Why the Swim Drink Fish Art for Water Gala Matters Now More Than Ever: A Fan’s Note

By Mark Mattson

Gord Downie

Next week, on Thursday, May 28, 2026, the Swim Drink Fish family will enter the doors of the historic Design Exchange and the room will fill with our voices, art and music.

For the past 14 years, this single night has been an anchor for me. As a Waterkeeper, you spend most of your days organizing teams, analyzing data and looking at maps of what is broken. But for one evening, I get to step back, look across a crowded room, and see a living map of people who care, artists, advocates, scientists, and neighbours. It is a rare, necessary moment to connect and remember we are not doing this alone.

This year, the room will feel different as we move to a new space. The 14th Annual Art For Water Gala is officially sold out and we are deeply honored to have Jill Deacon guiding us through the evening. In addition to hearing from important voices about our work, we will have music and we will auction over 25 incredible pieces of art that will directly support our work.

What the Water is Telling Us in 2026

In Canada, many comfort themselves with the myth that Canada is a water-rich nation. On paper, the numbers back this up. But I have learned over the years that abundance breeds a dangerous kind of blindness. When you assume something will always be there, you stop looking at it closely.

If you stand at the edge of Lake Ontario for example and really listen, the signals are impossible to ignore. Nearly 70 percent of the coastal wetlands that used to filter this lake are gone, paved over by concrete and a lack of imagination. We live in a massive world-class city built on the shores of a Great Lake, yet we have lost the simple dignity of being able to sustainably harvest and share its fish. And every time a heavy spring rain hits Toronto, billions of litres of untreated sewage bypass our systems and pour directly into the water we drink.

More than nine million of us rely on Lake Ontario to drink. It literally shapes our bodies, our health, and our children's futures. Yet, if we keep drifting along the path we are on, the life within this ecosystem will continue to quietly slip away over the coming decades.

People are feeling this loss now. They feel it intuitively. My phone rings more often these days with calls from communities who are not just angry—they are grieving. They are looking for clarity, for a way forward, and for someone to give the water a voice.

Our Mission is Our Promise

When we started Lake Ontario Waterkeeper back in 2001, our mission was straightforward: use science, the law, and the stubborn voices of citizens to protect the right to clean water.

That core promise has not changed, but I have.

In the early days, I thought we could fix this by winning arguments. But a small team—even one that has fought its way from local council halls all the way to the Supreme Court—eventually learns that legal victories are only half the battle. We had to earn friendships and build community.

To do that, we created tools we could share like the Swim Guide, which now helps millions of people worldwide connect with their beaches. We worked in partnership with all our nations that shared the water and created educational tools like the Biinaagami map. We gained insight into our work. People will not protect what they do not love, and you cannot love what you have never experienced.

Further we worked on developing relationships with water. Our work is no longer just about defending water from harm. It is about remembering how to live in a relationship with it.

This past year, that shift has felt deeper and more meaningful than ever. Whether it is the quiet momentum building around our upcoming harbour project in Burrard Inlet, the creative energy of the Wave Prize, or the evolution of the Great Lakes Guide into the Biinaagami initiative, we are learning a new vocabulary. We are moving away from the old, colonial mindset of owning and controlling water, and moving toward a deeper understanding of shared responsibility and stewardship.

Art has always been the bridge for this transition.

Last week, we launched the Great Lakes exhibition, curated by Thunder Bay Art Gallery and created by Robert Burley. It will travel from Hamilton all the way to Paris in 2 weeks before returning home and touring the Great Lakes. The reaction so far has been inspiring. Science can give us the facts we need to act, but it is art, culture, and story that move our hearts enough to make us care.

A Moment of Choice

Looking ahead, the momentum is growing. In 2027, Swim Drink Fish will help bring the global Swimmable Cities Summit to Ottawa. It will be a massive opportunity to support the work of our colleague Matt Sykes and his collaborators from around the globe, to show the world how urban communities can reclaim their waters. But that future depends entirely on what we do right now, in 2026.

Stephen Ranger and Mark Mattson

Since 2012, this gala has raised over 5 million dollars. That money is the lifeblood of our testing kits, our legal fees, and our field work. But the true legacy of this night is not found on a balance sheet. It is found in the community it has forged.

It is a community that understands that saving a river or a lake is not just a technical or legal puzzle—it is a deeply emotional, human endeavor. We carry the memory of voices like Gord Downie, who stood with us, and visual prophets like Edward Burtynsky, Peter Doig, James Lahey, Marlyn McMaster, Christi Belcourt, Nicole Katsuras and over another 100 incredible artists who supported us with their creativity and generosity. This year, we add new names, new artists, and new galleries to that lineage. To everyone who donated a piece of their soul to this year’s auction: thank you. You have given us a mirror to see the water clearly.

We are at a critical point. Our waters will not be saved by a single organization, a single lawsuit or a single politician. It will be decided by a collective of people and the choices we make, the relationships we nurture and the care we bring into our daily lives together.

Whether you are sitting at a table with us next Thursday at the Design Exchange or bidding on a painting from your laptop across the country, you are holding the line with us.

Thank you for being part of the story.

I will see you, one way or another, at the water’s edge.

Always grateful.

Mark