A large portion of my childhood was spent living in Ottawa, Ontario. It is where my grandparents lived and where I went to school for Grades 1-3 and later on, high school. The Rideau River, which runs through the city of Ottawa, will forever have its Watermark on me as the water body associated with spending precious time with my grandparents. They lived in a house across from the river (we could see the water from their living room) and a short walking distance to Mooney's Bay Beach. I recall going on walks as a little girl with my grandpa down the sidewalk in the summer to run around Mooney's Bay and play in and around the water. The Rideau River is also where I learned how to skate. In the winter, I enjoyed skating with friends and family across the frozen Canal and getting hot chocolate and Beavertails from the stands on the ice.

In recent years, there has been a change to people's access to the Rideau River. The Rideau Canal has been taking longer and longer to freeze over in the wintertime as temperatures rise. This most recent winter from 2022 into 2023 has been the first where the Canal did not open at all, as the ice could not get thick enough to safely walk or skate on. This is an important indication of the consequences of climate change warming, and how it negatively impacts our ability to safely use and access the water in a recreational context. The delayed freezing of the Rideau Canal is not only negative for disrupting people and aquatic life, it also harms Ottawa's tourism industry. All of these consequences signify how important it is to protect our precious water bodies from climate change, among the many other threats they experience.