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Calgary flood survivor to testify in Canada’s first youth-led federal climate trial
The 15 plaintiffs say Canada’s fossil fuel policies threaten their constitutional rights.
Sadie Vipond was 7 when her grandmother woke her in the middle of the night, and they fled their home. Outside, Calgary was in the midst of its largest flood in more than a century. They went to a friend’s place on higher ground as surging waters cut short the school year. At the city’s zoo, water rose high enough for a hippo to swim out of its enclosure — a memory that stays with her 13 years later.
Next week, she will testify in Canada’s first federal youth-led climate trial — a lawsuit she joined at 13. She’s one of 15 young Canadian plaintiffs in La Rose v. His Majesty the King, which will run for four weeks in Vancouver.
The plaintiffs from seven provinces, the Northwest Territories and Yukon were all between the ages of 10 and 19 when the case began. They are arguing that Canada is putting young people’s health, safety and futures at risk by supporting fossil fuel development while repeatedly missing its emissions targets. They want the court to require the government to develop and carry out a climate recovery plan that protects their constitutional rights.
“This was a way to share my voice, to influence our governments without having the ability to vote,” Vipond said.
The case is reaching the trial stage after seven years of legal motions and appeals, including federal efforts to have it dismissed. Many plaintiffs were barely teenagers when they joined and have grown into adulthood waiting for their day in court.
Now, they have more to lose. Some have taken outdoor jobs, where staying inside to escape wildfire smoke can mean going unpaid. East Coast plaintiffs, who had never experienced wildfire smoke when the case began, now encounter it regularly, said Andrea Rodgers, deputy director of US strategy at Our Children’s Trust, which supports the case.
One plaintiff has since become a mother and will testify during the trial’s first week. “Now, it’s not just about protecting her rights and her future,” Rodgers said. “It’s about ensuring that her son can grow up and thrive in a healthy environment.”
A generation coming of age in a changing climate
Extreme heat and wildfire smoke have limited Vipond’s ability to bike to school and exercise outdoors. Now a third-year environmental sciences student at the University of British Columbia, she said her studies have helped her recognize changes around her — from increasingly dangerous snow conditions to pine beetles destroying an entire hillside.
“A lot of people think that climate change is like a long, slow evolution of changes,” Vipond said. “However, we’re really seeing it from year to year at this point.”
Vipond’s experience reflects a broader reality for young people coming of age as climate change dictates how they imagine and plan their lives. A study published in 2023 found that nearly two in five Canadians aged 16 to 25 said climate change made them hesitant to have children.
That concern also shows up in their politics. In July, a poll found that one in four respondents aged 18 to 34 ranked climate change and the environment among their top three issues, compared with 16 per cent of those older than 55.
The climate risks extend across their lives. At 1.5 C of warming, over half of children born in 2020 would face unprecedented lifetime heatwave exposure, compared with 16 per cent of those born in 1960, a global study projected in 2025.
Rodgers has spent 15 years representing young people in US climate cases, including Juliana v. United States. Its 21 young plaintiffs spent nearly a decade arguing that federal energy policies violated their constitutional rights. The case never reached trial after an appeals court ruled that judges lacked the power to order and oversee the climate recovery plan the plaintiffs sought. She hopes Canada will deliver what those young Americans were denied.
The Canadian trial will also test how international law informs that duty. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice affirmed that governments must protect the climate system to safeguard human rights. Rodgers said the Canadian court could use that advisory opinion to help justify an order requiring climate action, and set an example for courts in other countries.
“Canada really has a choice,” Rodgers said. “Do they want to follow in the path of the United States or forge their own path, one that protects the rights of their own children?”
Vipond joined the lawsuit out of fear for her own future. As she heads to court next week, she said she now feels responsible for speaking for other children too young to vote and generations yet to be born.
People have asked whether she and the other plaintiffs would receive money if they win. She tells them they are seeking accountability rather than a payout.
“Hope is really hard to hold on to sometimes,” Vipond said. “But we’re all fighting to keep it.”
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.
Copyright 2026, Canada's National Observer. All rights reserved.
Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer.
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Military could begin Arctic sensor installations next summer
Military may deploy Arctic sensor stations in 2027
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
National Defence plans to install 47 sensor stations across the North starting as early as next summer to bolster Norad’s surveillance and early warning abilities, according to recently published regulatory filings.
The planned installations would start in Yukon near the Alaskan border and follow along the Arctic coast across the Northwest Territories, reaching as far out as Alert, Nunavut, the most northern inhabited point in the world.
Called Project Crossbow, the plan involves using Hercules aircraft and Chinook helicopters to airlift passive sensor installations, which resemble large shipping containers that stand on metal legs.
The initial deployments could begin as soon as next summer with initial operating capability coming online in 2029, said Royal Canadian Air Force spokesperson Lt.-Cmdr. Melanie Aqiqi.
She said in an emailed statement that Crossbow is “part of a broader network of capabilities supporting northern air domain awareness.”
The container stations will run on solar and wind power, according to a series of National Defence documents filed with a Nunavut regulatory board.
Aside from some temporary deployments required to set them up and an annual maintenance cycle, the installations will remain unstaffed throughout the year.
"This defence capability (surveillance sensors) will operate within self-powered, autonomous, ruggedized power-generating container systems designed for continuous operations in austere environments and extreme Arctic conditions," one of the documents said.
The federal government is investing billions of dollars in a broader effort to modernize Norad's equipment.
The project was announced in 2022 by then-defence minister Anita Anand under the Northern Approaches Surveillance system, which includes the over-the-horizon radar project.
Anand said at the time the capabilities of the joint Canada-U.S. project are classified but the new network would add “another layer of detection” to Norad.
An information package submitted to the Nunavut Planning Commission said the project is of “national significance” and the “proposed sites are required for overall system network operation.”
The sites mapped out in some of the filed plans include two in Quttinirpaaq National Park on Ellesmere Island and four within a migratory bird sanctuary on Banks Island. The documents state the project is expected to have little to no impact on wildlife.
Two sensor systems are already stationed in Alert, Nunavut and Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, one of the documents said.
The sites were chosen so that National Defence can easily airlift the containers in just a few days — although the exact rationale for site selection remains classified.
The sensor project is expected to be complete by 2032. Once fully deployed, the project is expected to run another 20 years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
— With files from Nick Murray
By Kyle Duggan | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Inquest into death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet set to continue
Korchinski-Paquet inquest set to continue
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
A coroner's inquest into the death of a Toronto woman who fell from a highrise balcony in the presence of police is set to resume this morning after adjourning early on Thursday.
The inquest into the death of 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet was paused roughly an hour into Thursday's proceedings after her mother made a new allegation against police.
Claudette Beals testified that she saw officers push her daughter toward the balcony.
The presiding coroner, Dr. David Cameron, told jurors Thursday counsel were strategizing on how to best have them hear evidence related to the circumstances of Korchinski-Paquet's death "in a clear and fair manner."
Beals is expected to continue her testimony today.
Earlier Thursday, she said that the family struggled at times to deal with Korchinski-Paquet's seizures and would have benefited from support and education regarding epilepsy.
The inquest has heard Korchinski-Paquet experienced seizures from epilepsy and had two on May 27, 2020, the day she died.
Her seizures were often followed by periods of erratic and aggressive behaviour, the inquest has heard.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Mégane dit qu’elle aurait préféré ne pas s’inscrire à OD et explique pourquoi
« J’ai même enlevé mon OD officiel… »
Depuis son éviction au tout début de l'aventure d'Occupation Double Martinique, Mégane Lasalle reçoit plusieurs commentaires négatifs, et ce, au quotidien, selon ce qu'elle a expliqué à Narcity. Dans une séance de questions et réponses partagée en stories sur Instagram en ce début décembre, elle a d'ailleurs confié à sa communauté qu'elle aurait préféré ne pas s'inscrire à OD.
C'est après avoir mentionné à plusieurs reprises pendant son parcours qu'elle aimait les marques de luxe que plusieurs Québécois.es l'ont associée à une image qui ne plait pas à tous.tes.
En participant à cette téléréalité, elle n'a donc pas projeté ce qu'elle espérait et, lorsqu'un.e internaute lui a demandé si elle trouvait étrange que sa vie soit maintenant documentée publiquement, Mégane a expliqué qu'elle ne s'y fait pas encore :
« Pour être 100 % honnête, je ne m'adapte pas tant à ma nouvelle vie. Genre quand je dis "nouvelle vie", c'est tout ce qui est réseaux et tout. J'ai même enlevé mon OD officiel. Sincèrement, il y a tellement d'impact négatif après mon visuel à OD que ça ne m'impacte pas positivement, fait que je ne trippe pas tant, mettons. »
Un.e abonné.e lui a ensuite demandé si elle croyait que ça se passerait ainsi à sa sortie de la téléréalité. C'est à ce moment que l'ancienne candidate a avoué qu'elle n'aurait pas participé si elle avait su dans quoi elle s'embarquait :
« J'ai compris que ça allait être compliqué quand j'ai écouté les épisodes. Autant merdique, non. Que ça allait autant m'affecter, non pas une seconde. Avoir su que ça allait être de même, je ne me serais jamais inscrite, mais comme jamais. Je pense que ce qui m'écoeure le plus, c'est de voir à quel point que tout est stagé, mais tout. Puis ça, ça me traumatise littéralement. »
Malgré les mauvais souvenirs qu'elle garde de l'aventure, Mégane mentionne tout de même qu'elle est reconnaissante pour les amitiés qu'elle y a trouvées.
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