TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 22, 2026--
Outdoor lifestyle brand, Roots Corporation("Roots") (TSX: ROOT), is celebrating its third year of partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) by launching a limited-edition t-shirt series, dedicated to supporting conservation efforts in one of the country’s most ecologically significant regions. In collaboration with Accelerating Circularity, these t-shirts demonstrate how used textiles can be recycled into new materials.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260422328372/en/
The collection features three designs: Coastal Forest, Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest, and Boreal Forest, celebrating Canada’s diverse landscapes and ecosystems. Proudly made in Canada, these T-shirts are crafted from sustainable fabric and incorporate recycled cotton to promote textile reuse and reduce landfill waste, while highlighting the crucial role of Canada’s forests in supporting clean air, climate stability, and biodiversity. By incorporating conservation awareness into apparel, consumers are invited to participate in protecting Canada’s natural landscapes.
All proceeds from the collection will support NCC’s on-the-ground conservation and stewardship work in Ontario, including securing and caring for priority lands in the Frontenac Arch and supporting long-term ecological monitoring.
Spanning more than 171,000 hectares, the Frontenac Arch is one of Canada’s most biodiverse regions and a vital ecological corridor linking Algonquin Park to the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. This work helps protect clean water, support local communities and keep these landscapes accessible for future generations.
“At Roots, nature is not just an influence, it is the foundation of who we are and how we started,” said Meghan Roach, President and CEO of Roots Corporation. “Our connection to Algonquin Park has shaped the brand for more than five decades and continues to inspire what we design and create. Through our partnership with NCC, we are proud to help protect the landscapes that inspire our products, while giving our community a way to support conservation through what they wear. This series celebrates that connection and reinforces our commitment to protecting Canada’s natural habitats.”
Roots has supported NCC since 2024, and is dedicated to strengthening habitat connectivity, protecting critical ecosystems and ensuring long-term stewardship across the Frontenac Arch landscape. This initiative also contributes to broader conservation goals aimed at safeguarding more of Canada’s lands and waters for future generations.
“This partnership shows how leading brands and conservation organizations can work together to deliver real, on-the-ground results,” said Aaron Bilyea, Chief Marketing Officer, Nature Conservancy of Canada. “With Roots, we’re advancing conservation in places like the Frontenac Arch by securing and stewarding landscapes that protect clean water, strengthen communities and build long-term resilience.”
Established to support corporate sponsorships like this, Roots Cares has collectively donated over $4 million to community organizations and environmental initiatives across Canada since its launch in 2020.
In celebration of Earth Month, the new Roots x NCC t-shirt series will be available for purchase April 22, for $68.00CAD (excluding taxes) at roots.com for a limited time. Every purchase gives back. All proceeds from product sales supports Roots multi-year partnership with Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Shop now on Roots.com and follow @Roots on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn.
Visit Roots Cares to learn more about its initiatives.
ABOUT ROOTS CORPORATION
Established in 1973, Roots is a global lifestyle brand. Starting from a small cabin in northern Canada, Roots has become a global brand with over 100 corporate retail stores in Canada, two stores in the United States, and an eCommerce platform, www.roots.com, that serves many international markets. We have more than 100 partner-operated stores in Asia, and we also operate a dedicated Roots-branded storefront on Tmall.com in China. We design, market, and sell a broad selection of products in different departments, including women's, men's, children, and gender-free apparel, leather goods, footwear, and accessories. Our products are built with uncompromising comfort, quality, and style that allows you to feel at home with nature. We offer products designed to meet life's everyday adventures and provide you with the versatility to live your life to the fullest. We also wholesale through business-to-business channels and license the brand to a select group of licensees selling products to major retailers. Roots Corporation is a Canadian corporation doing business as "Roots" and "Roots Canada."
ABOUT THE NATURE CONSERVANCY OF CANADA (NCC)
Since 1962, the Nature Conservancy of Canada has brought people together to protect the lands and waters that sustain us all. As an environmental charity working hand in hand with communities, Indigenous Nations, governments and businesses, we deliver nature-based solutions at a scale no one else can. Our conservation work safeguards clean air and water, stores carbon and reduces the risks of floods and wildfires — protecting our health, strengthening local economies and building more resilient communities. Together, we unlock nature’s power, so life can thrive. Learn more at natureconservancy.ca.
Roots Continues Partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Launches Special T-Shirt Series for Earth Month
MONGOMO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday to work for justice and to close the gap “between the privileged and the disadvantaged” as he opened a day drawing attention to the vast income inequalities and human rights abuses in the Central African country.
Leo began the day with Mass in Mongomo, an eastern city on the border with Gabon that has experienced major development since Equatorial Guinea’s oil boom in the 1990s. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism in his four-decade rule, comes from Mongomo and the city has benefited from government investment and infrastructure, even though no official institutions are located here.
While more than half of Equatorial Guinea's population lives in poverty, Mongomo boasts opulent buildings, curated gardens behind gilt-tipped gates, an 18-hole golf course and is the starting point of the lone highway in the country, linking the city to Bata on the west coast.
Obiang and his wife were on hand for Leo's Mass, as was their son, Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang, the country's vice president who was convicted of embezzling millions of euros by a French court, which handed him a three-year suspended sentence, a 30 million euro ($35.2 million) fine and ordered the seizure of his luxury homes and cars in France worth tens of millions of euros. The country has protested the seizures at the International Court of Justice.
Last year, the United States gave the younger Obiang a temporary waiver on U.S. corruption sanctions so he could travel to a U.N. gathering and visit other American cities. Obiang also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The Vatican said an estimated 100,000 people attended the Mass, most standing in the grand entryway to Mongomo's Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The monumental church was consecrated in 2011 and is modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Before Mass, Leo greeted the crowd and the presidential family. With the Obiangs by his side, he blessed the cornerstone of a future cathedral to be built in the country's new capital, Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace.
In his homily, Leo urged all citizens to work together to build a society “capable of engendering a new sense of justice,” where there is “greater room for freedom” and where “the dignity of the human person always may be safeguarded.”
He urged everyone, according to their roles, to work to “serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.”
Later in the day he was to visit a prison in the port city of Bata, continuing the tradition of Pope Francis, who made such visits a priority of his pontificate. Francis’ aim was to give prisoners hope and to remind them the church was with them, while also shining a spotlight on judicial abuses, overcrowding and other injustices.
Equatorial Guinea's prisons and justice system overall have been repeatedly faulted by the U.N. and condemned by human rights groups and the U.S. State Department.
In its 2023 report on the country, the U.S. listed a host of abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful killings and arrests, political detentions, torture, life-threatening prison conditions and “serious problems” with the independence of the judiciary.
“Amnesty International has serious concerns about the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea,” said Marta Colomer Aguilera, senior campaigner at Amnesty's West and Central Africa office.
She said torture had been used to extract confessions or to punish, human rights defenders are harassed, and the lack of judicial independence compromised the right to a fair trial.
Obiang has been in power in Equatorial Guinea since 1979.
After sanctions were lifted on the younger Obiang, it emerged that Equatorial Guinea was one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.
Reporting by The Associated Press shows that at least 29 such migrants with no ties to the country have been deported here. They were not sent to the prison in Bata. Some remain in detention in the city of Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical support, while others have been forcibly returned to their countries where they face persecution.
The government has denied rights abuses and hasn’t commented when asked to respond to questions about abuses involving the U.S. migration deportation deal.
Leo has criticized the Trump administration’s overall migration deportation policy as “extremely disrespectful.”
On the eve of his prison visit, 70 human rights organizations published an open letter to Leo, urging him to speak out especially about U.S. deportation of migrants here and encourage African nations to not be complicit.
“These practices circumvent humanitarian protections, expose refugees to detention and coercion, and subject individuals to refoulement, in direct contravention of international law,” they wrote, referring to the legal concept that prohibits countries from sending people to places where their lives or freedoms are at risk.
“The conditions under which these deportations have been carried out have also reflected a very troubling disregard for human life and safety. We call for the intercession of Pope Leo XIV to discourage African countries from being complicit in these violations and instead to protect these individuals,” the groups said.
In the run-up to Leo’s arrival, the government released nearly 100 people who had been arrested in a 2022 crackdown on street violence, according to a local lawyer, who requested anonymity given the country’s human rights record.
The lawyer termed the releases one “positive outcome” of the visit, though the lawyer noted that the government still hasn’t taken action on releasing politicians such as Gabriel Nsé Obiang, who has been in jail since 2022 preelection unrest, or activists including Anacleto Micha or Joaquin Elo Ayeto.
EG Justice, a rights group which has repeatedly denounced the detention of political prisoners in Equatorial Guinea, urged Leo to use his moral authority to speak out about abuses and the detention of activists and politicians especially.
“There are individuals — prisoners of conscience, and human rights activists — in detention whose cases raise serious humanitarian and due process concerns,” said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice group. “At moments like this, sentence review and a real commitment to reform the judiciary can send a powerful signal of a willingness to turn a page toward justice and reconciliation.”
AP writer Monika Pronczuk contributed from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on the 10th day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa, in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on the 10th day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa, in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on the 10th day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa, in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, on the 10th day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa, in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on the 10th day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV blesses the faithful at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV, delivers a speech during his meeting with the staff and patients of the "Jean Pierre Olie" Psychiatric Hospital in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of his meeting with representatives of the world of culture in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV waves to the faithful prior to the start of a meeting with representatives of the world of culture in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV at the airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Pope Leo XIV, flanked by Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, right, is welcomed by Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang Mayé, left, and Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang upon his arrival at Malabo International Airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
