Vigil held for First Nations mercury poisoning victims

A vigil held at Queen's Park on Tuesday morning marked more than 50 years of an Indigenous community in Northwestern Ontario calling for justice and compensation after being exposed to deadly mercury in its ecosystem.

Leaders and residents of Grassy Narrows, along with supporters from other Indigenous communities, assembled at Queen’s Park in front of the Premier’s Office, addressing those who have died and fallen ill due to mercury in Grassy Narrows’ water. They are calling for the Ontario government to start showing support.

Other protesters joined them, carrying signs with messages supporting the community's struggle to obtain clean water.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was invited to the vigil, and a message asking him to break his silence on the community’s water crisis. However, Ford, campaigning two days before a provincial election, did not attend, and no reply was sent.

Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee told the crowd about the difficulties her community experiences that are overlooked by the government.

“I myself have a child who was born sick, my sisters as well,” Ackabee said.

“I’m not happy with the government for letting it happen to us, to our people,” she said.

Ackabee said the effects of dumping in the water are something the community sees regularly, and she wishes people with the power to stop it could see it themselves.

“I believe it has to stop,” she said, “Our children are very important, our people are important, everybody’s important.”

Grassy Narrows in Northwestern Ontario, was contaminated in the 1960s and 1970s when a paper mill dumped about nine tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River System, affecting the Grassy Narrows First Nation. The mercury poisoning causes severe neurological effects in people and animals. 

Maria Swain, a resident of Grassy Narrows, explained the mental toll on young people the crisis has on the community, after losing two grand-daughters to suicide.

“Two of my granddaughters, 11 years old, 18, took their own lives,” she said.

“It’s pretty hard when we’re dealing with the effects of mercury poisoning and how it affects the brains of our children,” Swain said. “Eleven years old and I always wondered why and today I still don’t have any answers.”

Swain said children are forced to deal with neurological damages caused by the contaminated water.

“When we talk about mercury justice, we need a really good educational system in our community that’s going to assist our children,” she said.

Swain’s comments on neurological damage from mercury poisoning are backed strongly by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO has listed mercury in the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern, and noted the threat it poses to a child’s development in utero and early life, as well as the risks it creates for neurological and behavioural disorders.

Samuel McKay, from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, came to show support for Grassy Narrows after seeing the effects of chemically contaminated fish in his community’s water.

“We depend on the fish for our livelihood,” he said. “With that contamination, that’s why KI made a decision years ago to stand in solidarity with Grassy Narrows.

“When I was a young man, I used to hear about the mercury poisoning that happened in Dryden and I never really understood it until years later,” he said.

McKay said he became more involved in advocating for First Nations rights and protecting their culture and way of life for future generations after learning more about the situation in Grassy Narrows.

Judy DaSilva, the community’s Environmental Health Coordinator and Elder of Grassy Narrows, said illness and death caused by tainted water is frequent.

“When it’s a life or death situation it's an air ambulance and I hear that air ambulance at least twice a week in Grassy Narrows and these are things that people don’t see, don’t hear,” she said.

“Each day that goes by we live with this,” DaSilva said. “I don’t come to you in a pitiful way, but I come to you as a strong, powerful Anishinabek who will continue this fight until there’s justice.”