Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Indigenous fire stewardship could help protect the world from the type of severe wildfires that have been occurring more frequently in recent years, a University of Waterloo study has found.
Researchers suggest that cultural burning, purposefully burning away entire patches of trees and dry vegetation, could also help promote greater biodiversity. And while some countries and cultures are embracing these practices, Canada has fallen behind, says Kira Hoffman, a co-author of the study.
Australia, Brazil and California are good examples of places using Indigenous-burning programs, she said.
“Around the world we’re seeing a lot of examples of moving back to more fire-dependent cultures,” Hoffman told CTVNews.ca by phone Tuesday.
According to Hoffman, Indigenous knowledge not only helps preserve culture, but it helps the entire ecosystem. Yet researchers say it’s been overlooked for a long time.
“The importance of trying to include Indigenous voices in this is key,” said Hoffman, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry and who worked as a firefighter in the province for five seasons.
“I think we need to make changes this fall,” she said. “We need to shift the conversation around what fire is and how we live with it.”
The study points out that since colonization over a century ago, a focus on fire suppression – rather than how to live harmoniously with fire - combined with warmer and drier conditions has led to increasingly severe wildfires and plummeting biodiversity.
“Importantly, Indigenous-led fire stewardship continues to demonstrate the value of routinely applying controlled fire to adapt to changing environments while promoting desired landscapes, habitats, and species while also supporting subsistence practices, communities and livelihoods,” Hoffman said.
Andrew Trant, an associate professor of environmental resources at the University of Waterloo and co-author of the study, agrees that change is needed.
“Identifying and implementing human-fire interactions supporting a variety of valuable social and ecological outcomes is becoming increasingly urgent,” he said. “Given what we’re seeing in Western Canada, Manitoba, and Ontario, our forest fire situation that can only go from bad to worse without changes to existing strategies.”
The findings of the study were published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour Party's mayor of London, appeared Saturday to be romping to victory as results from the capital pour in.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.