Exploring Theme: "Environmental Impacts"

The Deh Cho, also known as the Mackenzie River, is downstream from Alberta oilsands CBC Indigenous – A group advocating for the protection of Canada’s largest river basin attended the latest United Nations biodiversity conference to raise awareness about the need to protect its freshwater. Keepers of the Water is a coalition of First Nations,...

Churchill-based Lazy Bear Expeditions says its walking tours ‘highlight nature and culture’ CBC Indigenous: A northern Manitoba tour advertising a trip to an ancient Inuit hunting camp is raising concerns that tourists’ presence there could damage an “irreplaceable” cultural and historical site, and the critical animal habitats around it. The company behind the tour describes...

Legislation will track how communities are affected and ‘hold government’s feet to the fire,’ professor says CBC News: For years, researchers, activists, community leaders have shown how Indigenous, Black and other racialized groups have been disproportionately affected by polluting industries. Now, a new law will require the federal government to better track this injustice, and...

NationTalk: To restore and protect vulnerable freshwater systems in North America, start by interweaving Indigenous and Western values, worldviews and knowledge systems. So says a comprehensive report by University of Guelph researchers released last month by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) urging collaboration and braiding of viewpoints in looking after threatened water systems. “Freshwater ecosystems...

The Porcupine is ‘one of the biggest herds in the world.’ Will it stay that way? CBC News: The Porcupine caribou is one of the few barren-ground herds in the circumpolar world that remains strong and healthy — and the communities who rely on it want to make sure it stays that way.  This was...

We are no more removed from nature than any other creature, even in the midst of a large city. Our animal nature dictates our essential needs: clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy. NationTalk: Rabble.ca. David Suzikii The following is adapted from the prologue to the 25th anniversary edition of The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our...

Marten Falls and Webequie pursue their socio-economic development goals in shepherding Northern Road Link environmental impact process NationTalk: Soontoday.com: If your First Nation community harbours great ambitions to become a major project proponent, Gordon Wabasse offers some sage and simple advice. “Be prepared.” Wabasse, the lands and resources director of Webequie First Nation, participated in...

Saik’uz and Stellat’en First Nations have been fighting for the health of the watershed for over a decade. A dam operated by Rio Tinto Alcan and regulated by the province continues to devastate sturgeon and salmon populations The Narwhal: Seventy years ago, B.C. approved a hydroelectric project that would irreversibly alter an entire watershed and...

The federal government is starting to fund Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. An internal document shows Ontario has ‘concerns’ The Narwhal: In the face of provincial resistance, the federal government is urging Ontario to cooperate with plans to establish Indigenous-led conservation areas, according to an internal briefing. The document from Natural Resources Canada, obtained by...

NationTalk: The First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance (“FNWSA”) is deeply troubled with the revelations set out in an article featured on the front page of today’s Globe and Mail which identifies that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (“DFO”), under the Harper administration, withheld critical science related to the existence of a highly transmissible...

Release of the report on the Muskrat Falls Inquiry from the Honourable Justice Richard D. LeBlanc, Commissioner: “Muskrat Falls, A Misguided Project”. The Muskrat Falls project has had a profound impact on ratepayers and the financial situation in Newfoundland and Labrador. The report makes findings and recommendations related to the inquiry’s terms of reference, as...

FACETS – “Indigenous knowledge and federal environmental assessments in Canada: applying past lessons to the 2019 impact assessment act”. Even the most contemporary federal Environmental Assessment framework in Canada ultimately fails to ensure the engagement of the critically important knowledge of Indigenous peoples in environmental decision-making. While we identify that Impact Assessment Act fails to...

The Nunatsiavut Government – The Nunatsiavut Government is extremely disappointed with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador with the way it has handled the whole Muskrat Falls fiasco. The Premier has repeatedly betrayed our trust by neglecting to respond, in writing or publicly, to our concerns and/or questions. (i.e. Ignoring 5 of 7 recommendations from...