Fatima Syed
Ontario Reporter
@fatimabsyed 
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
‘Balance it out’: First Nations call for protected area as Doug Ford signs Ring of Fire deal
7 min. readThe province is funding infrastructure improvements in communities along proposed Ring of Fire roads, but...
How does the Ford government really feel about parks?
The Ford government wants to build urban and adventure parks, even as it moves to...
‘Whiplash’ and ‘scar tissue’: conservation authorities grapple with Ontario’s most dramatic overhaul yet
Nearly 80 years after their creation, the Doug Ford government is reducing the unique environmental...
Doug Ford is abandoning his own climate commitments
The Ontario government is repealing its law requiring a provincial climate plan and emissions reduction...
Ontario is subsidizing an energy project in Georgian Bay despite expert advice
An internal memo from Ontario’s electricity system operator outlines concerns with TC Energy’s large pumped...
Ontario drafts special economic zone rules around ‘the opinion of the minister’
The Doug Ford government’s pitch for fast-tracking development under Bill 5 empowers cabinet and dismisses...
Why is there a drilling rig on Ontario’s Georgian Bay?
TC Energy is moving ahead with studies on its controversial pumped storage project in Meaford,...
What’s going on in Wasaga Beach? Profit, piping plovers and an Ontario town’s complicated future
The Ontario government is handing provincial parklands over to the town in hopes of boosting...
‘You can’t tell anyone you talked to me’
The hardest part about being an energy reporter in Ontario is building trust with people...
