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The Right to Water
March 20, 2017
February 13, 2017
“I thank the grassroots people of Grassy Narrows, and our supporters who have been tireless in their work to gain justice for mercury survivors at long last.” -- Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister
The province of Ontario has just made a public commitment to clean up the river system on which the people of Grassy Narrows depend.
The announcement follows a meeting between Premier Kathleen Wynne and the people of Grassy Narrows last Friday.
The province’s commitment reportedly includes a promise that the river clean up will be led by the people of Grassy Narrows themselves.
Grassy Narrows is the site of one of the worst incidents of industrial pollution in Canada. A half century ago, an upstream pulp and paper mill was allowed to dump tonnes of mercury into the river system. The people of Grassy Narrows are still dealing with the disastrous impacts on their health and way of life.
February 09, 2017
For the overwhelming majority of Canadians, access to safe drinking water is something we take for granted. Any interruptions to the flow of clean water from our taps are rare and momentary, lasting a few hours or perhaps days at most.
It’s an entirely different story for a shocking number of First Nations.
As of last Fall, 110 First Nations were living under advisories to either boil their water or not drink it at all. The number is often much higher. In many cases, these advisories have been in place for years. In some instances, First Nations have lived a generation or longer without safe, reliable water.
Prime Minister Trudeau has made a public commitment to end this water insecurity by 2020. It’s a welcome and important promise. But unfortunately it’s one that the federal government is in very real danger of breaking.
The barriers to water justice – bureaucratic and financial – are set out in an important new study released by the David Suzuki Foundation and Council of Canadians, and with advisers Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
January 17, 2017
By Craig Benjamin
It’s information that the Ontario government could – and should – have brought to light, but failed to do so.
Last year, the provincial government stated that it had not been able to find any evidence to support claims by a former millworker that barrels of mercury had been buried at a site upstream from the Grassy Narrows First Nation and might now be leaching into their water system.
Last week, however, the Toronto Star reported that members of the environmental NGO Earthroots had conducted their own soil tests at a location identified by the mill worker and found mercury levels as much as 80 times higher than normal. The findings were replicated by tests done by the Toronto Star. Scientists who reviewed the finding said there was little doubt that this was industrial mercury.
The story is particularly concerning because it is the latest revelation of Ontario’s persistent and shocking disregard for the basic safety and well-being of the people of Grassy Narrows.
October 26, 2016
In an extraordinary victory for Indigenous rights and environmental protection, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has agreed to measures to reduce immediate risks to Inuit health and culture from the Muskrat Falls dam.
Following almost two weeks of protests, including a hunger strike, occupations of the dam site and a journey to Ottawa, the government met yesterday with Inuit and Innu leaders. The result was an agreement to:
October 24, 2016
A hunger strike by three Inuit land defenders - Billy Gauthier, Jerry Kohlmeister and Delilah Saunders – is a powerful symbol of the tragic choices that will face Inuit hunters and fishers if planned flooding for the Muskrat Falls dam goes ahead.
Flooding will release deadly methylmercury into the water system where it will accumulate in the fish, seals, duck eggs and other wild food that are central to the diet of Inuit people living around the downstream Lake Melville Estuary.
The provincial government plans to monitor the fish and issue warnings when the mercury levels become unsafe.
A government MP summed it up this approach in a facebook post: “Just measure MeHg [methylmercury] levels, eat less fish.”
What this approach means for Inuit families is an impossible choice between abandoning the food that sustains them and their culture, or risking the devastating impacts of mercury poisoning.
“I come from a very large family that couldn’t get by without country food,” Delilah Saunders explained.
September 27, 2016
The mercury contamination of the waters of the Grassy Narrows First Nation – a situation now a half-century old and still unresolved – is one of the more notorious environmental disasters in Canadian history.
Astonishingly, information obtained by the community over the last year, along with recent media reports, paints a picture of the treatment of Grassy Narrows at the hands of both the federal and provincial governments that is even worse than anyone had imagined.
In the 1960s, the provincial government allowed a pulp mill in the northwest Ontario town of Dryden to release chemical by-products and waste, including an estimate 9 tonnes of mercury, into the English and Wabigoon river system. By the early 1970s it was discovered that natural processes had transformed the mercury into the deadly form of methyl-mercury which had accumulated in fish to such levels that commercial fishing in these waters was shut down.
May 25, 2016
By Craig Benjamin
"Clean the English-Wabigoon River System. Water is sacred." Judy da Silva, Grassy Narrows First Nation
February 11, 2016
Organizations from across Canada are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take immediate action to halt construction of the Site C dam in north-eastern British Columbia
In an open letter released today, more than 25 organizations, including Amnesty International, the David Suzuki Foundation, and Sierra Club BC, denounced the project for violation of rights protected under Treaty 8, the Canadian Constitution, and international human rights law.
Although promoted by the government of BC as a “clean” source of renewable energy, the joint federal-provincial environmental impact assessment panel concluded that the Site C dam would severely and permanently undermine Indigenous peoples’ use of the land and destroy important cultural sites and a unique ecosystem.
November 09, 2015
Inuit people in Labrador who depend on the Lake Melville estuary to hunt and fish are concerned about the impact of a large hydro-electric dam being built upstream. They are particularly concerned that the dam will lead to methylmercury contamination of fish and seals, rendering them unsafe to eat.
The Inuit government of Nunatsiavut has not opposed the Muskrat Falls dam. But it has called for rigorous measures to protect the health and livelihoods of its people. These measures include a full clearing of the reservoir before flooding to reduce the amount of methylmercury produced, establishment of a downstream monitoring program designed and overseen by an independent expert advisory committee; and significant Inuit participation in high-level environmental monitoring and management decisions.
November 09, 2015
House of Assembly
Confederation Building, East Block
P.O. Box 8700
St. John's, NL A1B 4J6
RE: Inuit rights and downstream impacts of the planned Muskrat Falls dam
Dear Premier Paul Davis, Mr. Dwight Ball, and Mr. Earle McCurdy,
Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the potential for the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam to cause serious harm to downstream Inuit communities has not been properly dealt with, as required both by Canadian law and international human rights standards. We are writing this letter to you in your capacities as party leaders because we believe this is a pressing human rights concern that, regardless of the outcome of the upcoming provincial election, requires action and vigilance from both the government and the entire legislative assembly.
Join us for the Karuara tour, organized in support of Kukama Indigenous activists who are protecting their rivers and culture in Peru’s northern Amazon region from extractive and exploitative industries. “Karuara” means people of the river in the Kukama language, and refers to the sacred guardians of the Amazon’s waterways.
Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, president of the Kukama Women’s Federation, will be traveling across the province during October with filmmakers Miguel Araoz and Stephanie Boyd. For the past 20 years Mari Luz has been protecting rivers in the Amazon from oil exploration, dredging, and other mega-projects such as hydroelectric dams. The trio will present their short film Parana-The River, which highlights Mari Luz’s tireless work to defend the Marañon River and her culture. They will also present a book of traditional Kukama stories, illustrated by children and entitled Karuara, People of the River (2016).
