Matteo Cimellaro
Journalist | Ottawa |
English
About Matteo Cimellaro
Matteo Cimellaro is a Cree/settler writer and journalist who currently covers urban Indigenous communities in and around Ottawa thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative and the Government of Canada.
Honours & Awards
Finalist for the JHR / CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award for 2022 and 2023
Digital Publishing Awards' Best Topical Reporting: Climate Change 2024 nominee
Winner of the 2024 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards Justice category
Feds extend Chemical Valley benzene order for two years
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s emergency interim directive ordering the petrochemical industry in southern Ontario to clean up its act has been extended for two years.
Conservatives stall Indigenous clean water law, minister says
Patty Hajdu says the First Nations Clean Water Act will be “another tool” for nations to curb environmental racism and protect their waters — but that Conservative actions in the House have only obstructed its progress.
Grassy Narrows proves environmental racism is not over
The discovery that pollution from a paper mill is contributing to long-standing mercury poisoning afflicting the nearby First Nation is another example of how widespread and persistent the problem has become, federal MPs say.
Revive and promote the seal hunt, federal report recommends
A new senate report details how reliant the Inuit and some coastal community economies are on the seal trade — and how badly their economies were devastated by the collapse of the European Union market for their products after campaigning by Paul McCartney and other activists.
MP Niki Ashton calls for telecom backups in case of crises
When wildfires and floods arrive on a community’s doorstep, residents need information to know how to act. But what happens when cell service and the internet are down?
Ottawa orders limits on Ontario petrochemical plants
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has issued an emergency interim order to the petrochemical industry in southern Ontario, home of Canada’s Chemical Valley, following consultations with the local First Nation about declining air quality.
Emergency co-ordinators missing in wildfire-prone communities
In the B.C. Interior, most of the 54 First Nations still don’t have anyone in the emergency co-ordinator position.
Toxic spill raises questions about radioactive waste
For more than a month, while Algonquin First Nation members harvested plentiful pickerel, walleye and pike from the Ottawa River, they had no idea toxic sewage could also be flowing in the water.
Smiles and laughter as a Nation rebuilds
In Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw First Nation, where last summer fires in B.C. destroyed homes and buildings, elders are smiling and laughing again.
Helping youth leaders work together to heal past harms
Ermineskin elder Wilton Littlechild told an ominous story about the death of a language to those attending the recent United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples.