In a rare on-site meeting, Niagara Falls municipal officials met with local environmental advocates to discuss contamination around the old Cyanamid industrial property amid concerns that harmful chemicals are not being properly handled.
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Throughout his career the city’s mayor has been skewered for openly lying. Since Patrick Brown arrived in Brampton in 2018, he has tried to convince residents billions of dollars are flowing to his city.
A tunnelled LRT, third hospital (it still doesn’t have a second), world class cricket stadium, cutting edge innovation district and standalone university are just some of the major projects he has promised and claimed to have secured funding for. His misleading press releases and election-style announcements with little to show for them, are starting to wear thin.
Poleen Grewal, the PDSB’s former head of equity, filed a $7 million wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the school board. The legal action has drawn widespread attention among those seeking reforms in an education system whose leaders were forced to admit doing harm to Black students for decades.
Many question if the PDSB’s current leadership is interested in change, after the lawsuit revealed the board’s strategy of blaming its failures on the person who for years faced obstacles while trying to reform the board’s culture of discrimination.
Across Caledon, signs rejecting a planned mega-quarry dot the rural roadsides. The latest stand in the fight to save the rural municipalities greenspaces took place outside TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, a golf facility currently hosting the RBC Canadian Open.
The owner of the exclusive golf destination has partnered with CBM, the company behind the controversial quarry proposal.
In less than two months since Bill 5 was introduced on April 17, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government bulldozed it into law, using economic benefits as justification. With choking wildfire smoke darkening the sky outside, the legislation was passed inside Queen’s Park, stripping away environmental safeguards and overriding Indigenous rights. It hands Ford unchecked powers to fast-track development.
First Nations and environmental groups are vowing to use Bill 5 as a legal roadblock that could render the legislation into a progress-blocking misstep by those pushing rapacious growth.
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The alarming words come from Justice Renu Mandhane in a ruling that found racial profiling was grounds to toss out evidence in a weapons offence case.
Despite the chief’s claims that systemic racism is being addressed after decades of discrimination, the ruling highlights continued harm against Black communities across Mississauga and Brampton.
There are no requirements for Councillor Mike Strange to take a leave from council after being charged with assault in early May following an alleged altercation with his intimate partner.
But Niagara Region Councillor Haley Bateman is asking him to consider how his presence around the table could serve as a barrier for victims and survivors of intimate partner violence wanting to engage with local government.
From the muskeg of the Ring of Fire to the marble halls of Queen’s Park, a storm is gathering in Ontario. Bill 5, the Ford government’s so-called economic legislation, threatens to bulldoze through environmental protections, democratic processes and treaty rights, to speed up growth.
Indigenous leaders aren’t staying silent—rights are not “red tape”. Fueled by memories of past betrayals like Bill C-45, they warn: this is how Idle No More began, and it will happen again.
Claims by Poleen Grewal are supported in her wrongful dismissal lawsuit with details of communications from senior leaders of the PDSB including its current director, Rashmi Swarup, who allegedly undermined the work of the woman responsible for addressing systemic racism and other forms of discrimination.
Grewal’s employment was eventually terminated, after Swarup claimed she was largely responsible for the board’s widely publicized failure to eradicate systemic anti-Black racism—despite evidence that shows the former employee’s efforts were methodically undermined for years.
Most people trust banks as safekeepers of their money, but few realize those very funds are often used to bankroll fossil fuel projects that worsen the climate crisis. On May 21, faith leaders and activists came together in Toronto’s financial district for a day of protest.
Three men were recently charged in a single day as Niagara Police deal with a disturbing increase in the number of sexual crimes against children across the region.
Similar to the pattern throughout the country, more and more young people are being targeted online.
The City’s to-do list continues to grow. Since being elected in 2018, Brown’s financial strategy has drained city coffers, and his empty promises have left residents frustrated.
At the same time, they watch as critical services are unable to keep up with demand and major projects wait for long-promised funding.
Council’s Code of Conduct “strictly prohibits” such activities, but in a pattern becoming common across Ontario the City’s third-party integrity commissioner has opted to let the man that ultimately decides who gets hired for the accountability role, off the hook.
Racism has been a hallmark of the British royal family for centuries. It was the defining characteristic of imperial rule in places like India and Africa.
The worst of the royals and their imperious attitude toward all those beneath them is embodied by the behaviour of Prince Andrew. Now, the recent allegation of racism levelled by the disenfranchised Prince Harry is the inevitable outcome of a family that has always lived under the credo of English privilege at the expense of all others.
Following a move by St. Catharines Councillor Bruce Williamson, city staff will be providing more information on the number of properties in the city that are unable to pay their tax bill.
The additional data will help council understand the impact of the tax increases they have approved in recent years, advocates say.
Following a meeting earlier this month with the Premier and Minister of Health, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish is seeking council support to provide $390 million to the Trillium Health redevelopment of the Mississauga Hospital. This comes after council declined a request last year from Trillium for $450 million, citing its impact on local taxpayers.
Mayor Parrish hopes the PCs commit to help the City with other financial burdens, making it possible to provisionally approve support for the critical healthcare project.
As Ontario confronts the pressing need for more clean, sustainable energy, the shift toward solar power is gaining momentum. The International Energy Agency predicts solar could become the world’s largest source of electricity by 2050.
This ongoing transition demands a skilled workforce, and Ontario’s colleges are stepping up.
Cities can no longer afford to straddle the line between progress and the past. Hybrid buses may have been a necessary bridge a decade ago, but continuing to invest in them now only prolongs reliance on diesel and locks the city into outdated technology for decades.
The answers are expensive, but with electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses ready and proven, Mississauga must fully commit to zero-emission transit if it wants to meet its ambitious climate goals.
The extension of a closure that has shutdown Brampton’s Stellantis assembly plant has ratcheted up the anxiety for thousands of employees.
They are worried the latest news is part of a departure that will see Brampton lose one of its largest employers, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens automakers that don’t move operations to America.
A U.S.-based research lab that monitors the health of the Great Lakes is vital to the safe drinking water consumed by millions of Ontarians. Sweeping funding cuts under the Trump administration have crippled the lab’s ability to track pollution, harmful algal blooms and climate impacts—threatening the freshwater supply shared across the border.
Scientists warn that now is the critical moment for federal and provincial governments to step in and strengthen Canada’s role in protecting this essential resource before gaps in data and monitoring put communities at greater risk.
A work stoppage among Brampton Transit employees which would have triggered widespread chaos for commuters has been avoided after the signing of a multi-year collective agreement between the union and the City of Brampton.
More than 100 environmental organizations, municipalities and Indigenous groups are drawing a line in the sand. Since Bill 5 was introduced last month—dubbed the Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act—advocates have rejected the profit-first agenda threatening environmental protection, Indigenous rights and municipal governance.
Premier Doug Ford needs to stop his latest powergrab, and listen to the hundreds of experts, advocates and municipal leaders who are telling him Bill 5 will do nothing to solve Ontario’s housing issues and lead to widespread environmental destruction, says the head of the Ontario Headwaters Institute.
As Mississauga and Brampton move forward with ambitious zero-carbon retrofit projects, questions around Peel Region’s governance are casting a growing shadow. With the Region’s future still in limbo and key legislation stalled by the surprise winter election, key environmental initiatives hang in the balance.
Local officials are navigating an uncertain path to secure funding and keep timelines intact, caught between bold climate goals and political upheaval.
Joshua Creek residents concerned about the risks of potential contamination in their community, where industrial waste had been disposed decades ago, want more answers.
Cancer data provided by Halton Region suggest there is no reason for concern, but numerous stories of illness in the neighbourhood (which might represent typical cancer rates in any area) have been shared on social media.
Instead of listening to them, the mayor responded with a heavy hand, calling on police to investigate the claims as part of an alleged scam.
Nearly a year after two storms a month apart battered neighbourhoods across the GTA, residents in Mississauga wonder how they can be better prepared for the next major flood.
City Hall officials continue to plan for climate change but many residents still recovering from last year’s devastating floods feel not enough is being done.
Doug Ford and the PCs have been promising the city a second hospital for years, even hosting a campaign-style event recently claiming construction has started. A builder has not yet been selected and, once again, the provincial budget does not include any specific funding for the project.
Even if it does eventually get funded, the current plan under Ford to expand Peel Memorial does not include any acute care beds, would not have any of the required medical wards to qualify as a full-service hospital and falls far short of the capacity local officials have demanded to lift Brampton from its hallway-healthcare status.
Toronto has made it clear that without green building standards emission reduction targets can’t be met.
As the Ford government barrels ahead with its latest housing bill — the seventh in just six years — environmental safeguards are once again on the chopping block. Bill 17 promises faster builds, but at what cost?
On Tuesday inside Queen’s Park, all five PC MPPs for Brampton voted against an Opposition motion from NDP leader Marit Stiles requesting funding for critical health infrastructure, including a badly needed second hospital in Brampton.
The move comes after a confusing campaign photo-op outside the site of the Peel Memorial Phase II expansion which claimed to be for a “groundbreaking” even though a contractor to build the expansion has yet to be named.
Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced his new cabinet today, marking a major development for Brampton on the federal political scene as three local representatives now form part of the Prime Minister’s inner circle. They will be responsible for key priorities that could have big impacts on a city in desperate need of financial assistance from upper levels of government.
Barred from delegating before the board, an advocate for Black communities across Ontario is taking the Peel Police Services Board to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
It’s becoming a disturbingly common practice for advocates attempting to force change within rigid institutions with histories of perpetuating systemic racism.
Nestled in the rolling green of Caledon, Peel’s first solar-powered brewery is redefining what it means to raise a glass.
GoodLot Farmstead Brewing’s latest creation, Tree Hug Wilder Sap Ale, is brewed from the sap of Canada’s iconic sugar maple—and infused with a mission to protect the very forests that inspire it.
Two professors at the University of Guelph warn that Premier Doug Ford’s controversial Bill 5 will hand unchecked power to the provincial government and cause widespread destruction of vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems.
Through actions reminiscent of U.S. President Donald Trump, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is dismantling the province’s environmental protections behind a smokescreen of economic recovery and trade war rhetoric.
With Bill 5, the PCs are launching an unprecedented attack on environmental protection laws, completely dismantling the Endangered Species Act and giving themselves permission to award new infrastructure and development projects wherever, whenever and to whomever they choose, exempting projects from existing provincial and municipal laws.
For months, police found dead or mutilated puppies in public parks around Mississauga. In April, police arrested one man, charging him with a number of animal cruelty offences.
Animal rights advocates have been warning the government for years that holes in the existing system allow bad actors to commit unthinkable crimes.
Brampton Transit operators, maintenance workers and other critical staff are days away from the picket line after rejecting the latest offer from the City that "significantly" reduced the proposed wages. The same day the offer was rejected, the City of Brampton signed a $10.9 million contract with a private transit firm.
It’s the latest dysfunction in Brampton’s critical transit system that has been consistently neglected by Mayor Patrick Brown and councillors.
It’s been a rocky start to 2025 for the City’s fire service.
Contract negotiations, ongoing for more than a year, are in turmoil as City management and members of the Mississauga Fire Fighters Association need a new deal. The Association’s President says the City has repeatedly delayed the process and failed to come to the table with a reasonable offer.
Amid the uncertainty, City officials suddenly announced at the end of March that Deryn Rizzi, Mississauga’s fire chief hired to transform the department, was gone. Her departure has not been explained.
Thousands of Brampton auto workers remain in limbo. At the end of February, after Donald Trump’s tariff threats, Stellantis announced it was pausing work at the Brampton assembly plant to make way for a major Electric Vehicle overhaul.
There are mounting concerns that the real reason for the protracted closure is tied to Trump’s desire for auto manufacturing to relocate south of the border.
Seven young Ontarians have won a historic legal battle in their fight for climate justice. The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Premier Doug Ford’s appeal, effectively upholding a lower court’s ruling that climate targets must comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision sends the case—originally launched in 2019—back to Ontario’s Superior Court, a big step forward for youth-led climate litigation in Canada.
Despite a harrowing 223 percent increase in people living on the streets of Peel over the last three years, councillors ignored a recent report detailing the disturbing rise in homelessness.
The failure of local elected officials has resulted in $50 million in annual hotel bills, instead of addressing the upstream causes of the housing affordability crisis, while Peel’s emergency shelter system has been chronically underfunded.
In a move that has sparked outrage among Brampton residents and environmental groups, Doug Ford’s PC government has approved the expansion of a controversial waste-to-energy facility in the city, despite widespread concerns over public health and environmental impacts.
While the facility owners claim it offers a clean energy solution, critics point out the lack of meaningful public consultation, the looming health risks posed by toxic emissions and the long-term environmental consequences of turning Brampton into a waste-burning hub.
New data obtained through a Freedom of Information request suggest residents of St. Catharines are feeling the impact of historic tax increases implemented under the current council.
Updated results suggest the Liberals have maintained a grip on five of the six available seats in Brampton. However, a poor showing in Ontario, mirrored in the loss of Brampton West, previously held by now former Liberal incumbent Kamal Khera, was the main slip that cost the party a coveted majority government.
For the fourth consecutive time the Liberals have won all six of Mississauga’s federal ridings.
The Conservatives had hoped candidates such as longtime Mississauga councillor Sue McFadden would turn the tide but anger over the party’s handling of local nomination races might have hurt its chances.
Despite a disappointing night for the Conservatives, the party did pick up a seat in the region, pulling Niagara South from the Liberals while returning two of their regional incumbents to Ottawa.
Chris Bittle was the lone Liberal winner in the region and will return to Ottawa as the St. Catharines MP for another term.
As Canadians decide on a new government Monday, the country’s clean energy future hangs in the balance. While Ottawa finalizes landmark climate regulations and municipalities including Mississauga break ground on cutting-edge low-carbon infrastructure, the Conservatives' newly unveiled platform promises deep cuts to cornerstone environmental initiatives.
Increased investments to effectively address gender-based violence and human trafficking have been needed for decades. Rising rates of these crimes are devastating communities across Canada, and advocates have demanded responsible commitments during the 2025 federal election campaign.
Leaders of the main parties have acknowledged the issue but the most progressive solutions outlined by those working on the front lines continue to be ignored.
A traumatic home invasion stunned the Grimsby community last week. Conservative politicians in the area were quick to pounce on it as more evidence of a “crime wave” that is plaguing communities across Canada, copying language used by their leader Pierre Poilievre.
In Niagara, the data doesn’t support the claim.
Brampton’s childcare woes continue to challenge families. Ten-dollar-a-day daycare has not been the solution the Liberals said it would be, at least not in places where take up of the program has lagged behind, for a range of complex reasons.
Facing long wait times, a lack of spaces and excessive costs, many families are forced to make sacrifices in the absence of more equitable policies.
The doctor shortage across Ontario is felt acutely in Peel, especially in Brampton where underfunding of the city’s local healthcare system led to an emergency declaration years ago.
Voters are being asked to choose the next federal government with few details about how each party would fix the badly broken frontline healthcare system in Brampton and other parts of Ontario.
The next federal government will have to address the lack of affordability facing millions of Canadians—roughly 8.6 percent of Peel’s population is living in poverty.
Statistics Canada reported two years ago that 22.9% of residents in the country’s 10 provinces were living in a food-insecure household—8.7 million people, including 2.1 million children.
Food Banks Canada has proposed a potential solution to lift people out of poverty; are federal leaders listening?
