News for October 15th, 2015

October 15 2015 // News

LOCAL
By Emeline Vidal

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre announced Wednesday that the city will not dump its sewage in the St Lawrence river, following a federal law.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Coderre warns that withholding the sewage could lead to breaks in the sewage system, which would cause long-term pollution to the river.

The Quebec Environment minister sides with Coderre, finding that the province had already fully examined the case.

No mention was made of where or when the sewage would be released.

 

NATIONAL
By Saturn De Los Angeles

A new investigation reveals that many First Nation communities in Canada have experienced severe water problems in the past decade.

According to CBC News, 400 out of the 618 communities had water advisories for as long as up to 20 years, such as Ontario's Neskantaga and British Columbia's Nazko First Nations.

First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Director - Cindy Blackstock - calls this finding outrageous that water - a basic life necessity - would be denied to Natives in a supposedly wealthy country.

Public researchers believe that a poorly maintained water infrastructure to rural areas and inadequate funding may be some of the many causes.

Federal agencies including Aboriginal Affairs declined to comment, but a Health Canada spokesperson acknowledged the seriousness of the issue.

 
 
INTERNATIONAL
By Julia Bryant
 
Scientists in China have made an unexpected discovery: human teeth fossils that date back at least 80,000 years ago.
 
According to BBC News, this discovery doesn't line up with the modern theory of how humans populated the earth.
 
The widely accepted theory was that modern humans dispersed from Africa about 60,000 years ago.
 
But this collection of 47 teeth dates back at least 20,000 years earlier.
 
The researchers are now trying to learn if the species that left these fossils went extinct, or if they really did contribute to global population.