News clips: Mercury poisoning scandal at Grassy Narrows continues

Grassy Narrows: The most toxic community in Canada, says scientist

By Barb Nahwegahbow Windspeaker 

“I would say 100 per cent of our people are poisoned by mercury,” said grandmother Judy Da Silva speaking about her community of Grassy Narrows First Nation. “Some of our people don’t even understand that they are being poisoned by mercury when they have all these different ailments,” she said.

She was speaking at a press conference in Toronto on May 31, along with the Chief of Grassy Narrows Simon Fobister, Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, scientist Faisal Moola of the David Suzuki Foundation, and Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International.

During the 1960s, the Dryden Chemical Company dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the Wabigoon and English River systems, the waterway that provides fish and water to Grassy Narrows residents.

Scientist Faisal Moola from the David Suzuki Foundation and the University of Toronto said he has visited many First Nations and has seen the impact of environmental degradation on their territories. “But I have never witnessed something as horrific as what’s going on in Grassy Narrows,” said Moola. Grassy Narrows is, “the most toxic community in Canada” he said.

Multiple generations of Grassy Narrows families suffer from the debilitating effects of mercury poisoning, including loss of vision, balance issues and trembling.

For nearly 50 years, Grassy Narrows has been urging the Ontario government to clean up the river, but the government has refused to act. Ontario had long denied that a clean-up was possible or even necessary.

Grassy Narrows leaders and supporters are in Toronto this week to again ask the Ontario government to clean up the mercury that’s been poisoning the waters, the fish and the people of Grassy for almost half a century.

Chief Fobister is hopeful that this time the government will listen and take action.

A recently-released expert report has found that one of Canada’s most notorious toxic dumping sites can be cleaned safely.

“This week, a new scientific report by three renowned scientists,” said Faisal Moola, “has found that Grassy Narrows Wabigoon River can indeed be cleaned up and the fish can indeed become safe again to eat, but this will only happen if there is political will from Premier [Kathleen] Wynne and her government…

“On behalf of the David Suzuki Foundation and our tens of thousands of supporters, we are calling on the Premier to listen to the science and to adopt the recommendations of the remediation report that has been released by Dr. Rudd and his colleagues yesterday. No single act would go further to illustrate that a new era has dawned in our relationship with First Nations and our shared environment… the science community is saying very, very strongly, the time has come for justice to proceed and for this river to be cleaned up.”

Chief Fobister said, “The momentum is there now. We have scientists now that say it’s possible to clean up the river. The government of Ontario has always said there’s no scientific evidence that the river can be cleaned up, but now they can’t deny it. The ball is in their court now.”

Chief Fobister is also counting on the support of Canadians who have become more aware of how human actions harm the environment. “In the last 30 years, concern for the environment has become stronger and stronger,” he said.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day pledged the support of the Chiefs of Ontario for Grassy Narrows First Nation, “to obtain full remediation of the English-Wabigoon River systems, and that the Ontario government should do the right thing and clean up the river. Ontario now has the opportunity to base their actions on studies that have indicated that the Grassy Narrows First Nation river system can be cleaned up from mercury poisoning and it should be cleaned up,” said Day.

One of the priorities for the Ontario government, he said, has been reconciliation and the day previous, he and other leaders and community members were in the Ontario legislature to witness Premier Wynne’s apology to residential school survivors.

He said the Premier talked about colonial policy, and “if the apology came with the commitment to deal with colonial policy, then the Grassy Narrows issue should be part of the follow up and action based on that apology and based on that commitment.”

“We need that river cleaned up and it will take care of the future generations,” said Da Silva. “We’ve already been poisoned. I’ve been poisoned. Simon has been poisoned. And our people sitting in the audience have been poisoned. But it’s for those little kids that are still unborn and that are just growing up to have a chance to have a good life.”

Cleaning up mercury a must in Grassy Narrows

The federal and provincial governments cleaning up the Wabigoon River will show a new era has dawned in our relationship with indigenous peoples

By DAVID SUZUKI, and FAISAL MOOLA Toronto Star June 1 2016

Biologist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962. The book — about widespread agricultural pesticide use and how toxic chemicals like DDT were threatening insects, birds and other wildlife — garnered widespread acclaim and is heralded as a catalyst for the modern environmental movement.

That same year, a pulp and paper mill in Dryden, Ont., began dumping untreated mercury waste into the Wabigoon River — more than 9,000 kilograms up to 1970. The mill was upstream from several First Nations communities, including Grassy Narrows, home to the Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek people. Mercury contamination has triggered an ecological crisis that has devastated the local environment and community members’ health to this day.

The Wabigoon River has been sacred to the people of Grassy Narrows for generations. Along with the chain of lakes through which it runs, the river provided fish, drinking water and nearly full employment in guiding and commercial fishing. But shortly after the mill started dumping, mercury began appearing at alarming concentrations far downstream and throughout the entire food chain — in the sediment and surface water of lakes and rivers, where bacteria converted it to toxic methylmercury, which accumulated in the tissues of fish, aquatic invertebrates and people.

Silent Spring introduced the concept of bioaccumulation, the increasing concentration of toxic material from one link in a food chain to the next. Scientists who have monitored mercury in Grassy Narrows found the higher up an organism is on the food chain, the more mercury it contains. Top predatory fish, such as northern pike, have more mercury than fish that eat insects, such as whitefish. Grassy Narrows’ residents have elevated levels of mercury in their blood, hair and other tissues from eating fish and other aquatic foods as part of their traditional diet.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin. Because of chronic mercury exposure, people have suffered from numbness in fingertips and lips, loss of co-ordination, trembling and other neuromuscular problems. Mercury poisoning has also been linked to developmental problems in children, which persist into adulthood.

Japanese researchers, who have monitored the health of Grassy Narrows’ residents since the early 1970s, concluded that many suffer from Minamata disease, named after the Japanese city of Minamata, which was poisoned with mercury when a chemical company dumped tainted wastewater into Minamata Bay in the 1950s and ’60s.

Grassy Narrows is at the centre of one of the worst toxic sites in Canada. Scientists have found dangerously high concentrations of mercury in area lakes more than 50 years after initial contamination. One meal of walleye from nearby Clay Lake, a traditional fishing area, contains up to 150 times the amount of mercury deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Because of mercury contamination, the Ontario government closed Grassy Narrows’ commercial fishery in 1970 and told people, particularly children and women of child-bearing age, to avoid eating fish. Though well-intentioned, this policy worsened residents’ health by encouraging them to replace a staple wild protein source with store-bought food, which is inferior in quality and nutritional value.

Fish are a traditional food of indigenous communities in Northern Ontario, and their harvest and consumption are important for culture and health. Fishing is also a protected treaty right. Years of case law, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision, have drawn attention to the fact that treaty and Aboriginal rights enshrined in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution are meaningless if indigenous peoples can’t continue to live off healthy populations of wild game, fish and plants.

A new expert report, released this week, has concluded that Grassy Narrows’ Wabigoon River can be cleaned up, and the fish can become safe to eat again — but only with political will.

The underlying message of Silent Spring, that everything is connected, is tragically playing out in Grassy Narrows. The people there have resisted degradation of their lands and waters and are leaders in the environmental justice movement.

It’s time for the provincial and federal governments to join with Grassy Narrows to clean up the Wabigoon River. No single act would go further to illustrate that a new era has dawned in our relationship with indigenous peoples and our shared environment.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation.
Faisal Moola is the David Suzuki Foundation’s Director General for Ontario and Northern Canada and an adjunct professor of ecology at the University of Toronto and York University.

Grassy Narrows First Nation demands cleanup of mercury contamination in northern Ontario

‘Are our lives worth less?’ Grassy Narrows First Nations Chief Simon Fobister says

CBC News May 31 2016

The chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation in northern Ontario says mercury dumped in the waterways near his community nearly 60 years ago must be cleaned up.

Simon Fobister made the statement Tuesday, one day after scientists released research showing it is possible to remediate at least some of the lakes and rivers near Grassy Narrows.

“We know that our river can be made safe,” Fobister said. “Are our lives worth less than others to the government?”

Mercury at Grassy Narrows First Nation can be cleaned up, scientists tell government, again
Grassy Narrows: Why Ontario decided not to clean up mercury
Wynne won’t commit to Grassy Narrows mercury cleanup

On Monday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said she would look into the report that was funded by Ontario through a provincial working group on Grassy Narrows.

“I haven’t seen this particular report,” Wynne said during question period in the legislature. “If there is a way to clean up that river without disturbing the mercury and making the situation worse, then obviously we want to look at that.”

Natural recovery stalled

Last week, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said “there is no evidence to suggest that mercury levels in the river system are such that any remediation, beyond continuing natural recovery is warranted or advisable.”

The new research shows the natural recovery of the river system stalled about 30 years ago, according to the John Rudd, the lead author of the report.

“Now the ball is in her court,” Fobister said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We don’t want words. We want action. We want Ontario to fund the cleanup and make it happen.”

Why is Japan studying mercury poisoning when Canada isn’t?

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day noted the call for a cleanup comes a day after Ontario apologized for its role in the residential school system and promised to improve its relationship with Indigenous people.

“In the spirit of reconciliation, the Ontario government should do the right thing,” Day said at the news conference.

‘Political will’

Amnesty International Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation are backing the First Nations’ demands.

There’s “a great hope that justice will finally come to this community as a result of research that’s been done by three very renowned scientists,” said Faisal Moola, a scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation.

“That report was released yesterday and makes it very, very clear that the potential to clean up, to remediate the river is very, very high but that will only happen if there is political will,” he said.

The Liberal MP for the Kenora riding, which includes Grassy Narrows issued a statement on Tuesday saying he is in favour of remediation.

“Efforts to remediate the mercury have been postponed long enough,” Bob Nault said. “These new findings indicate that it is feasible to begin removing the chemical and work towards a healthier waterway.”

Reed Paper in Dryden, Ont., dumped the mercury in the English-Wabigoon River in the 1960s and early 1970s, resulting in mercury poisoning among First Nations people who ate fish caught in the area.

An out of court settlement with the federal government, Ontario and the paper companies in 1985 established the Mercury Disability Board, which oversees compensation payments for people suffering mercury poisoning in the First Nations communities of Grassy Narrows and nearby Wabaseemoong (formerly Whitedog).

Fobister said there is an ongoing lawsuit between the province and the new owners of the paper mill to sort out liability for the contamination.

More Than 300 People in This Community Have Been Poisoned By Mercury, And Ontario Isn’t Cleaning It Up

By Hilary Beaumont May 31, 2016 VICE News

After eating fish from the river for years, Chief Simon Fobister can’t walk in a straight line. Instead, his feet take him to the left.

In 2014, Japanese doctors diagnosed the chief with mercury poisoning when they visited Grassy Narrows First Nation to study astonishingly high levels of the neurotoxin in the northern Ontario community’s water. The chief is one of more than 300 people poisoned by mercury after a pulp and paper mill dumped chemicals into the river system in the 1960s and ’70s.

In extreme cases, mercury poisoning can kill. Two years ago, the reserve lost a teenager, Calvin Kokopenace, to mercury poisoning.

“The river can be cleaned up, but the will is not there,” Fobister told VICE News, speaking in Toronto where members of the reserve had gathered for the annual River Run protest that draws attention to the issue.

New research released Monday says mercury contamination in the English-Wabigoon River system that flows past Grassy Narrows can be cleaned up, but it would cost $30 to $50 million.

John Rudd, the lead author of the study, told VICE News his team analyzed both old and new data, including data from Ontario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and came to the conclusion that certain parts of the river system are still contaminated with high levels of mercury, and that the concentration of mercury in the fish was not decreasing with time.

Related: ‘Clean Up the River,’ Indigenous People Tell Justin Trudeau at the UN

In a statement, a spokesperson for Ontario’s environment ministry said was “sympathetic to the concerns raised” and would be “carefully reviewing the report and its findings.”

“We are working closely with Grassy Narrows on a proposed sampling plan, which would include sediment and fishing sampling,” Gary Wheeler wrote in an email.

But when asked by the CBC to comment on the research, Wheeler said the province had reviewed the report but rejected the notion that the mercury could be cleaned up. “Currently there is no evidence to suggest that mercury levels in the river system are such that any remediation, beyond continuing natural recovery is warranted or advisable,” he told CBC.

On Tuesday, Wheeler couldn’t tell VICE News whether the province rejected the research or not.

Ontario has taken the approach that mercury will naturally flush out of the environment if given enough time. Since 1986, the province has compensated 311 residents for mercury poisoning through a Mercury Disability Board established following legal action by First Nations. Since the board’s inception, 1,064 people from Grassy Narrows and other nearby First Nations have applied for compensation due to suspected mercury poisoning.

“I think from a scientific perspective it is possible,” Rudd said when asked if a clean up is feasible.

Between 1962 and 1970, Reed Paper mill in Dryden, Ontario dumped chemicals including mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system that runs past Grassy Narrows. The mercury settled into the sediment at the bottom of the river, contaminating the system at least 250 kilometers downstream. The mercury enters the food chain through bugs that live in the sediment and absorb the toxic chemical, and are eaten by small fish, which are eaten by larger fish. The mercury becomes more concentrated in larger fish, including Walleye, which are prized by locals.

Dredging could clean up some of the mercury in the sediment, Rudd said, though it could also disturb the mercury allowing more of it to enter the system. Instead the best cleanup method would be to dilute the mercury with clean clay sediments that would bring mercury down to an acceptable level, he said. Such a technique could see consumable levels of mercury in smaller fish within five years.

Rudd didn’t know why the province initially rejected the idea that a cleanup is possible. “We’re actually looking at the same data that they are, but we’re coming to very different conclusions.”

The study, released Monday, was paid for with funding by the federal government at the behest of Grassy Narrows, although the First Nation had no role in the study itself.

When they visited the reserve in 2014, a group of leading experts on mercury poisoning from Japan’s Centre for Minamata Studies urged the government to do more for people suffering from mercury-related illnesses.

Fobister called on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to make a decision one way or another on the cleanup.

“Scientists were saying that it can’t be cleaned up, but we have scientists now on our side that say it can be,” he said. “Now it’s going to be in Kathleen Wynne’s court. She’s got to say whether they’re going to clean it up or not.”

On Monday, Wynne officially apologized to Ontario First Nations for the province’s residential school system, which stripped Indigenous children of their culture and subjected them to abuse. The province announced it would spend $250 million over the next three years to reconcile relationships with Indigenous people.

Cleaning up mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows would be a good first step toward truth and reconciliation, Fobister said. “Here we are, you know? There’s an issue right on the table that she can take care of.”

GRASSY NARROWS FEELS LIKE HOME TO THEM

First Nation youth behind music video show their pride in the face of immense challenges with talk and performance ahead of River Run action in Toronto June 2

BY DAVID GRAY-DONALD NOW Magazine MAY 31, 2016

Grassy Narrows, known as Asubpeeschoseewagong [a-sub-eeshko-see-wa-gong] in Anishinaabemowin, is located on the Ontario side of the Manitoba border near Kenora, 1,700km northwest of Toronto.

Struggling to protect their territory has been part of Grassy Narrows life for decades.

In the 1960s, 9,000 kilograms of mercury was dumped into waterways from the nearby Dryden pulp mill. Still unresolved, the issue was taken to the United Nations this winter. Faced with ongoing clear-cutting of their forests, Grassy Narrows inhabitants halted traffic along a logging road in 2002. The blockade is ongoing, turning forestry trucks away to this day.

Under Treaty 3, signed in 1873, the First Nation has the right to hunt and fish as they always have. Canadian courts have acknowledged that clear-cut logging threaten those activities, but the Supreme Court of Canada disagreed in a later decision. Forestry companies remain aggressive as a result. Ontario’s recent logging plans show sections of Grassy Narrows slated for clear-cutting.

Most recently, the community has been shaken by a youth suicide crisis.

Despite it all, 19-year-old Darwin Fobister shares an optimistic message. “I’m proud of the amazing community we have here,” Fobister writes to NOW during a recent email exchange. “We are starting to come together to make things better for youth.”

Fobister is talking in part about Home to Me, a slick pop-infused music video with traditional strains made by 12 Grassy Narrows youth in collaboration with the traveling production troupe N’We Jinan. The track has gone viral – over 24K shares and nearly 500K views on Facebook since its release in March. The video poses deep questions about language and place.

“We are getting heard,” Fobister says, “and that’s one way we are dealing with these issues, because the more media we do, the more we get heard. And we need more people to hear our stories about why we love our home and what we need for support.”

In the video, 16-year-old Sharice Bruce starts the chorus by drawing out the words “Gete Ishkonigan,” in a calm singing voice. It’s the word from the Anishinabe language, Anishinaabemowin, for Home to Me, the name of the song.

Bruce continues the chorus, singing, “it feels like home to me. Taapshko Endaaya, it feels like home to me.” She translates “Taapshko Endaaya” as “ancient lands.” The chorus ends with “Sometimes it’s hard to find the words to say you’re home to me.”

Bruce tells NOW that using her language “is important because we want to keep our culture alive and not let it die.” Eleven-year-old Jade Fobister adds, “I am very proud of the elders that gave up their time just to teach children our language.”

Connection to the land is evident in Home to Me, with lyrics like, “This is a place where we love the land; let’s work to show our pride.”

Fobister tells NOW that her favourite things about Grassy Narrows are: the landscape, the people, and “what the community is doing for our people.” Another line from the song goes, “Rise from the ruins, keep protecting the land; don’t take it for granted, can’t neglect what we have.”

As part of getting their story out, a contingent from Grassy Narrows, including some who perform in Home to Me, are spending this week in Toronto. They will be speaking tonight (May 31) alongside community elders and environmentalist Avi Lewis at an event at Ryerson, then taking part in the River Run rally at Queen’s Park at noon on Thursday, June 2.

The River Run, held every two years since 2010, is an art-based march using masses of blue fabric to create a wild river symbolizing Grassy Narrows’ wish for their river to flow with life again.

This week an independent report was unveiled on the feasibility of remediating Grassy Narrows’ waterways from the mercury dumped by the Dryden mill, which continues poisoning the people in the area.

Lakes in the region still teem with fish but their flesh is too laden with mercury to be safe for consumption. The Ontario government has not acted to clean up the mercury. The Liberal government’s position is that more research is needed to see if the damage can be reversed. The new report indicates remediation is possible, reigniting discussion on the subject.

When asked about River Run and what she is looking forward to on her visit to Toronto, Charice Bruce highlights “being there for my community and supporting them.”

For Jade Fobister it’s “watching my community youth performing live in front of a lot of people.”

Darwin Fobister wants “to see how the youth respond to the moment because they have the most powerful voice and people should listen. I want to see how people in Toronto will respond to that youth voice.”

David Gray-Donald is a freelance journalist and community organizer.

New hope for Grassy Narrows, but Ontario still balks at cleaning mercury-poisoned waters

BY KRYSTALLINE KRAUS Rabble MAY 30, 2016

Fish from the English-Wabigoon River System have up to 150 times the safe daily dose of mercury, but a wholesale clean up could end the damage caused decades ago when the pulp and paper industry dumped heavy metals into the river system.
Earlier today, researchers announced good news to members of Grassy Narrows First Nations (Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation) that a clean up of the English-Wabigoon river system is still possible.
While the initial contamination occurred decades ago, the effects of heavy metal poisoning has devastated the small Treaty Three area, both on and off reserve. And the impact is unfortunately both multi-generational and still presently experienced by community members.
They rely upon the English-Wabigoon river system to provide their community with fish, as the cost of purchasing other forms of protein for their diets can be prohibitive. While their health is very important, that is not the only concern. They have a right to live and gather food within their traditional territories, a right re-affirmed by Canada’s adoption upon signing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
The first of the UNDRIP’s 46 articles declares that, “Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.”
The Declaration goes on to guarantee the rights of Indigenous peoples to enjoy and practice their cultures their customs, their religions and their languages; to develop and strengthen their economies and their social and political institutions. Indigenous peoples have the right to be free from discrimination and the right to a nationality.
Chretien’s musings concerning why a First Nations community doesn’t simply move and relocate as a solution is simpleminded. It also unfairly blames the victims for the circumstance they find themselves in. It defies logic to blame the residents, both on and off reserve, for allowing pulp and paper mills to operate within their territory because they benefitted from the good jobs these factories provided community members.
The Anishinaabe experienced mercury poisoning from Dryden Chemical Company, a chloralkali process plant in the pulp and paper industry, located in Dryden, Ontario, as well as the Dryden Pulp and Paper Company. Both ceased in 1976, after 24 years of operation.
Grassy Narrows First Nation received a settlement in 1985 from the Canadian government and the Reed Paper Company that bought out the Dryden Pulp and Paper Company and its sister-company Dryden Chemical Company, but the mercury was never actually removed from the water.
The fish from the English-Wabigoon River System have up to 150 times the safe daily dose of mercury.
The provincial government at one point decided the best way to solve the mercury contamination and resultant Minamata disease was to recommend that no one eat the fish from the rivers. But again, this was many community member’s primary source of protein, as well as the land and water representing a cornerstone to the community’s definition of self, and a source of spirituality to many.
Premier Wynne has so far not agreed to finance a wholesale clean up, despite repeated attempts by chiefs, council members and community members begging her to do so, because it could save lives.
Grassy Narrows has also sponsored many different River Runs over the years in Toronto, when they link up with other stakeholders to pressure the Liberal government to do right by the First Nationc community; including one year sponsoring a fish fry and inviting government representatives to the table, offering them locally caught fish.
If government officials refused to eat the fish caught up in Grassy Narrows — as they did — there must be a reason for that fear; it pretty boldly illustrates that the river, the fish, and the people who live near it are sick, despite initial denial.
John Rudd, a lead author of new research commissioned by Grassy Narrows First Nation and released today, is hopeful that a clean up is still possible. But this hope is married to frustration since scientists like Rudd first proposed recommendations for a clean up back in the 1980s. The cleanup could cost “several tens of millions of dollars,” Rudd said.
Rudd said the source of the ongoing contamination needs further study, but the feasibility of remediation does not. CBC News reported that Rudd had mentioned that mercury cleanup methods recommended by him for the English-Wabigoon, and rejected by the government in the 1980s, have since been seen to work, successfully, at an estuary in Maine, Rudd said. New technology has made remediation even more viable, he said.
After Rudd made the announcement, the provincial government announced that it had reviewed Rudd’s new report and disagrees with the conclusions.
“Currently there is no evidence to suggest that mercury levels in the river system are such that any remediation, beyond continuing natural recovery is warranted or advisable,” Gary Wheeler said in an email to CBC News.
If Gary Wheeler believes that mercury levels are low enough that fish caught in those rivers are indeed safe to eat, then as an ally to Grassy Narrows, I again invite him and the Premier to sit down with community members over a lunch of locally caught fish.
After all, what is he afraid of if he’s claiming that there is nothing wrong with the fish?
Grassy Narrows is hosting another River Run this year in Toronto. Toronto allies are asked to meet at the provincial legislature at 12:00 p.m. noon on Thursday June 2, 2016. More information can be found on this Facebook page.