2022 in review, Part 1: Controversial convoy protests erupt; war in Europe after years of peace

Article content

Postmedia journalist Bill Kaufmann takes a look at social, political, cultural events and more that made news in the last 12 months. Today, he outlines events from the first third of the year. Watch for Part 2 on Wednesday and Part 3 on Thursday.

JANUARY

1: As Calgarians wake up in 2022 to an expired deal that would have led to construction of the long-awaited events centre and the new home of the Calgary Flames.

4: A tentative $40-billion agreement is reached to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by the child welfare system and to reform the system.

6: Russian troops arrive in Kazakhstan to help quell riots — sparked by government-imposed fuel price hikes — that have killed dozens.

7: Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win a best actor Oscar and an iconic Hollywood presence, dies at the age of 94.

7: Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William (Roddie) Bryan are sentenced to life in prison — the former two men without chance of parole — for the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging though a mostly white neighbourhood in eastern Georgia when he was gunned down.

11: Amid an escalating surge in Omicron variant illnesses, the Quebec government announces it will levy a tax on the province’s unvaccinated population. It’s the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so.

13: In the first war crimes conviction stemming from Syria’s civil war, a German court jails ex-Syrian intelligence officer Anwar Raslan for rape, sexual assault and murder.

13: Britain’s Prince Andrew, hounded by allegations of sexually assaulting a U.S. teen, is stripped of all of his royal duties and titles by Buckingham Palace.

15: In the biggest such event in at least three decades, the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai underwater volcano in the south Pacific erupts, unleashing tsunamis towards multiple coastlines.

16: Novak Djokovic is deported from Australia after a court rules the Serbian tennis superstar violated his visa requirements while being unvaccinated for COVID-19.  He’s unable to vie for his 10th Australian Open crown.

17: Health Canada approves Pfizer’s Paxlovid anti-viral COVID-19 treatment pill.

17: Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu is suspended from cabinet after it’s revealed he was ticketed for distracted driving in March 2021, and then called Edmonton’s police chief to discuss the matter.

19: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects former president Donald Trump’s effort to prevent the Congressional committee probing his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol from receiving White House documents.

29: A convoy that includes truckers, demanding an end to all COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, arrives in Ottawa to begin protests that come under intense criticism for some participants’ behaviour.

29: Truckers and others allied with other anti-vaccination convoys block traffic at the Coutts, Alta.-Sweetgrass, Mont., border crossing.

30: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reveals he’s tested positive for COVID-19 after members of his family had contracted the virus.

FEBRUARY

2: Conservative Party of Canada leader Erin O’Toole’s two-year reign comes to an end when he’s ousted by a majority of his MPs.

2: Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s chief of staff Stephen Carter is abruptly ousted from his post.

3: The U.S. says its commandos killed Islamic State head Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a raid in northwest Syria.

4:  Nearly two years into the pandemic, the U.S. surpasses the 900,000 death mark for COVID-19, though many experts believe it’s an undercount of the actual toll.

8: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces the almost immediate end to a requirement for proof of COVID-19 vaccinations and sets a timetable to eliminate most other restrictions by March 1.

13: After six days of a blockade by protesters opposing pandemic protections and federal governance, police clear demonstrators from the Ambassador Bridge border crossing with the U.S. at Windsor, Ont., and reopen it.

13: The Los Angeles Rams squeak by the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood; California Rams WR Cooper Kupp is named MVP.

14: Soon after Mounties allege they were attacked by protesters’ vehicles at the U.S.-Canada border crossing at Coutts, RCMP say they’ve seized an arsenal of firearms, body armour and ammunition from demonstrators. The blockade ends the next day.

14: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invokes the first use of the Emergencies Act to crack down on protests against his government and pandemic restrictions that have snarled Canadian cities — particularly Ottawa — and blocked border crossings for weeks.

15: In the first instance of a gun manufacturer compensating victims of a U.S. mass shooting, Remington Arms agrees to pay victims’ families of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre $73 million.

18: After three weeks of severely disrupting life in downtown Ottawa, anti-government occupiers are arrested en masse by swarms of police who begin to end the blockade involving dozens of transport trucks.

20: Buckingham Palace announces 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II is ill with COVID-19.

20: Russia recognizes the independence of two breakaway east Ukraine regions and begins moving its troops into them, bringing an all-out war with Kyiv closer to reality.

23: Edmonton police fatally shoot a robbery suspect and accidentally shoot an innocent bystander.

24: In the first invasion of one European state by another since the Second World War, Russian forces attack Ukraine on several fronts.

24: Alberta’s UCP government brings down a surplus budget, the province’s first in eight years, with a projected $511 million in black ink.

25: An investigation determines then-Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu attempted to interfere with justice when he called Edmonton’s chief of police to discuss a distracted driving ticket he received in March 2021. On the same day, it’s announced Madu has been given the post of labour and immigration minister.

MARCH

1: Virtually all remaining COVID-19 public health protection measures are lifted in Alberta as the fifth wave of the disease subsides.

2: In a rare emergency session, the UN General Assembly votes to reprimand Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

2: In a court filing, the Congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol alleges former president Donald Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

3: The Scotiabank Saddledome becomes the first NHL arena to host a full-capacity pandemic crowd as the Calgary Flames face off with the Montreal Canadiens.

4: Russian forces shell and briefly set on fire the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, raising fears of a radioactive catastrophe.

7: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province will suspend its 13-cent per litre tax on gasoline, whose price has skyrocketed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

9: The Australian government declares a national emergency as relentless rains submerge wide areas of the country’s east, including parts of the capital Sydney.

12: Police push back demonstrators facing off against anti-COVID-19 protection protesters in Calgary’s Beltline, provoking demands that city hall end the long-running and disruptive marches by the latter group. A week later, a court injunction banning much of the activity and a large police presence subdue the activities.

15: The UCP’s Brian Jean who ran on a platform of ousting Premier Jason Kenney, handily wins the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection.

17: Scientists are stunned by temperatures that reach 40 C and 30 C above normal in eastern Antarctica and the Arctic respectively.

20: In a development that threatens a Canadian economy already impacted by the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, a labour dispute work stoppage hits CP Rail.

21: A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 crashes after taking off from Kunming, killing all 132 people aboard.

22: The federal Liberals and NDP reach a deal to keep the Trudeau minority government in power until 2025 with the understanding such programs as universal dental care and pharmacare will be brought to fruition.

23: A U.S. federal judge concludes former president Donald Trump “likely” committed a felony trying to overturn the recent election on the day of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2020.

27: A 4-0 win over Jamaica at Toronto’s BMO Field seals the Canadian men’s soccer team’s berth into the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for the first time since 1986.

27: In one of the biggest flaps in Academy Awards show history, actor Will Smith slaps Chris Rock in the face onstage after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife.

29: Ottawa unveils a $9-billion plan to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent below 2005 levels, by 2030.

29: After a decade-long search for a successor to its aging fleet of CF-18 jets, the federal Liberal government announces it’s entered into negotiations to purchase 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters.

30: In a decision that riles many members of the Calgary Police Service who view it as a symbol of unity during adversity, the Calgary police commission rules the thin blue line patch must be removed from uniforms due to its white supremacist connotations.

31: The federal Transportation Safety Board issues a scathing report on the causes of the Feb. 4, 2019, CP Rail crash near Field, B.C., citing the company’s poor culture of safety.

APRIL

1: During a visit by Canadian Indigenous delegates at the Vatican, Pope Francis issues a long-awaited apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the abusive system of residential schools.

2: As Ukrainian forces liberate towns in the Kyiv region, evidence of Russian army atrocities against the civilian population emerges, sparking international outrage.

4: In a controversial move, Alberta Health Services says CEO Verna Yiu is stepping down more than a year before her contract was to expire.

4: In its latest report, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns the world must reach peak emissions by no later than 2025 and then bring those levels rapidly down to hold global warming increases to 1.5 C and avoid severe climate disruptions.

7: The U.S. Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman justice to sit on the American Supreme Court.

7: The federal Liberal government tables its 2022 budget, highlighted by spending to increase the country’s housing supply and for dental care.

8: Russian ballistic missiles hit a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, full of refugees fleeing the fighting in the country’s east. About 60 people are killed.

9: Alberta UCP members begin voting by mail-in ballot on the fate of Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership, a process that raises concerns among his opponents of its fairness.

10: In PGA major action, American Scottie Scheffler wins the Masters in Augusta, Ga.

13: The Bank of Canada doubles its key lending rate from to one per cent in a bid to tamp down inflation that’s been running at a three-decade high, the first time it’s raised it by that amount in 22 years.

22: It’s announced NHL icon and all-time Montreal Canadiens’ scoring leader Guy Lafleur has died from lung cancer at the age of 70.

24: Emmanuel Macron fends off a challenge from far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to be handily re-elected as French president, a feat not achieved in two decades.

25: Twitter agrees to a $44-billion purchase offer of its social media platform from mega-billionaire Elon Musk, who promises to promote free speech on the site.

25: A federal government report criticizes Canada’s military for not doing enough to combat racism within its ranks over the past 20 years.

27: In retaliation for their support of Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow, state-run Russian energy company Gazprom cuts its natural gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria.

28: Canada lifts its blood donation ban on gay and bisexual men.

30: India sets temperature records for the month of April as a deadly early heat wave continues to roast that country and neighbouring Pakistan. Scientists say climate change is a contributor.