1994 in Canada

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Ray Hnatyshyn
• Prime Minister – Jean Chrétien
• Chief Justice – Antonio Lamer (Quebec)
• Parliament – 35th (from January 14)

Provincial governments

Territorial governments

January to June

• Winter – One of the coldest winters on record affects much of Canada.
• January 1 – North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect.
• January 11 – Daniel Johnson, Jr., becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Robert Bourassa.
• February – The first Liberal budget slashes spending in an effort to cut the deficit. Unemployment Insurance and provincial transfer payments are especially hard hit.
• March 21 – A civilian inquiry in the behaviour of the Canadian Airborne in Somalia is launched.
• April 1 – The community of Arctic Red River, Northwest Territories, is renamed to Tsiigehtchic.
• April 5 – The Just Desserts shooting occurs in Toronto,
• May 10 – Annular solar eclipse happened in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.
• June – An Ontario farmer is allowed to grow 10 acres (40,000 m²) of marijuana for research purposes.
• June 9 – Ontario's Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act (Bill 167), a bill proposed by the government of Bob Rae to extend civil union rights to same-sex couples, is defeated on a vote of 68–59 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

July to December

• August 14 - Grant Bristow is exposed by Toronto Sun being a CSIS asset and exposing much of his Heritage Front white supremacist group activity.
• September 12 – Quebec election, the Parti Québécois defeats the Parti libéral du Québec, which had been in power for nine years.
• September 26 – Jacques Parizeau (Parti Québécois) is sworn in as premier of Quebec, replacing Daniel Johnson, Jr.
• October 5 and October 6 – Members of the Solar Temple cult commit mass suicide.
• December – Lucien Bouchard is infected with necrotizing fasciitis and loses a leg.

Full date unknown

• Conrad Black's company buys the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Bertram Brockhouse shares the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• Cigarette taxes are slashed to battle smuggling and black market organizations.
• Canadian troops leave CFB Lahr, ending the Canadian armed forces presence in Europe.
• The Alberta Court of Appeal strikes down a lower court ruling that homosexual persons are to be covered under the province's human rights legislation. The case, originally brought by Delwin Vriend, was subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
• American hardware retail chain, Home Depot buys the Aikenhead's Hardware chain.

New works

• Margaret Atwood: Good Bones and Simple Murders
• Robert J. Sawyer: Foreigner
• William Bell: Five Days of the Ghost
• Michael Ignatieff: Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism
• Réjean Ducharme: Va savoir
• Mordecai Richler: This Year in Jerusalem
• Dave Duncan: The Living God
• Hank Snow: Just a Hank Snow Story
• Alice Munro: Open Secrets
• Douglas Coupland: Life After God
• Farley Mowat: Born Naked

Television

• The Kids in the Hall ends

Films

• Atom Egoyan's Exotica is released

Full date unknown

• Sean Collins, son of politician Chris Collins (died 2007)

Full date unknown

• Arthur Julian Andrew, diplomat and author (born 1915)
• Felix Partz, artist and co-founder of the artistic collective General Idea (born 1945)
• Jorge Zontal, artist and co-founder of the artistic collective General Idea (born 1944)
• Gordon Sparling, filmmaker (born 1900)