It’s always nice to come back from a lovely vacation to good news – especially in a summer in which we are all sweating in the heat of impending climate chaos. And I’m happy to have some very good news to share with you.

by Becky Bassick & Lino Grima

Sierra Club Canada Foundation, Ontario Chapter

Ontario's 42nd general election is scheduled for June of this year. Sierra Club Ontario (SCO) is working hard with a coalition of other environmental nonprofits to ensure that water is part of the political conversation. In addition, SCO is taking this opportunity to discuss fundamental questions regarding our election process.

I wanted to give you an update on our critical legal battle and appearance in court this week to protect the Gulf of St. Lawrence and all of the beautiful creatures who live there.

The case involves one important argument:  the issuance of the licence that the offshore board has granted to the oil company, Corridor Resources. First though, we had to defend our ability to be heard, as “our standing,” is being challenged by the offshore board (responsible for granting exploration licences to oil companies), and by the oil company itself.

Last week, Lone Pine’s decade-long quest to carry out shale gas fracking along the St. Lawrence River culminated at a NAFTA Tribunal hearing in Toronto.

Few things are as spectacular and awe-inducing as a breaching humpback whale.

The sheer enormity of their body, with such strength and grace – blasting out of the water, seeming to defy the laws of gravity even just for a moment – is enough to take your breath away. It’s acrobatics and ballet on the largest scale, with a splash down that is out of this world!

It’s what they do, and it is what they have done for millennia.