On July 7th, The Council of Canadians marched with allies through Toronto carrying a red canoe filled with the signatures of 35,000 people who have written to the Premier calling for justice for Grassy Narrows First Nation. The marchers chanted “Justice for Grassy Narrows – clean the river now!” and “Water is sacred!” as they made their way to the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park, where the canoe was delivered.
A number of speakers, including Mark Calzavara, Regional Organizer with the Council of Canadians, addressed the crowd:
“We support the community of Grassy Narrows in calling on the Wynne government to commit to providing the best possible healthcare for mercury survivors, to adequately compensate those who have been impacted, to fund an environmental health monitoring station run by the people of Grassy Narrows, to establish a comprehensive monitoring of pollution sources, to end corporate logging without community approval and finally, to remediate the mercury contamination in the English-Wabigoon River system. These are our responsibilities as treaty partners of Grassy Narrows First Nation.
For decades, the Ontario government has known that effective remediation is possible. Now we ALL know that this is possible. If Premier Wynne does not act now, she risks becoming the new face of colonialism. The people of Grassy have suffered far too long.
Premier Wynne must act now to clean up the mercury, to heal the people and to heal the waters.”
For any who haven’t taken action yet, it’s not too late!
More photos from this action are available here.
The Council of Canadians has been working in solidarity with the community of Grassy Narrows for many years. More of our coverage of this issue is available here.