Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

environmental issues

Dress code for a happier planet

Dress code for a happier planet

Consumers are increasingly worried about climate change, the fashion industry’s contribution to pollution and plastics and its terrible human rights track record. Fashion adds 10 per cent of the globe's greenhouse gas emissions and this will rise to 50 per cent if left unchecked. It takes 700 gallons of water to make one cotton T-shirt and that water is polluted by the time it is returned to the water table. Ninety-seven per cent of our clothes are made in the Global South by people working in slave-like conditions who are paid less than their country’s living wage.

5 Pressing Environmental Issues in Canada in 2023

5 Pressing Environmental Issues in Canada in 2023

Mining, however, has devastating consequences on the environment and is associated with forest loss, contamination of freshwater resources as well as the impoverishment and displacement of communities. Between 2008 and 2017, mining waste failures in the country have killed more than 340 people, polluted hundreds of kilometres of waterways, wiped our fish populations and jeopardised the livelihoods of entire communities.

Clean water for Oneida still years away

Clean water for Oneida still years away

As a years-long boil water advisory continues to drag out, there’s cautious optimism that clean water will be flowing to residents of Oneida Nation of the Thames. But it won’t be any time soon. In fact it could be a number of years yet before the community can lift its boil water advisory. "Over the holidays I heard from a lot of community members feeling a sense of hopelessness, but also a sense of guilt," said Oneida Councillor Brandon Doxtator, who oversees environmental issues for the community." Just taking a five minute shower has caused community members to be worried about their part of exacerbating the problem," he said.

Health Canada recruits a Concordia professor for its Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products

Health Canada recruits a Concordia professor for its Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products

Xianming Zhang, assistant professor of environmental chemistry in Concordia’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been invited to join Health Canada’s new Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products. The panel of nine researchers from across the country will provide independent guidance to the Government of Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency.

Canadians are not nearly as divided about environmental issues as we may think: Study

Canadians are not nearly as divided about environmental issues as we may think: Study

Canadians are not nearly as divided about many important environmental issues as we may think – and that lack of division could offer common ground in drafting national environmental policies, according to a new study. Researchers in the department of physical and environmental sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough used Statistics Canada data to explore Canadians’ behaviours and attitudes towards the environment.

First Walkerton Clean Water Legacy Award winner announced

First Walkerton Clean Water Legacy Award winner announced

A Durham man is the first recipient of the Walkerton Clean Water Legacy Award. Connor Maxwell, who will be entering his second year in environmental engineering at the University of Guelph, received a $1,000 scholarship. Maxwell’s “deep interest in water and environmental issues and involvement with them from a young age” impressed the judges, the release said. In his studies he’s “learning design skills to minimize and prevent the impact of human activities on water, soil and air systems.” He’ll be working for the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority in water resources management this summer.

Water management in Canada has been fragmented — a Canada Water Agency could help

Water management in Canada has been fragmented — a Canada Water Agency could help

The federal government has been working since 2020 to create a Canadian agency dedicated to water management across the country. Public consultations ended on March 1, and the Indigenous engagement process will continue throughout 2021. But many questions and expectations remain about the nature of the new Canada Water Agency. Water governance encompasses all the administrative, social, political, economic and legal processes put in place to manage water. In other words, it is these societal processes that determine how governmental and non-governmental groups develop measures and make decisions in the area of water management.

Alberta government wants to rewrite the water use rules along eastern slopes of Rockies

Alberta government wants to rewrite the water use rules along eastern slopes of Rockies

The Alberta government wants to rewrite the rules on water use along the eastern slopes of the Rockies as part of its economic recovery plan, including a push for new coal developments in the area. Water use is highly restricted in southern Alberta due to concerns about supply, and new water licences cannot be issued, they have to be purchased from existing licence holders on the open market. The new plan put forward by the Alberta government would affect water pulled from the Oldman watershed above the dam.

Water Act contentious at environment debate

Water Act contentious at environment debate

The Water Act, passed in the P.E.I. Legislature but not yet proclaimed, was one of the more divisive issues of the first leaders debate of the provincial election campaign.
More than 250 people packed into an auditorium at UPEI to listen to the leaders discuss environmental issues, at a forum organized by Island environmental groups. 
Topics ranged from protecting soil quality, to watershed group funding, to increasing the number of protected areas on P.E.I., to promoting the Island's natural history. 

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