Lake of Shame: Ontario’s pollution problem

Viagra in the water, fish unfit to eat, environmental standards ignored. Critics say parts of Lake Ontario are ‘as bad as it’s ever been.’

Just below the soaring Scarborough Bluffs, 17-month old Piper Clark scoops the fine sand into gloppy pies. Her brother Reed, 4, bravely ventures deeper into the water.

Around them on this hot summer day, bikini-clad girls frolic and tease boys in the waves, while the lifeguard warns them from straying too far out.

Colonies of swallows, warily eyeing the hawks soaring above, cling to the sandy face of the cliff.

Colleen Clark, a nurse, stands watch over her toddlers, her feet in the water, her dress hitched up above her knees.

“Oh sure, I let them go in,” she says, pointing to the green flag indicating the water is safe. “But I wouldn’t let them drink it.”

A few kilometres west of Bluffer’s Park, just below the Gardiner, two adult geese paddle around Keating Channel with their four fluffy goslings

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