Canada becomes second nation in the world to legalize marijuana
Recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in Canada after the Senate passed a “historic” bill on Tuesday with a vote of 52-29.
Canada
This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and progress milestones from Canada — covering health, environment, policy, community resilience, and more. Each entry highlights real developments worth knowing about.
Canada commits historic $1.3 billion to create new protected areas
The Trudeau government committed an unprecedented $1.3 billion in Tuesday’s Budget 2018 to protect land and water in Canada over the next five years.
Canada’s Eric Radford becomes first openly gay athlete to win Winter Olympics gold
Eric Radford became the first openly gay Olympic champion in the history of the Winter Games, by virtue of his role among Canada’s gold medalists in team figure skating. He and partner Meagan Duhamel took the top spot in the pairs free skate program with their show-stopping routine set to Adele’s Hometown Glory.
China to join forces with Canada and EU to continue fight climate change despite Trump withdrawal
Environment ministers representing Canada, China and the European Union will co-host a meeting in Montreal later this month to advance implementation of the Paris climate change agreement.
First Canada Food Guide overhaul in a decade sees shift away from meat and dairy
The initial draft of the new guide places an emphasis on plant-based foods while downplaying the previous stature given to meat and dairy products.
Great Bear Rainforest agreement protects millions of acres under Indigenous leadership
The Great Bear Rainforest agreement, signed in February 2016, protected 85% of old-growth trees across 6.4 million hectares of British Columbia’s coast — a temperate rainforest roughly the size of Ireland. Reached after nearly 20 years of negotiation, it placed 26 First Nations at the center as co-managers, embedding Indigenous authority into conservation law.
Ontario plans basic income pilot to lift residents out of poverty
Basic income came to Ontario in 2016, when the province launched one of North America’s most ambitious poverty experiments. About 4,000 low-income residents in Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay received monthly payments, and early results pointed to better mental health and food security. Cut short in 2018, the pilot still reshaped how the world debates a guaranteed income floor.
Canada declares high-speed internet a basic service for all citizens
High-speed internet became a basic right in Canada in December 2016, when regulators declared broadband as essential as phone or postal service. The ruling set a national target of 50 Mbps download speeds for every household and created a $750 million fund to reach rural, remote, and Indigenous communities long left behind by private providers.
Nations agree to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals in landmark global treaty
The Montreal Protocol was signed on 16 September 1987, when diplomats from dozens of nations agreed to phase out the chemicals eating a hole in the ozone layer. It became the first UN treaty ever ratified by every country on Earth, and scientists now expect the ozone layer to fully recover by around 2040.
Hoffer and Osmond pioneer psychedelic therapy as a treatment for mental illness
Psychedelic therapy began in the early 1950s at a Saskatchewan psychiatric hospital, where Abram Hoffer and Humphrey Osmond gave LSD to patients struggling with alcoholism in carefully guided sessions. Osmond would later coin the word “psychedelic” in a 1957 letter to Aldous Huxley. Seven decades on, their prepare-administer-integrate framework is quietly reshaping modern psychiatry.