David Suzuki cuts a cake for his 90th birthday during a tour stop in Mississauga on March 24.
Environmental activist, broadcaster and Canadian academic David Suzuki marked his 90th birthday while on a tour stop in Mississauga on Tuesday.
Suzuki and his wife Tara Cullis, are on the David & Tara’s Stronger Together tour of southern Ontario. The tour stop brought together residents in a discussion about community care, connection and preparedness in the face of climate emergencies. The tour coincides with showings of What You Won’t Do For Love, a 90-minute stage play, developed with Why Not Theatre, exploring Suzuki and Cullis’s 50-year partnership in life and environmental activism.
Just before the event started in Mississauga’s Carmen Corbasson Community Centre, organizers brought out a cake and sang Happy Birthday.
Suzuki is known across Canada as the host of CBC TV’s The Nature of Things and before that the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks. Cullis and Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990.
Although many people settle into retirement after the age of 65, Suzuki wants to continue to share his knowledge and urges others to do the same.
“Every day, I wake up and I say ‘oh I am still alive,’ you don’t say, ‘I have to take a rest,’” Suzuki told INsauga.com before the event. “I tell elders, listen, ‘this is the most important time of your life, get off the couch, get off the golf course, get out there and tell people what you have learned in your lifetime.’”
Suzuki said that most seniors won’t count their jobs, a big house or fancy cars as the most important parts of their lives. They will instead focus on family, friends and the things they did for their community.
“We think that the economy is the source of everything that we need…and growth is the definition of success,” Suzuki said. “Right now, the global economy and the demand for growth is killing the planet.”
Coun. Fawn Sault of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation speaks with David Suzuki in Mississauga on March 24.
As severe weather becomes more frequent and intense, governments and emergency services may not be able to respond quickly or at the scale required to help everyone. In recent years, residents of Peel Region have dealt with heavy rain, ice storms and heat waves.
Mississauga experienced a “100-year flood” event in 2024, and forest fire smoke has led to air quality warnings each summer.
“I know Mississauga has taken some of the steps, not all the steps (to mitigate impacts of future floods),” Suzuki said. “Good for Mississauga, you took the warning from the floods.”
David Suzuki speaks with Mississauga Coun. Stephen Dasko and Dianne Zimmerman, City of Mississauga manager of the environment, at the Stronger Together event on March 24.
We are now living in a time where preparation for future climate events is more necessary than ever. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has urged action to prevent the average global temperature from rising more than 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. In 2025, we surpassed that target, Suzuki said.
Politicians worry about getting re-elected and corporations’ bottom line are the quarterly reports, Suzuki said. Nobody is worrying about the long-term impacts on the planet.
“The science now says it is too late to go back,” Suzuki told INsauga.com. “Mother nature is finally going to hammer the hell out of us, so governments are going to have to respond.”
Emergencies are now inevitable — storms, fires, floods and blackouts of greater magnitude, frequency and longevity — and governments will not be able to respond with the speed and scale required, he said.
Suzuki and Cullis said they looked to Finland as a model for preparing the community for climate change impacts. Finland sent a letter to each of their citizens to urge them to prepare, Suzuki said. Finland said the government won’t be able to respond as quickly as people may need. Communities must therefore be prepared.
The session in Mississauga, which included speakers Dr. Mili Roy (Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign/Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) and Sheila Murray from Community Resilience to Extreme Weather, in addition to Suzuki and Cullis, was meant to bring together community members and organizations to discuss community readiness. Cullis said she and Suzuki were there to hear the community and to lift them up.
“We are looking to the community as the unit of survival, as a source of solutions, and as the holders of potential political clout,” said Cullis. “So we want to hear what the Peel Region is up to and what we can all learn from you.”
David Suzuki and Tara Cullis chat at the event in Mississauga.
The room was packed and included community environmental organization members, local food advocates, teachers, religious leaders and politicians.
Mississauga Coun. Stephen Dasko noted the region is “experiencing the impacts of climate change.”
“Our summers are getting hotter, our heat waves are getting longer,” he said.
He pointed to city initiatives with climate-friendly features included in the renovations of the building the group had gathered in, the Carmen Corbasson Community Centre. There is an innovative energy project for the new Lakeview Village development project using the waste heat from the water treatment plant. There is also the Jim Tovey Conservation Area, which is expected to open in May.
Dianne Zimmerman, City of Mississauga manager of the environment, spoke about several city initiatives, including urban agriculture workshops, sustainable neighbourhood action plans, and social climate resilience analysis.
Photos: Karen Longwell
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