By Shirley Ducharme and Doreen Spence Thursday, Apr. 15, 2021 The provincial government will soon decide whether to disregard our wishes and grant Manitoba Hydro a final licence for the Churchill River Diversion, a project that diverts up to 95 per cent of the flow of the second largest river in the province — at great cost to us. The final licensing decision should have been made 44 year
By Will Braun in opinion piece for Winnipeg Free Press Despite its role as a critical economic and moral player, Manitoba Hydro is subject to scant public scrutiny. Hydro employs more than 5,000 Manitobans, carries over $20 billion in debt, keeps our lights on and is finishing the most costly project in Manitoba's history. In the moral ledger, Hydro's operations significantly and sometimes d
October 21, 2020 We fully stand with the Mi’kmaq Nation and the Fishermen asserting their Mi’kmaq Treaty Fishing Rights for a “Moderate Livelihood” as per the 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty. We condemn the racist violent actions by the non-Indigenous commercial fishermen and allies, as well as the RCMP who have evidently failed to protect the Mikmaq people of continual colonial viole
By Jessica Bound Hydroelectricity is currently considered to be the most important source of renewable energy in Canada, but when it’s generated by a mega-dam, it isn’t actually as “clean” or “green” a source of energy as the Canadian hydropower industry would like us to believe. Fortunately, alternatives to hydroelectricity do exist, and they are much more effective than you might
By Dylan Kensick The last week of August 2020, the Kis Kin Ha Ma Ki Win team travelled north to Nishichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House) and Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake) to collaborate with the Land Guardians and to perform chemical and microbiological tests on the surrounding water systems of each community. The team first visited Nishichawayasihk and spent an afternoon acquiring fo
By Cliff Dano My name is Cliff Dano and I’m a summer student with Wa Ni Ska Tan about to start my second year with the Engineering Access Program at University of Manitoba. When I began my position as an Energy Alternatives Research Assistant with Wa Ni Ska Tan this past July, I immediately thought of the great strides Fisher River Cree Nation has made in renewable energy. Although I’m a ba
By Andrea Sutherland Companies use terms like “clean,” “green” and “environmentally-friendly” to celebrate their environmental sustainability, but without the evidence to support their claims, they are not ecological warriors; they’re greenwashing. The term “greenwashing” has been around since 1986, when environmentalist Jay Westerveld used it to describe a hotel’s effort t
By Michelle Daoust, Communications Kitatipithitamak Mithwayawin Kitatipithitamak Mithwayawin: Indigenous-Led Planning and Responses to COVID-19 and other Pandemics, Then, Now, and into the Future, better known as COVID-19 Indigenous, is a research project that received full funding from the CIHR Rapid Research call for Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The call was made by the Canadian Institute of Heal
By Mathew Scammell, Research Facilitator Here at Wa Ni Ska Tan, our work has definitely been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we have done our best to remain engaged and committed to working alongside community and research partners despite the recent changes. University policies have prohibited most of us from having access to our normal workspace on campus, the Environmental Conservat
Job Title: Energy Alternatives Research Assistant Hours/Week: 35 Hourly Wage: $16 Time Frame: June 22nd - August 31st, 2020 Background: Wa Ni Ska Tan Alliance of Hydro-Impacted Communities is a research-based alliance that explores both the positive and negative implications of hydropower for nearby environments and Indigenous communities in Manitoba and other affected regions across C