By Canadian Press

Year in review: A look at news events in January 2023

Dec 31, 2023 | 2:02 AM

A look at news events in January 2023:

4 – Canada marks the first National Ribbon Skirt Day, after a bill to recognize the event every Jan. 4 passed in Parliament late last year. It was inspired by a 10-year-old girl who wore a ribbon skirt to her rural Saskatchewan school in December 2020. Isabella Kulak wore the colourful garment as part of a formal day, but her family said at the time that a staff member told her the outfit wasn’t formal enough. The school division later apologized. 

5 – Despite protests and threats of retaliation from Beijing, airline passengers leaving China, Hong Kong and Macau have to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test when they enter Canada. With cases surging in China, the federal government announced the week prior that travellers from the region would need a negative test administered within 48 hours of their departure. Other countries, including the United States and several in the EU, had imposed similar rules. 

5 – Canada is golden again at the world junior hockey championship. The host country defeats Czechia 3-2 in the final game of the tournament. Dylan Guenther scores his second goal of the night at 6:22 of overtime as Canada survived a blown 2-0 lead in the third period. Shane Wright, on his 19th birthday, has the other goal for Canada. Canada wis the first team to repeat since the country won five straight gold medals between 2005 and 2009. 

8 – Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who refused to accept his electoral defeat storm Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace, in a scene reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Thousands of demonstrators bypass security barricades, climb on the roofs, break windows and invade the three buildings. Some were calling for a military intervention to restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power. The chaos come just a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

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9 – An avalanche claims the life of a police officer in the mountains of southeastern B.C. The Nelson Police Board says one City of Nelson police officer, 43-year-old Const. Wade Tittemore, was killed and another, Const. Mathieu Nolet, was critically injured near Kaslo, which is about an hour’s drive north of Nelson. The board says the pair were on snowmobiles when they were hit by the snowslide.

11 – Embers is introduced as the new name for the Brownies branch of the Girl Guides of Canada. The organization made the decision to change the branch name after determining its previous name dissuaded some racialized girls and women from joining the outdoor adventure and activity group. CEO Jill Zelmanovits says current and former members chose Embers in an online vote over Comets.

12 – One person is seriously injured after explosions and a fire in St. Catharines, Ont. The city’s fire services chief says it happened at a hazardous waste facility in downtown St. Catharines just after 6:30 a.m. before spreading to a nearby industrial building. An employee at the waste facility is taken to hospital with significant burns. The person dies the next day.  

12 – Three workers are killed after an explosion at a propane facility north of Montreal. The explosion occurs at Propane Lafortune, a well-known business in the community of St-Roch-de-l’Achigan. Fire Chief Francois Thivierge says the first units on site tried to intervene but had to back off due to a risk of further explosions.

12 – Lisa Marie Presley dies after being hospitalized in Los Angeles. Her mother, Priscilla Presley, makes the announcement. Lisa Marie, who was 54, was the only child of Elvis Presley.

14 – China reports nearly 60,000 COVID-19 and COVID-19-related deaths have been recorded since early December. The data release comes amid criticism  that the Chinese government was failing to report on the status of the pandemic. The death toll includes 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19. 

14 – Former Ontario lieutenant-governor David Onley, who held the post for seven years, dies at age 72. Onley, who used a motorized scooter after having polio as a child, was the first visibly disabled person to hold the lieutenant-governor position when he was appointed to the role in 2007. He championed accessibility issues both during and after his term, at one point delivering a blistering indictment of Ontario’s efforts to keep up with its own accessibility legislation. 

15 – Wayne (Gino) Odjick, who played 12 seasons in the NHL for the Canucks, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens, dies at 52. Odjick spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Canucks after being selected by them in the 1990 entry draft, before being traded to the New York Islanders for Jason Strudwick in March 1998. In 2014, Odjick was diagnosed with amyloidosis — a disease he said attacked his organs and his heart. 

18 – Rock legend David Crosby dies at age 81. His wife confirmed his death, saying the rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Famer died after a long illness and that he was surrounded by family. Crosby was a founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash. 

21 – The second off-duty officer who was caught in an avalanche in the British Columbia Interior earlier in the month dies. The City of Nelson said Const. Mathieu Nolet suffered severe internal injuries when he was caught in the avalanche, and was unable to recover. The officers were backcountry skiing near Kaslo, B.C., in a mountain pass 60 kilometres north of Nelson when they were swept down the mountain in a large avalanche. 

21 – A man police identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran shoots and kills 10 people in a California dance club before killing himself. Police say the man shot himself as officers closed in on the van he used to flee the scene of an attempted second shooting. Ten others are wounded in the shooting, which happens during Lunar New Year celebrations in Monterey Park. 

29 – Longtime Mississauga-Ont. mayor Hazel McCallion dies at 101. Known affectionately as “Hurricane Hazel,” McCallion was an outspoken political powerhouse whose legacy includes more than three decades of nearly unchallenged leadership. She was voted into office with landslide victories for 12 successive terms and decided to bow out at age 93.

30 – The World Health Organization decides not to declare an end to the COVID-19 global public health emergency. The decision comes on the third anniversary of the day Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the emergency, prompting Canada and the rest of the world to impose pandemic restrictions. Tedros says the number of weekly deaths has been rising since early December, and that over the past eight weeks more than 170,000 deaths had been reported. However, he says the actual number was much higher. 

30 – Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, the first player in NHL history to score more than 50 goals in a single season, dies at 84. Over a pro career than spanned 23 years, Hull played for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and Hartford Whalers as well as the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets. He and Chicago teammate Stan Mikita helped popularize the curved hockey stick blade in the NHL.  

30 – A suicide bombing at a mosque inside a police compound in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 100 people. Officials say more than 200 others are wounded, and that most of the casualties are police officers. The bomber set off the explosives when more than 300 worshippers were praying inside the mosque and others were approaching. A commander for the Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility on Twitter.  

The Canadian Press