List of Canadian Events in 2023
Events from the year 2023 in Canada.
Incumbents
The Crown
Federal government
Provincial governments
Lieutenant Governors
Premiers
Territorial governments
Commissioners
Premiers
Events
January
February
- February 2 – In response to a detected Chinese balloon flying over Canadian and American airspace, Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Canada, was summoned by officials, while the Canadian Armed Forces said in a statement that the incident posed no danger to Canadians. The balloon was shot down two days later off the coast of the U.S. state of South Carolina by a missile.
- February 8 – A man crashed a bus into a daycare in Laval, Quebec, killing two children and injuring six others. The man, identified to be 51-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand, was arrested.
- February 11 – 2023 Yukon high-altitude object: Justin Trudeau orders the takedown of an unidentified object over Yukon, which is later shot down by a United States Air Force F-22 Raptor using a AIM-9X Sidewinder. The Canadian Armed Forces is deployed to collect and analyze the object.
- February 13 – At least twelve people are injured in an explosion at a construction site in Ottawa.
- February 18–March 5 – The 2023 Canada Winter Games are held in Prince Edward Island.[citation needed]
- February 27–March 5 – The 2023 World Junior Figure Skating Championships are held in Calgary, Alberta.[citation needed]
- February 28 – Canada bans social media platform TikTok from all government-issued devices, citing "an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security" from the Chinese-owned app.
March
April
May
- May 6 – Coronation of Charles III as King of Canada and the other Commonwealth realms.[citation needed]
- May 8 – Canada expels Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat based in Toronto, from Canada, after Wei was accused of intimidating a Canadian opposition legislator critical of Beijing. The legislator Wei was accused of intimidating was reported to be Conservative MP Michael Chong. In response to Canada's expulsion of Wei, China listed Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, Canadian Consul in Shanghai, as persona non grata, where she would be expelled by May 13.
- May 9 – Quebec's premier Francois Legault comes out opposed to a plan by Century Initiative lobby group which wants to increase immigration in Canada, saying that "it constitutes a threat to Quebec".
- May 29
June
July
August
September
- September 2 – Canadian Indian residential school gravesites: During four weeks over the summer of 2023, the Pine Creek First Nation team sent to the site performed an excavation of some of the anomalies, but found no human remains.
- September 7–17 – 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
- September 9 – At the Conservative Party of Canada 2023 policy convention, delegates voted 69%-31% to ban under 18 year olds from having gender-affirming care such as surgical interventions.
- September 10 – Canada wins bronze after defeating the United States 127–118 in overtime at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, their first medal in the event.
- September 14–21 – 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival.
- September 16–24 – 2023 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival.
- September 18 – 2023 India-Canada diplomatic crisis: The Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canadian intelligence has identified a credible link between the Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder and the Indian government and that he had brought this up to his counterpart Narendra Modi at the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit, calling on India to cooperate with Canada in investigating the murder. In response to the alleged killing, the Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly ordered the expulsion of a top Indian diplomat in Canada named Pavan Kumar Rai, who headed the operations of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency, in Canada.
- September 20 – Ford Motor Company and the auto workers union Unifor reach a deal which averts a labor strike. The deal is predicted to influence the resolution of the American United Auto Workers' strike against the big three major American auto makers.
- September 21–October 1 – 2023 Calgary International Film Festival.
- September 22 – Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian-Canadian World War II veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), was in the House of Commons. He had been invited by Anthony Rota, the speaker of the House of Commons. Rota recognized Hunka's presence and praised him. Hunka received a standing ovation. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was there and took part in the standing ovation. The event was controversial. Within the next several days, Rota apologized and resigned.
- September 28–October 8 – 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival.
October
Scheduled and unscheduled events
October
November
December
Deaths
January
- January 1 – Bobby Rivard, ice hockey player (b. 1939)
- January 5
- January 8 – Harold Martens, rancher, farmer, and politician (b. 1941)
- January 9 – George S. Zimbel, American-Canadian documentary photographer (b. 1929)
- January 12
- January 13 – Peter W. Hutchins, lawyer (b. 1945)
- January 14 – David Onley, broadcaster, author, and the 28th lieutenant governor of Ontario (b. 1950)
- January 15 – Gino Odjick, ice hockey player (b. 1970)
- January 16
- January 17
- Leon Dubinsky, actor, theatre director, and composer (b. 1950)
- Robert Simmonds, police officer and commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (b. 1926)
- January 18 – William Frank, politician (b. 1923)
- January 19 – Illya Woloshyn, actor (b. 1979)
- January 20 – Marvin Nash, Olympic sprinter (b. 1953)
- January 21
- January 25
- January 27
- January 28
- Eva Kushner, Czechoslovakian-born academic (b. 1929)
- Viola Léger, American-born actress and politician (b. 1930)
- Landon Pearson, politician and children's rights advocate (b. 1930)
- January 29
- January 30 – Bobby Hull, ice hockey player (b. 1939)
February
- February 1 – Terence Dickinson, astrophotographer and amateur astronomer (b. 1943)
- February 2
- Fred, groundhog whose behaviour was used to predict weather on Groundhog Day
- Trevor Boys, race car driver (b. 1957)
- Lanny Poffo, American-Canadian professional wrestler, motivational speaker, poet, and actor (b. 1954)
- February 5
- February 7 – Mendelson Joe, singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter, and political activist (b. 1944)
- February 10 – Ben Steinberg, composer, conductor, and music educator (b. 1930)
- February 12 – Billy Two Rivers, professional wrestler, actor, and chief of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke (b. 1935)
- February 13
- February 15 – Paul Jerrard, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1965)
- February 16 – Helen Fogwill Porter, writer, educator, and activist (b. 1930)
- February 17 – Don Blackburn, ice hockey player (b. 1938)
- February 18 – Peter Herrndorf, Dutch-born lawyer and media businessman (b. 1940)
- February 23 – Andrée Desautels, musician, musicologist, and music educator (b. 1923)
- February 25 – Gordon Pinsent, actor (b. 1930)
March
- March 1 – Wally Fawkes, British-Canadian jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist (b. 1924)
- March 6 – Ken Money, astronaut, scientist, and Olympic high jumper (b. 1935)
- March 7 – J. A. W. Gunn, political philosopher (b. 1937)
- March 8 – Richard A. N. Bonnycastle, businessman (b. 1934)
- March 10 – William R. C. Blundell, businessman (b. 1927)
- March 13
- Terry Grier, politician, lecturer, and university administrator (b. 1936)
- Glen Weir, football player (b. 1951)
- March 14 – Louisette Dussault, actress and writer (b. 1940)
- March 16
- March 17 – Pierre Michaud, lawyer and judge (b. 1936)
- March 20
- March 21 – Charles E. Bastien, animation director (b. 1962)
- March 24
- March 26 – Paul Schmidt, homicide victim (b. 1986 or 1985)
- March 27 – Jocelyn Morlock, composer and music educator (b. 1969)
April
- April 1
- April 2 – Greg Francis, Olympic basketball player and coach (b. 1974)
- April 8 – Matt Baldwin, curler (b. 1926)
- April 10 – Raymond Sawada, ice hockey player (b. 1985)
- April 11 – Alan Herbert, politician and activist (b. 1944)
- April 14 – Marilyn Ruth Take, figure skater (b. 1928)
- April 19 – Luc Portelance, police officer and civil servant (b. 1960)
- April 22 – Ron Cahute, musician (b. 1955)
- April 24 – Tarek Fatah, Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author (b. 1949)
- April 26 – Michel Biron, politician (b. 1934)
- April 28 – Tim Bachman, musician (b. 1951)
May
- May 1 – Gordon Lightfoot, musician (b. 1938)
- May 5
- May 6 – Marc Lalonde, politician (b. 1929)
- May 7
- May 8 – Robert L. Peters, graphic designer and educator (b. 1954)
- May 9 – Eric McCormack, Scottish-born author (b. 1938)
- May 10
- May 12 – Gerry Hart, ice hockey player (b. 1948)
- May 14 – Samantha Weinstein, actress (b. 1995)
- May 15
- May 16
- May 18 – Albert Bregman, academic and psychologist (b. 1936)
- May 20 – Marv Edwards, ice hockey player (b. 1934)
- May 21 – C. Donald Bateman, electrical engineer and the inventor of the ground proximity warning system (b. 1932)
- May 22 – Daniel Brooks, theatre director, actor, and playwright (b. 1958)
- May 25 – Robert William Bradford, aviation artist (b. 1923)
- May 29 – Michel Côté, actor (b. 1950)
- May 30 – Lou Marcon, ice hockey player (b. 1935)
June
- June 2
- June 8 – Louis LeBel, jurist (b. 1939)
- June 9 – Floyd Martin, ice hockey player (b. 1929)
- June 10 – Eric Kokish, bridge player, writer, and coach (b. 1947)
- June 11 – Rob Young, sound engineer (b. 1946 or 1947)
- June 15 – Patrick Guzman, Canadian-Filipino actor (b. 1967)
- June 18
- June 22 – Marion Reid, politician and lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island (b. 1929)
- June 23 – Omer Léger, American-born merchant and politician (b. 1931)
- June 24 – Dahrran Diedrick, Jamaican-born football player (b. 1979)
- June 26 – Tom Beynon, football player (b. 1941)
- June 27 – Daniel N. Paul, Miꞌkmaq elder, author, columnist, and human rights activist (b. 1938)
- June 28
- June 29 – Stephen Owen, lawyer, administrator, and politician (b. 1948)
- June 30 – Kirk Howard, book publisher and founder and president of Dundurn Press (b. 1942)
July
- July 1 – Paul David Manson, Canadian Forces officer, fighter pilot, and businessman (b. 1934)
- July 4 – Denise Bombardier, journalist, essayist, novelist, and media personality (b. 1941)
- July 5 – Martin Stevens, pop singer (b. 1953)
- July 6 – Beverley Salmon, activist and politician (b. 1930)
- July 7 – Anne Klinck, British-born academic and writer (b. 1943)
- July 8 – Gordon Reid, businessman and the founder of Giant Tiger (b. 1933)
- July 9
- Michel Dupuy, French-born diplomat, journalist, academic, and politician (b. 1930)
- Mel Wakabayashi, Canadian-Japanese ice hockey player (b. 1943)
- July 12 – Daniel Goldberg, film producer and screenwriter (b. 1949)
- July 14 – Gerda Hnatyshyn, viceregal consort of Canada (b. 1935)
- July 15
- July 21
- July 23 – Howard Adelman, philosopher and university professor (b. 1938)
- July 25
- July 27 – Pierre Collin, actor (b. 1938)
- July 29 – Danny Grossman, dancer and choreographer (b. 1942)
August
- August 3 – Bob Murdoch, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1946)
- August 4 – Arthur Mauro, lawyer and businessman (b. 1927)
- August 5 – Gilles Gilbert, ice hockey player (b. 1949)
- August 7 – Zenon Andrusyshyn, German-Canadian football player (b. 1947)
- August 9
- August 11 – Chris Axworthy, English-born politician and academic (b. 1947)
- August 13 – Rachel Laurin, organist, composer, and music educator (b. 1961)
- August 14
- August 17 – Rick Jeanneret, television and radio personality (b. 1942)
- August 20
- August 22 – Alexandra Paul, competitive ice dancer (b. 1991)
- August 24 – Keith Spicer, academic, public servant, journalist, and writer (b. 1934)
- August 26 – Yvon Pedneault, sports journalist and television and radio broadcaster (b. 1946)
- August 27 – Doug Kyle, long-distance runner (b. 1932)
September
- September 1
- September 2 – Adrien Ouellette, politician (b. 1940)
- September 3 – Brad Maxwell, ice hockey player (b. 1957)
- September 4 – Alex McIntosh, politician (b. 1934)
- September 5
- September 6 – John Winston Foran, politician and police officer (b. 1952)
- September 7 – Peter C. Newman, Austrian-born journalist, editor, and author (b. 1929)
- September 8 – Monique Bégin, academic and politician (b. 1936)
- September 10 – Lloyd Hines, politician (b. 1951)
- September 11 – Endel Tulving, Estonian-born experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist (b. 1927)
- September 15 – Claude Cormier, landscape architect (b. 1960)
- September 17 – Emile Duprée, professional wrestler and promoter (b. 1936)
- September 20 – Renée Hudon, radio-television journalist and academic (b. 1942)
- September 22
- September 26 – Raynald Blais, politician (b. 1954)
- September 28 – Eric Hammill, farmer and politician (b. 1932)
- September 30 – Chris Snow, ice hockey executive (b. 1981)
See also