Jessica McDiarmid

Reporter Toronto

About Jessica McDiarmid

Jessica McDiarmid is Canada's National Observer's climate reporter leading our coverage of the Greater Toronto Area.

Jessica is a prominent Canadian journalist and has worked across Canada, West Africa and North America.

Her first book, Highway of Tears, was published in 2019 by Doubleday (Canada) and Atria (US).

She has written for the Associated Press, the Toronto Star, the Canadian Press, Harvard Review Online, Maisonneueve, and Canadian Business, among other publications.

AWARDS & OTHER ACTIVITIES

Finalist for the RBC Taylor Prize and the BC/Yukon Book Prizes’ Hubert Evans Award for non-fiction, and winner of the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Publication Award, for Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019)
Writer-in-residence for University of King’s College MFA program, 2020
Speaker at numerous events, including Society of Environmental Journalists conferences in 2014 and 2015, the Toronto International Festival of Authors in 2020, UBC’s Green College lecture series and America Walks webinar in 2021; host and moderator for Toronto Public Library.
Named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 by This magazine in July 2011 for coverage of civil war in Ivory Coast
Honourable mention in Atlantic Journalism Awards’ Student Awards for Excellence in Journalism, 2007

Jessica graduated from University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia with a Master of Fine Arts in narrative non-fiction.

62 Articles

‘This is what’s in danger’: Requiem for the Holland Marsh

Unless 11th-hour efforts to stop it succeed, a 16-kilometre four-lane highway will cut a swath through part of Ontario's protected Greenbelt land, paving almost 11 hectares of wetlands and crossing 27 waterways to connect Highway 404 on the east to Highway 400 to the west.

News | September 28th 2022

Climate change will cost Ontario billions for transportation infrastructure by 2030, watchdog says

It’s a matter of short-term pain for long-term gain — or, at least, less pain — when it comes to readying Ontario’s public transportation infrastructure to withstand the changing climate, the province’s financial watchdog says in a new report.

News | September 22nd 2022

Ontario plans new provincial park for largest peat bog in southern region

Environment Minister David Piccini announced the proposal Thursday for a non-operating park at the Alfred Bog, a 3,000-hectare expanse that is home to rare plant, animal and insect species.

News | September 22nd 2022

Critics say Ontario moving too slowly on old oil and gas wells

The Ontario government is in the “early stages” of developing a strategy to deal with old oil and gas wells in the wake of recent disasters, including an explosion last summer that decimated downtown Wheatley and injured 20 people.

News | September 9th 2022

If province won’t protect renters from extreme heat, municipalities must, advocates say at campaign launch

The Hamilton chapter of ACORN Canada, a group representing low- and moderate-income people, held a rally Wednesday to draw attention to people living in sweltering rental housing.

News | September 8th 2022

‘It’s going to be hotter next year’: Tenants, opposition call on Ontario government to mandate air conditioning

Liz Scott can't afford air conditioning in her sweltering two-bedroom apartment in Stoney Creek. She hopes the government will change the law to make landlords maintain a maximum temperature during the summer.

News | August 24th 2022

Canada, Ontario to compensate Mitaanjigamiing First Nation more than a century after dam destroyed reserve lands

A joint press release Tuesday announced the First Nation had reached an $84.45-million settlement with the federal and provincial governments for “the unauthorized and uncompensated flooding of reserve land.”

News | August 23rd 2022

Ontario Human Rights Commission urges province to require access to air conditioning in rental units

The statement, issued Friday, came in the wake of media reports of property owners demanding residents in apartment buildings remove window-mounted air conditioners or face extra payments or eviction as Ontario endures another sweltering summer.

News | August 23rd 2022

Kemptville residents launch legal fight to stop the province from paving farmland to build a prison

Earlier this week, Victor Lachance and Kirk Albert filed for a judicial review of Ontario’s proposal to build a 235-bed correctional facility in the town of 4,000 about 50 kilometres south of Canada’s capital, in part to relieve overcrowding at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.

News | August 19th 2022

Are American-style ‘strong mayors’ right for Ontario?

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has long touted the benefits of American-style strong mayors presiding over local governments after his days working for his family’s multimillion-dollar label company in Chicago, where he admired the clout of then-mayor Richard Daley.

News | August 18th 2022