Akaash Maharaj

Joining the Advisory Council on the Canada-EU Trade Agreement

I have accepted an invitation from Canada’s Environment Minister to join the CEDAG advisory council, on the trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.

If we can make this treaty succeed, it will increase prosperity for all Canadians and lift environmental standards across our country.

If we can not, then Canada will remain vulnerable to the coercive trade policies of states that are prepared to lay waste to their own ecosystems and societies, and demand that we do the same to ours.

The Climate Wars

Climate wars are upon us.

Already, desperate people are fleeing areas rendered uninhabitable by extreme heat or drought, and colliding with neighbouring populations.

What can we do to push back an age of climate conflicts?

📆 Wednesday, 08 July 2026 ⏰ 17h00 EDT (21h00 UTC) 🎟️ https://per.maharaj.org/scan

I am grateful to Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!) for inviting me to speak for Nature Canada at this webinar.

Ecocide as an International Crime

In the biblical account, king Abimelech not only razed the city of Shechem, but also salted its lands, to leave it permanently barren and uninhabitable.

Three thousand years later, the community of nations still contends with crimes of “ecocide”: wanton acts that inflict catastrophic, long-term destruction on large areas of the natural world, whether during war or peace.

I have been speaking with my colleagues at the Council of Europe, about the prospects of Canada signing their Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law.

The Convention makes ecocide an international crime, and requires signatories to cooperate in enforcing the law and bringing the guilty to justice.

Canadian Interfaith Conversation Statement Against Antisemitism

Canada has never been defined by a single language, ethnicity, or faith. Instead, we are bound together by a set of shared values and mutual responsibilities.

Because of this, the escalating incidents of violent antisemitism in Canada are attacks not only against every Canadian Jew, but also against all Canadians and against Canada itself.

The Canadian Interfaith Conversation represents the full range of faith communities, including the Canadian Council of Churches, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the National Council of Canadian Muslims

We stand united against antisemitism, as we stand against all hatred.

Does the Iran-US agreement herald peace or merely a pause? 🎙️ CBC Radio’s Metro Morning

The interim peace agreement between Iran and the United States is astonishingly brittle.

The very first of its fourteen points declares an end to combat in Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a pitiless war that has killed 4000 people.

Yet, neither Hezbollah nor Israel had a seat at the negotiations, neither has laid down its arms, and neither has acceded to the agreement.

Anita Anand at the Munk School of Global Affairs

Anita Anand joined us at the Munk School of Global Affairs, to discuss her objectives as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

She focussed on her efforts to expand our web of international trading partners, especially as Canada, Mexico, and the United States continue the renegotiation of the CUSMA continental free trade agreement.

Outside, a small but vocal group protestors demonstrated against federal policies on the Middle East.

With the Crew of Artemis II

I thank Space Canada and the Canadian Space Agency for inviting me to their evening with the crew of the Artemis II.

The Canadian Museum of History felt like an apt venue for the crew to discuss their flight around the Moon: they had travelled further from Earth than any other human beings.

Brian Gallant led an absorbing conversation with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, and Jenni Gibbons.

The astronauts projected a sense of personal humility and public pride.

Fellows of the RCGS on Bluesky

One of Bluesky’s most attractive qualities is that it has become the platform of choice for social discussion of high-quality research and inquiry.

I am compiling the Starter Pack below, of my colleagues at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society who use Bluesky to share their activities as explorers, scientists, and educators.

I am in constant awe of their work. If you are at Bluesky, I think you would find them well worth following.

People’s Assembly for Nature

I enjoyed speaking with Nathalie Seddon, Oxford Professor of Biodiversity, about her role co-leading the People’s Assembly for Nature in Britain.

Nature Canada’s polling has consistently shown that Canadians believe nature is at the core of our identity, and that Canada can only build a resilient economy on a foundation of ecological responsibility.

I am considering whether a Canadian citizens’ assembly on nature could generate the national momentum necessary to sweep Canada’s political leaders into acting on the wisdom of Canada’s people.

The Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario

There may come a day when I will be able to drive past the Big Apple in Colborne, without stopping for an apple pie or to visit the animals.

That day is not today.

Tomorrow seems unlikely as well.

As do all the succeeding days.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) certainly has an unwieldy name. But at this fragile moment in history, it may decide whether Canada is able to preserve our sovereignty and our way of life.

The US tariff wars make it imperative that we diversify our international trade partnerships.

Negotiating new trade agreements is important, but they will take years to come fully into force.

CETA is in place right now. We must realise its full potential, urgently.

I spent three days at Global Affairs, with my colleagues on the Canadian Environment Domestic Advisory Group, in deliberations with our European counterparts.

Our mandate is to supply our governments with independent expertise on implementing CETA, in ways that will increase prosperity for all and lift environmental standards.

Our economies will flourish together, only if they are rooted in practices that protect our natural heritage and meet our responsibilities to future generations.

At James Cameron’s Induction into the Legion of Honour

When I think of the induction ceremony for France’s Legion of Honour, I imagine Inspector Clouseau fighting a pigeon in the film Revenge of the Pink Panther.

The reality is far more moving.

My Royal Canadian Geographical Society colleagues and I cheered on James Cameron, one of our Fellows, as Ambassador Michel Miraillet decorated him at France’s embassy in Ottawa.

I enjoyed our conversation on his work as a filmmaker, to rouse people across the world to the defence of nature, and to sustain our hope that our cause will prevail.

Fair Access to Parks and Green Space for All Torontonians | The Toronto Star

I suspect Torontonians would be horrified to fall into a fever dream where I served as their Mayor. But I was happy to respond to the Toronto Star’s question of what I would do in that role.

I would change land use and zoning rules, so everyone would have fair access to parks and green space, irrespective of wealth.

Today, the poorest fifth of Torontonians have access to a mere 7% of the city’s green space, while the richest fifth have access to 40%. Poor Torontonians and rich Torontonians occupy the same city, but they live in entirely different worlds.

Access to nature determines whether people experience Toronto as a leafy garden or as a concrete prison.

Speaking with Steven Guilbeault MP about Defending Parliamentary Democracy

Parliamentarians are meant to be the shield of democracy: standing between our leaders and the levers of power.

Yet, the federal government’s new “Major Projects” proposals would allow Ministers to act without legislative oversight, to exempt industrial projects from Canada’s environmental protection laws.

Worse still, there would be no domestic-good test: our laws could be waived to increase the profits of foreign companies, while impoverishing Canadians with the ecological costs.

My Nature Canada colleagues and I thank Steven Guilbeault for our conversation, on how MPs and all Canadians at large can defend parliamentary democracy and our local communities.

Nature is the Solution, Not the Problem

Canadians support faster environmental reviews. We need businesses to receive prompt decisions on industrial proposals.

But as The Guardian reports, the federal government plans to accelerate its reviews not by increasing its own efficiencies, but by lowering public standards.

Its plans would create new “Federal Economic Zones” where established nature protections would not apply, and they would empower Ministers to license businesses to wipe out endangered species.

Nature is not an impediment to economic development; environmental assessment is the “credit check” before we write the loan. It is due diligence, fiduciary responsibility, and the only way to build prosperity that endures.

We can not build our economy by laying waste to our country.

Healing Divisions in a Diverse Society

In societies across the world, we see the war of all against all.

The common power that can draw us together is not the might of governments, but our determination as people to offer others the same compassion that we hope to receive from them.

📆 Saturday, 23 May 2026 ⏰ 15h00 EDT 📍 3500 Cambrian Rd, Ottawa 🎟️ https://gandhiji.ca/

Addressing the House of Commons Environment Committee, on the Nature Accountability Act

When Canadians call a promise “a political promise”, we are rarely expressing confidence that that promise will be kept.

Accordingly, I was enthusiastic about the proposed Nature Accountability Act, meant to legally enforce federal Environment Ministers’ conservation and biodiversity promises.

But as I told the last Parliament, Bill C-73 needed deep amendments to create an accountability law worthy of its name.

Yesterday, Secretary of State for Nature Nathalie Provost said that she will not proceed with a Bill at all.

My Nature Canada colleagues and I will maintain democratic pressure on the government to keep its promises to Canadians and to the natural world.