Repeated evacuations strain mental health in Northern Ontario

By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Nova Moonias is only two weeks old but she has already flown home to Neskantaga First Nation following an evacuation, and five days later, she was evacuated again. Nova’s mother Wanita was living in a Toronto hotel in July, after fleeing forest fires that threatened the northwestern Ontario fly-in community. The baby was expected on August 12, but medical professionals induced labour on July 28 so mother and child could fly back north with their family and neighbours. The three-day-old became a symbol of hope in that moment; Neska…