Year in review: A look at events in December 2024

A look at news events in December 2024 so far:

1 – Belgium grants sex workers full labour rights, including health insurance, paid leave and pensions. The law establishing key rights including refusing clients and stopping acts at any time comes after the decriminalization of sex work in 2022. Employers must meet strict licensing and safety standards, while unregulated hiring may be penalized. Advocates hail the law as groundbreaking while critics worry undocumented workers remain vulnerable.

1 – Bob Bryar, a former drummer for the band My Chemical Romance, dies at the age 44. He played on the band’s career-defining rock opera “The Black Parade.” Bryar replaced drummer Matt Pelissier in 2004 and left My Chemical Romance in 2010, and moved on from the music business.

1 – U.S. President Joe Biden pardons his son, Hunter, who was convicted this year on felony gun and tax charges. The move spares the younger Biden a possible prison sentence in the two cases out of Delaware and California. It also goes against the president’s past promises that he wouldn’t use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.

1 – Canada’s Rachel Homan wins the women’s final at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Kioti National in St. John’s. The Ottawa skip’s team beat Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 6-5. Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes have now won two straight slams and are 40-and-two on the season.

2 – Canada lists the Houthi militant group as a terrorist entity. Listed as Ansarallah, the designation allows for criminal penalties against any person or group that knowingly deals with a listed entity. The move follows the steps of allies like the United States as Canada has supported American and British strikes against Houthi targets earlier this year.

2 – Two-time Canadian Olympian Mirela Rahneva retires from competitive skeleton racing. The 36-year-old earned five World Cup victories over her 11-year career, taking home bronze at the world championship last year. The Ottawa native finished fifth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and 12th at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

3 – Kate Middleton kicks off the emir of Qatar’s trip to Britain. The U.K. government enlisted her to ensure the success of a state visit by the leader of a key ally, even as the Princess of Wales recovers from cancer treatment. The event is just one of a handful of appearances that she has made since her diagnosis in March.

3 – The Toronto Transit Commission board votes to ban mobility devices with lithium-ion batteries, including electric bikes and scooters, during winter months. The ban on e-bikes and e-scooters inside TTC vehicles and stations would be in effect between Nov. 15 and April 15 each year, following concerns over potential fire hazards. It wasn’t immediately clear when enforcement of the new ban would start.

4 – For the second year in a row, Taylor Swift is named Spotify Wrapped’s most-played artist. The megastar had more than 26.6-billion streams this year as she performed around the world, with her Eras Tour wrapping up in Canada. Swift was followed by Canadian singer The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Toronto star Drake and Billie Eilish.

4 – Starting early next month, Air Canada will bar carry-on bags for its lowest-fare customers. Canada’s largest airline says passengers who opt for its basic fare on trips within North America and to sun destinations will have to check any duffel bags, rollers and large backpacks for a fee.

4 – New York City’s police commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference that the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a “brazen, targeted attack.” The NYPD says 50-year-old Thompson was set to speak at an investor meeting when he was gunned down around 6:45 a.m. outside the New York Hilton Midtown by a shooter who fled on foot and then rode off on a bicycle. Though officials said the attack appeared to be targeted, they did not yet have a motive for the shooting.

4 – The Vancouver Art Gallery says it is not going ahead with a planned design for its new home because of soaring construction costs. The estimated cost increased by $200 million, putting construction on pause. Vancouver Art Gallery CEO Anthony Kiendl says the gallery will no longer be working with a Swiss architectural firm. But he says it remains committed to building a new cultural hub.

4 – A Taiwan firm cancels its plan to build an electric vehicle battery plant near Vancouver. Parent company Taiwan Cement says the company is cancelling the Maple Ridge, B.C., plant to focus on Taiwanese production. The move is in step with other battery makers suspending similar projects across North America. The B.C. and federal governments pledged a combined $284.5 million in government funding for the plant.

5 – Thousands of New Yorkers gather to witness 55,000 multicoloured lights come to life as the Rockefeller Center’s iconic Christmas tree lit up in Manhattan. The giant Norway spruce is topped with a Swarovski star crown featuring three-million crystals. Once the holiday season is over, the 23-metre tall tree will be used for lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

5 – Bitcoin tops the $100,000 mark as a massive rally in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency sparked by the election of Donald Trump rolls on. The milestone comes just hours after the U.S. president-elect signalled a lighter regulatory approach to the crypto industry with his choice of advocate Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

5 – Canada’s new WNBA franchise will be called the Toronto Tempo. The handle was officially unveiled with some haste after it was leaked the day before, appearing briefly on a team drop-down menu on the women’s basketball league’s official website. Toronto is the league’s first franchise outside the U.S.. The new team will be owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures, which reportedly paid US$115 million for it.

5 – Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Junior wins this year’s Tip O’Neill award. The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum gives the honour every year to a Canadian player who excels on the field and also adheres to the sport’s “highest ideals.” The Montreal-born Guerrero had 30 home runs and 103 runs batted in last season.

6 – Dignitaries gather in front of Polytechnique Montreal’s main campus to pay tribute to the 14 women killed at the engineering school in 1989. Thirteen other people were injured in the anti-feminist attack, perpetrated by Marc Lépine. Lépine took his own life in the attack. He had ranted about feminists ruining his life. The school’s president Maud Cohen says there’s a duty to remember what happened and learn from the tragedy. In the evening, another ceremony illuminated the sky over Mount Royal with 14 beams of light for each of the women killed in the shooting. For the first time, a 15th beam of light was added in memory of all victims of femicide. The ceremony was timed to coincide with the exact time the first shots were fired.

6 – Canadian moguls star Mikael Kingsbury wins a gold medal in moguls to continue his perfect start to the World Cup season. The 32-year-old from Deux-Montagnes, Que. scored a season-high 87.92 points to finish atop the podium in Sweden. The win comes after he won the World Cup season opener last weekend in Finland. Kingsbury is in his 16th season of moguls with 92 World Cup wins under his belt and 131 medals in 151 starts.

7 – Canadian short-track speedskater Danae Blais wins a World Cup gold in the women’s 1,000-metre race at the ISU Short Track World Tour in Beijing. The 25-year-old from Chateauguay, Que., earned her first victory in an individual distance on the international circuit. Blais also helped the women’s relay team capture gold in Beijing.

7 – The historic Notre Dame Cathedral officially reopens in Paris, more than five years after being gutted by fire. Quebec Premier Francois Legault was on hand for ceremonies to mark the occasion, which were by invitation only. Prince William and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump were also there, as well as U.S. First Lady Jill Biden. Montreal blacksmith Mathieu Collette and Toronto blacksmith Nicholas Erb both played a role in Notre Dame’s restoration.

7 – Nova Scotia’s Sidney Crosby collects his 1,023rd career assist during a game when his team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, defeated the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2. That tied him with Canadian ice hockey great Gordie Howe for the fifth-most helpers in NHL history with one franchise. Crosby is just 10 assists short of matching another Canadian hockey icon, Mario Lemieux, for a place on the franchise’s all-time list.

7 – Alan Young, a lawyer and legal scholar known for leading the challenge against Canada’s prostitution laws, dies at the age of 69. Young was a central figure in a landmark Supreme Court case that struck down Canada’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional in 2013, forcing the federal government to revise the legislation. Young was also known for defending people with AIDS, cancer and MS who were charged for using medical marijuana, which led to federal regulations permitting its use. York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School called his death “a profound loss” for the legal profession.

8 – The Syrian government falls after a lightning rebel offensive ended the Assad family’s 50-year iron rule following a remarkably swift offensive across the country. This comes as rebel forces seized control of the capital city of Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate the end of the Assad rule. Syrian state television broadcasted a video statement from the rebels, saying President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all those in jail had been set free. The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said President Bashar Assad fled the country. while Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government. Many residents of the capital were in disbelief at the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war.

8 – Pop megastar Taylor Swift wraps up her record-smashing Eras Tour at BC Place in Vancouver. The nearly 150-show tour began 20 months ago and touched five continents, grossing an estimated US$2.2 billion along the way. About 60,000 people attended the final concert inside the stadium, which was also watched by millions more on livestreams around the world. Swift thanked the city for being part of the “most thrilling chapter” of her life to date.

9 – American polygamist leader Samuel Bateman pleads guilty to a scheme that orchestrated the sexual assault of children, and will spend 50 years in prison. He acknowledged in an Arizona court that he coerced girls as young as nine to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults. He also admitted to scheming for years to bring girls across state lines for his sex crimes. Bateman is the self-declared prophet of a small offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 – Canadian writer Nadim Roberts earns the prestigious Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Roberts was selected for the $40,000 U.S. grant to fund his book about a storied highway project in the Northwest Territories. The Whiting Foundation says his forthcoming book “The Highway” uses the history of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway to explore the legacy of colonialism and residential schools in Canada’s Far North. The book tells the story of three boys who ran away from residential school in 1972 and tried to walk hundreds of kilometres from Inuvik in a journey where only one of them survived.

10 – Zach Churchill resigns as leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal party. He said he will be replaced on an interim basis by Derek Mombourquette. The announcement comes a day after a recount in the district of Yarmouth saw Churchill lose his seat to the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals were reduced to just two seats in last month’s provincial election that saw Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston win a second consecutive majority government.

10 – University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton and Princeton University’s John Hopfield receive their Nobel Prize for physics. The King of Sweden bestowed the accolade on the pair of computer scientists at the Stockholm Concert Hall. They were given the prize because their use of physics developed some of the underpinnings of machine learning, a branch of computer science that helps artificial intelligence mimic how humans learn. The two are splitting the accolade valued at roughly $1.45 million Canadian. Hinton will donate a portion of his share to an Ontario organization working to boost Indigenous access to water.

10 – Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh sets the world record in the 400-metre freestyle. The 18-year-old from Toronto swam to victory at the world short-course swimming championships in three minutes and 50.25 seconds. McIntosh continued her fantastic year that saw her win three gold medals and a silver at this year’s Paris Olympics.

11 – A federal judge in Texas rejects the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet. The late Tuesday decision cites concerns over the bidding process, calling it flawed, while also criticizing how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. Jones had to put Infowars up for sale as part of his bankruptcy case, linked to a defamation lawsuit ordering him to pay nearly $1.5-billion after repeated calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U-S history a hoax.

11 – Google releases its annual “Year in Search,” rounding up the top trending queries entered into its namesake search engine in 2024. The Google “Hum to Search” function was used most often for Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” The most-searched song overall was “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.

11 – Saudi Arabia is named the host of the FIFA 2034 World Cup. While Saudi officials say hosting the international tournament can accelerate change, human rights groups warn FIFA’s lack of safeguards around the World Cup will put the lives of migrant workers at risk building stadiums and transport networks. FIFA has also awarded the 2030 World Cup to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

11 – The prime minister wrapped up an approximately 90-minute meeting with the premiers on U-S president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the premiers proactively identified critical minerals and other Canadian goods the U.S. relies upon.

Will be updated and resent Dec. 31

The Canadian Press