New bill enfeebles 50-year-old Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, spurs new activism

By John Jackson ( May 10, 2022, 9:44 AM EDT) -- Fifty years ago, on April 15, 1972, then President Richard Nixon and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between Canada and the United States. While they were on Parliament Hill signing this agreement, demonstrators were on nearby streets protesting the Vietnam War and calling for the liberation of Canada from U.S. influence. Despite these tensions between Canada and the U.S., the two countries took this precedent-setting step of committing to work together “to restore and enhance water quality in the Great Lakes System.”...