Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Now that the year 2021 is behind us, you may be interested in knowing what to look forward to in 2022.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the news yet again last year and affecting many aspects of our day-to-day lives, causing much uncertainty, there are a still a few predictable events that we can probably count on happening.
Here's a look ahead at some of the news to be expected in the year 2022.
One of the first anticipated events of the year will be the start of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee year, which will begin Feb. 6.
The date marks the 70th anniversary of the 95-year-old's accession to the throne, which is already the longest tenure in Britain's history.
Her health has been the subject of speculation since being admitted to hospital on Oct. 20 for medical tests. She was released the following day but cancelled many of her public engagements on the advice of doctors. She did not make an appearance again until Nov. 17.
After the country went through a snap federal election last year, a number of provinces and cities will head to the polls again in 2022.
Most notably, the political futures of Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier François Legault will be determined on June 2 and Oct. 3, respectively.
Municipal elections are also set to be held this year across British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island, as well as parts of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
Two of the largest sporting events in the world are scheduled for 2022.
First up will be the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which starts on Feb. 4. The Games are already mired in controversy. Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. declared a diplomatic boycott, citing human rights violations by the Chinese government. The boycott means no government officials from those countries will be in attendance but athletes will still be able to compete.
In addition, the Games will be without NHL players competing for hockey gold after they were restricted from participating due to the spread of COVID-19, which has already disrupted the league's schedule this season.
On Nov. 21, the men's World Cup will kick off in Qatar, and Canada is within striking distance of qualifying for the world's biggest football tournament for the first time since 1986. The team is currently sitting atop the CONCACAF qualifier standings, one point ahead of the U.S. and two points ahead of Mexico and Panama. The top three teams after the regional qualifying games, which end in late March, automatically gain entry to the World Cup, while the fourth-place team moves on to a playoff round.
A number of highly anticipated screen releases are on the horizon.
Marvel will continue dishing out superhero flicks with "Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" slated to come out this spring, "Thor: Love and Thunder" during the summer and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in the fall.
Sticking with the comics theme, Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne in "The Batman" is scheduled to be released in March.
"Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," the third chapter of the "Harry Potter" prequel series, is expected to hit theatres in April. Mads Mikkelsen replaces Johnny Depp as the villainous Gellert Grindelwald in the film after the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star was apparently asked to resign from the role following a lost libel suit against a U.K. tabloid that alleged he abused his ex-wife Amber Heard.
"Top Gun: Maverick" will see Tom Cruise reprise his role as high-flying fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in a sequel to the 1986 classic "Top Gun" in May.
Finally, after numerous delays over the years, James Cameron's "Avatar 2" is currently scheduled to be on tap in December.
It may not yet be written in the stars, but one thing many scientists and astronomy enthusiasts are looking forward to this year are the first images transmitted back to Earth by the James Webb Space Telescope that was launched on Christmas Day.
It will take about six months for the highly sophisticated piece of machinery to reach its destination, 1.6 million kilometres away, and be ready to start scanning deep into the cosmos in search of galaxies formed early in the creation of the universe.
A number of space flight missions are expected in 2022, among the most highly anticipated are NASA's recently launched Double Asteroid Redirection Test as it crashes into a tiny asteroid moonlet on Sept. 26, as well as the Juno spacecraft making a pass close to Jupiter's moon Europa on Sept. 29. Several moon-related missions from a number of different space agencies are also anticipated in the coming year.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
Spanish state prosecutors recommended Wednesday that an investigating judge shelve a probe into another alleged case of tax fraud by pop star Shakira.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.