Canada is home to some of the most beautiful and diverse natural spaces. From coast to coast to coast, this country is filled with picturesque national and provincial parks, crown land, and ever-growing trail systems that provide perfect places for outdoor recreation and connecting with nature.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that we have many organizations, non-profits, and businesses that work to advocate for the protection and sustainability of our most precious assets: our land, water, and air.

The environmental movement has evolved over time and gained more traction in recent years due to the threats and impacts of climate change on the environment and our society. However, the environmental movement, both historically and currently, has excluded voices from Black, Indigenous, and communities of colour. This exclusion has been deliberate.

The exclusion of racialized voices in the environmental movement is often called environmental racism — a form of systemic racism, meaning that it is embedded in our laws, governing policies, institutions, and society as a whole. This has been the case in North America since colonization.

The term environmental racism was coined by Benjamin Chavis, a Black civil rights leader in the U.S in the early 1980s. The term is defined as “racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities and the history of excluding people of colour from leadership of the ecology movements.”

In Canada, the most prevalent examples of environmental racism are the lack of clean drinking water in First Nations communities, the deliberate installation of toxic waste sites next to racialized communities (for example, Africville in Nova Scotia), and racist legislation like the Indian Act. While some of these examples may seem historical, environmental racism is ongoing now even in 2022.

The modern landscape of the environmental field is held primarily through a colonial way of thinking. This colonial way of thinking continues to create echo chambers that support a predominately white community of environmental voices of authority. This keeps BIPOC voices out of the conversation. Consensus continues to be reinforced by a group that identifies as entirely or mostly white. This all keeps the wheels of racialized environmentalism turning.

Environmental racism has also created generational barriers. These barriers are upheld today through gatekeeping — the ill-intentional controlled access of information or resources to targeted groups — and the use of harmful stereotypes.

With an almost exclusively white leadership in the environmental sector, a narrative that “only white people care about these issues” or “only white people are doing this work” is perpetuated. Representation matters. This lack of diversity prevents BIPOC people from seeing themselves in environmental fields or as part of the solution to environmental issues we all face.

Many popular clothing brands and outdoor gear companies have predominantly put out flyers, commercials, and promotional videos and images that showcase only white people and white families using these products. In movies and TV shows, you will predominately see only white people camping, hiking, or enjoying recreational activities in nature.

The same can be said for environmental literature, which features predominantly white contributions to a field and has traditionally disregarded the important histories of Indigenous and Black voices in advancing environmental justice movements.

This racial segregation has been created over time and continues today. This environmental racism has been one of the biggest contributors to an ongoing narrow view of both BIPOC people and nature.

We also see white gatekeeping in our parks and nature reserves. Black people, alongside other racialized communities, have experienced many negative interactions and experiences while trying to access nature.

These experiences range from questioning stares from white individuals to intrusive questions about why they are there to begin with, to aggressive confrontations and baseless accusations. Note the incident in May 2020 at Central Park in New York, where a white woman accosted a black man by making a false police call after he asked her to put her dog on a leash.

All this leaves many BIPOC individuals feeling unwelcome and unsafe in natural spaces. So how do we even start to try and fix these complex problems? The first step is representation.

There is a huge need for diverse representation in the environmental movement and outdoor recreation. This doesn’t mean hiring racialized people to fill a quota or check a diversity box for visual representation. That is tokenizing. What we need is meaningful representation. This looks like people with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences holding decision-making positions and influence within organizations. This looks like diversified boards of directors and executives.

Additionally, instead of performative allyship we need active allyship. Active allyship looks like intentionally creating space for BIPOC voices in your workplace, clubs, and groups. Advocating for anti-racism/decolonization training in your workplace, clubs, and groups means standing up and speaking out when you witness racist incidents occurring.

Doing personal learning and supporting the work that the BIPOC community is doing by following diverse content creators and BIPOC-led organizations can help kick-start advocacy.

Performative displays of allyship include things like black squares on Instagram and Facebook statuses where you express your concerns on racialized issues. While these performances can help raise awareness, especially when they go viral, they do not necessarily result in any actual change. We need active allyship where non-racialized folks advocate for changes within their organizations and businesses.

With the inclusion of BIPOC perspectives, we can work more effectively towards sustainable and long-term solutions to climate change and complex environmental issues while also creating a future that benefits everyone.

To learn more about the Diverse Nature Collective, visit diversenaturecollective.com.

You can have some festive family fun while helping to support food security in Kawartha Lakes by joining the Lindsay Jolly Jog on Saturday, November 26th.

The 13th annual fundraiser for Kawartha Lakes Food Source will help the not-for-profit organization deliver its programs, including providing fresh milk and eggs for food banks, buying fresh fruit and milk for school breakfast programs, and supporting many other programs designed to get food to those who need it.

The 5K run (or walk) begins and ends at Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute (260 Kent St. W., Lindsay), with registration at 9:30 a.m. and a full warm-up before the run starts at 10 a.m..

“Jolly Joggers” are encouraged to dress festively for the event, with prizes awarded for the most festively dressed individual, group, and pet. A special prize for most funds raised will also be awarded on November 28.

“We can’t wait for the 13th annual run,” says Kate Dorotheou, Kawartha Lakes Food Source’s community engagement coordinator, in a media release. “What could be better than a day dedicated to raising funds to combat hunger, combined with holiday festivities? Plus, the costumes are always spectacular!”

Following the run, participants can enjoy a chili lunch and hot chocolate, participate in a silent auction and children’s activities, and have their photos taken with Santa.

VIDEO: Lindsay Jolly Jog 2022 – Get Ready!

Kawartha Lakes Food Source is aiming to raise $5,000 during the event. While registration is free, those who are financially able are asked donate $20 per jogger to receive a charitable tax receipt. The organization also encourages participants to collect pledges in support of their run or walk, and those who pledge $20 or more will also receive a charitable tax receipt.

If you’re unable to participate on November 26, you can still register and collect pledges for a 5K run or walk on a day and time of your choice.

To register in advance and for a copy of a pledge form, visit www.eventbrite.ca/e/431921608157.

The community of Irondale in Minden Hills is hosting a special event during Veterans’ Week and Remembrance Day.

“Service, Courage & Sacrifice” runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Sunday, November 13th at the historic Irondale Church at 1019 Elm Street.

The event includes a display on the church grounds of more than 40 flags depicting individuals associated with Irondale who served Canada in various aspects of war.

There are also displays inside the church, including uniforms, photos, newspapers, attestation records, and more.

Admission is free and coffee and tea is available.

“Service, Courage & Sacrifice” was created with funding from the Haliburton County Development Corporation and the Minden Rotary Club.

A designated heritage building, Irondale Church was built in 1887 and is maintained by Bark Lake Cultural Developments, a volunteer-driven charity formed in 2012 to facilitate the purchase of the building which has since evolved into an organization dedicated to preserving local history.

Irondale Church is located around 11 kilometres west of Gooderham and 15 kilometres northeast of Kinmount.

For more information, visit www.irondaleontario.ca

“They took on the Ford government, and the government blinked.”

That was how Mark Hancock, the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), characterized the Ontario government’s offer to repeal its controversial legislation imposing a four-year contract on CUPE education workers in Ontario, banning them from striking and invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent legal challenges against the legislation.

Hancock was speaking at a media conference in Toronto at noon on Monday (November 7), the second day of a walkout by CUPE education workers to protest the legislation and several hours after Ontario Premier Doug Ford held his own media conference offering to repeal Bill 28 if CUPE ended its walkout.

“As a gesture of good faith, our government is willing to rescind the legislation — we’re willing to rescind section 33 (the notwithstanding clause) — but only if CUPE agrees to show a similar gesture of good faith by stopping their strike and letting our kids back into their classrooms,” Ford said at his media conference. “I urge CUPE to continue to talk with us at the bargaining table. We’re willing to make a fair deal.”

Before Ford spoke, a media conference had already been scheduled with labour leaders and representatives from a wide range of both public and private sector unions — including the Canadian Labour Congress, Ontario Federation of Labour, Toronto and York Regional Labour Council, ATU Canada, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, Public Service Alliance of Canada, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Ontario Public Services Employees Union, Ontario Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare, Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Society of United Professionals, AEFO, United Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Unifor, Ontario Building Trades, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Sheet Metal Workers, Unite Here, IATSE, and the National Union of Public and General Employees — representing millions of public and private sector workers across the country.

Some of the private sector unions at the media conference had endorsed the Ford government before the last provincial election, based on his promises to improve the economy, but saw Bill 28 as a threat to all Ontario workers.

“This is an unprecedented gathering of labour leaders because of the attack against worker rights that we’ve seen from this government,” Hancock said, referring to Bill 28. “That regressive attack on workers united the labour movement like never before.”

“I am so proud of CUPE’s frontline education workers, 70 per cent of whom are women, and that they stood firm. They went out on a political protest. They brought their message and their anger to more than 100 sites (government MPP constituency offices) across this province. They took on the Ford government, and the government blinked.”

CUPE education workers — including education assistants, school library workers, administrative assistants, custodians and tradespeople, early childhood educators, child and youth workers, and more — walked off the job last Friday, the day after they were in a legal strike position and the day after the Ford government passed Bill 28 in the Ontario legislature outlawing their right to strike. School boards across the province announced schools would be closed as they could not operate safely without the workers, and schools remained closed on Monday.

The media conference was originally scheduled for 11 a.m., but was delayed by an hour so that CUPE could get written confirmation of the provincial government’s offer, given Ford’s comment in his media conference implying that only the section of Bill 28 invoking the notwithstanding clause would be rescinded.

“The delay, and I want to thank you all for your patience, was to receive in writing the Premier’s intent,” said Laura Walton, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) that represents the education workers. “We have received, and can confirm, that the Premier will introduce and support legislation that will repeal Bill 28 in its entirety.”

The legislation will be repealed, Walton added, in a way that ensures it was never legally in force — meaning workers participating in the walkouts would not be retroactively subject to the enormous $4,000 per day fine outlined in Bill 28.

“As a gesture of good faith to this announcement, CUPE OSBCU will be collapsing its protest sites starting tomorrow. We hope that this gesture is met with the same good faith by this government in a new proposal at the bargaining table as soon as possible.”

Other labour leaders and union representatives spoke at the media conference in solidarity with CUPE and against the Ontario government’s legislation. Had Ford not offered to repeal Bill 28, more extensive protest action involving other unions would have been on the way — including by Unifor, the largest private sector union in Canada.

“Bill 28, as you’ve already heard, represents an outrageous and unprecedented attack on workers’ rights and trade union freedoms and, as a labour movement, we were prepared to respond with an unprecedented response,” said Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president. “If fundamental rights can be taken away from public sector workers without recourse, no one’s rights are safe.”

“Workers made it clear that they will not tolerate the weaponizing of the notwithstanding clause to strip away our Charter rights — not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”

“Our 180,000 members of OPSEU are not standing down, we are standing by,” said JP Hornick, president of OPSEU/SEFPO, the largest public sector union in Ontario. “All Ontarians should be terrified of this abuse of our Charter rights.”

“When you come from one of us, you come for all of us,” Hornick added. “I know that workers, united, will shut down this province down whenever we need to.”

In response to questions from the media, Walton confirmed that OSBCU will immediately return to the bargaining table and CUPE education workers will return to work on Tuesday morning.

CUPE also said it is not aware of the province’s timeline for repealing the legislation.

Once Bill 28 is repealed, the CUPE education workers will once again be in a legal strike position. Should negotiations break down, the union will be required to provide five-day notice to the provincial government of a strike action.

This story has been updated to add a missing word in a quote by Lana Payne.

The Warsaw Road Swing Bridge, located on Parkhill Road East between Armour Road and Television Road in Peterborough, will be closed to vehicles from 9 a.m. on Monday, November 7th until 2 p.m. on Friday, November 18th.

According to Parks Canada, the closure is needed for the completion of repairs to the bridge’s metal grating deck.

Since the reconstructed bridge reopened in August 2021, there have been ongoing concerns with excessive noise generated by the vehicles passing over the bridge plating. In early July, selected grating panels of the metal bridge deck were removed, repaired, and then reattached to the bridge in an attempt to reduce the noise caused by vehicles using the bridge.

Although the repairs on the selected grating panels were successful, additional panels were increasingly affected by the same issue and Parks Canada, after arranging for short-term fixes, scheduled complete repairs to take place in the fall.

During the temporary closure, traffic control measures and detour routes will be in place. Members of the public are advised to obey all safety signage.

While the bridge will be closed to vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists will have access to the sidewalk on the bridge except for around two days at the beginning of the closure, when the grating panels are removed, and again toward the end of the closure when the grating panels are reinstalled.

Pedestrians and cyclists using the west pathway along the canal between Parkhill Road East and Woodbine Avenue may encounter occasional interruptions following construction while the contractor removes maintenance equipment.