Year in review: A look at events in October 2024

A look at news events in October 2024

1 – Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday. It is the first time an American president has lived a full century. The Democrat served as president from 1977 to 1981 and then worked for over four decades leading The Carter Center, a non-governmental organization he and his wife co-founded in 1982. Rosalynn Carter died last year at age 96, and the former president has been in home hospice care for 19 months in his hometown of Plains, Ga.

1 – John Amos, the actor who played the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom “Good Times” dies at the age of 84. He played James Evans Senior on the show which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Amos also earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries “Roots.”

1 – Mexico inaugurates Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s first female president. She comes into office riding the enthusiasm over her predecessor’s social programs but also facing serious challenges. The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician faces things like stubbornly high levels of violence, a sluggish economy and rising debt.

2 – The Liberal government survives a second non-confidence vote in as many weeks to avoid a snap election. Members of Parliament voted on a Conservative motion the day before that called for MPs to declare they have lost faith in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his nine-year-old government. The Liberals were joined by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois in voting against the motion.

3 – An Ontario child dies of rabies. A health official says the child woke up and a bat was in their room, but the parents didn’t see any signs of a bite, scratches or saliva at the time and didn’t seek out a rabies vaccination. The official says rabies is increasing in the bat population — with a 16-per-cent positivity rate this year compared to less than 10 per cent in previous years.

4 – A Vancouver area restaurant is awarded a prestigious Michelin star. The five-seat sushi counter called Sushi Masuda is located inside another restaurant and is the only new restaurant in the city to receive the distinction this year. The appointment of status now brings the list of Vancouver restaurants with one Michelin star up to 10. Michelin first entered Canada in 2022 with guides for Toronto and Vancouver, and will expand into Quebec next year.

4 – The Supreme Court of Canada upholds passenger compensation rules in a win for air travellers. The high court says it unanimously dismissed an appeal by a group of airlines that challenged the country’s passenger rights charter.

4 – Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard is found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in northeastern Ontario eight years ago. The jurors in Haileybury, Ont. deliberated for less than six hours before delivering their unanimous verdict. The former Hedley frontman had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault during the trial, with the central issue focusing on whether consent was given during the encounter. The defence argued Hoggard engaged in a consensual one-night stand with the complainant.

5 – Fiction writer Robert Coover dies at the age of 92 surrounded by family at a care home in England. Working as a teacher who devised new adventures for literature through works such as “The Babysitter” and “The Public Burning,” Coover spent several decades on the faculty of Brown University’s staff roster.

6 – Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo is appointed by Pope Francis to be a cardinal. The Montreal-born 53-year-old is the lone new cardinal from North America among the 21 selected. The Pope significantly increased the size of the College of Cardinals with the appointments, who will get their red hats in December.

7 – The mother of the late Whitney Houston dies. Cissy Houston was 91 when she died at her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. She was in the well-known vocal group the Sweet Inspirations, with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warwick. The group sang backup for a variety of soul singers like Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters and Dionne Warwick.

8 – British-Canadian researcher Geoffrey Hinton, who’s known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, is a co-winner of the coveted Nobel Prize in physics. University of Toronto’s Hinton and Princeton University researcher John Hopfield won the prize for work developing the foundations of machine learning and AI.

9 – The Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three American and British men for their work with proteins. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honours David Bake from the University of Washington in Seattle, and Demis Hassabis and John Jumper who both work at Google Deepmind in London. The Nobel committee says Baker designed a new protein in 2003 and his research group has since produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and tiny sensors.

9 – A winner is announced in Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest. Grazer won the popular vote, defeating a bear named Chunk for the second year in a row. The contest has fans cast votes for the bear they believe best exemplifies winter preparedness by the fat they have accumulated over the summer.

9 – Halifax swears in its first permanent Black Nova Scotian police chief. Don MacLean served as Halifax’s interim police chief for more than a year before he was sworn in this morning. MacLean became acting police chief in September 2023 after the former chief retired.

10 – Hurricane Milton arrives on the shores of Florida as a powerful Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state. As it moved across the state, the hurricane was downgraded to a Category 2 storm, damaging power infrastructure and leaving two-million Florida customers without power.

10 – TD becomes the largest bank to plead guilty to criminal charges in U.S. history. American regulators have fined TD more than US$3 billion in a money laundering investigation. U.S. authorities say the financial institution’s lax practices allowed significant money laundering over multiple years.

10 – The Prince and Princess of Wales carry out their first joint public engagement since the end of Kate’s chemotherapy. The royal couple spent 90 minutes meeting privately with the families of three children killed in a stabbing attack at a dance class. The princess revealed her cancer diagnosis in March. Kate recently announced she had completed chemotherapy and planned to slowly return to public duties over the coming months.

10 – The man who led the promotion of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope has died. Bill Vigars’ wife says he died of congestive heart failure in a White Rock, B.C. hospital at the age of 78. Vigars was the former public relations and fundraising director for the Canadian Cancer Society and met Fox in 1980. He served as the 21-year-old’s public relations officer and confidant as he pursued his goal of running across Canada to raise money for cancer research before he died of cancer in June 1981.

11 – Tesla unveils its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio, with a wait until the model is available slated for 2026. CEO Elon Musk arrived in one of the company’s “Cybercabs,” telling the crowd that the sleek, AI-powered vehicles don’t have steering wheels or pedals. He says he is confident in the progress the company has made on autonomous driving technology that makes it possible for the Cybercabs to operate without human intervention. Tesla expects the Cybercabs to cost under $30,000.

11 – The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

11 – A new report from a British Columbia First Nation says at least 55 children died or disappeared at a B.C. residential school near Williams Lake. That’s more than triple the number recorded in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register. Investigators will finalize ground-penetrating radar surveys this year and hold meetings before deciding whether to dig up possible graves. RD

12 – Scottish politician Alex Salmond, who championed his country’s independence from the United Kingdom, has died at the age of 69. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute today to Scotland’s former first minister, calling him a “monumental figure.” Salmond served as first minister from 2007 to 2017 and was leader of the Scottish National Party when it led the independence campaign in the 2014 referendum. The party lost before Salmond resigned from the SNP and went on to form a new party called Alba, which is the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland.

13 – Canadian comedian and former late-night TV host Mike Bullard dies at the age of 67. The longtime standup comedian, was known to have health problems, hosted two late-night talk shows, “Open Mike with Mike Bullard” which ran between 1997 and 2003 on CTV and “The Mike Bullard Show” which ran briefly on Global between 2003 and 2004. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to making harassing phone calls to Toronto journalist Cynthia Mulligan as well as breaching court orders and received a conditional discharge.

14 – A Sherpa teenager has returned to Nepal to a hero’s welcome after becoming the youngest person to scale all the world’s 14 highest peaks. Eighteen-year-old Nima Rinji Sherpa reached the summit of Mount Shishapangma in China last Wednesday, completing his mission to climb the world’s peaks that are more than 8,000 metres high.

14 – India has expelled six Canadian diplomats from the country in a retaliatory move after Canada declared six Indian officials, including the high commissioner, persona non grata over allegations of a violent campaign linked to New Delhi. At a news conference in Ottawa the RCMP commissioner warned of widespread violence, homicides and a public security threat linked to agents of the Indian government.

15 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appoints Daniel Rogers as the new director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Rogers was to take over the role on Oct. 28, replacing David Vigneault. Vigneault retired from the spy service after seven years to join the U.S. intelligence firm Strider. Rogers most recently served as deputy national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister and the deputy secretary to cabinet.

16 – More than 200 passengers aboard an Air India flight are ferried from the Canadian north to the Midwestern U.S. aboard a Royal Canadian Air Force plane. Canadian officials authorized the military lift after a bomb threat forced the New Delhi-to-Chicago flight to make a precautionary diversion to Nunavut early the day before.

16 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has a list of Conservatives who are engaged in or vulnerable to foreign interference — which includes both past and present parliamentarians or candidates for the party. Trudeau made the comments at a public inquiry into foreign interference, saying Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has refused to get the security clearance necessary to be briefed on who is on that list.

16 – The Canada Revenue Agency says it has fired more than 300 employees who took pandemic benefits when they didn’t qualify. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit provided $2,000 per month to Canadians who lost their jobs because of public health restrictions. The CRA says employees who inappropriately received the benefit are required to pay back the money they received.

16 – Former One Direction singer Liam Payne is found dead after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Argentina. Local officials say the 31-year-old Payne fell into the hotel’s courtyard, but declined to say whether he jumped or fell from the balcony by accident.

17 – The National Defence Department says a number of unexploded bombs from the Second World War are still buried in an Ottawa bog. Defence officials say the Mer Bleue bog served as a practice bombing range in the 1940s and that bombs weighing up to 450 kilograms were dropped there. However, officials say there is low risk to the public so long as the site is kept as parkland.

17 – Palestinians who fled the Gaza Strip will receive financial assistance from the federal government to help them with the transition once they arrive in Canada. Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the government will also offer temporary health coverage for three months, along with settlement services like language training and the ability to apply for study and open work permits without fees.

17 – Google has added one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in Canada to its translation service. Inuktut is the first First Nations, Métis or Inuit language spoken in the country to be added to the tech giant’s artificial intelligence language model.

17 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Israel’s killing of Hamas’ top leader in the Gaza Strip “ends a reign of terror.” Israel’s military says Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza. Sinwar was a mastermind behind last year’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that prompted the war in Gaza but there was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden says his death is a “good day'” for Israel and the world, and sees an “opportunity” for Gaza without Hamas.

17 – An emotionally charged debate leads First Nations chiefs to reject a landmark child welfare reform deal with the federal government. A vote at a special chiefs assembly in Calgary saw 64 per cent of the chiefs vote against the deal. The agreement was struck after a nearly two-decade legal fight over Ottawa’s underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services.

18 – Hamas confirms that Israeli forces in Gaza have killed the militant group leader Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar was one of the chief architects of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the devastating war in the territory.

19 – Former Liberal MP Andy Fillmore is elected as mayor of Halifax. Fillmore replaces outgoing Halifax mayor Mike Savage who led the city for over a decade after being elected in 2012. He is a former city planner who was first elected as a Halifax MP in 2015 before resigning his seat to run in the municipal election.

20 – Natasha Wodak and Justin Kent cruised to their first Canadian marathon titles today in Toronto. The 42-year-old Canadian women’s record holder strode to victory in the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon in a time of 2:27:54. The Surrey, B.C. native said her main goals for the race were to add the title of Canadian champion to her decorated resume and to have fun. Meanwhile Kent, the 32-year-old who is also from Surrey, crossed the finish line in a personal-best time of 2:12:17.

21 – One of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages for the Americans during the Second World War based on the tribe’s native language, dies. John Kinsel Senior was 107. With Kinsel’s death, only two Navajo Code Talkers are still alive: Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay. Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the Marines to confound Japanese military cryptologists. The Code Talkers sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war’s ultimate outcome.

21 – N.B. Liberal Leader Susan Holt wins the provincial election with a majority, and is set to become the province’s first female premier, ousting Blaine Higgs after six years in office. The Liberals won 31 of the legislature’s 49 seats, with the Conservatives earning 16 seats and the remaining two seats going to the Greens.

22 – Federal politicians mark the 10th anniversary of the deadly shooting on Parliament Hill that killed 24-year-old reservist Corporal Nathan Cirillo while he was guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 2014. His family held a private memorial this morning at the National War Memorial.

23 – LeBron James and Bronny James have made history as the first father and son to play in the N-B-A together. The 39-year-old superstar and his 20-year-old son played almost two-and-a-half minutes together, late in the first half of Bronny’s NBA debut.

24 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces a massive drop in Canada’s Immigration targets. Trudeau admitted the government did not get the balance right following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liberals are making a major pivot, now targeting to bring in 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025. Previously, the government targeted 500,000 new permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026. Now 2026 will see a target of 380,000 and 2027 will see a target of 365,000.

24 – Prosecutors in California recommend that Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents. The brothers were being given a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon says his office would recommend the brothers be sentenced to 50 years to life, meaning with time served they would be eligible for parole immediately. The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

24 – The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than $100 million. The money will settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department to recover the costs of clearing underwater debris and reopening the city’s port. The Justice Department alleged the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and crash into the bridge.

25 – Four astronauts arrive back on Earth after an unexpectedly extended space station mission. A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast before dawn this morning. The three Americans and one Russian should have returned from the International Space Station two months earlier, but their homecoming was stalled by all the problems with Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule. Then Hurricane Milton interfered followed by more bad weather. The astronauts launched to the space station in March.

25 – Ontario says it will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026. Health Minister Sylvia Jones says at least 95 per cent of medical school spots are to be reserved for Ontario residents and the remainder will be for students from other parts of Canada. And, she says those who study medicine in the province should work in the province after graduating. The province is expanding a program that covers tuition and other educational costs to include students who commit to becoming family doctors in Ontario.

25 – A deadly outbreak of E. coli poisoning in the United States tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders expands, with officials reporting at least 75 people getting sick in 13 states. A total of 22 people have now been hospitalized with E. coli sickness. One person has died in Colorado. The outbreak has been linked to onions used on the burgers.

25 – Founding Grateful Dead member Phil Lesh dies at the age of 84. Lesh was the oldest and one of the longest surviving members of the band that came to define the acid rock sound emanating from San Francisco in the 1960s. He kept a relatively low public profile but fans and bandmates recognized Lesh as a critical member of the Grateful Dead who anchored the band’s famous marathon jams. A statement announcing his death did not include a specific cause.

26 – Los Angeles Dodgers MLB player Freddie Freeman hits the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history with two outs in the 10th. Battling a sprained ankle, Freeman homered on the first pitch, dropped his bat, and began his trot to a roar from the sellout crowd. This was the first World Series with five former MVPs in the lineups.

26 – Ottawa apologizes to a group of Ontario First Nations for mismanagement of their money over a century ago. The apology is based on a deal the Crown made with the First Nations in 1862 for sales of Indigenous land before using the profits to build roads instead and open up Manitoulin Island for settlement.

27 – First responders in Israel say a large truck slammed into a bus at a bus stop near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv. At least 35 people were injured. An Israeli police spokesperson told reporters the attacker was “neutralized,” which can mean killed. Police in Israel say the suspect was an Arab citizen of Israel.

28 – Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Hay dies at the age of 88. He was born in Saskatchewan and had a significant effect on the game of hockey over his career as both a player and executive. The forward played two seasons with the Regina Pats, and then went on to eight years in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks. While there, he helped the team end a 23-year championship drought with a Stanley Cup title.

28 – Israeli lawmakers pass two pieces of legislation that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid in Gaza. One bill bans the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. A second bill severs diplomatic ties with the agency and designates it a terror group. The bills do not include provisions for alternative organizations to oversee its work and have been strongly criticized by international aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies.

28 – Federal regulators exempt Google from the Online News Act for five years, ordering it to pay $100 million to Canadian news outlets within 60 days. The Online News Act compels tech companies to enter into agreements with news publishers. Google has tasked the Canadian Journalism Collective with distributing the money to news outlets. The CRTC says it believes Google has met the requirements for an exemption but has added stipulations allowing more news businesses to join the collective.

28 – The B.C. New Democrats win a razor-thin majority of seats in the provincial election after a marathon vote count, handing Premier David Eby a second term. Elections BC says automatic judicial recounts will happen for the ridings of Kelowna Centre and Surrey-Guildford because the votes are so close. Eby and his NDP won 47 seats for the majority, ahead of John Rustad’s Conservatives with 44 seats. The province’s lieutenant-governor asked Premier David Eby to form the next government. A count of absentee votes gave Eby’s New Democrats a narrow win.

28 – Premier Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party win a fifth consecutive majority government, losing in the big cities but retaining an iron grip on rural areas to secure victory. Moe’s party was shut out by Carla Beck’s NDP in Regina and lost all but two seats in Saskatoon. The New Democrats effectively doubled their seat total from the 14 it had at dissolution, retaining seats and gaining more in the two cities.

29 – Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of favourites like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” dies of multiple sclerosis. Garr got her big break in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller “The Conversation,” where she played Gene Hackman’s girlfriend. She continued to act well into the 2000s, appearing on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and playing Lisa Kudrow’s mother on “Friends.”

30 – The Toronto Zoo says its beloved and iconic silverback gorilla died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with heart failure the week before. The zoo says Charles died from natural causes after being put on cardiac medication over the weekend and deteriorated suddenly and quickly. Charles was 52 and was brought to the Toronto Zoo 50 years ago at two years old.

31 – The Los Angeles Dodgers win their second World Series championship in five seasons. The team overcame a five-run deficit to beat the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game 5. The Dodgers won for the fourth time in 12 Series meetings with the Yankees. New York remains without a title since its record 27th in 2009.

31 – The Quebec government freezes two major immigration streams, citing pressure on its services. Both permanent residency for foreign students who have graduated in the province and the Regular Skilled Worker Program have been suspended until June 2025. The province’s immigration minister says they can no longer accommodate the rising number of newcomers.

31 – More than 45 countries sign a pledge in Montreal to repatriate Ukrainian civilians, prisoners of war and children taken by Russia since it invaded Ukraine nearly three years earlier. The Ukrainian government estimates that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, and 860 have been returned home to date.

The Canadian Press