People live in relationship with water – the source of life. Water is sacred to people of all faiths. Water is a common good and a public trust. All people have a human right to water. Indigenous communities in Canada have traditional and treaty rights to water. Water is the foundation of entire ecosystems and the basis for the web of life itself.

But our relationships with water and each other are under threat. In examining the state of our societal connection with water in Ontario, the multiple emergencies with climate, health, political power, and social inequities framed the need for a strategic campaign focused on water security & justice. The People’s Water Campaign was created to take steps to establish a long-term vision and declare concrete goals for water justice based on the historic need to effect reconciliation with Indigenous peoples on treaty rights to land and water, including a full reckoning of the future impact of the climate crisis. These require that people living on these lands imagine new relationships and authorities in governing water in order to ensure water justice for all.

Launched in 2020, the first year of the People’s Water Campaign encompassed the beginning steps in moving towards a just water future in Ontario using educational webinars on water, outreach to groups involved in water protection, and a full-day virtual convention to broaden community engagement in the PWC & water justice movement.

The Water Webinar series of the 2020 PWC invited water experts from across Ontario to share with the general public about water-related issues & provincially-relevant solutions. Webinar topics included plastic pollution & microplastics, resisting water privatization, large-scale water extraction, organizing social movements, addressing road salts impacts, and activating for the water in allyship with Indigenous communities. These webinars helped illuminate some of the numerous pressures facing water in Ontario and allowed participants to explore the policy, societal, and relational pathways to change for the water. There were over 600 attendees for these water webinars. Video recordings of the events are openly available on Water Watchers Youtube and Facebook pages for the learning to continue.

View PWC: 2020 Water Webinars 

We also organized strategic outreach to organizations involved in water protection in Ontario. We interviewed about 35 organizations from small grassroots groups to national NGOs working in or adjacent to water protection to learn more about what they identified as root causes of water justice issues & where the opportunities lie for collective action to elevate water protection. These engagements enabled us to learn more about the ways they relate to and work with water and revealed the diverse and unique ways people across the province are supporting water on the land, in their communities, and online, yet also illuminated the appetite for avenues to systematically support and elevate water-related issues and protections. Many of these organizations are now active participants in the People’s Water Campaign alongside passionate individuals, ready for the next steps in the journey toward a just and secure water future. This research happened in collaboration with the University of Waterloo and University of Toronto - Mississauga, providing an important perspective into the various water priorities & concerns that exist across southern Ontario, particularly amongst environmental NGOs. This outreach and research also informed the creation of two discussion pieces by a group convened as the Water Justice Advisory Committee who asked hard questions about the environmental movement, root causes of systemic injustice, and the path forward.