• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Grassy cannot wait! Clean the river!

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In AWARE News Network
Jun 23rd, 2016
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Substance dumped at Queen's Park

Statement from Grassy Narrows Support

A few minutes ago, supporters of Grassy Narrows First Nation created a chemical dump on the front steps of Queen’s Park, shutting down Premier Kathleen Wynne’s front door. We are calling on Ontario listen to Grassy and immediately commit to cleaning up the Wabigoon river system. Please help amplify this message.
f you haven’t yet, please sign the petition. More photos and videos coming soon, please check #FreeGrassy on Twitter and Facebook.

Generations of Grassy Narrows First Nation people have suffered the devastating impacts of mercury poisoning for nearly half a century. Families are sick. Over two-thirds of the community is unemployed. Youth are facing a suicide crisis. Logging is being pushed into the territory. The murderous effects of residential schools are palpable. Grassy Narrows is where colonialism is alive and well.

Expert reports have established that the Wabigoon River can be cleaned. Doctors have shown that mercury poisoning is rampant. A former worker confessed to dumping liquid mercury in a shallow pit upstream from Grassy just this week. Thousands of us have marched in Toronto year after year.

Yet, governments drag their feet. They talk but they do not act. Nothing could be simpler than to commit to cleaning the river. Yet all we hear is platitudes. As Judy Da Silva said, it seems that money is more important than the people of Grassy Narrows.

Not to us! As supporters of Grassy, as individuals who live on Indigenous lands, it is our duty to act. Water is sacred, the land is life, we are all responsible.

Two tablespoons of mercury can cause an evacuation in Toronto. Yet, 9,000 kilograms of mercury has been allowed to sit in Grassy’s river system for decades. Today we have brought to Ontario’s legislature a small taste of the fear that Grassy Narrows families live with everyday. We will not rest until justice flows like a wild river in Grassy Narrows.

Grassy cannot wait.

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