The industrial pollution of Canadian rivers, and state neglect, reveal the priority of profit over human life, and the racist hierarchy that puts indigenous lives last, argues John Clarke

For decades, the Indigenous community of Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) in north-western Ontario, has had to deal with mercury poisoning caused by the pollution of waterways in the area. Its members have suffered terribly but have continued to fight back and demand redress. Governments have made many promises over the years but have consistently dragged their feet on cleaning up the environment and providing the support needed by those whose lives have been devastated.

Now, a study released this month reveals that, as explained by Brandi Morin in Ricochet Magazine, ‘the toxic threat is actually getting worse — as opposed to diminishing over time, which is what the community was told by the federal government.’ It has been revealed that ‘current sulphate emissions … are exacerbating the impact of the old mercury that’s still in the river system.’

Dr. Brian Branfireun, who conducted the study, noted that ‘ongoing industrial pollution … has made the mercury problem in the Wabigoon River much worse than it would have been if care had been taken after the initial discharge of mercury to protect the environment and the people who rely on it.’ He also observed that these ‘results are shocking, but not unexpected because existing science has pointed to this for decades.’

Decades of neglect

The name of Grassy Narrows was heard around the world in the 1960s, when it was discovered that ‘a papermill plant in the City of Dryden, (less than 150 kilometers upstream), released about 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River. Soon, people started getting sick and babies were born with deformities.’ Fish is the staple diet of the community and the ‘Government of Ontario confirmed in 1970 high levels of mercury were present in the water and fish downriver from the Dryden Chemical plant.’

Decades later, a study in 2022 revealed that some 90% of community members suffered from mercury poisoning. ‘Their symptoms are varied and include neurological problems, including numbness in fingers and toes, seizures, cognitive delays, and other mental health struggles.’ Under this ‘heavy burden of mercury contamination … a pall of poverty and despair lingers in the air.’

For years, there have been calls to close down the paper mill, but it has been allowed to continue operations despite its role in ‘what’s been called the largest industrial disaster in Canadian history.’ The company ‘evaded responsibility’ by dissolving and ‘reforming under new ownership, First Quality Group, which operates under the name Dryden Fibre Canada.’ Unquestionably, governments have provided cover for the polluter over the years.

As band members have struggled to win federal and provincial settlement agreements and tried to navigate the disability assessment procedures that these involve, governments have sought to downplay the scale of the problem. Judy Da Silva, ‘an elder and environmental health coordinator for the nation,’ relates how in ‘1997, Health Canada said, “there’s no more mercury in the water, you guys are safe”. After the community pushed for proper testing of fish, it was found that mercury “levels were still alarmingly high”.’

Da Silva also makes clear that prejudice among medical providers has compounded the problems caused by governmental neglect, as people seek effective treatment and sources of income on which they can survive. One of the neurologists that examined her for her own symptoms of mercury poisoning ‘went as far to tell her Grassy Narrows was sick because they drank alcohol.’ Another suggested to her that ‘your people are sick because they’re having babies with relatives.’

However, Dr. Donna Mergler, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Québec at Montreal, has a very different perspective. She researches ‘the poisoning from all angles: physically, culturally, mentally, and economically.’ She notes that the direct health impacts are compounded by the shattering of the local economy that resulted from the disaster. Commercial fishing was obliterated and, where 85-90% of residents had been employed all year round, today 90% are out of work.

In 2020, the people of Grassy Narrows reached an agreement with the federal government to create ‘an on-reserve care facility, which will serve people in the community who are suffering from the effects of mercury poisoning.’ Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services, proclaimed grandly at the time that this ‘historic framework agreement is the beginning of an important turning point.’ However, a statement issued by the community noted that while ‘the current contract goes far beyond previous federal written offers, it does not give Grassy Narrows the certainty it requires on long-term funding for the full range of services that experts say are needed for people living with mercury.’

Sadly but predictably, given the long history of duplicity on the part of the political decision-makers, the CBC reported earlier this year that Rudy Turtle, the ‘chief of Grassy Narrows is calling out the federal government as a long-promised mercury poisoning treatment centre for the northern Ontario First Nation remains beset by delays tied to federal funding uncertainty.’ This was seven years after the Trudeau government first promised to build the centre and not a single shovel has been put in the ground as yet.

Not for the first time, the poisoning of Grassy Narrows provides an example of how Indigenous people have been canaries in the coalmine in the face of industrial pollution. In 2021, Al Jazeera featured the Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the effects of its proximity to the infamous ‘Chemical Valley, in Sarnia, a city in south-western Ontario.

One local resident that was interviewed, Arnold Norman Yellowman, stated that he could identify the smell of particular chemical plants in the air. ‘That’s the north wind,’ he said. ‘It comes from Esso or Imperial Oil. If the wind blows from this direction, it’s Suncor – used to be Dow. And if the wind blows over this way, it’s Shell, ethanol, Dupont. If it blows from the south, it’s Nova Chemicals.’

In January, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission approved ‘a radioactive waste disposal facility at the Chalk River site in Deep River, Ontario – despite years of opposition to the project by Algonquin First Nations.’ Though, according to the Council of Canadians, this ‘glorified landfill is expected to leak, exposing the air, land, water, health, and wellbeing of all lives alongside the Ottawa River to hazardous and radioactive contaminants,’ the Commission determined that it ‘is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.’

Value of life

The tragedy inflicted on Grassy Narrows and other horrible examples of Indigenous people being exposed to the toxic byproducts of industry certainly show that profit is put before the preservation of human life. However, they also express a racist hierarchy in the value of life that is deeply ingrained in Canadian society. One jarring example of this can be found in the fact that dozens of Indigenous communities across the country lack clean water for drinking and bathing in and are under ‘boil water advisories’. In 2021, Shoal Lake #40 First Nation, located close to the border between Manitoba and Ontario, finally obtained a functioning water treatment facility, after community members had been without drinkable water for 24 years.

The deep irony in the decades-long denial of clean water to this community is that Shoal Lake is actually the source of drinking water for Winnipeg. As that city’s website informs us, the water from the lake flows along an aqueduct that was completed in 1919 and that is still considered ‘a noted engineering marvel’. Even so, more than a century later, the Indigenous people who live on the shores of this ‘large isolated lake’ lacked a supply of drinkable water.

Yet, it is vital to stress that the monstrous injustices described here continue to be met with dogged Indigenous resistance. The people of Grassy Narrows have fought back relentlessly to challenge the impacts of mercury poisoning and have gone over to challenging the destructive impact of industrial logging. In 2002, they established ‘the longest-running First Nations’ logging blockade in Canadian history … They succeeded in kicking out the world’s largest newsprint company, preventing all industrial logging on their 7,000 square kilometre homeland, saving over 15 million trees, and helping to build the movement for Indigenous sovereignty and land back.’

Since the initial genocidal process of colonial dispossession was undertaken, Indigenous resistance has been a defining feature of Canadian society. The revelation that mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows is actually getting worse sharply exposes the deliberate harm and wilful neglect that the community has been subjected to. Yet, its fight for justice will continue and this must be fully and vigorously supported.