Fatima Syed
Ontario Reporter
@fatimabsyed.bsky.social 
Fatima Syed is a Mississauga-based journalist. She was the founding host of The Backbench podcast. She has worked for The Walrus, the Toronto Star, The Logic and National Observer, where she established the outlet’s Queen’s Park bureau, with an emphasis on coverage of environmental and energy policy. She is a National Magazine Award nominee, a Digital Publishing Award winner, and has contributed chapters to two anthologies published by Coach House Books—Subdivided: City-Building in an Age of Hyper-Diversity and House Divided. She is also the vice-president of the Canadian Association of Journalists. She was winner of the 2022 World Press Freedom Canada Award.
Stories by Fatima Syed
Ontario’s drinking water is protected by little-known committees, tied up in conservation authority changes
10 min. readThe groups that protect drinking water in Ontario, set up following the contamination crisis in...
‘It’s moving so fast’: inside Ontario’s push to speed up mine approvals
While the mining industry sees a clearer path under the Doug Ford government’s pitch for...
‘Muzzling the process’: Ontario didn’t contribute to Ring of Fire assessment
An interim report on the impacts of mining and other development in the Ring of...
Ontario’s $20-million plan to merge 36 conservation authorities into nine
The Doug Ford government’s proposal to amalgamate the watershed protection agencies received 14,000 public comments,...
Small modular reactors, big dreams: Ontario’s nuclear pitch
This story is part of a series called Shockwave: Rising energy demand and the future of the Great...
Ontario will sever Wasaga Beach park despite 98% disapproval in public comments
Ontario received more than 14,000 comments on the plan to drop provincial protections on a...
Ontario to keep forcing municipalities to give Enbridge Gas free access to public land
Guelph and Waterloo Region have refused to renew agreements giving the fossil fuel giant free...
Ontario’s public service heads back to the office, meaning more traffic and emissions
For 15 years and counting, my commute from Mississauga to Toronto has been mired by...
Enbridge Gas asks Ontario energy regulator to affirm its free access to public land in Waterloo Region
The fossil fuel giant says its agreement to build pipelines without paying for the right...
