Across the country, we physicians are seeing the effects of an unhealthy planet on the communities we serve. At the same time, the federal government is asking people to contribute towards the implementation framework of the right to a healthy environment, newly recognized under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).

The opportunity is significant. Government must seize the moment and move to solve environmental, health and justice problems in a holistic, systemic way that prevents future harms.

As physicians, we see the harms to people in our communities from the toxic exposures they face and the resulting diseases. We know that people’s health is an indicator of their environments and other social factors. A framework for implementing the new right must therefore go beyond research and monitoring into urgent action.

We see the harm to the health and well-being from the injustices of disproportionate location and greater exposure of Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities to polluting industries and environmental hazards across so-called Canada. Indigenous Peoples already face multiple barriers to supportive and equitable health care, and toxic exposures represent a particularly problematic and disproportionate impact that violates their rights.

In Akwesasne, on the borders of Ontario, Quebec and the U.S., the people of the Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) First Nation are subjected to toxic upstream industrial pollution, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been found to be related to thyroid dysfunction, reproductive health harms, cancers, autoimmune diseases, mental health disorders, and more.

In northern B.C., fracking activities are connected to childhood leukemia, cardiovascular diseases, neurological effects and respiratory illnesses, along with the infringement of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

In Quebec, municipalities are struggling to address widespread PFAS contamination in their drinking water sources, and are unable to complete the expensive “de-pollution” cleanup needed to protect their communities’ water from highly toxic substances linked to kidney and liver cancers, reproductive harms and other illnesses.

In southern Ontario, Aamjiwnaang First Nation, surrounded by Chemical Valley where plastics and petrochemical industry emissions fill the air and watersheds, the toxic exposures are linked to high rates of cancer, leukemia, birth anomalies, learning disabilities and a skewed sex ratio.

In northern Alberta, the exposure of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation to oilsands tailings ponds has significantly impacted their ability to practise their inherent and treaty rights, with negative mental health impacts for Indigenous peoples and local communities.