After seeing Lerners LLP encourage the legal community, via tweet, today to support Atlohsa, an Indigenous social services organization, in looking after evacuees from northern remote First Nations, in particular Wabaseemoong First Nation, Durant Barristers made a donation.
It was particularly important for me that we do this for several reasons:
As a firm we are working to implement the 94 TRC Calls to Action in our work and supporting Indigenous social services is one aspect of that.
The world is burning. Climate change is here whether we are ready or not, and we all need to be doing our part to support climate adaptation and mitigation. This includes preparing for people to be displaced by climate change. I hope by supporting Atlohsa today we can continue to learn and support climate refugees in the future.
Lastly, as the daughter of a forest firefighter I've grown up very aware of the dangers of forest fires, their role in our natural environment and the hardships communities and responders alike face. I am lucky in many ways because it was my dad being deployed away from home, and I can't imagine how challenging it must be for entire families to be displaced from their homes for extended periods of time.
I hope others in the legal community will consider making a donation to Atlohsa or another Indigenous organization in their area supporting the fire evacuees.
Interested in learning more about forest fires in Ontario?
You can see a map of all the active fires in the province here and learn more about fire response here.
