Wildfires, Smoke and Our Health: Making Sense of Canada's Wildfires in 2026

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) brought together wildfire and health experts to make sense of Canada's 2026 wildfire season, which broke records for area burned. This year's wildfires forced First Nations communities to evacuate, destroyed homes and covered cities across North America in smoke. Pollution from fossil fuels is heating the planet and making fire seasons longer and more dangerous. Until we transition to clean energy, wildfire smoke will be a growing health emergency. In this webinar: John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, describes a whole hemisphere in distress. Justin Ersser of Grand Council Treaty #3, emergency coordination manager, explains how wildfire becomes a health and housing emergency for First Nations. Janna Wale (Gitxsan and Cree-Métis), Indigenous climate researcher, explains how cultural fire is restoring relationships that colonial fire suppression disrupted. Dr. Samantha Green, CAPE president and family physician, covers the health effects of smoke. She calls for climate action, starting with no new pipelines and a phase-out of fracking and LNG. Sign our petition calling for stronger federal wildfire action: https://myclimateplan.com/petition/do... Timeline: 0:00 Welcome and land acknowledgement 0:38 Canada's record 2026 wildfire season 1:45 John Vaillant: A hemisphere in distress 8:38 Fire as kin: rethinking our relationship with fire 10:31 Justin Ersser: Wildfire in Treaty #3 territory 14:49 Repeated evacuations and the wildfire cycle 16:48 Why impacts are different for First Nations 17:52 Smoke arrives first: health risks before the fire 19:33 Evacuation means moving patients, not just people 20:47 The challenge of finding host communities 22:22 What health and emergency management can do together 23:16 Janna Wale: Our relationship with fire 25:41 Colonialism, fire suppression and the Indian Act 28:40 Gitxsan cultural fire and Lax'yip firekeepers 29:43 Cultural fire vs. prescribed burns 31:37 Three ways to restore balance with fire 33:00 Dr. Samantha Green: What wildfires mean for health 36:15 What's in wildfire smoke 37:41 Short-term health risks and who's most vulnerable 38:59 Long-term effects of smoke exposure 40:31 Health toll of the 2023 fires 41:24 Protecting yourself: AQHI, air purifiers and N95s 42:22 Policy solutions 43:42 Q&A: Are emergency communications working? 48:08 Q&A: Indigenous knowledge in medicine and adapting cultural fire 50:26 Q&A: Supporting evacuees, masks and fossil fuel accountability 53:34 Q&A: How long does rebuilding take? 55:34 Take action: My Climate Plan petition 58:07 Closing remarks