The Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum Group is coming to Toronto this spring for River Run 2016!
They will lead a week of events (May 30th to June 3rd) to raise public awareness about the struggle to clean up mercury that was dumped in their waters over 40 years ago. There will be public forums and discussions and it will all culminate in a large, creative march to Queen’s Park.
They need to hire a bus to bring community members 1,700 kms to Toronto and they need our support.
Please donate now!
http://riverrun2016.causevox.com/
A recent study says that mercury levels in Grassy Narrows are still rising some fifty years after a pulp mill dumped tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon water system between 1962 and 1970.
People in Grassy Narrows continue to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning, exhibiting symptoms such as loss of motor function, tingling and weakness in limbs, difficulty speaking and swallowing.
Mercury levels in sediment in Clay Lake and parts of the Wabigoon River are twice the Canadian threshold for remediation and are on the rise in other area lakes where the people of Grassy Narrows continue to catch and eat fish, the report says.
For decades, Grassy Narrows community members have been on the front lines of the movement to defend the earth and to uphold indigenous self-determination, culture and spirituality. They have stopped logging companies who were set on clearcutting local forests but the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources continues to support these destructive industries with its new Forest Management Plan, which calls for clearcut logging on Grassy territory.
For more information visit www.FreeGrassy.net
And please take a moment to make a donation by clicking on the link below:
http://riverrun2016.causevox.com/
