Trip to Haida Gwaii

(This story is slightly edited from a piece that originally appeared in the Port Rowan Good News)

The island is an archipelago with miles of beaches. However, if you are looking for a vacation spot to sit on the beach Haida Gwaii is not for you.

But, if you yearn for an adventure that offers a chance to view aquatic, marine and bird species not found in eastern Canada; learn more about Haida Gwaii culture; and take a break from the internet this might be the place for you.

Haidi Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, is about 900 Kilometres north of Vancouver.  It is separated from mainland British Columbia by the Hecate Strait.  The west coast of Haida Gwaii lies on the Pacific Ocean.

We travelled there in early June.  Following a two-hour flight on Pacific Coastal Airlines from Vancouver we landed in Masset.  Over the next 24 hours we enjoyed three wonderful meals, visited the impressive Haida Heritage Centre at Ḵay Llnagaay and spent a restful night at JAGS oceanfront guest house in Daajing Giids.  

After a day on land, our group eagerly boarded the Cascadia.  Maple Leaf Adventures describes their expedition ship as “a go-anywhere catamaran.”  

Cascadia

We would spend seven days on the ship zig zagging our way through the smaller islands on the eastern side of Haidi Gwaii and making frequent trips ashore in Maple Leaf Adventures’ unique shore boats called tenders.

From the ship and tenders we had up close looks of sea otters, sea lions, and various birds.

The on-board naturalist

s and Haida guide travelling with us were experienced and extremely knowledgeable about the natural world.  Unfamiliar to us invertebrates like purple hinged scallops and fried egg jellyfish were part of a long list observed and documented in the trip book on display in the ship’s comfy salon.

Some Haida Gwaii History  

The Haida have inhabited this area for at least 13,000 years.  Archaeological evidence confirms continuous settlement for 6,000–8,000 years, we learn. But the 19th century was a bleak one.   Diseases like smallpox, brought by European settlers, devastated villages and reduced the population from 20,000 in the mid-1700s to less than 600 by the late 19th century according to some estimates. 

Haida Gwaii cultural practices like the Potlatch were forbidden by the government of Canada from 1885 to 1951.  (The Potlatch is a traditional ceremony of the Haida people vital to the governance structures of some Indigenous Peoples).  This prohibition resulted in many totem poles being destroyed, stolen and/or shipped to museums.  

Today watchmen are posted at the five village sites from spring to fall.  They are there to protect these areas and act as ambassadors between Nations by educating visitors about Haida heritage and the history of the site they’re visiting. 

During our trip we hiked to a giant Sitka Spruce, estimated to be between 800 and 900 years old. Pictured here, it took eleven members of our group to encircle it.

This was at Windy Bay on Lyell Island.  Some readers will recall Haida protests against logging on this island in 1985. Seventy-two individuals were arrested but the blockade led to the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. 

The legacy pole here tells the story of how Canada and the Haida Nation came together through an historic agreement to protect Gwaii Haanas “from sea floor to mountain top.” Those who participated in the 1985 protests, visitors, archaeologists, Haida Gwaii Watchmen, Haida Ravens and Eagles, are all represented on the pole. 

One day, on the bridge of Cascadia speaking with the Captain, I noted that we had not seen any other boats that day.   No, there was one, he corrected me. 

A peaceful trip and did I mention no internet?

The Cascadia has seven trips to Haidi Gwaii planed next spring and summer.  Maple Leaf Adventures also has several similar expeditions on its schooner the Maple Leaf.

An Important Appeal

I am not a lawyer.  In my experience those with legal training are laser focussed and decisive. Me, at breakfast I dither over the choice of multi grain or whole wheat bread. 

Given my lack of credentials some may find it inappropriate for me to be critical of court rulings.

But I can’t help myself when it comes to Heegsma v. Hamilton (City), 2026 ONCA 726

I just read the appeal on this case.  The appeal judges were quite critical of the judge who oversaw the initial case which dealt with so-called homeless encampments in the City of Hamilton.

As we are all aware many people are forced to live in woefully inadequate circumstances

Cities are challenged on how to deal with the issue. Several years ago, after considerable debate, Hamilton adopted a by-law that prohibited the installation of tents and sleeping in its public parks.

There were protocols in place and requirements for officials to refer people to appropriate housing.  That makes sense if there was appropriate housing but as has been determined in other court cases in Kitchener (to name one) there is not housing available.

So, in 2020 a group of fourteen people who were unhoused and living in encampments in Hamilton began a challenge the City of Hamilton’s by-law.  They also disputed the City’s actions in removing them from public parks in Hamilton at various times between August 2021 and August 2023. The appellants argued they have rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Superior Court Judge James J. Ramsay disagreed. He found that the City’s by-law and actions did not violate the appellants’ Charter rights. And that, even if the municipality did, the Group of Fourteen would have no entitlement to damages unless the city had acted wrongly, in bad faith or in abuse of power, which he found it had not.

As I mentioned I am not a lawyer but the Appeal Court seemed to say that the judge did a poor job.  Here, according to the Appeal Court, are just a few examples of the judge’s shoddy work. 

1. His conclusions were stated without providing facts or evidence needed to support those conclusions.  His comments lacked the required depth of analysis. 

2. Judge Ramsay should have done a document-by-document analysis of the admissibility of various public documents. He should have assessed whether the documents themselves or other evidence in the record would allow the court to determine whether they could be admitted as public documents.

3. Evidence from people with mental health conditions and addiction issues was found to be unreliable based on impermissible stereotypes.

4. The judge assessed the credibility and reliability of the appellants’ evidence on a group basis with no analysis of their specific evidence.

5. The trial judge erred in his analysis of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.  He misapplied the law and did only a “cursory expression of his disagreement with the appellants’ position with very little analysis or engagement with the evidence.”

6. In spite of evidence to the contrary, Judge Ramsay found that none of the appellants were forcibly removed from a public park at night.

7. The judge simply did not do what was required to determine whether the City breached the appellants’ Section 15 Charter rights.  In particular the equality rights of the appellants who are Indigenous, women, or persons with a disability was not applied.     

To be a judge in Ontario you need to have been a lawyer for ten years.  This judge was a criminal prosecutor for 25 years.  He was appointed to the bench in 2007 and has issued more than 400 decisions.  And yet the Appeals Court has concluded his ruling was “lacking depth of analysis, relied on “impermissible stereotypes”, a “cursory expression of his disagreement” - these are serious concerns. 

Now here is a problem.

The appeals court isn’t prepared to make a ruling on whether the appellants’ Charter Rights were breached. The Group of Fourteen asked for that ruling and asked for damages

“This would require the court to make findings of fact that should have been made by the application judge,” the Court wrote.  But given the errors made by the application judge, it would not be appropriate for this court to substitute its own decision on the merits. 

What is needed is another court case before a different judge. Resolving the issues in that case will require fact-finding, including findings of credibility, that are not appropriate for the Appeals Court.

I am not a lawyer.   There were twenty of them involved in the appeal.  The appellant had four.  The City had two.  The City of Toronto was represented by three.  Kingston had one.  There were other civil liberty and human rights groups who had standing as well.  

You don’t have to be a lawyer to see this case is along way from being settled.  The issue of how to deal with encampments and the larger issue of the need for more stable, affordable housing, won’t be solved in the courts

It is a political issue. There are well known remedies.   Senior levels of government need to step up.

Will they?

As I write this piece, the Hamilton Spectator is reporting that mayor-elect Keanin Loomis is “reversing a decision to build affordable housing on a Stoney Creek parking lot amid an unprecedented housing crisis.”

Parking lots trump people’s needs apparently.  

Ontario Government’s Costly Nuclear Program Needs Audit

 For Release: October 21, 2026 

Ontario government’s costly nuclear program needs audit, say Ontario Environmental Groups 

Ontario families are facing decades of high electricity bills and higher taxes because of expensive nuclear reactors. 

In a letter to the Ontario Auditor General, more than a dozen environmental groups have asked for a Value-for-Money review of Ontario’s nuclear program. 

 The Auditor General Act notes that the Office of the Auditor General can report on government programs where it has been found that money was spent “without due regard for economy and efficiency.” The Ontario government’s decision to privilege nuclear power doesn’t make economic sense compared to much cheaper renewable energy options.  

“When you add it all up - the rebuilding of old nuclear reactors, the construction of very expensive small modular reactors, and the high costs of new large-scale reactors, the energy bill comes in at a staggering $298 billion to $429 billion” says David Robertson of SCAN! “That money is being committed without due regard for economy and efficiency. It’s a risky gamble.” 

 A background brief to the request highlights some concerns: 

• In November 2025, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) applied a 29% increase in electricity costs for residential customers. The increase resulted, in large part, from the increasing costs of nuclear electricity. 

• In December 2025, the Ontario government introduced a new regulation (O.reg 53/05) which requires Ontario electricity consumers to pay the high costs of interest payments prior to nuclear reactors being placed in service.  On the heels of that change, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) requested a 72.5% increase in the price it charges for nuclear electricity. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) will determine the actual increase. 

• Bill 40, the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, 2025 gives priority to nuclear-generated electricity even though it is now more expensive than the renewable options of wind, solar, and storage.  

• Although the government claimed that the Darlington refurbishment came in “on time and on budget”, OPG quickly informed the OEB that it needed to spend $2 billion more on immediate ‘post refurbishment’ projects. 

• When OPG announced the building of 4 Small Modular Reactors at Darlington, the government claimed that Ontario was leading the pack. Now, as other provinces and the federal government have abandoned their SMR projects, it seems Ontario is left holding the bag with an expensive and difficult-to-commercialize technology. 

• The Pickering refurbishment is projected to cost $26.8 billion. If all goes well, the project will be finished in 2034. OPG has claimed that the costs will be about $180 MWh or about 18 cents per kilowatt hour. But the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) has recently secured contracts with wind and solar producers to purchase electricity at 8.8 cents per kilowatt. Electricity from renewable energy sources will be in our homes years before Pickering is back online and at less than half the cost.  

• The government claims Wesleyville will be the largest nuclear facility in the world. It will also be the most expensive. While OPG has not provided any financial estimates, the costs will likely range from $151-239 billion.  Ontario consumers will be paying for that electricity for the next 70 to 100 years, at a time when the rest of the world is rapidly shifting to cheaper, safer, and cleaner renewable energy options. The Wesleyville New Nuclear Project represents a huge expense and a high risk of stranded assets.  

The costs of Ontario’s nuclear expansion are being incurred without adequate public consultation, without independent fiduciary oversight, and without consideration of cheaper and safer renewable alternatives.  

For More Information: 
David Robertson 
Chair, Ontario Project Working Group Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!) 
dwsr@rogers.com 
(416) 219-5257  

Blue Dot Northumberland  
CALL (Climate Action for Lifelong Learners)  
Change Course  
Climate Fast  
Environment Haliburton  
For Our Grandchildren   
GASP (Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet)  North Watch  
OCEC (Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign)  
OCAA (Ontario Clean Air Alliance)  
Port Hope Community Health Concerns  
SCAN! (Seniors for Climate Action Now!)  
TERRE (Toronto East Residents for Renewable Energy)  
350 Hamilton  
350 Kingston  
350 Toronto 

The Yard-Long

The men in the Yard-Long photo are standing upright at attention, eyes straight ahead, looking into the Cirkut Panoramic camera.

There must be close to 500 of them decked out in military garb. Unlike similar photos of military personnel there are no young faces to be found.

This is the Hamilton Civil Guard Battalion photographed June 24, 1941 at the Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association (HAAA) Grounds on Charlton Street West.  

My grandfather is in the picture.  He is down to the right, a month shy of his fiftieth birthday, a veteran of the Great War, like many others in the picture.   As we all know that war resulted in millions of casualties, both military and civilian. That conflict featured new weapons - tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns and chemical weapons. 

During the Great War Hamilton had established the Hamilton Auxiliary Defence Force.  Its goal was to “watch for saboteurs, launch defensive operations against invading groups, and handle other malicious actors.”  Writing in Hamilton’s North End Breezes, Brian Roulston notes that the belief “that Canadian cities would become vulnerable to attacks if more of the larger Canadian regiments were to be called overseas.” 

In 1941 Hamilton was the first Canadian city to resurrect the Home Guards. The Home Defence Corps name would change again to the Hamilton Civil Guard. It seems the thinking was that a civil defence force similar to the one that existed in the Great War would provide an added a sense of security for residents.  The Guard drew big crowds while carrying out drills at the Armouries or parading through the streets of Canada’s fifth largest city. 

What was going on in the world that would require such defence? A few snapshots:

• In Europe the situation was critical. Germany had invaded the Soviet Union two days earlier deploying over 3 million troops along an 1,800-mile front.

• Earlier in June British forces along with Australian, Indian and Free French had launched the Syria Lebanon campaign necessary after Vichy France allowed German aircraft to use Syrian airfields for operations against British interests in Iraq.

• The entire Jewish population of Gorzhdy, Lithuania was exterminated the day this photo was taken.

Looking back over eighty years, these terrible events seem far away.   However, for Hamiltonians in 1941 that wasn’t the case.  

In September of 1939, for example, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church was filled to capacity, with thousands more gathered outside, for the public funeral of Margaret Hayworth.  The ten-year old was one of the first victims of WWII when the ship she was sailing on was hit west of the Hebrides by a German torpedo.  Politicians and dignitaries including the Lieutenant Governor and Premier George Drew attended as the Premier “used the occasion to transform the young victim into a martyr for the Allied cause,” according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

Then in February of 1941 RAF bombers dropped 10,000 advertising leaflets promoting  a war savings certificate drive. The leaflet’s headline THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN A BOMB surely got people’s attention.

Looking again at that photo, of course, it is not possible to discern the nationality or citizenship status of those pictured.  There were likely no Italians present.  From June 1940 onward seventy Hamilton residents with Italian ancestry were rounded up and interned without due process. 

Looking toward the top of the yard long towards the bleachers on the east side of the field there are three military vehicles parked.  One of them might have been a specially made armoured vehicle manufactured locally at International Harvester.  The manufacturer had repositioned its business turning ploughshares to swords, one could say.

Hamilton was a major production centre of over 155,000 at the beginning of the War. Did this make it more likely to be attacked?

Let’s go back to that yard long photo.  You’ll notice that not everyone in the picture is in military uniform.   In the top left corner past the scoreboard advertising Winchester Cigarettes are a dozen or so individuals attired in tennis whites on the grass courts of the Hamilton Tennis club.  Were they aware of the gathering on the field to the south?

My yard long epitomizes a civic commitment to the War with broad support among the citizens.  It wasn’t universal to be sure. But one wonders what, if anything, could bring people together like this today.

Author Seth Klein thinks that can happen. In A Good War the B.C. activist argues that by looking back at the Second World War we can take a “wartime approach” to climate change and mobilize in common cause across class, race and gender, and again entirely retool our economy in a few short years.

The location of this picture the HAAA Grounds is billed as the oldest “sports park” in the City of Hamilton. It was the home to the Hamilton Cricket Club from 1874 to 1910, the Hamilton Rugby (Football) Club played games there from 1872 to 1949 and it the location of seven Grey Cups championships. 

I played in the Sam Manson Cup soccer tournament at this site in 1963. I don’t remember much of the game other than we won and it rained.  For some forgotten reason I was staying with my grandparents that weekend.  When I returned from the game my grandfather was interested in the result but didn’t mention anything about the Civil Guard Battalion that day - or ever for that matter.

Are you Your Buttons?

A lot of inspiration for my stories these days comes from decluttering work I’m doing around the house.

Okay, I call it decluttering.  That is a bit of a nose stretcher. Let’s call it cleaning up messes.

You’ll have some pin back buttons that champion a cause, make a statement or support a candidate.  I have many campaign buttons.  At my house they are in drawers; they are in boxes; they are in bags.  Down in the basement I actually found a large button that read I’m Slow but Sure among other items scattered across the floor. I wish that was true!

About two years ago, according to some notes I have written, I started to organize these buttons (another embellishment) and then got sidetracked. I need some incentive so that I’ll finish the project.  Perhaps if I call my “collection” of campaign buttons a hobby, that will hurry me up.

Let’s see. Coin collecting has a name – numismatics. If you are a stamp collector you are a philatelist.  These hobbies have labels that give their devotees a certain cachet.

What is a collector of buttons called?  I looked it up.  She/he is called, it is sad to say, a button collector.  Sadly, my new putative hobby doesn’t have a fancy name with which I can impress friends and influence people.

Maybe the pursuit of button collecting is not the hobby for me.  After all, composting, my primary retirement hobby, leaves little time for anything else.  Do I really have time for buttons?  I wonder though if my so-called collection has anything to say about me - what I’ve done and where I’ve been?

Some History of Campaign Buttons

The first buttons go back to George Washington’s time.  The earliest one I can remember seeing is from 1968. I was in Buffalo and it was a Nixon’s the One button.  “The One” what, I wondered at the time?  Later we found out.

Canadian Campaign Buttons came a bit later. It seems the historic 1891 federal election might have been the starting point.  More recently, Elbows Up buttons are on sale at Ebay for $4.00.

A Few of My Buttons 

I have quite a few buttons representing election candidates, promoting products or speaking to social issues of the day.

For example, Toronto Works with Mayor John Sewell is a medium sized yellow button.  Sewell was a controversial mayor of Toronto from 1978-1980.  He was an environmentalist, who rode his bike to work.  He supported gay rights when not everyone did.  

I found that out after being chased by a homophobic east Toronto resident when I was canvassing for Sewell in the 1980 election where the one-term mayor was ousted from office.

Sewell has written a dozen or so books on policing, planning and politics. His book on Toronto’s first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie, shows that 19th century Upper Canadian politics can teach us something about politics today.

I first heard Sewell at my place of employment. I was a youthful youth worker in 1978 at WoodGreen Community Centre (A Family Centre in the Centre of the Community.)  Sewell understood the issues but, as importantly, could explain them and his positions in a way that anyone could understand.

A colourful square button stating simply Dave Barrett stands out.  Barrett, the former Premier of British Columbia, held a fundraising dinner at Hamilton’s swanky Royal Connaught Hotel in 1989 that we attended.  

The fundraiser was in support of Barrett’s campaign for leadership of the federal NDP. The cost of $50 was a lot of money for us at the time even if you would get half back as a tax receipt.

Around the same time the Brundtland Report (Our Common Future c’est l’affaire de tous) was being much talked about. Brundtland popularized the concept of sustainable development - “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”   How are we doing on that front?  Not so well, I’d argue.  My Support Your Local Glacier button reminds us that glaciers like the Columbia Icefields are shrinking at an alarming rate – just one impact of Climate Change.

The Brundtland report also emphasized the goal of providing for the essential requirements of the world’s poor. Years after that report I became involved in a number of poverty reduction initiatives.  One such initiative was organized by The Stop Community Food Centre and the Campaign to Put Food in the Budget.  In order to promote understanding of poverty issues these groups created a web-based budget tool.  Do the Math asked a simple question aimed at decision makers with whom we met.  Did a single person on social assistance receive enough income to live with health and dignity?  The answer was no. Predictably some decision makers were surprised.  Not much has happened as a result. Fifteen years later things are much worse.

There are more buttons, maybe one hundred.

There are straight forward clarion calls like   Need not Greed and Homes not Bombs.

Some buttons have aged well. Shop Canadian. We all Win!

Other messages have been lost/forgotten. You Can – I can’t recall this one, can you? 

So, what has been learned from my faux decluttering endeavour?  Are you your buttons?  The answer will have to wait for another day.  I’ve just found more campaign buttons. 

In Darwin’s Footsteps – Birds, The Galapagos and Evolution

My family travelled to the Galapagos in 2010. We hoped to return but that may not happen.

So, today we’ll travel to the Eastern Pacific Island group in our memory aided by our photos and a short piece I wrote for Empty Nest magazine.

As you know, these remote islands gained fame as a result of a visit by British naturalist Charles Darwin in September and October of 1835.

Finches

After landing at Seymour Airport (GPS) on Baltra Island, following a nine hundred kilometre, two hour plus flight from Quito, our attention was drawn to several nondescript birds just outside the terminal .

“They are some of Darwin’s finches,” Chris Eckert, a biology professor from Queen’s University in Kingston told us back in February 2010.  Chris was along as a resource person for our expedition. “This is the mecca for evolutionary studies,” he enthused. 

There are 17 different types of finches (cactus finches) on the Galapagos.  These finches have different beaks, depending on which island the reside.  That demonstrates they have adapted to different types of food.  They’ve changed over time through natural selection.

Darwin’s analysis took many years.  He turned his bird specimens over to ornithologist John Gould.  Soon Gould delivered the “unexpected and startling news” that the finches “belonged to a new group of birds previously unknown and found only in the Galapagos,”  

Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 twenty-four years after visiting the Galapagos on his five-year journey. There was, of course, pushback from the scientific community. Perhaps surprisingly, there wasn’t significant opposition from UK Christian Church community.

More recently, in 2005, Dr. Eckert noted that: “even though the theory of evolution dominates academia, 47 per cent of Americans are creationists, and creation science is taught in 15-20 per cent of U.S. schools? How about the fact that 40 per cent of Americans believe human beings were formed in the exact state we are now, or that 52 percent believe dinosaurs co-existed with humans?”

Hmm!

Back to our trip.  Shortly after we boarded the M/V Santa Cruz and in the coming days visited several other unique Galapagos Islands. North Seymour, for example, featured blue footed boobies (below) and frigate birds.

The Galapagos, a province of Ecuador, and is made up of 18 main islands. Ecuador is a poor country so that it is remarkable that decision makers and environmentalists are invested in protecting the sustainability of the islands in a way that I wish we could do here. 

One way they do this is by limiting the number of visitors and requiring they be accompanied by a local guide. The year we travelled just 80,000 visitors were permitted.  In 2023, a record-breaking nearly 330,000 tourists explored the islands.  Concerns have been expressed with this escalation. 

What’s Going on with those Eastern Island Tomato Plants?

In the last month new research has put forward the idea that some tomatoes in the Galápagos actually seem to be going backwards, not forwards in evolutionary terms Call it De-evolution, or reverse evolution,

“It’s not something we usually expect,” Adam Jozwiak, a molecular biochemist at UC Riverside and lead author of a study said.  “But here it is, happening in real time, on a volcanic island,” he told Newsweek magazine.  Tomato plants on westerly warmer islands don’t seem to be experiencing this change.

It isn’t a concept that easy to explain.  The theory is that modern tomatoes and other plants all make use of alkaloids. These tomatoes seem to be making the wrong alkaloids. 

“Instead of creating the alkaloids that the researchers expected to see in a tomato, the de-evolving plants are churning out a version of alkaloids that have the same molecular fingerprint as eggplant relatives from millions of years ago,” Newsweek reported.

It is hard to say whether devolving tomatoes are a good thing, a bad thing or just a new challenge to further understanding of evolution. *

Most visitors come to the Islands to see the unique wildlife, like blue-footed boobies and marine iguanas, that you can’t find anywhere else.  Al Purdy visited around 1980.  He must have gone to North Seymour as you can imagine from the ending of his poem Birdwatching at the Equator.  

                                           The blue booby’s own capsule

                                                          comment about evolution:

                                                          If God won’t do it for you

                                                          do it yourself: 

                                                          stand up

                                                          sit down

                                                          make love

                                                          have sone babies

                                                          catch fish

                                                          dance sometimes

                                                         admire your feet

                                                         friggit:

                                                         what else is there?

*A good description of the de-evolving tomatoes can be found at Scientists Stunned As Tomatoes “De-Evolve” in the Galapagos

It’s Climate Change, Stupid

Evacuations brought on by wild fires out west find me recalling when my family was forced out of our home by the Mississauga Train derailment in 1979.  

On November 10th our bedroom lit up like a 24th of May aerial fireworks display.
From a second floor we could see flames. They were coming from the Clarkson Go Station about a half mile away, we thought. In fact, the fire originated due to a derailment that had just taken place on Mavis Rd. at Dundas Street about 8 kilometres as the crow flies from our home.

Later we learned that an east bound CP Rail Train carrying hazardous chemicals (Of most concern was liquid chlorine.) derailed and caught fire.  The derailment and fire were caused by a failure of the lubricating system. 

What followed was a mass evacuation of 240,000 residents from an area stretching from east-end Oakville to west-end Etobicoke. Three hospitals were evacuated.  

There were no deaths and apparently only one injury.  Mayor Hazel McCallion sprained her ankle overseeing the City’s response and was carried into a meeting by a city official - a great photo-op for the Mississauga rookie mayor that undoubtedly contributed to her political longevity. Her worship was re-elected eleven times until retiring in 2014.

As for us we were out of our home.  For many that evacuation lasted six days.  We sneaked in earlier after lasting three days with in-laws.  I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that living with family for those few days was quite disruptive.  A temporary relocation was a great inconvenience. But, of course, nothing like what many across Canada are experiencing right now.

Western Canada on Fire

The number of Canadians displaced by wildfires this spring is a moving target. As I write, the estimate is in excess of 20,000 and climbing.  A few examples:

Pelican Narrows Saskatchewan, a town of 2,000, was evacuated on May 28th.

Across the border in Flin Flon that city’s 5,000 residents had to leave that day as well.  Reports indicate no “assets” have been lost in Flin Flon, so far.

Denaire Beach (only 22 kilometres south west from that northwestern Manitoba city) was not so lucky.  On Monday this week half the town burned.  

Three hours drive to the west (under normal conditions), La Ronge Saskatchewan, a town of 2,600 north of Prince Alberta, was evacuated. 

"There were lineups and lineups of people at all the gas stations in La Ronge. It was actually quite a scary thing," Tom Roberts told CBC's Morning Edition.

After travelling about 40 kilometres south Roberts was stopped by RCMP and firefighters.

"We sat there for two hours waiting for an opening in the fire. The fire was going just all over the road just south of there."

Apparently, the smoke was so thick at one part of his journey that it was impossible to tell where he was, but kept remembering what the firefighters and RCMP had told him: "Don't stop, just keep going."

Yesterday, Ruth Bonneville from the Winnipeg Free Press reported that hundreds of wildfire evacuees were expected to fly to Ontario Tuesday, where a third-party organization has arranged for them to stay in hotel rooms. 

A security and evacuation support service firm called Xpera (Who knew there was such an organization?)  had already organized flights for 793 evacuees who are already staying in Niagara Falls. As many as 800 additional evacuees were expected to make the journey on Tuesday. 

What Now?

The year 2023 was a bad one for wildfires.  This year might be worse. The future looks bleak.  Natural Resources Canada estimates that fire-suppression costs could double by 2040 as Canada attempts to keep up with the worsening risk.

On Sunday Lori Daniels, a wildfire Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), was interviewed on CBC’s Sunday Magazine. 

“We know that climate change is one of the drivers of (the wildfires). It is bringing to us earlier springs that dry out the forest early making them more susceptible as we are seeing this year.”

We’re victims of our success at putting out fires, notes professor Daniels. There has been an unintended consequence of this success. It is called the fire suppression paradox. We have actually added to uniformity of the forest by allowing fuel to accumulate.
 
Reponses to wildfires must be more coordinated.  But governments must be proactive in the off season as well, Daniels asserts. Unfortunately. government leaders are talking a different language.

In the midst of the wildfires Prime Minister Carney and the Premiers met in Saskatchewan this week and came together around the concept of decarbonization.  Unity is nice.  We need more of it.  However, decarbonization would appear to be more political jargon rather than a proven scientific fact.  

“There is no such thing as decarbonized oil and gas,” says Simon Donne a Climate Scientist at UBC and Scientist Co-chair of the government’s Net Zero Advisory Body.

Indeed.   We need to tell our politicians to get serious about climate change.  That means leaving gas and oil in the ground.  Lives depend on it.