A turtle never tells

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Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00

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A turtle never tells r1 Meet Grace, a snapping turtle in Haliburton County, Ont., who began walking the Earth around 1897 — the year future PM Lester B. Pearson was born. ... BECOME A MEMBER We’ll get to the turtles, I promise.

But first, we need to address the elephant in the room: the blockades, protests and occupations across the country by those opposed to vaccine mandates.

The police response to these events? A whole lot different than the reaction to the 2020 Indigenous-led rail blockades against the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Take Alberta, which enacted a law at the time to defend so-called critical infrastructure, laying out hefty penalties and jail time for those blocking anything from sidewalks to pipelines.

The hesitation to use that legislation in the enforcement of the Coutts, Alta., border blockade has led First Nations leaders in the province to point to what they say is a racist double standard, Drew Anderson reports.

It’s also worth noting that journalists across the country covering these blockades have been subject to threats, intimidation and harassment. The Narwhal stands with the Canadian Association of Journalists in denouncing these attacks.

Now, as promised…

“Because the news cycle has been a dumpster fire of insane things,” Ontario reporter Fatima Syed told me, “I think people really enjoyed just taking a break and meeting Grace.”
Who’s Grace? A snapping turtle in Haliburton County, Ont., who began walking the Earth around 1897 — the year future prime minister Lester B. Pearson was born.

The good vibes have been pouring into Fatima’s inbox ever since her story on Ontario’s oldest known female turtle was published over the weekend.

Among those messages are some well-meaning scientists questioning exactly how old Grace really is (it’s extremely hard to nail down a turtle’s age: a turtle never tells and all that). “But they agree that she’s old and she’s very big and needs to be protected,” Fatima says. “And that she’s a queen, obviously.”

“She is the reigning queen of the world.”

That reigning queen of the world first caught Leora Berman’s attention in 2018, when she got a call about a 38-centimetre-long turtle spotted in front of a school bus. It took two biologists to lift the chonky queen away from the vehicle.

“I called her Grace because she’s got one eye and it is by grace that she is still alive,” Berman, the founder of two non-profit volunteer groups dedicated to turtle protection, told Fatima.

Turtles can live for two centuries, but the reality is many are hit by drivers; these species walk the same path from nest to hibernation their entire lives, meaning many now cross roads that used to be farmland or forests.

The tension between protection and development is one that’s playing out across Ontario, where all eight turtle species are classified as different levels of species-at-risk.

That’s left regular citizens to step up to make sure Grace and other turtles live another day, with volunteer groups popping up across the province.

One of those groups is in Brampton, where a large wetland has long been left to fend for itself. Turtles have the incredible capacity to help create new habitats for fish and wildlife and even create reservoirs in wetlands experiencing drought conditions.

“In my head I’m thinking of all the uncles and aunties that I know who live in Brampton watching for turtles,” Fatima says with a laugh.

Take care and live to 120,

Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
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