1941 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1941 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George VI^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone^[2]
• Prime Minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Chief Justice – Lyman Poore Duff (British Columbia)
• Parliament – 19th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• • • • • • • • • Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John C. Bowen Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Eric Hamber (until August 29) then William Culham Woodward Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Roland Fairbairn McWilliams Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – William George Clark Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Frederick Francis Mathers Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Albert Edward Matthews Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Bradford William LePage Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Eugène Fiset Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Archibald Peter McNab

Premiers

• • • • • Premier of Alberta – William Aberhart Premier of British Columbia – Duff Pattullo (until December 9) then John Hart Premier of Manitoba – John Bracken Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair Premier of Nova Scotia – A.S. MacMillan
      • Premier of Ontario – Mitchell Hepburn Premier of Prince Edward Island – Thane Campbell Premier of Quebec – Adélard Godbout Premier of Saskatchewan – William John Patterson

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• • Controller of Yukon – George A. Jeckell Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Charles Camsell

Events

• 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]
• March 4: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin to register Japanese Canadians; registration is completed by the end of August.^[4]
• 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 Supply C.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]}
• 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.^[9]
• August 12: All Japanese Canadians are ordered to carry identity cards with their thumbprint and photo.^[10]
• 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.^[11]
• September 19: torpedoes and sinks, killing 18 sailors.
• December 7: 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 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 . 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]
• 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.^{[16] [17]}

Undated

• The Victoria Park Plant (later renamed the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant), a massive Art Deco water facility, opens in Toronto.^[18]

Sports

• April 30 – The Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winnipeg Rangers win their first Memorial Cup by defeating the Quebec Junior Hockey League's Montreal Royals 3 games to 2. The deciding game was played at the Montreal Forum.
• November 29 – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers win their third Grey Cup by defeating the Ottawa Rough Riders 18 to 16 in the 29th Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

Births

January to June

• January 9 - Gilles Vaillancourt, politician
• January 12 - Long John Baldry, singer and voice actor (d. 2005)
• January 19 - Pat Patterson, pro wrestler (d. 2020)
• 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

• February 18 - David Kilgour, politician
• March 7 - Roger Young, politician and lawyer
• May 16 - Eric Berntson, politician (d. 2018)
• May 17 - Andy Boychuk, long-distance runner
• May 29 - Gilbert Barrette, politician
• June 17 - Roberta Maxwell, actress^[19]
• June 21 - Lyman Ward, actor

• June 25 - Denys Arcand, film director, screenwriter and producer

July to December

• July 1
  • Rod Gilbert, professional ice hockey forward (d. 2021)^[20]
  • Myron Scholes, economist^[21]
• July 7 - Vivian Barbot, Canadian-Haitian teacher, activist, and politician
• July 14 - Dennis Kassian, ice hockey player
• July 22 - Ron Turcotte, jockey
• July 28 - Peter Cullen, voice actor
• July 30 - Paul Anka, singer, songwriter and actor^[22]
• August 5 - Lenny Breau, guitarist (d. 1984)
• August 6 - Hedy Fry, politician and physician
• August 12 - Réjean Ducharme, novelist and playwright
• September 1 - Gwendolyn MacEwen, novelist and poet (d. 1987)
• September 5 - Dave Dryden, ice hockey player (d. 2022)
• October 5 - Bonnie Korzeniowski, politician
• October 13 - Robert Hunter, environmentalist, journalist, author and politician (d.2005)
• November 9 - Tom Siddon, politician
• December 22 - James Laxer, political economist, professor and author

Deaths

January to June

• February 20 - La Bolduc, singer and musician (b.1894)
• February 21 - Frederick Banting, medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate (b.1891)
• April 22 - Ernest Lloyd Janney, Provisional Commander of the Canadian Aviation Corps (b.1893)
• June 10 - Henry Wise Wood, politician and president of the United Farmers of Alberta (b.1860)
• June 11 - Alexander Cameron Rutherford, lawyer and politician, first premier of Alberta (b.1857)
• June 16 - Edward Rogers Wood, financier (b.1866)

July to December

• August 12 - Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 13th Governor General of Canada (b.1866)
• August 24 – Margaret McKellar, Scottish-born Canadian medical missionary (b.1861)
• September 29 - Sir William Hearst, politician and 7th Premier of Ontario (b.1864)
• October 17 - John Stanley Plaskett, astronomer (b.1865)
• November 18 - Émile Nelligan, poet (b.1879)^[23]
• November 22 - Newton Rowell, lawyer and politician (b.1867)
• November 26 - Ernest Lapointe, politician (b.1876)
• December 20 - John Campbell Elliott, lawyer and politician (b.1872)

Full date unknown

• William Robson, politician (b.1864)

See also

• List of Canadian films

Historical documents

Outline guide to Canadian Army, including organization, training, arms and services, medical services, auxiliary services and "Need for Men"^[24]

PM King

"The war has grown in intensity and extent. Threats have become realities[...]and fears have been turned into terrors."^[25]

"The American Republics [are] in serious danger" - President Roosevelt calls for defence of Western Hemisphere^[26]

"War is approaching" - Roosevelt warns American republics of Nazi intentions of subversion and enslavement in hemisphere^[27]

PM King agrees it's important to convince Latin America that Nazis are as menacing to South America as to North^[28]

Roosevelt and Churchill agree to Atlantic Charter's principles of postwar peace at shipboard conference in Newfoundland^[29]

Franklin Roosevelt's account of covert voyage to his meeting with Winston Churchill in Newfoundland^[30]

Advocating nuclear weapons, MAUD Committee compares power of 25 lbs. of uranium material to millions of pounds that exploded in 1917 Halifax^[31]

By attacking U.S. and British Empire forces, Japanese "make their own ruin inevitable"^[32]

"A tremendous financial burden" - PM King details Canada's direct and indirect contributions (money, materiel and people) to war effort^[33]

Canada enhances Northwest Staging Route for transit of U.S. warplanes and supplies through Yukon to besieged U.S.S.R.^[34]

Thank-you letter to Vuntut Gwitchin for money contributed to orphans and homeless children in Britain^[35]

Communist Party of Canada challenges RCMP commissioner's remarks regarding "reds"^[36]

Interned Soviet sympathizers demand release from Canadian "concentration camp" after Germany attacks U.S.S.R.^[37]

High school girls join Ontario Farm Service Force to pick fruit on Niagara Peninsula as their war service^[38]

High school girls in YWCA's Hi-Y clubs raise funds selling War Savings stamps at movie theatres^[39]

"Give him my love" - with "very real warmth," Mackenzie King asks Washington official to pass message to Franklin Roosevelt^[40]

"What a shock" - House of Commons reacts to news of Frederick Banting's death in airplane crash^[41]

Prime Minister King offers to find government job for defeated MP Agnes Macphail^[42]

Film reveals Winston Churchill's comic timing in his Some Chicken - Some Neck! speech to Parliament^[43]

Humorous letter about searching for Kawartha Lakes, Ontario soldiers for writer to host in England^[44]

Teenager experiences gay scene in movie theatres of downtown Toronto^[45]

Film: air route from Edmonton to Alaska^[46]

Memories of 60 years' work at Great Lakes grain elevator about to be torn down^[47]

"A friend completely trusted" - obituary for Prime Minister King's dog Pat^[48]

Notes and References

1. Web site: King George VI The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 4 December 2022.
2. Book: Lentz . Harris M. . Heads of States and Governments Since 1945 . 4 February 2014 . Routledge . 978-1-134-26490-2 . 142 . en.
3. Ross Eaman, Historical Dictionary of Journalism (Scarecrow Press, 2009), p. 100.
4. Mitsuo Yesaki, Sutebusuton: A Japanese Village on the British Columbia Coast (Peninsula Publishing, 2003), p. 100.
5. 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.
6. Joan Brockman, Gender in the Legal Profession: Fitting or Breaking the Mould (UBC Press, 2001), pp. 6-7.
7. Peter S. McInnis, Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950 (University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 225.
8. , Arvida Strike, Canadian Encyclopedia.
9. Peter Neville, Historical Dictionary of British Foreign Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2013), pp. 33-34.
10. Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia (UBC Press, 2005), p. 100.
11. 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.
12. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/canadians-hong-kong Canadians in Hong Kong
13. [Charles G. Roland]
14. http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/war-conflict/second-world-war/general-22/japanese-attack-canadian-troops-in-hong-kong.html 1941: Japanese attack Canadian troops in Hong Kong
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. [John T. Saywell]
18. M. Jane Fairburn, Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto's Waterfront Heritage (ECW Press, 2013), p. 179.
19. Web site: Roberta Maxwell. Ralph. Lucas. September 17, 2014.
20. News: Rod Gilbert, Hockey Hall of Famer Known as Mr. Ranger, Dies at 80. Azi. Paybarah. Jesus. Jiménez. August 22, 2021. August 23, 2021. The New York Times.
21. Book: Lives of the Laureates Eighteen Nobel Economists . Academic Foundation . 2006 . 978-81-7188-526-8 . Briet . William . 235 . Myron S. Scholes . Hirsch . Barry T..
22. Book: Cleveland Amory. Celebrity Register. 1986. Harper & Row. 978-0-9615476-0-8. 12.
23. Web site: Émile Nelligan Canadian poet . Encyclopedia Britannica . 17 April 2019 . en.
24. https://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/The%20Gentleman%20in%20Battledress%201941.pdf The Gentleman in Battledress
25. W.L. Mackenzie King, "The War; Review of International Situation Since June 14, 1941" (November 3, 1941), House of Commons Debates, 19th Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 4, pg. 4049. Accessed 16 August 2020
26. 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
27. 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
28. 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)
29. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/ppotpus/4926590.1941.001/356 "The Atlantic Charter. Official Statement on Meeting Between the President and Prime Minister Churchill. August 14, 1941"
30. 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))
31. https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/maud-committee-report MAUD Committee Report
32. "Prospects in the Far East," The Winnipeg Tribune, 52nd Year, No. 303 (December 19, 1941), pg. 6. Accessed 2 July 2020. clipping: https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A1332215 full page: http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/World_War_II-Pacific_War/Dec19_1941.shtml
33. 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)
34. https://www.alaskahighwayarchives.ca/en/chap4/gallery.php?im=2#photoTop "Whitehorse Airport a Pivotal Point for Transport of U.S. Supplies to U.S.S.R."
35. https://www.canadianletters.ca/content/document-5453?position=1 Letter of Minister of Mines and Resources to Chief Peter Moses
36. https://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/norman/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/5390en.html "A Spectre Is Haunting Commissioner Wood!"
37. Peter Krawchuk, "17. June 22, 1941" Interned without Cause. Accessed 2 July 2020
38. "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)
39. "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)
40. 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)
41. http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC1902_01/941?r=0&s=1 "Sir Frederick Banting"
42. Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King; 1941 (January 7) pgs. 15-16. Accessed 3 July 2020
43. British Pathé, "'Some Chicken - Some Neck!' Mr. Churchill at Ottawa." Accessed 10 May 2020
44. 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
45. https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/9d0aed9d41a812f06d22a04de03ea84f.pdf "John Grube's Interview with George Hislop"
46. British Pathé, "American Aeroplanes Are Flown Across Canada For Delivery to Russian Pilots" (1945). Accessed 27 July 2020
47. http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=2628 "Busy Days at Doomed Elevator Recalled by J.P. Gratton, Who Saw Sailing Ships in Port Here"
48. 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")