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1939 in Canada

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{{Year in Canada|1939}}

{{History of Canada}}

Events from the year 1939 in Canada.

Incumbents

= Crown =

  • Monarch – George VI{{cite web |title=King George VI {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/king-george-vi |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |access-date=4 December 2022}}

= Federal government =

= Provincial governments =

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== Lieutenant governors ==

== Premiers ==

= Territorial governments =

== Commissioners ==

Events

=Year-long=

Sport

Births

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=January to March=

Image:Brian Mulroney 2011.jpg

=April to June=

Image:JoeClark.jpg

=July to September=

=October to December=

=Full date unknown=

Deaths

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=Full date unknown=

  • Constance Piers, journalist, poet and editor (b. 1866)[https://www.myheritage.com/names/constance_piers Constance Piers]

See also

Historical documents

With crisis in Europe, MP suggests Canada follow up on Statute of Westminster by declaring neutrality and following America-oriented defence policy[https://www.lipad.ca/full/permalink/1168496/ "Mr. Wilfrid Lacroix (Quebec-Montmorency)"] Debates of the House of Commons (January 30, 1939), 18th Parliament, 4th Session. Accessed 8 January 2023

Labour Day finds fighters and nurses enlisting for overseas service and Red Cross rushing its wartime planning"Holiday Finds Canada Making Ready for War," Sherbrooke (Quebec) Daily Record (September 4, 1939), pg. 3. Accessed 22 June 2020 http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3000671 (turn to pg. 3)

Editorial says Canada and Commonwealth are "one and indivisible, [and] pledged unwaveringly to the support of the Mother Country"[https://islandnewspapers.ca/islandora/object/guardian%3A19390904-004 "The Empire at War"] The Charlottetown Guardian (September 4, 1939), pg. 4. Accessed 22 June 2020

Before declaring war, PM King asks Commons for "authority for effective cooperation by Canada at the side of Britain"[http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC1805_20/41?r=0&s=1 "Governor General's Speech; Address in Reply..."] (September 8, 1939), House of Commons Debates, 18th Parliament, 5th Session: Vol. 1, pg. 30. Accessed 20 June 2020

MP J.S. Woodsworth interrogates "cooperation," unspoken government policy, and whether Canada is already in war[http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC1805_20/52?r=0&s=1 "Governor General's Speech; Address in Reply..."] (September 8, 1939), House of Commons Debates, 18th Parliament, 5th Session: Vol. 1, pgs. 41-3. Accessed 21 June 2020

"We cannot be at peace while the head of this Empire is at war" - Sen. Arthur Meighen insists Canada enter European conflict[http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_SOC1805_01/19?r=0&s=1 "The Governor General's Speech; Address in Reply"] (September 9, 1939), Senate Debates, 18th Parliament, 5th Session: Vol. 1, pgs. 8-11. Accessed 20 June 2020

Canada's declaration of war against German Reich[https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/001060-119.01-e.php?image_id_nbr=300981&document_id_nbr=8324&f=g "Proclamation"] The Canada Gazette (September 10, 1939). Accessed 23 June 2020

Also [https://collections.warmuseum.ca/warclip/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=5037769 published] by Canadian Press

Editorial says PM King, in choosing home defence over expeditionary force, is not giving "definite leadership""Canada Enters the Struggle," Sherbrooke (Quebec) Daily Record (September 11, 1939), pg. 4. Accessed 23 June 2020 http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3000690 (turn to pg. 4)

Regimen for Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry's transport ship includes lectures, training and organized gamesLieut. Col. W.G. Colquhoun, "Ship's Standing Orders;[...]S.S. Orama" (December 1939). Accessed 23 June 2020 https://archives.ppcli.com/74-1-1-ships-standing-orders (click on document for PDF copy)

Enlisted man's 1939 surprises: Poland's fall weeks after invasion, and Christmas invitation given on his first day in England[http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/980:fernand-trepanier/ "Veteran Stories: Fernand Trépanier, Army"] The Memory Project. Accessed 23 June 2020

Editorial says "equality of sacrifice," essential to war effort, must include fairness in agricultural costs, prices and margins[http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/WFL/1939/09/15/4/ "With All Our Resources"] The Western Farm Leader, Vol. 4, No. 18 (Calgary, September 15, 1939), pg. 4. Accessed 22 June 2020

British meals depend on Canada for breakfast porridge and (with other wheat exporters) bread, and cheese, tinned soup, and suet in pudding at tea[https://cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/tav/id/940/rec/96 "Food; Meals and Where They Come From"] British Survey, Vol. 1, No. 15 (November 10, 1939), pg. 58. Accessed 12 September 2022

MP A.A. Heaps advocates joining other countries in welcoming refugees from persecution[http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC1804_01/434?r=0&s=2 "Governor General's Speech; Continuation of Debate on Address in Reply"] (January 30, 1939), House of Commons debates, 18th Parliament, 4th Session: Vol. 1, pgs. 432-6. Accessed 21 June 2020

Mentioning uranium ore in Canada and German-occupied Czechoslovakia, Einstein urges President Roosevelt to back atomic energy research[https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/einstein-szilard-letter Einstein-Szilard Letter] (August 2, 1939), Atomic Heritage Foundation. Accessed 20 November 2021

"Only a mile from home" - Eleven-year-old student Andrew Gordon from Gordon's reserve residential school dies of exposure walking home[https://www2.uregina.ca/education/saskindianresidentialschools/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/c-8685-00869-00898_Page_01.jpg "Indian Boy Frozen on Bush Trail"] The (Regina) Leader-Post, Vol. XXXI, No. 62 (March 15, 1939). Accessed 23 June 2021

Supreme Court finds tavern, in absence of specific law, has "freedom of commerce" to not serve Black man[https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/8489/index.do Christie v. The York Corporation, Supreme Court Judgments (1939-12-09)]. Accessed 20 June 2020

Law professor comments on Quebec's Padlock Law allowing police to seal premises and arrest occupants deemed "communistic"John T.[sic] Humphrey, [http://www.archives.mcgill.ca/public/exhibits/humphrey/EarlyLife/big/writing_1939.html "Homes are Not Castles"] (truncated), The Canadian Magazine (March 1939). Accessed 23 June 2020

Private intelligence agency offers to spy on corporation's workers to detect "plots, plans and unrest"Letter from General Investigations of Canada Limited (March 29, 1939). Accessed 23 June 2020 https://projects.windsorpubliclibrary.com/digi/sar/part2.htm (scroll down to Solicitation)

Mao's appreciation of Norman Bethune - "We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him"Mao Zedong, [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm "In Memory of Norman Bethune"] (December 21, 1939), Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung: Vol. II; The Period of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Accessed 23 June 2020

Poster: "Time Is Life" depicts Bethune riding a galloping horseZhang Xingguo, [https://westminster-atom.arkivum.net/index.php/cpc-1-p-9a "Time Is Life"] (1975). Accessed 14 July 2021

King George VI - "It is my earnest hope that my present visit may give my Canadian people a deeper conception of their unity as a nation."[https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_SOC1804_01/411?r=0&s=2 "The King's Speech"] (May 19, 1939), Debates of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada 1939; Fourth Session, Eighteenth Parliament, 3 George VI, pg. 400. Accessed 23 May 2021

Woman records her excitement over 1939 royal tour of George VI and Elizabeth in her diaryDiary of Vera (Collins) Webb (excerpts of May 17 and 26, 1939). Accessed 23 June 2020 https://archivesalberta.org/diary/royal.htm (click on illustrations to read excerpts)

Film of royal tour's stops in Calgary, Banff, Vancouver and VictoriaBritish Pathé, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4gGf6UFino "The Royal Tour of Western Canada."] Accessed 10 May 2020

CBC chairman tells House committee move into television will not come soon because of its current technical and financial limitations[https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.com_HOC_1804_7_1/43?r=0&s=1 Testimony of Leonard Brockington] (March 2, 1939), Special Committee on Radio Broadcasting, pgs. 17-19. Accessed 28 October 2020

Course in interior decoration includes hands-on stitching, glazing, block-printing, weaving, lettering, etc., etc."Design; Fourth Year," Behind the Palette; Vancouver School of Art; March - Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-nine (unpaginated). Accessed 23 June 2020 https://ecuad.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/ecuad%3A9024/issue_pages?page=1 (click on image 020)

Photo: children work on their art projects in Arthur Lismer's children's art classes in TorontoRonny Jaques, [https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=4324905 Children work on art projects] (ca. 1939-40), Lismer's Children's Art Classes Toronto, Library and Archives Canada. Accessed 4 July 2021

Calling "more friendly relations" essential to world progress, bank's advertisement pledges friendship in its serviceThe Bank of Toronto, [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/WFL/1939/09/15/2/ "Friendly Relations"] The Western Farm Leader, Vol. 4, No. 18 (Calgary, September 15, 1939), pg. 2. Accessed 22 June 2020

References

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Category:1939 in North America