1999 in Canada

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Events from the year 1999 in Canada.

[edit] Events

[edit] January to June

• January 1 - An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Year's celebrations in Kangiqsualujjuaq in far northern Quebec, killing 9.
• February 9 - Brian Tobin's Liberals are re-elected in Newfoundland
• April 1 - Nunavut becomes the newest territory. Paul Okalik becomes its first premier
• April 6 - A disgruntled employee kills four in Ottawa before killing himself
• April 28 - W. R. Myers High School shooting: In Taber, Alberta, a 15-year-old boy, who has recently been withdrawn from public school to escape bullying, walks into W.R. Myers High School and shoots two students with a .22 rifle, killing one (Jason Lang) and injuring the other.
• May 1 - Sponsorship scandal: The federal government issues a $615,000 contract for a report from Groupaction into its own activities.
• May 11 - Chevron announces a major natural gas find in the Northwest Territories
• May 17 - The Saskatchewan government awards David Milgaard after he was jailed for 23 years for a murder he did not commit
• May 20 - The Supreme Court expands gay spousal rights
• May 27 - Julie Payette becomes the first Canadian to board the International Space Station
• June 3 - Ontario election: Mike Harris's PCs win a second consecutive majority
• June 3 - Canada and the United States sign a treaty to divide the Pacific salmon fishery
• June 4 - An agreement on split-run magazines prevents looming trade war with the United States
• June 7 - Bernard Lord's Conservatives win a surprise election victory in New Brunswick
• June 10 - The Reform Party of Canada votes to become the Canadian Alliance
• June 17 - Canadian citizen Stanley Faulder is executed in Texas, despite diplomatic complaints by the Canadian government
• June 21 - Bernard Lord becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Camille Thériault
• June 30 - A British Columbia court strikes down Canada's child pornography laws

[edit] July to December

• July 27 - The Conservatives win a majority government in Nova Scotia
• August 16 - John Hamm becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Russell MacLellan
• August 20 - The Supreme Court rules that Quebec cannot secede unilaterally, but that Canada is obliged to recognize a clear yes vote
• August 20 - Eaton's files for bankruptcy
• August 24 - Onex announces a plan to buy and merge Air Canada and Canadian Airlines
• August 25 - Dan Miller, as interim leader of the NDP, becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Glen Clark who resigned on the 21st
• September 15 - Louise Arbour appointed to the Supreme Court replacing Antonio Lamer
• September 19 - Saskatchewan election: Roy Romanow's NDP wins only a minority but forms a coalition with the Liberals to maintain control of the Legislative Assembly
• September 25 - The federal government refuses requests for aid by the six remaining Canadian NHL franchises
• October 5 - Gary Doer of the NDP becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Gary Filmon of the Conservatives
• October 7 - Adrienne Clarkson becomes Governor General
• October 8 - Bill Clinton dedicates the new Embassy of the United States in Ottawa
• October 15 - Robert Mundell wins the Nobel Prize for economics
• October 19 - Air Canada, backed by other airlines, announces a takeover bid for Canadian Airlines
• November 3 - Beverley McLachlin becomes the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court
• November 5 - A Quebec court decides that Onex's bid for Air Canada is illegal
• November 5 - Quebec sign law is overturned
• November 21 - Nimiq 1 Canada's first direct broadcast digital TV satellite launched by a Proton K Blok DM-3 rocket from the Tyuratam launch centre in Kazakhstan.
• December 8 - Air Canada takes over Canadian Airlines
• December 11 - The verdict in the Just Desserts shooting case is handed down. Two of the accused are found guilty, the third is acquitted.
• December 14 - Montreal resident Ahmed Ressam is arrested in Seattle and found with large quantities of explosives

[edit] Arts and literature

[edit] New works

• Bonnie Burnard: A Good House
• Wayson Choy: Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood
• Matt Cohen: Elizabeth and After
• Antonine Maillet: Chronique d'une sorcière de vent
• Russell Smith: Young Men

[edit] Awards

• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Bonnie Burnard, A Good House
• See 1999 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Andre Alexis, Childhood
• Gerald Lampert Award: Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems
• Geoffrey Bilson Award: Iain Lawrence, The Wreckers
• Marian Engel Award: Janice Kulyk Keeger
• Norma Fleck Award: Andy Turnbull and Debora Pearson, By Truck to the North: My Winter Adventure
• Pat Lowther Award: Hilary Clark, More Light
• Stephen Leacock Award: Stuart McLean, Home from the Vinyl Cafe
• Trillium Book Award English: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
• Trillium Book Award French: Andrée Christensen and Jacques Flamand, Lithochronos ou le premier vol de la pierre
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Joan Clark

[edit] Music

• Céline Dion, Alanis Morissette, and Shania Twain win major Grammy Awards

[edit] Sport

• February 13 - The last hockey game is played at Maple Leaf Gardens as the team moves to the new Air Canada Centre.
• April 16 - Wayne Gretzky retires from ice hockey.
• July 23–August 8 - The Pan American games are held in Winnipeg.
• November 13 - Lennox Lewis defeats Evander Holyfield to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

[edit] Births

[edit] Deaths

[edit] January to March

Harry Somers, 1947

• January 8 - James William Baskin, politician and businessman (b.1920)
• January 10 - Walter Harris, politician and lawyer (b.1904)
• February 18 - Neil Gaudry, politician (b.1937)
• March 3 - Gerhard Herzberg, physicist and physical chemist (b.1904)
• March 9 - Harry Somers, composer (b.1925)
• March 24 - Edmund Tobin Asselin, politician (b.1920)

[edit] April to June

• April 4 - Greg McConnell, indie rock musician (b.1964)
• April 5 - Paul David, cardiologist and founder of the Montreal Heart Institute (b.1919)
• May 23 - Owen Hart, wrestler (b.1965)
• June 8 - Gordon Towers, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta (b.1919)
• June 17 - Stanley Faulder, murderer and first Canadian citizen to be executed in the United States since 1952 (b.1937)

[edit] July to December

• July 16 - Alan Macnaughton, politician (b.1903)
• August 12 - Jean Drapeau, lawyer, politician and Mayor of Montreal (b.1916)
• September 24 - Robert Bend, politician (b.1914)
• October 14 - Ian Wahn, politician and lawyer (b.1916)
• October 31 - Greg Moore, racecar driver (b.1975)
• December 2 - Matt Cohen, writer (b.1942)
• December 10 - Rick Danko, musician and singer (b.1943)
• December 20 - Hank Snow, country music artist (b.1914)