From flames to Falls: Canada’s Indigenous wildfire evacuees take refuge in Niagara – CTV News
June 09, 2025
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — As wildfires engulfed Manitoba’s remote north in late May, Joseph Garry, 63, fled the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation indigenous reserve, also known as Pukatawagan, on a helicopter.
With other evacuees, he took three separate government flights before boarding a bus to find shelter in Niagara Falls, Canada’s most popular tourist destination, some 2,000 kilometres from home.
Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate in three provinces, spreading smoke into the U.S., and disrupting crude oil and mining production.
