Press Release
Today youth from Grassy Narrows First Nation marched through the streets of Kenora to call for a cleanup of the English-Wabigoon river, which has been contaminated by mercury for over fifty years.
Despite a recent expert report finding that the river can be safely remediated, the provincial government has yet to commit to a full cleanup.
Grassy Narrows youth organizer Sharice Bruce says that she and her friends organized the march because they want Premier Kathleen Wynne to commit to a cleanup.
“We know our waters can be cleaned, and we’re not going to stop rallying until we get what we deserve,” Bruce said.
Bruce was one of thirty youth from Grassy Narrows who travelled 1,700km in June to lead a march in Toronto.
Forty people from Grassy Narrows made the trek to Toronto, where over 1,000 people marched to demand that the provincial government clean up the river.
The English-Wabigoon river system was contaminated between 1962 and 1970, when a pulp and paper mill in Dryden dumped 9,000kg of mercury.
A recent report found that Health Canada umbilical cord blood samples from 1978-1994 show that mercury levels in Grassy Narrows were high enough to permanently impact fetal brain development.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin whose health impacts include tunnel vision, loss of coordination, numbness in the extremities, tremors, loss of balance, and speech impediments.
Mercury levels previously considered safe are now known to be dangerous if there is long-term exposure, as there is in Grassy Narrows.
Bruce and other Grassy Narrows youth are committed to making positive change.
“We will keep educating our young people to never stop fighting for what is best for our communities,” Bruce said.
A recent report funded by the provincial government shows that the river is still highly contaminated, but it can be cleaned safely.
The province has agreed to fund the first phase of research recommended by the report, but has yet to commit to a full cleanup.
The provincial environment minister recommended in 1984 that the government remediate the river, but the province has never acted on his recommendation.
Premier Wynne has said that she is deadly serious about cleaning the river, but she has repeatedly warned that cleaning the river could cause more harm.
A Toronto Star investigation reported that the government did not provide any evidence of risk associated with the cleanup methods recommended in the expert report.
A recent investigation by the Toronto Star reveals that Ontario ignored reports of mercury dumping at the old mill site.
A former mill worker, Kas Glowaki, came forward last summer and reported that he had been part of a work crew that “haphazardly” dumped 50 barrels of mercury and salt into a pit behind the mill in 1972, two years after the mill officially stopped dumping mercury into the river.
The province has yet to find the barrels.
