Globe Climate: She’s alive, she is healing. Who is the Magpie River?

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

What a year we’ve had. Between the fires and floods, COP26 and the green transition, all the disasters and all the progress.

As we near the end of 2021, this is a reminder that we will be taking a break before the new year. We’ll be back with a new climate newsletter edition on Jan. 10.

Have a happy and safe holiday season, send us your questions while we’re away to GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com.

Now, let’s catch you up on the news.

Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Arctic facing ‘rapid and pronounced’ shifts as climate change grips the region, report card shows
2. B.C. flooding: storms force Trans Mountain to tweak pipeline expansion route
3. Chinook salmon barely stand a chance against climate instability on the Nooksack River
4. From The Narwhal: ‘They care about their plants and not us’: for migrant farmworkers in Ontario, COVID-19 made a bad situation worse
5. Opinion: If maple syrup stops flowing like it did in the springs of my youth, what will Canada become?

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A deeper dive

A journey down the first river in Canada to be granted personhood

Ryan MacDonald is a senior editor with The Globe, overseeing the climate, environment and resources team.

I’ve never been to the Magpie River, but it was in the context of water that I first heard mention of it.

I was talking with a friend over the summer whose home faces a lovely stretch of the tea-coloured Gatineau River between Wakefield and Chelsea, Que. “Have you heard about the river in Quebec that has been declared a person?”

It wasn’t long after that conversation that Montreal-based duo of photojournalist Stephanie Foden and writer Joel Balsam made their pitch to travel to the headwaters of the Magpie, a wild and powerful body of water that winds 200 kilometres south into the Saint Lawrence River on Quebec’s Côte Nord.

The Magpie’s power has attracted speculation for future hydroelectric dams. The river has one hydroelectric dam, managed by Hydro-Québec. The Ekuanitshit Innu worry that if more dams built, it will harm the ecosystem. A personhood designation will help their cause.

With this story, Stephanie and Joel provide a deeper picture about why this distinction is so significant for the community. And what it could mean for environmental protection everywhere.

“We’d been anticipating our visit to Ekuanitshit for weeks, but when we got there it was raining, so our trip to the Magpie River kept getting delayed,” Stephanie told me last week. “On the last day, we were finally able to hike to the river with Rita Mestokosho, her daughter, Uapukun, and 9-year-old granddaughter, Zelya. They were wonderful guides and when we reached the river it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The sun hitting the mist from the waterfall created a rainbow and Rita sang to the Magpie. I felt very privileged to have been able to go there and could see why the community is working so hard to protect this river.”

Joel added: “When we left the Magpie with Rita and her family, all of a sudden, Zelya stopped and pointed at something — my heart skipped a beat. She was staring at a short formation of dead trees, and said in French: ‘It looks like a wolf!’ That solidified for me the connection this community has with the environment around them — and that totally makes sense considering Innu used to roam and hunt wherever they pleased just 60 years ago.”

The personhood distinction for the Magpie is more than just an environmental victory — the Ekuanitshit see the river as a member of their community who has nourished them for generations.

When we were discussing what stories to highlight in this issue of Globe Climate, I thought about this immersive journey on a wild Canadian river with the Indigenous people who view it as part of their community as our gift to you in these increasingly stressful days.

I hope you enjoy it.

-Ryan

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What else you missed

• Cars, couches, propane and fuel tanks among debris from B.C. flooding
• Ottawa intends to fill charging-station deserts to encourage EV adoption, Guilbeault says
• Canada aims to plant up to 320 million trees a year to meet two billion target

Opinion and analysis

Johanna Schneller: In their new film, environmentalists David Suzuki and Tara Cullis share their love of the planet – and each other

Eric Reguly: China is buying up the critical green-revolution minerals sector in Canada and elsewhere. Enough already

Peter Kuitenbrouwer: ‘Mass timber’ movement breaking ground on Ontario’s tallest wood building

Green Investing

CPPIB to focus on decarbonizing high-emitting industries, rules out divestment

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will concentrate on helping high-carbon companies it deems critical to the economy cut their emissions, rather than divest its holdings, as a key part of its efforts to deal with climate change.

CPP, which manages $542-billion of assets on behalf of Canadians, said it will target companies in “hard-to-abate” industries, including agriculture, chemicals, cement, conventional power, oil and gas, steel and heavy transportation. As part of the strategy, it may buy and hold companies with large carbon footprints if it believes it can build long-term value by accelerating emissions reductions, it said.

• Let’s talk about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• How companies can lower the bar in sustainability bond binge
• Canada willing to ‘align’ EV incentives with U.S. to avert tax-credit crisis: Trudeau

Making waves

Each week The Globe profiles a Canadian making a difference. This week we look at the question: What might youth-led climate action look like?

Today’s teenagers know this is the world they will one day lead. The 2020s are an inflection point where collectively we must decide how we’ll deal with this, so it’s best to include youth now in the process of discussion, planning and action. Young people deserve to have their voices heard when it comes to climate action. Read the full piece here.

• Young people need to be heard and listened to: When it comes to climate, we need to create meaningful, accessible and relevant ways to include everyone, especially youth, as we embark on designing new futures. By combining ethnographic and community-based research, we can do just that.
• An example from Climate Action Lab: Over three months this spring the the lab will work with youth from coast to coast to coast to uncover how to engage teens in climate action, from their perspectives. A hundred high school researchers will be supported by 16 university student coaches as they learn how to lead ethnographic and community-based research. Know any curious teenagers or university students? Encourage them to find out more at climateactionlab.ca.

Also read: Doing our best to help Canada fight climate change

Let’s Talk Science and the Royal Society of Canada have partnered to provide Globe and Mail readers with relevant coverage about issues that affect us all – from education to the impact of leading-edge scientific discoveries.

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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Catch up on Globe Climate

• Could putting a price on nature help save it?
• The failure of flood preparedness in the face of climate change
• A look at the fragility of Canada’s food systems
• How are B.C.’s string of natural disasters connected?

We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.