Issue 1 2026 – Chiefs of Ontario Advocate magazine  l   19
and other impacts of the chemical  
on water and risk to human  
health. Additionally, COO wants to  
have a federal review of glyphosate  
herbicides and to establish a national 
working group with the Assembly of  
First Nations. 
Although there have been federal 
reviews of glyphosate in the past as well 
as court actions, First Nations voices 
have been absent. In December 2025, 
CTV News reported that four environ-
mental organizations took Health 
Canada to court over its approval of a 
glyphosate-based pesticide in 2022: “The 
Federal Court ruled in February of this 
year that the agency failed to show it 
considered new scientific evidence iden-
tifying new or elevated risks associated 
with the herbicide when it renewed the 
registration. It ordered Health Canada to 
reassess those risks within six months.”
Not all provincial jurisdictions side 
with the federal arm. Gimaa Sayers 
points to Quebec as an example, which 
hasn’t used glyphosate-based herbicides 
in 25 years, opting for alternatives in its 
forest management plan. In his Substack 
article, scientist Joseph Fournier, PhD, 
wrote, “Quebec is the sole Canadian 
province with a ban on glyphosate-based 
herbicides (e.g., Roundup) in its forestry 
sector, implemented in 2001 following 
public consultations over health and 
environmental concerns. This ban 
applies to Crown lands and prohibits 
chemical herbicides for vegetation 
management, favouring manual methods 
like mechanical thinning and adjusted 
planting practices.”
It’s not only First Nations in Ontario 
that are worried about the impacts of 
glyphosate. A volunteer-based group 
called Stop the Spray has been active for 
a number of years and has also amplified 
the voices of TEK Elders. On its social 
media page, the group has an awareness 
campaign that includes information 
about glyphosate effects on salamanders, 
forest management plans for regions 
within Ontario and cautions the public 
against consuming berries harvested in 
areas where spraying has occurred.
The concern about glyphosate 
extends beyond the borders of Ontario 
and Canada. There’s been a lot of court 
action south of the medicine line in 
the United States. The Guardian has 
reported the mounting lawsuits 
against Monsanto and its parent 
company Bayer for the application of 
glyphosate. In an April 2026 article, 
The Guardian reported, “The chem-
ical has been scientifically linked 
to cancer in multiple studies, and 
was classified a probable human 
carcinogen by an arm of the World 
Health Organization in 2015.” The 
media outlet also reported that the 
company has fought more than 100,000 
lawsuits from people who blame their 
non-Hodgkin lymphoma on exposure to 
the company’s weedkiller. There’s also a case 
before the Supreme Court in the United 
States, Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, in which 
the company is arguing that current  
federal pesticide laws exempt them from 
including a warning on the label. A  
decision is expected to come down later  
this summer.  
 
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communities developing meaningful relationships that share our 
values of commitment for economic and community development,  
as well as supporting education and training programs with 
Indigenous groups across Canada.
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