Project Pandemic
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In an effort to track COVID-19 and its impact on different populations, especially the most vulnerable, journalists and journalism students at news organizations and universities from across Canada have come together to compile data from government health authorities and self-reported information compiled by flatten.ca.
“Project Pandemic: Canada Reports on COVID-19” is coordinated by Concordia University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, with the support of the Canadian Association of Journalists. For more information, please visit projectpandemic.concordia.ca.
LATEST ARTICLES
July 17, 2020 Indigenous leaders from across Canada are calling on the federal government to do more to protect Indigenous communities from what they fear could become a deadly and disastrous spread of COVID-19.Over 52,000 people have signed the petition on change.org,.
Dozens of Canadian Indigenous communities under boil-water advisories one year into pandemic
As of March 2021, Canada’s Liberal government officially failed to meet its five-year, self-imposed deadline to lift all long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations reserves across the country.
More than one year after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, dozens of Indigenous communities across the country continue to lack drinking water, making it impossible for residents to follow basic hygiene measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and combat other infectious diseases.
Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario has been under a “do not consume” water advisory for 25 years. (Photo credit: Safe Drinking Water Foundation)
The clean water is thanks in part to new infrastructure and a new water source, won after three decades of fighting for access to clean drinking water, Charles says. Tap water is now sourced from Metro Vancouver and travels through 12 kilometres of new pipes and three pump stations to reach the community’s 31 homes and six administrative buildings.
The struggle for water started in 1991 when the community’s water distribution system aged out and needed to be replaced, Charles says.
In the ’90s the nation purchased water from the privately owned White Rock Utilities. The first drinking water advisory was issued in 1996. In October 2005, the nation was placed on a permanent boil water advisory when its water found E. coli and total coliforms, which Canada measures to test if water is drinkable, exceeded allowable levels.
Getting help and funds to fix the threat can be frustrating. A special report.
Francesca Fionda 23 Feb 2021 | The Tyee / Institute for Investigative Journalism
Francesca Fionda is a freelance investigative and data journalist, and journalism instructor. SHARES Safe or not? Tests done in 2017 by the First Nations Health Authority in 261 sites on reserves across BC showed unsafe lead levels in water for 35 schools. BC’s health minister was told, but what’s happened since is not publicly shared.
Photo via Shutterstock.
When Trever Andrew found out there was a small amount of lead leaching into the tap water in the girl’s washroom at T selcéwtqen Clleq mel ten/Chief Atahm School, he knew it was important to act fast. There is no safe level of lead exposure and children are particularly vulnerable. In adults, lead exposure increases the risk of high blood pressure and kidney damage. In children, lead can affect the development of the brain and
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The worst thing Perry Mcleod ever pulled out of a cistern was a car battery.
âThe family didnât know. They were using the water to wash their clothes, wash their dishes, wash their faces, brush their teeth,â he says.
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Try refreshing your browser, or Lack of funding for piped water on First Nations in Sask. means some canât drink from their taps Back to video
Mcleod is the water treatment plant operator at Peepeekisis Cree Nation, located roughly 110 kilometres northeast of Regina.
There are 150 homes, about 90 per cent of which are not hooked up to the water treatment plant. Water from the plant is pumped into trucks and driven to most homes, where it goes into cisterns â large concrete storage tanks.