[20]

Roosevelt and Churchill agree to Atlantic Charter's principles of postwar peace at shipboard conference in Newfoundland[21]

Franklin Roosevelt's account of covert voyage to his meeting with Winston Churchill in Newfoundland[22]

By attacking U.S. and British Empire forces, Japanese "make their own ruin inevitable"[23]

"A tremendous financial burden" - PM King details Canada's direct and indirect contributions (money, materiel and people) to war effort[24]

Canada enhances Northwest Staging Route for transit of U.S. warplanes and supplies through Yukon to besieged U.S.S.R.[25]

Thank-you letter to Vuntut Gwitchin for money contributed to orphans and homeless children in Britain[26]

Communist Party of Canada challenges RCMP commissioner's remarks regarding "reds"[27]

Interned Soviet sympathizers demand release from Canadian "concentration camp" after Germany attacks U.S.S.R.[28]

High school girls join Ontario Farm Service Force to pick fruit on Niagara Peninsula as their war service[29]

High school girls in YWCA's Hi-Y clubs raise funds selling War Savings stamps at movie theatres[30]

"Give him my love" - with "very real warmth," Mackenzie King asks Washington official to pass message to Franklin Roosevelt[31]

"What a shock" - House of Commons reacts to news of Frederick Banting's death in airplane crash[32]

Prime Minister King offers to find government job for defeated MP Agnes Macphail[33]

Film reveals Winston Churchill's comic timing in his Some Chicken - Some Neck! speech to Parliament[34]

Humorous letter about searching for Kawartha Lakes, Ontario soldiers for writer to host in England[35]

Teenager experiences gay scene in movie theatres of downtown Toronto[36]

Memories of 60 years' work at Great Lakes grain elevator about to be torn down[37]

"A friend completely trusted" - obituary for Prime Minister King's dog Pat[38]

References
  1. Ross Eaman, Historical Dictionary of Journalism (Scarecrow Press, 2009), p. 100.
  2. Mitsuo Yesaki, Sutebusuton: A Japanese Village on the British Columbia Coast (Peninsula Publishing, 2003), p. 100.
  3. 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.
  4. Joan Brockman, Gender in the Legal Profession: Fitting or Breaking the Mould (UBC Press, 2001), pp. 6-7.
  5. Peter S. McInnis, Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950 (University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 225.
  6. Jacques Rouillard, Arvida Strike, Canadian Encyclopedia.
  7. Peter Neville, Historical Dictionary of British Foreign Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2013), pp. 33-34.
  8. Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia (UBC Press, 2005), p. 100.
  9. 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.
  10. Canadians in Hong Kong, Veterans Affairs Canada.
  11. Charles G. Roland, Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945 (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001), p. 14.
  12. 1941: Japanese attack Canadian troops in Hong Kong, CBC Digital Archive.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. John T. Saywell, "Lieutenant-Governors", in The Provincial Political Systems: Comparative Essays (eds. David J. Bellamy et al.; Methuen Publications, 1976) p. 300.
  16. M. Jane Fairburn, Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto's Waterfront Heritage (ECW Press, 2013), p. 179.
  17. "Émile Nelligan | Canadian poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  18. Franklin Roosevelt, "Annual message to the Congress,[...]January 6, 1941," Development of United States Foreign Policy; Addresses and Messages of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1942), pg. 83. Accessed 2 July 2020 http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/7-2-188/188-22.html
  19. Franklin Roosevelt, "Speech of the President; Pan-American Union; May 27, 1941," Franklin D. Roosevelt, Master Speech File, 1898-1945, Box 60, Pan American Union Address Proclaiming an Unlimited National Emergency. Accessed 2 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=582 (scroll down to Box 60; Pan American Union Address) audio: https://www.fdrlibrary.org/utterancesfdr#afdr234
  20. Letter of Mackenzie King to Franklin Roosevelt (June 25, 1941), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: The President's Secretary's File (PSF), 1933-1945, Series 3: Diplomatic Correspondence, Box 25, Canada, 1941, (PDF pgs. 33-4). Accessed 1 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/?p=collections/findingaid&id=502 (scroll down to Box 25; Canada, 1941)
  21. "The Atlantic Charter. Official Statement on Meeting Between the President and Prime Minister Churchill. August 14, 1941," The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt; 1941 Volume, pg. 314-15. Accessed 3 July 2020 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/ppotpus/4926590.1941.001/356 original shipboard dispatch: "Atlantic Squadron, Outgoing; White Twentythree X In Three Parts[....] Begin Part Two" (ca. August 12, 1941), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: The President's Secretary's File (PSF), 1933-1945, Series 1: Safe File, Box 1, Atlantic Charter (2), (PDF pgs. 2-3). Accessed 1 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/?p=collections/findingaid&id=502 (scroll down to Box 1; Atlantic Charter (2))
  22. Franklin Roosevelt, "Memorandum of Trip to Meet Winston Churchill, August, 1941" (August 23, 1941), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: The President's Secretary's File (PSF), 1933-1945, Series 1: Safe File, Box 1, Atlantic Charter (1), (PDF pgs. 55-9). Accessed 1 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/?p=collections/findingaid&id=502 (scroll down to Box 1; Atlantic Charter (1))
  23. "Prospects in the Far East," The Winnipeg Tribune, 52nd Year, No. 303 (December 19, 1941), pg. 6. Accessed 2 July 2020 https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A1332215 also at: http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/World_War_II-Pacific_War/Dec19_1941.shtml
  24. W.L. Mackenzie King, "Canada's Contribution to Freedom; Speech [given in] New York, June 17, 1941," pgs. 12-15, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: The President's Secretary's File (PSF), 1933-1945, Series 3: Diplomatic Correspondence, Box 25, Canada, 1941, (PDF pgs. 45-8). Accessed 1 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/?p=collections/findingaid&id=502 (scroll down to Box 25; Canada, 1941)
  25. "Whitehorse Airport a Pivotal Point for Transport of U.S. Supplies to U.S.S.R.," Whitehorse Star (October 31, 1941). Accessed 2 July 2020 https://www.alaskahighwayarchives.ca/en/chap4/gallery.php?im=2#photoTop
  26. Letter of Minister of Mines and Resources to Chief Peter Moses (November 1, 1941). Accessed 2 July 2020 https://www.canadianletters.ca/content/document-5453?position=1
  27. "A Spectre Is Haunting Commissioner Wood!," The Clarion, Vol. 1, No. 14 (February 25, 1941). Accessed 2 July 2020 https://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/norman/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/5390en.html
  28. Peter Krawchuk, "17. June 22, 1941," Interned without Cause. Accessed 2 July 2020 http://www.socialisthistory.ca/Docs/CPC/WW2/IWC17.htm
  29. "25 K-W Girls To Pick Fruit," Kitchener Daily Record (May 29, 1941). Accessed 2 July 2020 https://uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/exhibits/ywca-1905-1995/war-years (click on image)
  30. "Y.W.C.A. Girls Raise $868 For War Savings Committee," probably in Kitchener Daily Record (January 25, 1941). Accessed 2 July 2020 https://uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/exhibits/ywca-1905-1995/war-years (click NEXT to article and click on image)
  31. Letter of Archibald MacLeish (February 15, 1941), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: The President's Secretary's File (PSF), 1933-1945, Series 3: Diplomatic Correspondence, Box 25, Canada, 1941, (PDF pg. 5). Accessed 1 July 2020 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/?p=collections/findingaid&id=502 (scroll down to Box 25; Canada, 1941)
  32. "Sir Frederick Banting" (February 24, 1941), House of Commons Debates, 19th Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 1, pgs. 939-40. Accessed 28 February 2020 http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC1902_01/941?r=0&s=1
  33. Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King; 1941 (January 7), pgs. 15-16. Accessed 3 July 2020 https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/prime-ministers/william-lyon-mackenzie-king/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=22309
  34. British Pathé, "'Some Chicken - Some Neck!' Mr. Churchill at Ottawa." Accessed 10 May 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6JxSHmVB5g
  35. Letter-to-editor of T.G. Nye (January 1, 1941), "Ex-Canuck Asks Post's Aid in Saving Army Shoe Soles," Lindsay (Ontario) Daily Post. Accessed 2 July 2020 http://vitacollections.ca/kl-digitalarchive/2471558/data
  36. "John Grube's Interview with George Hislop," pgs. 7-14. Accessed 18 May 2020 https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/9d0aed9d41a812f06d22a04de03ea84f.pdf
  37. "Busy Days at Doomed Elevator Recalled by J.P. Gratton, Who Saw Sailing Ships in Port Here," Kingston Whig Standard (November 4, 1941). Accessed 3 July 2020 http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=2628
  38. Bruce Hutchison, "End of a Long Companionship," Victoria Times Colonist (July 31, 1941). Accessed 3 July 2020 https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/9/h9-150.05-e.html (scroll down to "Clipping")
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