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Making Waves

Analysis of Canadian water politics by the Council of Canadians' national water campaigner.

Blog - Making Waves May 9
"Capitalism Isn't Working" Photo: Jonny White/Flickr
Protecting water in a post-capitalist economy
Emma Lui | Grassroots groups and the water justice movement will play a critical role in building an alternative post-capitalist economy, one that prioritizes water justice over profit.
Blog - Making Waves April 11
Photo: Pixabay/modified by Emma Lui
How the water justice movement is challenging extractivism in Canada
Emma Lui | This blog gives an overview of some water justice issues and how grassroots groups, Indigenous nations, communities and organizations are working to protect water.
Blog - Making Waves March 19
Photo: Peg Hunter/Flickr
The water justice movement's fight against commodification and extractivism
Emma Lui | This article provides an overview of the water justice movement in Canada and the ways in which power is manufactured and deployed in water governance.
Blog - Making Waves November 30
Makasa in front of Nestle sign. Photo: Emma Lui/Council of Canadians
Six Nations youth leads protest against Nestlé water operation in Ontario
Emma Lui | Makasa Looking Horse is a youth from Six Nations and a student at McMaster University. She led the organizing for the Putting a Stop to Nestlé events on November 24.
Blog - Making Waves October 4
Graphic: Council of Canadians
B.C.'s thirsty LNG industry is a threat to water supplies
Emma Lui | The approval of LNG Canada, a $40-billion fracked gas project, gives the green light to a very thirsty industry that will abuse even more water at a time when water supplies are unpredictable.
Blog - Making Waves October 3
How much would it cost Trudeau to implement the right to water?
Emma Lui | The 2019 Alternative Federal Budget released last week outlines how much funding the Trudeau government needs to allocate in the 2019 budget to protect drinking water and watersheds.
Blog - Making Waves August 30
Dry, cracked ground. Photo: Trenna S/Flickr
What the drought warnings across Canada are telling us
Emma Lui | Many regions across provinces and territories, which are on the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples, have issued drought warnings.
Blog - Making Waves August 10
Nestlé water bottle. Photo: Nestlé/Flickr
Nestlé still pumping after Ontario water permit expired two years ago
Emma Lui | Two years ago Nestlé's Aberfoyle permit expired. Yet the multi-billion-dollar water corporation continues to pump up to 3.6 million litres a day from the Aberfoyle well.
Blog - Making Waves July 19
Minister of Water missing in Trudeau's cabinet shuffle
Emma Lui | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just shuffled his cabinet. A Water Minister is needed to coordinate the more than 20 departments related to water and develop an action plan.
Blog - Making Waves June 13
Bottled water. Image: Flickr
Water for Flint, not for Nestlé
Emma Lui | The corporate takeover of water around the Great Lakes and the violations of the human right to water and Indigenous rights shows that access to water often falls along racial, class and other lines.
Blog - Making Waves May 30
Trudeau buys Kinder Morgan pipeline as First Nations water advisories increase
Emma Lui | The Trudeau government confirmed that it would pay $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Yet the water in First Nations is underfunded and the number of advisories increased this month.
Blog - Making Waves May 30
Ontarians want to eliminate Ontario's bottled water permits
Emma Lui | The Ontario 2018 election is just one week away. We asked thousands of people across Ontario what issues matter most and what will inform how they vote on June 7. Here's what matters to you on water.
Blog - Making Waves May 9
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends WWF-Canada’s Healthy Waters Summit reception at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Photo: Adam Scotti/PMO
Trudeau's progress on First Nations water advisories doesn't show the whole picture
Emma Lui | Trudeau's progress on drinking water advisories is misleading and the government's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline -- without Indigenous consent -- is further putting drinking water at risk.
Blog - Making Waves October 12
Image: Flickr/Ben Gordon
Great Lakes groups band together to challenge Nestlé and water crises in Flint and beyond
Emma Lui | Water Is Life summit participants were outraged that governments allow Nestlé and other water companies to control and sell water for a profit while failing to secure clean water for communities.
Blog - Making Waves March 31
Your election guide to water issues in B.C.
Emma Lui | A primer on key water issues in B.C. leading up to the election on May 9th, including pipelines, fracking, and bottled water.
Blog - Making Waves February 28
Council of Canadians delivers 10,000 petition signatures to protect #EveryLakeEveryRiver
Emma Lui | This morning, Lynn Chapman, member of the Peace Valley Environmental Association, and I met with Jonathon Wilkinson, North Vancouver MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the MOECC.
Blog - Making Waves January 14
Image: Colin Smith
Supreme Court ruling in Ernst fracking case poses threat to Charter rights
Emma Lui | Today the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Alberta landowner Jessica Ernst's legal challenge to sue the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for denying her right to freedom of expression under the Charter.
Blog - Making Waves December 9
Water samples collected from Sherbrooke Lake, Big Mushamush Lake, Little Mushamu
Why the Trudeau government must restore the Navigable Waters Protection Act
Emma Lui | In order to protect water, we need governments to see the importance of water to communities and local economies.
Blog - Making Waves October 26
Six ways to protect every lake and every river
Emma Lui | The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities has extended the deadline for written comments to November 9, 2016.
Blog - Making Waves March 30
Photo: Council of Canadians board member Moira Peters and packed audience listen
Communities take action from coast to coast on World Water Day
Emma Lui | With the Trudeau government's mediocre budget tabled on World Water Day, activists who work to protect water year-round are proof that the change we seek will come from communities and the ground up.
Blog - Making Waves March 25
Council of Canadians lukewarm on water funding in federal budget
Emma Lui | An analysis of water funding in the 2016 federal budget.
Blog - Making Waves November 14
Photo of Grand River at the Elora Gorge by the Grand River Conservation Authorit
Nestlé could take more water in the Great Lakes region: Have your say!
Emma Lui | Add your voice and tell the Ontario government why you think protecting water for communities is important.
Blog - Making Waves October 20
Right to water, healthy environment must be immediate priorities for new government
Emma Lui, Kaitlyn Mitchell | In the final stretch of the campaign trail, Justin Trudeau -- Canada's next prime minister and leader of a majority government -- vowed to end boil-water advisories on First Nations reserves.
Blog - Making Waves September 29
Debate on bulk water exports to U.S. resurfaces despite recent droughts in Canada
Emma Lui | There is a reason that exporting water should continue to be a political no-go zone: we don't have water in such an abundance that we can divert or ship it to the U.S.
Blog - Making Waves September 26
Photo: Flickr: theo_reth
H2O in #elxn42: Your guide to water and the federal election
Emma Lui | This blog gives an overview of some key water issues, parties' positions and includes questions to ask local candidates.
Blog - Making Waves August 4
Defending the human right to water and sanitation at the United Nations
Meera Karunananthan, Aine O'Connor | Five years ago, the United Nations formally recognized the human right to water and sanitation by passing resolution 64/292.
Blog - Making Waves July 28
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Jen Castro
Drinking from the river at the Unist'ot'en Camp
Emma Lui | At the sixth annual Unist'ot'en Camp, a diversity of people met to discuss how we could lend solidarity to the Unist'ot'en people fighting numerous oil and gas pipelines on their territory.
Blog - Making Waves July 27
How to protect water in B.C. from Nestlé, fracking and misuse
Emma Lui | The B.C. Water Act could end up prioritizing permits held by Nestlé, fracking or other companies over municipalities, small farmers or other community water uses.
Blog - Making Waves June 23
Photo by Brad Caribou Legs Firth
Caribou Legs visits rivers threatened by Ruddock Creek mine and hydro dams
Emma Lui | Over 400 kilometres into his run to Ottawa, Caribou Legs spent the last few days in Chase, B.C. Chase, Salmon Arm and the local waterways are threatened by the proposed Ruddock Creek mine.
Blog - Making Waves June 22
Photo by Bradley Caribou Legs Firth, Three Valley Lake, Revelstoke, B.C.
Run to Ottawa puts spotlight on B.C. coal industry, drinking water advisories
Emma Lui | Ultra-marathoner Caribou Legs is on a run to Ottawa to draw attention to the need to protect our lakes and rivers. Here's what you can do to support his run and #pledge2protect our waterways.

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