Back to life The Toronto river that's roaring again after 50 years

After decades of illness, includinga cholera scare and bouts of malaria, Toronto's Don River succumbed to mounting neglect and was pronounced dead in 1969

-  Leyland Cecco

A funeral procession of environmental activists wound through the city, with mourners gathering at the polluted banks of the river to pay their final respects.

After more than half a century, however, the river has roared back to life. Wildlife is gingerly returning to areas that were once the site of heavy industry. Its waters will soon become cleaner. And after decades of advocacy work from a small group of frustrated citizens, the city is spending billions to save the once-despised body of water.

The waterway, named after the River Don in Yorkshire, England, is  neither revered nor loved. On most days, it is little more than an overgrown creek, occasionally morphing into a torrent of turbid waters in a rainstorm.

Indigenous peoples, including the Anishinaabe, Seneca and Mississauga, would fish its shores and harvest from along its banks. But the thick and wild ravine system the river flows through was hard to navigate .

For most of Toronto’s urban history, it was a dumping ground, said Jennifer Bonnell, an associate professor of history at Toronto’s York University. Tanneries, distilleries and abattoirs discharged effluent into the river and dead livestock could be found drifting in the murky water.