Leah Borts-Kuperman
Northern Ontario reporter
Leah Borts-Kuperman is a staff reporter with The Narwhal's Ontario bureau, based in North Bay, Ont., and focused on issues affecting what's known as the near north. She joined The Narwhal in 2026, thanks to funding from the Local Journalism Initiative, after years of freelancing for publications including Canada’s National Observer, The Walrus and Canadian Geographic on issues of environmental and public interest. She has reported on concerns around a plastics factory in North Bay and Nipissing First Nation, and a project to recover endangered bats, led by Shawanaga First Nation.
Her freelance reporting for The Narwhal has won awards including Best Investigative Article and Best Feel Good Story at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards in 2025. She was also nominated for a 2025 National Newspaper Award for her investigative series into contamination on military sites across Canada.
Stories by Leah Borts-Kuperman
Employees on a Canadian military base say contamination is making them sick. Here’s what you need to know
6 min. readFrom cancers to neurological disorders, veterans and employees working on a Canadian Armed Forces base...
Is contamination on a Canadian Armed Forces base making employees sick?
‘I took an oath that I would risk my life for what Canada stood for’:...
Meet the people trying to keep a prehistoric fish alive
Lake sturgeon have long been culturally significant and nutritionally important to First Nations in Ontario,...
The Anishinaabek youth bringing land-based learning to their peers
In Georgian Bay, First Nations youth are coming together over hide tanning, language lessons and...
How much of this carcinogen is industry releasing into Canada’s air?
Across North America, ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment. The odorless gas is...
Lunch, curling and a hand with funding: how North Bay city staff helped controversial plastics factory open
Emails show city officials offered ‘support and guidance’ to international plastics company in securing multimillion-dollar...
Nipissing First Nation greenhouse provides year-round fresh food in northern Ontario
Growing hydroponic spinach ‘bigger than my head’ is an effort to combat chronic illness and...
5 things to know about a Mississauga factory using a carcinogenic gas
Ontario lets Sterigenics monitor its own emissions, despite high levels of ethylene oxide detected near...
Inside the City of Mississauga’s discussion of a factory using a known carcinogen
Internal emails show confusion among officials over environmental permits for Sterigenics, and questions of how...
