By Canadian Press

Year in review: A look at news events in July 2022

Dec 16, 2022 | 8:32 AM

A look at news events in July 2022:

3 – Historian Irving Abella died at 82. He was the co-author of a seminal book on the Canadian government’s refusal to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. His 1982 book “None is too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948,” co-written with Harold Troper, shed light on the largely untold story of Canada’s anti-immigrant policies toward Jews. 

4 – The federal government signed a $20-billion final settlement agreement to compensate First Nations children and families who were harmed by chronic underfunding of child welfare. The deal still had to be approved by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and Federal Court.  

4 – Another humanitarian flight carrying Ukrainian refugees arrived in Regina. Escorting the 230 new arrivals was a woman whose photo 50 years ago came to symbolize the horrors of another war. Phan Thi Kim Phuc — the girl in the famous 1972 Vietnam napalm attack photo — was aboard the flight carrying Ukrainian refugees from Warsaw, Poland, to Canada. The 59-year-old Kim Phuc, who is a Canadian citizen and works for refugees, travelled with her husband from Toronto to board the humanitarian flight as a message of peace.  

4 – The Japanese creator of the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” manga comic and trading card game died. Officials said Kazuki Takahashi appeared to have died while snorkelling in southwestern Japan. The coast guard said his body was found off the coast of Okinawa and was identified after Takahashi’s rented car was found on a beach. 

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5 – The 30 NATO allies signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland. The move sent the membership bids of the two countries to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals. The move further increased Russia’s strategic isolation in the wake of its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February. 

6 – The federal Conservative party disqualified Brampton, Ont., Mayor Patrick Brown from the party’s leadership race due to allegations related to financing rules in the Canada Elections Act.  

6 – Actor James Caan died at the age of 82 after a career on TV and the movies that included playing Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” and a dying football player in the classic weeper “Brian’s Song.” Caan was a grinning, handsome performer with an athlete’s swagger and muscular build who managed a long career despite drug problems, outbursts of temper and minor brushes with the law. After “Brian’s Song” and “The Godfather,” he was one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, appearing in “Hide in Plain Sight,” “Funny Lady” and opposite Kathy Bates in “Misery” in 1990. 

7 – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned as leader of his Conservative Party but planned to remain as prime minister while a leadership contest was held. It was a humiliating defeat for the politician who succeeded in leading Britain out of the European Union and was credited with rolling out one of the world’s most successful mass COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. But Johnson’s government became mired in ethics scandal and about 50 senior MPs quit the government, leaving him unable to govern.  

8 – Former prime minister Shinzo Abe, one of Japan’s most powerful politicians, died after being shot during a campaign speech. Police said a suspected gunman was taken into custody at the scene of the attack, which shocked people in a country known as one of the world’s safest. The 67-year-old Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader before stepping down for health reasons in 2020. Police arrested 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami on suspicion of murder, and confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment. 

8 – The man best known for playing Tony Soprano’s enforcer Paulie Walnuts on “The Sopranos” died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Tony Sirico was 79. In addition to his role on “The Sopranos,” Sirico also appeared in “Goodfellas,” “Bullets over Broadway” and “Miami Vice.” 

14 – Hockey Canada said it was reopening a third-party investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving members of the country’s 2018 world junior team. The organization said participation in the investigation by the players in question was mandatory. The alleged assault occurred at a Hockey Canada function in 2018.  

14 – Health Canada has approved a COVID-19 vaccine for infants and preschoolers. It said Moderna’s two-dose vaccine was safe for children between the ages of six months and five years. The doses were one-quarter the size of adult doses.  

17 – Legislation to recognize Mi’kmaq as Nova Scotia’s first language was proclaimed by the province and affirmed by Mi’kmaw chiefs during a ceremony in Potlotek First Nation.  

18 – It was revealed that Hockey Canada had maintained a fund to pay for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims. The detail was included in a July 2021 affidavit sworn by Glen McCurdie, who was then Hockey Canada’s vice-president of insurance and risk management. It involved a lawsuit launched by an injured player in Ontario. The affidavit said Hockey Canada maintained a reserve in a segregated account to pay for any such uninsured liabilities as they arose. It went on to say that “uninsured liabilities include potential claims for historical sexual abuse.” 

18 – Former Parti Québécois leader Andre Boisclair was sentenced to two years less a day in jail after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two young men. The assaults happened at his apartment in Montreal in 2014 and 2015.  

21 – Members of Hockey Canada’s 2003 men’s world junior hockey championship team were accused of a group sexual assault. The national organization said it learned of the alleged incident after being contacted by a reporter seeking comment and said it immediately contacted Halifax Regional Police. Halifax was the co-host city of the tournament that year.  

23 – The World Health Organization declared an expanding monkeypox outbreak in 74 countries a global emergency.  

25 – Pope Francis issued an abject apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous people in residential schools. Tears streamed down the faces of elders and survivors as Francis apologized in Maskwacis, south of Edmonton, after visiting the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School. The Pope said he wanted to express his sorrow and ask forgiveness. Francis said the memories of the children who never returned from residential schools had left him with a sense of “sorrow, indignation and shame.”  

30 – Nichelle Nichols, a legend of sci-fi TV and movies and a pioneer of Black women in the entertainment industry, died at 89. She broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lieutenant Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series. Her role in the 1966-69 series as Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honour with the series’ fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner. 

The Canadian Press