Da Silva at the United Nations last week. Twitter photo
Grassy Narrows (Asubpeechoseewagong) First Nation resident Judy Da Silva was at the United Nations in Geneva last week to speak about her nation’s struggle for the right to water.
The Toronto Star reports, “Da Silva took her community’s case for safe drinking water to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arguing that Canada had violated those rights by failing to address mercury pollution in Grassy Narrows. Canada signed the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976. The UN monitors performance by summoning signatory nations for periodic review. Canada was last reviewed in 2006 and this year was up again. It’s a long way to go for justice. And, since the mercury that poisoned Da Silva’s community was discharged into the English-Wabigoon River system from a pulp and paper mill a half-century ago, it’s a long time to wait.”
The article adds, “In the 1960s, about nine metric tonnes of mercury was discharged upstream from the reserve. It contaminated the water and the fish that were a food staple and supported a commercial fishery. A range of debilitating illnesses began showing up in the community, including brain damage, loss of vision, speech and hearing, numbness, tingling and skin irritations. The contamination came to light in the 1970s. And ever since, residents there have lived with mercury’s horrible legacy. They don’t believe the fallout in their community has been adequately acknowledged or addressed.”
And the article highlights, “In a submission to the UN committee, the Grassy Narrows council — representing about 1,500 people, some 950 of whom live on reserve — said mercury persists to this day in river sediment and continues to be taken into the food chain. …[Da Silva says], ‘So far, it’s [estimated it would cost] about $120 million for river cleanup. And I feel like it’ll never happen. But that’s something that needs to happen if our kids are going to stop getting sick.’ …She said there’s [now] optimism at the election of a new federal government promising improved relationships with First Nations. No government has ever fully acknowledged the mercury poisoning, she said. No one has apologized.”
Da Silva at the United Nations last week.
The Council of Canadians is committed to standing with the people of Grassy Narrows, protecting the environment, and respecting Treaty rights:
– In April 2010, we joined with more than 30 other organizations in a statement to support the Grassy Narrows First Nation demand that federal and provincial governments work with their leadership to address the mercury contamination, that the mercury poisoning be acknowledged, that Health Canada’s mercury safety guidelines be strengthened, that permanent monitoring through funding for a Grassy Narrows-run environmental health centre be established, that Grassy Narrows control over Grassy Narrows territory be restored, and that clearcutting in the area [which also pollutes their waterways] be permanently ended.
– In June 2012, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow wrote in this joint op-ed that, “Clean water and a safe, healthy environment are basic human rights. Essential in and of themselves, these rights are also indispensable to health, livelihood and the preservation of culture and ways of life. International human rights standards clearly establish that these rights should be freely enjoyed by everyone, without discrimination. After 50 years of devastating contamination of their waters, the people of Grassy Narrows are owed a debt of justice. It is the premier’s responsibility to ensure that their rights are finally respected and upheld.”
– In April 2014, we called on CN Rail to lift its court injunction against Da Silva and other members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation. Earlier that month, Da Silva and the Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum Group had announced they would be hosting a Water Ceremony on the railroad tracks that pass directly by several lakes and river tributaries along the southern boundary of their traditional territory. CN Rail refused to accommodate the Water Ceremony that would have required only a brief delay on the tracks. Instead, it threatened a preemptive injunction and arrests if the Water Ceremony were to take place on the tracks.
– In March 2015, we joined with 15 other social justice organizations, faith groups, trade unions and environmental organizations to call on Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne to immediately withdraw the province’s 10 year plan allowing clearcut logging on the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation. That statement said, “The organizations are particularly alarmed by the province’s refusal to conduct an environmental impact assessment of its logging plans, despite acknowledgement that runoff from clearcutting could lead to the introduction of more mercury into the river system.”
The Council of Canadians has also been supporting the annual River Run event in Toronto since 2010. That event is led by the Grandmothers of Grassy Narrows First Nation. This May 30-June 3, Grassy Narrows people will again travel the 1,700 kilometres to Toronto to call on Premier Wynne to clean up the mercury in their waterways.
For numerous blogs by Mark Calzavara, Michael Butler, Meera Karunananthan and myself on the Grassy Narrows First Nation struggle for water justice, please click here.
