The Narwhal https://thenarwhal.ca Deep Dives, Cold Facts, & Pointed Commentary en-US Copyright 2026 The Narwhal hourly 1 As grocery prices climb, one farmer bets on growing African staples in B.C. https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-black-farmers-african-foods/ Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:45:05 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=154702 People said he was crazy to start a farm based in African foods. ‘It’s good to be crazy in a good way,’ Canadian Black Farmers Association founder Toyin Kayo-Ajayi says Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood and Jimmy Jeong Profile B.C. biodiversity Black history farming food security Toyin Kayo-Ajayi at his farm, feeding goats in a tent, looking over his shoulder at the camera. He wears a yellow jacket and holds a white bucket. Bogs, bugs, freedom and loss: walking alongside Ontario’s early Black settlers https://thenarwhal.ca/ontario-northern-underground-railroad-walk/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:03:59 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=154208 Moved by his ancestors, Ken Johnston retraced 1,300 kilometres of the Underground Railroad to learn about Ontario’s early Black settlers Canice Leung On the ground Photo Essay Black history environmental racism Ontario Zachee Nzeyimana and Ken Johnston walk through farmland between Guelph and Fergus, Ont., while retracing an Underground Railroad route from Niagara Falls to Owen Sound. Uncovering the history of Nova Scotia’s Black miners https://thenarwhal.ca/nova-scotia-black-miners-history/ Tue, 25 Feb 2025 23:21:15 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=132129 A researcher in Canada's Atlantic region uncovers ‘striking’ similarities between the historic treatment of Black miners and modern-day attitudes toward immigrant labourers Francesca Fionda Explainer Black history environmental racism mining Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Photo: Sydney, ca. 1900. 91-602-22563 Beaton Institute / Cape Breton University A group of Black and white men stand in front of a blast furnace. The photo was taken in 1900s at the Dominion Iron and Steel Co. Plant in Sydney Nova Scotia. Logging, homesteading and life on the Prairies, through the eyes of a Black photographer https://thenarwhal.ca/manitoba-billy-beal-photography/ Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=100356 Billy Beal — a Black sawmill worker who immigrated at the turn of the 20th century — photographed life of settlers in Manitoba’s Swan River Valley, capturing everything from the clearing of old-growth forests to house parties Julia-Simone Rutgers Photo Essay Black history forestry Manitoba Winnipeg Photo: Billy Beal / Supplied by Robert Barrow Billy Beal: Lumber workers use a machine called a jammer to load piles of logs onto railway car near Red Deer Lake, Manitoba in 1920. Two horses stand near the train. Many birds are named for enslavers, colonizers and white supremacists. That’s about to change https://thenarwhal.ca/bird-watching-history-black-birders/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:18:26 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=99533 Black birdwatchers on the practice’s racist history, the move to rename North America’s feathered species and other changes needed to make birding inclusive Emma McIntosh In-Depth Black history environmental racism solutions wildlife Photos: Zoë-Blue Coates by Kayla Isomura, Charles Plaisir by Solange Barrault, Melissa Hafting by Ian Harland, all others supplied by subjects. Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal Bird renaming: A collage of five birdwatchers with binoculars and cameras on a sky-like background with the outlines of birds illustrated overhead ‘She’s out here trailblazing’: these 10 Black environmentalists are building community https://thenarwhal.ca/black-environmentalists-canada-mentors/ Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=99117 Black Canadian scientists, researchers and environmental advocates discuss the importance of mentors, protégés and friends in their fields Serena Austin In-Depth Black history environmental racism Ontario solutions Photos: Peter Soroye by Adrienne Row-Smith / The Narwhal; Louise Delisle by Chris Young / The Canadian Press; all others supplied by subjects. Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal Photos of the people in the story. Top row, left to right: Laurian Farrel, Kiana Bonnick, Peter Soroye, Louise Delisle and Chùk Odenigbo. Bottom row, left to right: Zamani Ra, Violet Morrison, Ingrid Waldron, Julius Lindsay and Maydianne Andrade Uncovering the Black history of 10 Ontario rivers https://thenarwhal.ca/ontario-rivers-black-history/ Wed, 22 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000 https://thenarwhal.ca/?p=70990 Canada often tries to erase Black people from both history and the environmental movement, but our presence and love of nature remains, scholar and outdoors enthusiast Jacqueline L. Scott writes Jacqueline L. Scott In-Depth Black history environmental racism freshwater Ontario Chloe Cooley illustration: Naomi Moyer. Photo: Katherine Cheng / The Narwhal. Photo Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal Chloe Cooley is on Canada Post’s 2023 Black History Month stamp. She was enslaved in Niagara-on-the-Lake and resisted being sold across the Niagara River to the U.S. in March 1793. Her resistance led to the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada a few months later, a significant step on the long road to the Abolition of Slavery in Canada and the rest of the British Empire.