1941 in Canada

• January 1: The CBC News Service officially begins operations in English; operations in French begin the following day. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's board of governors determined that a national news service will assist in reporting the war.[2]
• March 4: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin to register Japanese Canadians; registration is completed by the end of August.[3]
• April 29: Quebec, the last province to exclude women from the legal profession, allow women to practice law. The first Quebec woman lawyer is Elizabeth Monk, who is called to the bar the next year.[4][5]
• July 24: Workers began an illegal strike at the Alcan aluminum complex at Arvida, Quebec, when 700 workers walk off the job. Some 4,500 workers occupy the factory the next day. Minister of Munitions and Supply C.D. Howe says that enemy sabotage was responsible for the work stoppage, and troopers are sent to secure the facility. Work resumes on July 29 as workers and management negotiate, assisted by federal conciliators. A subsequent royal commission rejects the sabotage theory and finds that the strike was the result of worker dissatisfaction with wages and working conditions, as well as a heat wave that occurred immediately before the strike.[6][7]
• August 9–12: The Atlantic Conference meeting between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins, as well as their civilian and military advisers, is held secretly aboard the USS Augusta docked in Ship Harbour, Placentia Bay, Argentia in the Dominion of Newfoundland. The leaders discuss Lend-Lease and the war in Europe. The conference was the first of nine wartime meetings between FDR and Churchill. On August 14, the leaders publicly issue the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration of Anglo-American aims, including freedom of the seas, self-determination, free government, and liberal trade.[8]
• August 12: All Japanese Canadians are ordered to carry identity cards with their thumbprint and photo.[9]
• August 13: An order-in-council (PC 6289) establishes the Canadian Women's Army Corps. The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service is established the following year.[10]
• December 7 (North America time)/December 8 (Hong Kong time): Battle of Hong Kong: On the same morning as the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack British Hong Kong, with relentless air raids for the next 17 1/2 days. Hong Kong is forced to surrender on December 25. Some 1,975 Canadian troopers, are posted in the colony, mostly infantry with the Royal Rifles of Canada and Winnipeg Grenadiers, who had arrived to reinforce the colony on October 27 aboard the Awatea, escorted by HMCS Prince Robert. The Japanese attack is a disaster for the Canadians, who were greatly outnumbered by the Japanese. Of the 1,975 Canadians who went to Hong Kong, more than 1,050 were killed or wounded, and many are taken prisoner by Japan.[11][12][13]
• December 8: Immediately following the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, Canada declares war on Japan, on the same day that Britain and the United States do so.
• December 8: The day after Japanese attacks on Hong King and Pearl Harbor, all fishing boats owned by Japanese Canadians are impounded by the Royal Canadian Navy.[14]
• December 9: John Hart becomes Premier of British Columbia, replacing Thomas "Duff" Pattullo, after a Liberal convention dumps Pattullo as leader and replaces him with Hart. Following the October 21 provincial election in which the Liberals fell to 21 seats while the CCF won 14 and the Conservatives 12, Pattullo's government had faltered. Hart forms a coalition between the Liberals and the Conservatives.[15][16]

• April 30 – The Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winnipeg Rangers win their first Memorial Cup by defeating the Quebec Junior Hockey League's Montreal Royals 3 games to 2. The deciding game was played at the Montreal Forum.
• November 29 – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers win their third Grey Cup by defeating the Ottawa Rough Riders 18 to 16 in the 29th Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

• List of Canadian films

PM King: "The war has grown in intensity and extent. Threats have become realities[...]and fears have been turned into terrors."[21]

"The American Republics [are] in serious danger" - President Roosevelt calls for defence of Western Hemisphere[22]

"War is approaching" - Roosevelt warns American republics of Nazi intentions of subversion and enslavement in hemisphere[23]

PM King agrees it's important to convince Latin America that Nazis are as menacing to South America as to North[24]

Roosevelt and Churchill agree to Atlantic Charter's principles of postwar peace at shipboard conference in Newfoundland[25]

Franklin Roosevelt's account of covert voyage to his meeting with Winston Churchill in Newfoundland[26]

By attacking U.S. and British Empire forces, Japanese "make their own ruin inevitable"[27]

"A tremendous financial burden" - PM King details Canada's direct and indirect contributions (money, materiel and people) to war effort[28]

Canada enhances Northwest Staging Route for transit of U.S. warplanes and supplies through Yukon to besieged U.S.S.R.[29]

Thank-you letter to Vuntut Gwitchin for money contributed to orphans and homeless children in Britain[30]

Communist Party of Canada challenges RCMP commissioner's remarks regarding "reds"[31]

Interned Soviet sympathizers demand release from Canadian "concentration camp" after Germany attacks U.S.S.R.[32]

High school girls join Ontario Farm Service Force to pick fruit on Niagara Peninsula as their war service[33]

High school girls in YWCA's Hi-Y clubs raise funds selling War Savings stamps at movie theatres[34]

"Give him my love" - with "very real warmth," Mackenzie King asks Washington official to pass message to Franklin Roosevelt[35]

"What a shock" - House of Commons reacts to news of Frederick Banting's death in airplane crash[36]

Prime Minister King offers to find government job for defeated MP Agnes Macphail[37]

Film reveals Winston Churchill's comic timing in his Some Chicken - Some Neck! speech to Parliament[38]

Humorous letter about searching for Kawartha Lakes, Ontario soldiers for writer to host in England[39]

Teenager experiences gay scene in movie theatres of downtown Toronto[40]

Memories of 60 years' work at Great Lakes grain elevator about to be torn down[41]

"A friend completely trusted" - obituary for Prime Minister King's dog Pat[42]