Investigations

Harry Wabasse's home in Webequie First Nation is about 70 kilometres from Ontario’s Ring of Fire mining region. A nearby mine and a road to the region could change his life forever.

"They're private sector entities for whom their priority is to do what's best for their business. And that doesn't make them evil, but it does mean they don't belong here.”

The much awaited final episode in season two of Canada’s National Observer’s award-winning podcast The Salmon People dropped today. Throughout season two, investigative reporter Sandra Bartlett brings you the very best of what boots-on-the-ground Canadian journalism has to offer, taking listeners on an epic journey to the rugged shores of the West Coast, and into the next chapter of the battle to save wild Pacific salmon from extinction.In the final episode, Sandra examines the impact industrial fish farms closures will have on Indigenous communities and explores what other options are available to these First Nations.

In Episode 13 of The Salmon People, we learn what the closure of fish farms means for the wild salmon

Just days before Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray was expected to announce a decision on the closure of fish farms in the Discovery Islands, a last-minute study on sea lice shocked the scientific community.

In Episode 12, scientists warn the fisheries minister of bad science.  

Last season we heard a lot about fish farms on the east side of Vancouver Island, the farms in the Discovery Islands and the Broughton Archipelago. The west side of the island has 20 fish farms, 14 of them operated by Cermaq, one of the big three Norwegian-based companies. It turns out Tofino has a small, dedicated group working hard to bring fish farm problems to everyone’s attention.

At the end of spring, Canada’s National Observer published a five-part series on the incredible odds stacked against First Nation students in northern Ontario who must travel hundreds of kilometres away from their families to get a high school education. This is what we found.