Toronto island airport expansion killed by ‘fringe group,’ Ontario minister says
By Liam Casey Ottawa gave in to the demands of a “fringe group” when it rejected a pitch to expand Toronto’s island airport, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Tuesday. He said the province was disappointed by the federal government’s decision to nix Premier Doug Ford’s proposed expansion of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to allow jets to land and take off from it. The runway is currently too short for jets. Federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon rejected the plan last week after 87 per cent of the 87,000 respondents to a public consultation opposed the idea. Sarkaria said the province was “disappointed” by MacKinnon’s decision. “We’ve seen the federal government here listen to a small fringe group in Toronto, but we as the province will continue to push...
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Quebec bill helps Indigenous families track disappeared loved ones, but some remain wary
By Ghazal Azizi Kashi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Investigative Journalism Foundation Norman Wapachee was born around a decade after his sister Hattie, but he never got to meet her. Instead, he grew up hearing their mom tell stories about her brief time on Earth. In 1955, Wapachee’s parents took their seven-month old daughter to a hospital in Roberval, QC to treat her pneumonia. Soon after, the Wapachee elders received a call informing them that Hattie had died. “The hospital didn’t actually show [my parents] the body. But my mom recalled something was wrapped up. And they also told my parents to wait at the graveyard where they were going to bury my sister. ‘We were at the grave site for that whole afternoon, and nobody showed up.’ I heard this...
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Manitoba’s first supervised consumption site to fully open Aug. 11
The Manitoba government says the province’s first supervised drug consumption site is set to fully open on Aug. 11. It says its partners at Aboriginal Health and Wellness are training staff as part of a gradual opening. The government says the site will be open between Tuesday and Saturday from late morning to early evening to reduce potential harms and connect people to support services. The site in central Winnipeg has been criticized by some business owners and residents concerned about security and access by minors. The Opposition Progressive Conservatives have also been against the site, saying the government should focus on treatment. The government has said a supervised consumption site is needed to address the growing number of overdose deaths in Winnipeg and reduce the number of people openly...
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Wildfire evacuation order lifted for northern Manitoba community
Manitoba has lifted a wildfire evacuation order for residents of a northern community who had been out of their homes for a month. The Manitoba Emergency Management Organization says the fire situation has improved, and residents of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation can return. The First Nation, based in the settlement of South Indian Lake, said 600 members left beginning in late June. Wildfires also cut power to the community, but Manitoba Hydro said Monday it had restored services. The province says a nearby 17,000-hectare fire is being held. It says there are 144 wildfires burning in the province, including one out of control. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2026. ...
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Campers hit with fire fines as B.C. battles blazes and Village of Clinton counts cost
Conservation officers in British Columbia say they have discovered numerous illegal campfires during spot checks, as wildfire crews battle out-of-control blazes that are threatening communities in the south of the province. The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says in a statement on social media that it issued 19 violation tickets and almost $22,000 in fines over the weekend, and ignorance of bans across much of the province is no excuse. Bans on even small campfires are in place in the Cariboo, Kamloops and Southeast fire centres, and parts of coastal B.C., while less-strict fire bans and restrictions cover all other areas. The crackdown comes as authorities in the Village of Clinton, B.C., assess damage after residents were forced to flee their homes last week in the face of a fire complex...
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Former judge recommends Hydro-Québec waive unpaid bills in Indigenous communities
By Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman Hydro-Québec is being urged to waive unpaid electricity bills of members of Indigenous communities in Quebec. This is one of the recommendations in a report the utility received on July 24. In 2024, Hydro-Québec mandated former Quebec Superior Court justice François Rolland to study bill collection practices in certain Indigenous communities. Rolland made eight recommendations, including that Hydro-Québec transfer unpaid bills to the communities and let them decide whether or not to collect the money. He also recommended improving communication with communities, increasing funding to energy efficiency programs and providing more training for Hydro-Québec staff on Indigenous realities. Hydro-Québec says that it is reviewing the recommendations. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2026. ...
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First Nations Chief says government MPP is lying about meeting with him
By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government insists it is improving communications with First Nations fleeing forest fires in the northwest, following heavy criticism last week. Chiefs, however, say little has changed. Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland claimed “there has been improved communication” in an interview published on Friday by TBnewswatch.com. Holland mentioned Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation) Chief Wilfred King by name, among those communities who are experiencing improved communication. “Holland said he has spoken to Chief Wilfred King from Gull Bay First Nation,” read the story “and that Premier Doug Ford expressed to King his willingness to sit down and talk.” King said Holland is misleading Ontarians. “Never, I have never spoken To Mr. Kevin Holland,” the chief said on Monday...
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Anger over police shootings leads to hiring of Indigenous investigator
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner The independent team that investigates police violence in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is going to hire an Indigenous person, a longstanding demand of First Nations leaders who are upset about the fatal shootings of four of their members in recent years. Six years after Chantel Moore, a young Indigenous mother from British Columbia, was shot to death by a police officer in Edmundston in northwestern New Brunswick, the Serious Incident Response Team has posted an ad to hire for a new position, an Indigenous liaison officer, for New Brunswick. The chiefs who represent the six Wolastoqey communities that call the St. John River Valley home told Brunswick News it was a positive first step. “We were encouraged to see...
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Hope from above: study finds satellites could help Ontario conservation authorities protect wetlands
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer “Conservation authorities face a practical question: do we need to pay for expensive high-resolution satellite imagery, or can free imagery do the job?,” Toronto and Region Conservation Authority Senior Manager of Ecosystem & Climate Science, Jonathan Ruppert, wondered. Nearly two years ago, Ruppert along with four other researchers set out to one of Brampton’s most ecologically important nature preserves to get an answer to that question at a time when conservationists across Ontario are increasingly being asked to do more with less. Nature’s sponges—wetlands—sit at the edge of subdivisions and highways, connecting land and aquatic ecosystems while filtering water, storing carbon and protecting communities from flooding. Yet, they are among the first ecosystems threatened as Ontario’s relentless urban growth consumes more...
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Aluki Kotierk acclaimed as Inuit Circumpolar Council chair
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News Former Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk was acclaimed as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) on July 25 after no other candidates were nominated. Kotierk, from Iglulik, is also chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “I am hopeful that Greenlanders, Canadians, Alaskans and all Inuit can collaborate,” Kotierk said through a translator in her acceptance speech. Her term will run from 2026 to 2030, replacing outgoing chair Sara Olsvig, who’s from Greenland. Ahead of Kotierk’s acclamation, the ICC adopted a declaration on the last day of the organization’s assembly in Iqaluit calling on all governments to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Resisting attempts to seize Inuit land, maintaining...
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Police watchdog in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia hiring Indigenous investigator
By Eli Ridder A police watchdog in Atlantic Canada is hiring an Indigenous investigator after years of advocacy by First Nations communities reeling from a series of officer-involved deaths. The Serious Incident Response Team, which serves Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, says it created the new position to build trust in police by including Indigenous perspectives. The watchdog, known as SIRT, investigates incidents of death, serious injury, sexual assault or intimate partner violence that may have resulted from the actions of a police officer. Police actions have come under increased scrutiny in recent years due to a flurry of tragic deaths. Four Indigenous people have been killed by police officers in New Brunswick since 2020, including Bronson Paul, who was fatally shot by RCMP in January. The agency’s director Erin...
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To find the root of Canada’s wildfire emissions, look below the trees: study
By Jordan Omstead Most of the carbon emitted by Canada’s record 2023 wildfires came not from burning trees, but from peat and soil, according to a new study that warns a warming climate is making the country’s vast underground carbon deposits increasingly vulnerable to fire. The study says it estimates, for the first time, that about 76 per cent of those emissions came from burning peat and soil, while the rest was trees and other aboveground vegetation. As wildfires become larger and more intense, long-term carbon stored in peatlands and soils could become a growing source of greenhouse-gas emissions, the study warns, contributing to a feedback loop in which global warming fuels fires and fires fuel further warming. “As Canada stores about one‐fifth of the world’s soil organic carbon, these...
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Coastal Nations want ‘master planning,’ not piecemeal projects
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer When Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett invited coastal leaders to gather in Bella Bella, BC, she was expecting a potential fight against Alberta’s proposed new oil pipeline to the North Coast. But after a July 2 announcement moved that threat south, they met anyway — to plan for the pressures already building on the ocean. “We’re not operating from a state of crisis,” said Slett, who is also president of Coastal First Nations. “But we’re not completely future-proof.” The federal announcement sent Alberta’s proposed West Coast pipeline to the Major Projects Office, with a route expected to largely follow the existing Trans Mountain corridor. It also left the federal North Coast tanker ban in place, easing months of concern among...
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First Nation Chiefs want public inquiry and changes to Ministry of Natural Resources after wildfire response
By Alex Murray Writer First Nations chiefs from across northwestern Ontario came together in Thunder Bay to call for a public inquiry into the Doug Ford government’s emergency response to the region’s wildfires. “The lack of communication and evacuation support should horrify all Canadians. Our community was on its own,” said Gull Bay First Nation Chief Wilfred King, who organized the press conference hosted by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) on Tuesday (July 21). “In the year 2026, how could this happen? More importantly, how do we make sure this never happens again? That’s what an inquiry must answer,” King, who declared a state of emergency for his community on July 14, added. The inquiry would look at issues with operational decision-making, emergency coordination, communication with First Nations, resource allocation, and...
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Police watchdog in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia hiring Indigenous investigator
By Eli Ridder A police watchdog in Atlantic Canada is hiring an Indigenous investigator after years of advocacy by First Nations communities reeling from a series of officer-involved deaths. The Serious Incident Response Team, which serves Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, says it created the new position to build trust in police by including Indigenous perspectives. The watchdog, known as SIRT, investigates incidents of death, serious injury, sexual assault or intimate partner violence that may have resulted from the actions of a police officer. Police actions have come under increased scrutiny in recent years due to a flurry of tragic deaths. Four Indigenous people have been killed by police officers in New Brunswick since 2020, including Bronson Paul, who was fatally shot by RCMP in January. The agency’s director Erin...
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Kanesatake council announces aid for septic upgrades
By Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door More than $3.2 million in funding towards a “first wave” of septic system upgrades for Kanehsata’kehró:non was announced by the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) on July 23. The investment by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) will improve 17 percent of Kanesatake’s septic systems and is part of a long-term project expected to eventually upgrade all the community’s septic tank systems. Those chosen to receive funding were selected on an “evaluation and prioritization process related to the risks of contamination of the territory’s water sources,” according to an MCK public statement. This evaluation is based on an inspection and inventory of septic system in Kanesatake by the W8banaki Tribal Council that began last year and will last until 2027. W8banaki representatives...
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Feds received more than 21,000 emails on proposed changes to major project reviews
By Nick Murray The federal government says it received more than 21,000 emails on proposed changes to how major projects are reviewed and will spend the coming weeks combing over those submissions. A window for public feedback on the proposed changes closed Wednesday. The government said it will publish a report summarizing the submissions by the end of the summer. A spokesperson for the Privy Council Office — which oversees the major projects office — said that while officials are still compiling the feedback, as of July 17 the government had received 187 written submissions from stakeholders. They included Indigenous and environmental groups, think tanks, academics, provinces, territories and municipalities. “The Government of Canada also attended 24 meetings with Indigenous groups (including three virtual engagement sessions) and 27 stakeholder meetings,”...
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Funds to fight crime not for Kanesatake
By Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door A federal-provincial action plan to target the growth of organized crime exploiting Indigenous communities in Quebec does not include direct funding to Kanesatake, according to the Ministry of Internal Security, while funding for Kanesatake’s community security stays in limbo. Last week, the long-awaited crime-fighting plan was announced with federal minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree committing $2 million in funding for increased collaboration between the Surete du Quebec (SQ) and Mohawk communities in the province. Kanesatake does not have an Indigenous police force, so instead, the SQ will establish partnerships with Mohawk communities such as the Kahnawake and Akwesasne, said the Ministry of Internal Security in a statement. “Consequently, these new teams and the enhanced collaboration will undoubtedly have a...
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Kahnawake steps up for victims
By Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door Helen Paavola, chief of the small community of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, flew into her homelands this week, finding nothing left but ashes. Not even the road bridges are left standing. “My members barely escaped with the clothes on their backs. My community was left to evacuate without notice and support,” she said. Images taken from a tin boat show a goliath wildfire, dwarfing the forest below, but videos, pictures, and words do no justice to the reality on the ground, she said. As wildfires raged in northern Ontario, Namaygoosisagagun, also known as Collins, was not the only community left to manage its own escape. “If you’ve never been to Whitewater Lake,” said Pauline Drake, chief of that First Nation, “it...
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Caretaker chief’s presence questioned
By Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) caretaker council member Brant Etienne attended the annual general assembly of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last week, but some Kanehsata’kehró:non have criticized his presence and participation at the meeting. Etienne said he attended the three-day general meeting to vote on resolutions as a council chief, advance ongoing community projects, and meet with other chiefs. From July 14 to 16, he participated in smaller meetings and in some of the plenaries and focused on the community’s security needs as well as general interests at the assembly. For example, on the first day, Etienne addressed the assembly to remind other chiefs that Kanesatake’s need for improved security is shared by many other Indigenous communities, and...
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