Top 10 News Stories in Canada in 2022

2022 has been another exceptional year! The Covid pandemic has resulted in cascading changes that have affected the way we work, gather, socialize and shop. This is another year where time has become warped. In case you have a hard time remembering what happened earlier and in the middle of the year, below are the top 10 news stories in Canada in 2022:

1. Freedom Convoy – Cross-border truckers who were required to become vaccinated against Covid planned to gather at a protest in Ottawa. Convoys came from all over Canada to the country’s capital, blocking highways en route. The truckers were joined by protesters against vaccine mandates. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since it was established in 1988.^[d] As a result, police arrested protesters, removed parked vehicles, and dismantled blockades in Ottawa.
2. Bank of Canada Bank Rate Increases – In order to stave off inflation, the Bank of Canada increased the Bank Rate seven times in 2022. At the beginning of 2022, the Bank Rate was 0.25%. As of December 23, 2022, the Bank Rate is now 4.25%. This steep increase has reduced the number of sales in the Canadian real estate market and has had a dampening effect on real estate prices. The interest rate hike also makes it more expensive for both businesses and consumers to borrow money, which results in less expansion of business and consumer and commercial spending – all of this has a negative effect on the economy.
3. The passing of Queen Elizabeth – One of the top 10 news stories in Canada in 2022 was the passing of Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth, on September 8, 2022, approximately a year after the death of her husband, Prince Philip. The Queen had been suffering ill health in 2022. Upon her death, her son, Prince Charles, became King Charles.
4. The year opened with the Omicron variant becoming the dominant strain of COVID-19. Omicron was found to be much more transmissible than the previous variant, Delta.
5. Premier Doug Ford passed legislation (Bill 28) to prevent education workers to go on strike. Education workers ignored the legislation, despite a built-in $4,000 a day fine for doing so, and went on strike. Premier Ford repealed the legislation after the one-day strike and agreed to return to the bargaining table with the education workers.
6. In the fall of 2022, Canada experienced and continues to experience a shortage of cold and flu medication for children. The shortage is a result of high demand due to an increase in RSV, influenza and Covid-19 cases.
7. Rogers Telecommunications experiences a major outage on July 8, 2022. The outage affected Rogers’ users (approximately 12 million) across the country.
8. On September 10, 2022, Pierre Poilievre became leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
9. In July 2022, Pope Francis II visited Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit to apologize to Canada’s Indigenous people for the horrific incidents in the residential school system. It was the first time a pope had visited Canada since 2002.
10. On September 4, 2022, a mass stabbing occurred on the James Smith Cree Nation and in Saskatchewan. Twelve people died and 18 others were injured. It was one of the worst massacres in Canadian history. Two suspects were arrested: Damien Sanderson and his brother, Myles Sanderson. Damien died at the crime scene and Myles died from medical distress during police custody.
    

Let me know in the comment section if you know of other news stories that you feel made the top 10 news stories in Canada in 2022.

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