1920 in Canada

← 1919 1918 1917 1920 in Canada → 1921 1922 1923
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1920 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George V[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire
• Prime Minister – Robert Borden (until July 10) then Arthur Meighen
• Chief Justice – Louis Henry Davies (Prince Edward Island)
• Parliament – 13th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Robert Brett
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edward Gawler Prior (until December 12) then Walter Cameron Nichol (from December 24)
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Albert Manning Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – William Pugsley
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – MacCallum Grant
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Lionel Herbert Clarke
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Murdock MacKinnon
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Charles Fitzpatrick
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Richard Stuart Lake

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Charles Stewart
• Premier of British Columbia – John Oliver
• Premier of Manitoba – Tobias Norris
• Premier of New Brunswick – Walter Foster
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – Ernest Drury
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Howatt Bell
• Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin (until July 9) then Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
• Premier of Saskatchewan – William Melville Martin

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George P. MacKenzie
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – William Wallace Cory

Events

The Capitol Cinema in Ottawa opens on November 8

• January 10 – Canada is a founding member of the League of Nations, effectively ending the declaration of war.
• February 1 – The Royal North-West Mounted Police and the Dominion Police are amalgamated and renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[2]
• February 14 – Université de Montréal founded.
• February 26 – The Indian Act is amended to give Canadian aboriginal peoples the right to vote in band elections.[3]
• March 12 – The first Lions Club outside the United States is founded in Windsor, Ontario.
• May 14 – Canadian Forum magazine founded.
• June – The Catholic Women's League is formed in Montreal.
• June 24 – Dollard des Ormeaux Monument unveiled.
• July 1 – Under the Dominion Elections Act, uniform franchise is established and the right for women to be elected to parliament is made permanent.[4]
• July 9 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Lomer Gouin.
• July 10 – Arthur Meighen becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Robert Borden.
• July 11 – Charles Stephens, a barber and daredevil from Bristol, England, dies attempting to go over Niagara Falls.
• October 17 – The first airplane to fly across Canada arrives in Richmond from Halifax.[5]
• December 25 – Walter Cameron Nichol becomes the 12th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Date unknown

• Esther Marjorie Hill (1895–1985) becomes the first female architect in Canada when she graduates from the University of Toronto.

Arts and literature

• May 7 – The first exhibit of art by the Group of Seven opens in Toronto.
• November 8 – The Capitol Cinema opens in Ottawa, the capital's only true movie palace.
• Undated – A group of artists, educators, and art patrons formed the British Columbia Art League to lobby the provincial and city governments for a school.

Sport

• January 10 – The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto St. Patricks combine for 21 goals to set an NHL record for most goals in a single game.[6]
• March 23–25 – The Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Canoe Club win their first Memorial Cup by defeating Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association's Selkirk Fishermen 15 to 5 in a 2-game aggregate played at Arena Gardens in Toronto
• April 1 – The NHL's Ottawa Senators win their ninth Stanley Cup by defeating the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans 3 games to 2. The deciding game was played at Toronto's Arena Gardens
• December 4 – The University of Toronto Varsity Blues win their fourth and final Grey Cup by defeating the Toronto Argonauts 16 to 3 in the 8th Grey Cup played at Toronto's Varsity Stadium

1920 Olympics

• April 26 – The Winnipeg Falcons representing Canada beat Sweden 12–1 to win the gold medal for ice hockey at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.
• August 18 – Earl Thomson wins a gold medal in Men's 110 m Hurdles at the Athletics
• August 23 – Bert Schneider wins a gold medal for Canada in the Boxing Welterweight at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.[7]

Births

January to March

James Doohan, 1997

• January 4 – James William Baskin, politician and businessman (d. 1999)
• January 6 – Henry Corden, Canadian-born American actor, voice actor and singer (d. 2005)
• January 7 – Margaret W. Thompson, geneticist (d. 2014)
• January 12 – Bill Reid, artist (d. 1998)
• February 22 – Ralph Raymond Loffmark, politician. (d. 2012)
• February 23 – Paul Gérin-Lajoie, lawyer, philanthropist, politician and Minister (d. 2018)
• February 25
  • Merrill Edwin Barrington, politician, accountant and insurance broker (d. 1965)
  • Gérard Bessette, author and educator (d. 2005)
• March 3 – James Doohan, actor (d. 2005)
• March 9 – Erwin Schild, rabbi and author (d. 2024)
• March 19
  • Cyril Lloyd Francis, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d. 2007)
  • Laurent Noël, Roman Catholic bishop (d. 2022)
• March 24 – Bill Irwin, Olympic skier (d. 2013)

April to June

• April 2 – Gerald Bouey, 4th Governor of the Bank of Canada (d. 2004)
• May 1 – Louis Siminovitch, molecular biologist (d. 2021)[8]
• May 2 – William Hutt, actor (d. 2007)
• May 5 – Bill Hunter, ice hockey player, general manager and coach (d. 2002)
• May 8
  • Barbara Howard, sprinter (d. 2017)
  • Harry Rankin, lawyer and politician (d. 2002)
• May 9 – Helen Nicol, baseball player (d. 2021)
• May 25 – Maria Gomori, Hungarian-born psychologist (d. 2021)
• May 27 – Peter Dmytruk, World War II military hero (d. 1943)
• June 4 – Lynda Adams, diver (d. 1997)
• June 6 – Jan Rubeš, opera singer and actor (d. 2009)
• June 11 – Qapik Attagutsiak, Inuit elder[9] (d. 2023)
• June 14 – Stanley Waters, Senator (d. 1991)
• June 15 – Sam Sniderman, founder of the Sam the Record Man chain (d. 2012)
• June 24 – Joe Greene, politician (d. 1978)
• June 26 – Jean-Pierre Roy, Major League Baseball pitcher (d. 2014)

July to December

• July 12
  • Pierre Berton, author, television personality and journalist (d. 2004)
  • Bob Fillion, ice hockey player (d. 2015)
• August 2 – Marcel Adams, businessman (d. 2020)
• August 3 – Lucien Lamoureux, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d. 1998)
• August 12 – Aidan Maloney, politician and executive (d. 2018)
• August 19 – Agnes Benidickson, first female chancellor of Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario (d.2007)
• August 24 – Alex Colville, painter (d. 2013)
• September 4 – Catherine Bennett, baseball player
• September 6 – Helen Hunley, politician (d. 2010)
• September 9 – Joan Neiman, senator (d. 2022)
• September 11 – Dalton Camp, journalist, politician, political strategist and commentator (d. 2002)
• September 26 – Edmund Tobin Asselin, politician (d. 1999)
• October 1 – Charles Daudelin, sculptor and painter (d. 2001)
• October 13 – Evelyn Dick, murderer
• October 29 – Bill Juzda, ice hockey player (d. 2008)
• November 11 – John Ferguson Browne, politician (d. 2014)
• November 17 – George Dunning, Canadian-born cartoon director, animator (d. 1979)
• November 18 – George Johnson, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (d. 1995)

Deaths

January to June

• February 12 – Aurore Gagnon, murder victim (b. 1909)
• February 16 – Augustus F. Goodridge, politician and Premier of Newfoundland (b. 1839)
• April 25 – Alexander Grant MacKay, teacher, lawyer and politician (b. 1860)
• June 6 – James Dunsmuir, industrialist, politician and Premier of British Columbia (b. 1851)
• June 18 – John Macoun, naturalist (b. 1831)
• June 27 – Adolphe-Basile Routhier, judge, author and lyricist (b. 1839)

July to December

• September 5 – Agnes Macdonald, 1st Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe, second wife of John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1836)
• September 7 – Simon-Napoléon Parent, politician and Premier of Quebec (b. 1855)
• September 18 – Robert Beaven, businessman, politician and 6th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1836)
• September 30 – William Wilfred Sullivan, journalist, jurist, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1843)
• November 19 – Byron Moffatt Britton, politician, lawyer and lecturer (b. 1833)
• December 12 – Edward Gawler Prior, mining engineer, politician and Premier of British Columbia (b. 1854)

See also

• List of Canadian films

Historical documents

Guide to improving your community by understanding its needs and resources [10]

Indigenous father asks for return of son from residential school after other son dies by suicide and he is not informed before boy's burial[11]

Funding is "not sufficient to meet our needs in buying food," and Indian residential school lacks enough garden space to make up for it[12]

TB patient must follow sanatorium stay with home treatment and lifestyle change, including "winter living out of doors"[13]

Anti-vaccination group seeks "judicial recognition [that] every freeman owns his own body"[14]

Professor calls for better obstetrics training to lower high rate of injury to mothers[15]

School improvements in Nova Scotia include hot lunches, stove polish and pencil sharpeners[16]

Advocacy magazine says present civil servant compensation amounts to economic slavery[17]

Wood Gundy co-founder insists on Christianity in global business[18]

Nellie McClung wants newspaper articles about "heroism, generosity, neighborly kindness" more than crime stories[19]

Stepmother of murdered child is sentenced to death[20]

Disposition, care and management of general purpose Canadian horse breed known for its endurance[21]

Witness before Senate committee on Hudson Bay envisions 50 million domestic reindeer on northern pasture, and muskox ranching too[22]

Lawrence Lambe finds Hadrosaur fossil "Edmontosaurus" in good condition near Red Deer River, Alberta[23]

References

1. "King George V | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
2. "Historically Relevant Dates to the RCMP". Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Archived from the original on 2014-06-14. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
3. Indian Act
4. Dominion Elections Act Statues of Canada C 46 S 38.
5. "The History of Metropolitan Vancouver - 1920 Chronology".
6. 1920
7. http://www.sportshall.ca/accessible/hm_profile.php?i=318^[permanent dead link‍]
8. "Dr Lou Siminovitch". Prix Siminovitch. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
9. "Hometown Hero - Qapik Attagutsiak, Arctic Bay, Nunavut". Parks Canada. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
10. The Citizens' Research Institute of Canada, Community Engineering (1920). Accessed 10 April 2020
11. Letters from Paul J. Stanislaus (August 22, 1920) and Williams Lake Indian Agent (September 7, 1920), "School Files Series - 1879-1953 (RG10) -- c-8762," frame 2116 Library and Archives Canada. Accessed 29 November 2024
12. Letter of John T. Ross (July 21, 1920), National Archives of Canada, in Denise Hildebrand, Staff Perspectives of the Aboriginal Residential School Experience: A Study of Four Presbyterian Schools, 1888-1923 pg. 160. Accessed 10 June 2021
13. "Proceedings and Minutes of Evidence" (April 22, 1920), Pensions, Insurance and Re-Establishment; Proceedings of the [House] Special Committee[....], pgs. 141-2. Accessed 15 October 2020
14. Correspondence relating to An Appeal to the Imperial Authorities by The People's Anti-Vaccination and Medical Freedom League of B.C. Accessed 6 June 2021
15. Ferguson, Robert (October 1920). "A Plea for better Obstetrics". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 10 (10): 901–904. PMC 1523944. PMID 20312355.
16. "School Improvement". Journal of Education. 6 (5): 41. January 20, 1920.
17. "Economic Slavery" The Civilian, Vol. XIII, No. 12 (November 1920), pg. 1. Accessed 10 April 2020
18. "The Forward Movement" The Empire Club of Canada Addresses, pgs. 20-35. Accessed 9 April 2020
19. Nellie L. McClung, "The Newspaper of the Future" The Western Home Monthly (December 1920), pg. 3. Accessed 10 April 2020
20. "La justice humaine venge l'enfant martyre" (translated), La Presse (April 22, 1920), pg. 1. Accessed 6 April 2020
21. Gus. Langelier, The French-Canadian Horse Department of Agriculture Dominion Experimental Farms, Bulletin No. 95, Regular Series (1920). Accessed 10 April 2020
22. "Extract from the Evidence of Mr. V. Stefansson, Arctic Explorer" Report of the Special Committee[...]on the Navigability and Fishery Resources of Hudson Bay and Strait (June 4, 1920), pgs. 33-4. Accessed 5 October 2020
23. Lawrence M. Lambe, "The Hadrosaur Edmontosaurus from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta" Department of Mines - Canada, Geological Survey, No. 102, Geological Series (1920). Accessed 10 April 2020