1945 in Canada

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Events from the year 1945 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Federal government

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Premiers

Territorial governments

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Events

Two young women standing on Saint Catherine Street in Montreal, reading the front page of The Montreal Daily Star. The title "Germany Quit" announces the German surrender and the impending end of the World War II in Europe.
A V-E Day parade on Sparks Street, Ottawa (May 8, 1945)

Full date unknown

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January to March

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July to September

Bjarni Tryggvason
Roberta Bondar

October to December

Full date unknown

Deaths

See also

Historical documents

Platoon leader in 48th Highlanders of Canada describes Battle of Apeldoorn in Netherlands[4]

"A zest to life she has never felt before" - Manitoban nurses "tigers" of 1st Canadian Division in Italy[5]

Food shortage in occupied France, especially in cities but benefiting farmers, accompanied after liberation by high inflation[6]

Winter 1945 is trying for Canadian diplomats Charles Ritchie and Saul Rae and family, living in liberated Paris without fuel[7]

Print: For European children dying of cold and hunger at Christmas[8]

Record of two British mariners killed on Canadian cargo ship sunk in Scottish waters in war's last U-boat attack[9]

Film: newsreel shows U-boats surrendering in North American waters, including off Shelburne, Nova Scotia[10]

"A despondent-looking mob" - Canadian Parachute Battalion finds German soldiers and families eagerly surrender to avoid Russians[11]

"My survival was an absolute miracle" - 14-year-old orphan liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp[12]

Hundreds of children freed from Buchenwald, where several Polish inmates ran school[13]

Agreement on trials of European war criminals, who will return "to the countries in which their abominable deeds were done"[14]

"That vague expression and pose of utter bewilderment" - war artist's painting of lone survivor of bomber crash[15]

Royal Navy electrician posted to Quebec City makes substantial extra pay playing trumpet in Al Bedard's band[16]

War artist Lance-Corporal Molly Lamb's humorous graphic story of saying goodbye to her CWAC comrades[17]

"A friend to the service man and his dependents at home" - New Brunswick MP's election campaign flyer is aimed at military voters[18]

Black Canadian Army private goes to City Hall to challenge segregation policy in four Glasgow dance halls[19]

Returning veterans should have houses and suits, but souvenir firearms are not encouraged[20]

Poster: Information on Canadian production and fighting in later war period[21]

British PM Clement Attlee says farm, factory and shipyard workers, scientists, technicians and research workers share credit for victory[22]

"A steadfast and progressive people, blessed with a bountiful land" - production of energy and farm products in wartime Alberta[23]

To block inflation, Canadians urged to avoid black markets, keep to price controls and "not buy two where one will do"[24]

Discussion guide on women's war effort and future role of women in workplace, home and community[25]

Postwar hurdles that Canadians face and need to discuss include too few people, too little independence, and disunity[26]

Editorial speculates on "Japanese mind" in assessing Japan's crimes, "which no Japanese wants to hear about today"[27]

Protests against transfer of more than half of Japanese Canadians to Japan, with calls for their rehabilitation and rights restoration[28]

PM King explains proposal for peace and security organization (UN), and how it would improve on League of Nations[29]

"Trust the people as to the future" - King believes putting war and UN conference above politics will aid Liberals' re-election[30]

On way to UN conference, diplomat Charles Ritchie labels PM King "the fat little conjurer with his flickering, shifty eyes"[31]

Canadians seek standing equal to their role in victory, but U.S. diplomat says cooperation among four major Allies is complex enough[32]

U.S.A., U.K. and Canada intend to share non-military atomic research with all nations for "an atmosphere of reciprocal confidence"[33]

Soviet embassy clerk Igor Gouzenko defects, "sickened by the evidence of intrigues and espionage directed against Canada"[34]

Film: newsreel of Russian espionage case with shots of Deep River, Ontario "atom bomb plant" and many Mounties[35]

U.S. State Department briefing paper on Britain's (and specifically Churchill's) lack of control over Commonwealth nations[36]

"Anglophobia" in U.S.A. targets U.K. (and Canada, as still part of Empire), hampering postwar economic settlement[37]

Private cars, buses and trucks seized for enormous roadblock during strike by Ford of Canada workers in Windsor, Ont.[38]

Program of Oscar Peterson Trio concert includes works by Chopin, Kreisler, Dvorak, Gershwin, Ellington and Peterson[39]

Photo: Ivy Lawrence Maynier, University of Toronto Law School class of 1945 - "First woman of colour to graduate from the U of T Law School"[40]

References

  1. ^ "King George VI | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  2. ^ Lentz, Harris M. (4 February 2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
  3. ^ "Japan bombs Saskatchewan". CBC.ca. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  4. ^ A.E. Brock, "My Last Battle" WW2 People's War, BBC. Accessed 24 July 2020
  5. ^ Mary Lyle Benham, "They Stay in the Fight; 'Red Patches' Her Gang - And Woe to Any Critics!" The Winnipeg Tribune, 56th Year, No. 106 (May 3, 1945), pg. 13. Accessed 13 August 2020
  6. ^ Roy H. Thomson, "The Puzzling Years Ahead" (April 12, 1945), The Empire Club of Canada Addresses, pgs. 409-26. Accessed 13 August 2020
  7. ^ Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years: A Canadian Diplomat Abroad, 1937-1945, pg. 185, quoted in Pat Barclay, Charles Ritchie and the English Diary Tradition (1987), pgs. 144-7 (PDF pgs. 154-8). Accessed 13 August 2020 (See also Robert Doisneau photo "Les glaneurs de charbon, Saint-Denis" (The Coal Gleaners, 1945), Pompidou Centre)
  8. ^ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Print, In Memory of the Children of Europe Who Have to Die of Cold and Hunger This X'mas". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  9. ^ "Avondale Park; Canadian Steam Merchant" Ships Hit by U-boats, uboat.net. Accessed 7 August 2020
  10. ^ "Uboat Surrender - film clip," "'An East Coast Port;' Halifax in Wartime, 1939-1945" Nova Scotia Archives. Accessed 10 August 2020
  11. ^ Historical Section (G.S.), Army Headquarters, "The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in the Low Countries and in Germany" (Report No. 17, October 27, 1947), paras. 64-5, pgs. 31-2. Accessed 24 July 2020
  12. ^ Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, "Photograph: Buchenwald, April 1945," Open Hearts - Closed Doors: The War Orphans Project; Liberation, pg. 6. Accessed 10 August 2020 http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/expositions-exhibitions/orphelins-orphans/english/themes/pdf/the_liberation.pdf (turn to pg. 6)
  13. ^ WNS, "Buchenwald Yields 4,500 Including 1000 Children" Jewish Western Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 9 (May 4, 1945), pg. 4. Accessed 11 August 2020
  14. ^ "Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis,(...)8 August 1945" Treaties, States Parties and Commentaries, International Committee of the Red Cross. Accessed 12 August 2020
  15. ^ Letter of Eric Aldwinckle (June 1, 1945), pgs. 4-5. Accessed 10 August 2020 http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/pw20c/case-study/creative-dialogue-across-ocean-eric-aldwinckles-letters-harry-somers?page=15 (scroll down to 1 June); relevant pages: http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/pw20c/aldwinckle-eric-letter-1-june-1945-2 http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/pw20c/aldwinckle-eric-letter-16-june-1945 (note: pg. 5 from the June 1 letter is mislabelled June 16); The Survivor: http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/sites/default/files/pw20c_images/00001881.jpg
  16. ^ "Sidecar" (Stan Dibben), "VE and VJ Days in Canada" WW2 People's War, BBC. Accessed 24 July 2020
  17. ^ Molly Lamb Bobak, "Girl fails to avoid sordid end" (March 27, 1945), "W110278" the Personal War Records of Private Lamb, M., pg. 165. Accessed 31 July 2020 (See photo of Molly Lamb at work)
  18. ^ Letter and flyer of Alfred J. Brooks, "The Man For Royal (Kings and Queens) Service Men and Women to Vote For" (May 1, 1945). Accessed 10 August 2020 http://website.nbm-mnb.ca/MOP/english/ww2/dosearch.asp?browse=3&results=50&all=true (scroll down to Alfred J. Brooks)
  19. ^ The (U.K.) League of Coloured Peoples, "17. Dance Hall Colour Bar Challenged - 'Daily Worker' of 13th September," News Letter Vol. XIII, No. 73 (October 1945), pg. 19. Accessed 24 July 2020
  20. ^ "Rehab Roundup," Civvy Street News, No. 21 (October 1945), in Canadian Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 16 (Canadian Edition, 1945), inserted between pgs. 10 and 11. Accessed 29 July 2020
  21. ^ Industrial Information Section, Wartime Information Board, "Wallnews, Feb. 1945. Canadian guns first-rate ... RCAF 'Lankys' bomb Ruhr(...)" (1945). Accessed 24 July 2020
  22. ^ "Address of The Right Honourable Clement R. Attlee (November 19, 1945), House of Commons Debates, 20th Parliament, 1st Session, Vol. 2, pg. 2278. Accessed 29 August 2021
  23. ^ Calgary Brewing and Malting Co., "The Miracle of Wartime Production in Alberta" (1945). Accessed 10 August 2020
  24. ^ The Brewing Industry (Ontario), "The Canadian Way of Life ... 'where the heart is!'" The Canadian Jewish Review, Vol. XXVII, No. 29 (April 20, 1945), pg. 9. Accessed 11 August 2020
  25. ^ Renée Morin, "Women after the War" Canadian Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Canadian Edition, March 1, 1945). Accessed 29 July 2020
  26. ^ "Canadian Hurdles" Archived 2021-01-23 at the Wayback Machine Looking Ahead (Canadian Post-War Affairs Discussion Manual No. 4; August 1945). Accessed 29 July 2020
  27. ^ "The Case Against Japan" The Winnipeg Tribune, 56th Year, No. 215 (September 7, 1945), pg. 6. Accessed 12 August 2020
  28. ^ "Movement to Japan to Start" and "Protest Repatriation of Japanese Canadians," Granada Pioneer, Vol. III, No. 91 (Final Edition; Amache, Colorado, September 15, 1945), pg. 9. Accessed 15 February 2020
  29. ^ W.L. Mackenzie King, "San Francisco Conference; Proposed General International Organization for Maintenance of Peace and Security" (March 20, 1945) House of Commons Debates, 19th Parliament, 6th Session: Vol. 1, pgs. 24-7. Accessed 14 August 2020
  30. ^ William Lyon Mackenzie King Diary for 1945 (March 21), pg. 268. Accessed 14 August 2020
  31. ^ Charles Ritchie, "Diary of a Quiet Diplomat," Macleans (November 1, 1974). Accessed 13 August 2020 https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1974/11/1/diary-of-a-quiet-diplomat (scroll down to April 21, 1945)
  32. ^ United States Department of State, "The Assistant Chief of the Division of British Commonwealth Affairs (Parsons) to the Ambassador in Canada (Atherton)" (May 4, 1945), Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945; European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, pgs. 271-3. Accessed 12 August 2020
  33. ^ "Atomic Energy; Agreed Declaration by the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister of Canada" (November 15, 1945), in Gill Bennett and Richard Smith (eds.), Britain and the Making of the Post-War World (Documents from the British Archives: No. 1; 2020), pgs. 164-6. Accessed 26 July 2020
  34. ^ Royal Canadian Mounted Police ("apparently"), "Corby" (September 1945), in Gill Bennett and Richard Smith (eds.), Britain and the Making of the Post-War World (Documents from the British Archives: No. 1; 2020), pgs. 110-12. Accessed 26 July 2020
  35. ^ British Pathé, "Espionage Found In Canada" (1946). Accessed 27 July 2020
  36. ^ United States Department of State, "No. 223; Briefing Book Paper; Britain as Member of the 'Big Three'" (July 2, 1945), General Background Reports, Foreign Relations of the United States; Diplomatic Papers; The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945; Volume I, pgs. 253-5. Accessed 12 August 2020
  37. ^ D.W. Brogan, "U.S. Suspicions of Britain; Misunderstanding of Empire Position" The Glasgow Herald, 163rd Year, No. 232 (September 29, 1945), pg. 4. Accessed 24 July 2020
  38. ^ Walter W. Ruch, "12,000 Defy Police in Windsor Strike," The New York Times (November 7, 1945), pgs. 1, 4. Accessed 12 August 2020 https://projects.windsorpubliclibrary.com/digi/sar/part6.htm (scroll down to Excerpt from The New York Times)
  39. ^ "Glebe Collegiate Institute Auditorium; Wednesday, December 5th, 1945; Oscar Peterson and His Jazz Trio" Accessed 12 August 2020
  40. ^ "Ivy Lawrence Maynier '45" Women in Law Through the Decades, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Accessed 7 May 2023