2022 Year in Review: Russia, Ukraine top Queen in top 10 most-searched news events on Yahoo Canada
The headlines of the year reflected an interest in conflict, protests and crime
2022 was a year of war, protest, uncertainty, and hope. As we wrap up the year, Yahoo Canada looks back on the top news headlines, people and events that made the past 12 months unlike any other in history.
1. Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Russia officially invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, launching the world into a war that is still ongoing after nine months. Since February, countless Ukrainian lives were lost, after the military invasion, air strikes, and bombings. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed, forcing millions to immigrate. During this time Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, became a symbol of hope for his people and the rest of the world with his efforts to protect his country and get help from world superpowers like the United States and Canada.
The rest of the world has been significantly affected by Russia’s actions, with fuel and food prices surging as it has never before. While there is no end in sight for the war, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is still supporting Ukraine with over $1 billion of military and humanitarian aid.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin, took up significant news coverage in 2022, with his decision to invade Ukraine and his interactions with world leaders in the aftermath. Putin openly questioned the legality of Ukraine's borders, claiming that a large portion of present-day Ukraine occupies historically Russian regions, after saying Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” He was also heavily protested by the Russian people for his military action in Ukraine as well as the decision to hold a military draft to recruit additional forces. Russia has been facing market crashes and significant sanctions from the rest of the world due to Putin’s actions.
This year, for the first time in at least a decade Putin will not hold a year-end press conference.
In early 2022, the “Freedom Convoy,” a series of demonstrations and blockades against COVID-19 vaccine requirements and limitations became a reality in Canadians’ lives. The protests caused a significant disturbance in major cities, especially in Ottawa where a state of emergency was declared. The convoy was heavily criticized for spreading hateful messages and causing physical damage. It was also the first time since 1988, the emergencies act was invoked, giving the federal government interim authority to manage persistent blockades and demonstrations against pandemic restrictions. After being arrested, the organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are still awaiting their trial in 2023.
On July 8th, millions of Canadians woke up without cellphones or internet service because of an outage in Rogers services connected to an “update” to its network. Customers could not even dial 911, while the retail businesses went down as debit and credit purchases could not be processed and issues were reported with ATM services. The nationwide outage lasted 19 hours.
Rogers will spend $261 million to physically split its wireless and wireline networks following the July 8 outage.
The company says it is not in a position to quantify the direct economic losses caused by the disruption. https://t.co/HGFJdLnPtj— CBC News (@CBCNews) August 25, 2022
5. Anna Delvey
Anna Delvey, also known as Anna Sorokin, is a Russian-born German con artist that deceived the elite social and artistic circles in New York by posing as a wealthy heiress. Delvey scammed and misled significant financial institutions, banks, hotels, and people for a total of $275,000 between 2013 and 2017. Her case picked-up worldwide attraction this year after Netflix developed her story into the hit series Inventing Anna.
6. CUPE strike
In November, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), went on a two-day walk-out in protest of the wages of education workers and the support of services that students and parents receive. The walk-out came to an end after the Ford government promised to revoke legislation that imposed a contract on members and banned their right to strike.
CUPE represents 55,000 education workers in Ontario which include custodians, educational assistants, administrative staff in schools, librarians, and bus drivers. While the union was looking for $100 million in guarantees of higher staffing levels, after long negotiations both sides finally reached a deal on a 3.59 per cent wage increase.
7. Monkeypox
After being introduced to the concept of a pandemic with COVID-19, the world was once again faced with a new virus in 2022. Monkeypox, a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus is a part of the same family of the virus that causes smallpox. While the outbreak was nowhere near as wide as COVID-19, monkeypox still infected and scared masses with 89 per cent of the infections being spread out across ten countries. Many were terrified of the monkeypox rash, which could initially look like pimples or blisters spread across the body.
8. Pope Francis
The head of the catholic church and the Vatican’s ambassador, Pope Francis, was also a big part of 2022. While the Pope had a lot of messages for the world during the year, perhaps the most striking one for Canadians was his apology about the residential school system. In July, Pope Francis met with the indigenous communities of Canada to acknowledge and shame the forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples into Christian society.
9. Robb Elementary school shooting
United States was terrified by another shooting in the month of May, where an 18-year-old in Uvalde, Texas, opened fire with an AR-15 style rifle at the Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers. After the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the attack is now the third-deadliest school shooting in American history.
The first responders that were at the scene are still under scrutiny as the police waited more than an hour outside of the classroom before the gunman was shot and captured.
10. Buffalo shooting
In May, the world was shaken by a mass shooting that took ten lives. In a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, 13 people were shot, 11 of which were Black individuals. The racially motivated attack was recorded and live-streamed by the shooter on the streaming platform Twitch before it was shut down by the authorities. The gunman’s fate won’t be decided till 2023, although his attorney has shared that he is willing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
