Grassy Narrows poisoning a crime against humanity?
Appalling. Heart-rending. Shameful. Rage-inducing.
These are but a few adjectives that gush to mind regarding the half-century of continued mercury contamination at Grassy Narrows Reserve — and the economic, ecological and social devastation it has wrought.
And these adjectives are only a warmup.
As reported by this newspaper, the litany of foot-dragging, inaction, denial, nonresponse and political indifference to the methyl mercury contamination of the people of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog reserves is deplorable. But it is more. The pattern of government inaction since 1970, when mercury was found in the Wabigoon River, is nothing short of environmental racism, as previously argued in these pages. If mercury contamination were found in the water supply of an upscale Toronto neighbourhood, one doubts it would be allowed to poison peoples’ lives and livelihoods for three generations.
What’s more, with the recent revelation that, since the 1990s, Ontario government officials were aware of (but apparently kept mum about) the presence of mercury-drenched soil, what first appeared as neglect begins to appear as wilful negligence.
When you add to this that the present mill owner avers the site is probably still toxic and that residents were only informed about this within the last month — a new characterization comes to mind. Persecution. When does negligence in the face of continuing harm become a form of persecution? This is both a moral and legal question. In a 1983 CBC documentary, which chronicled the appalling impacts of mercury poisoning for the Grassy Narrows community, a youthful, vigorous Steve Fobister speaks cogently for government support and compensation for his people.
Today, as presented in Jody Porter’s 2017 CBC documentary, Children of the Poisoned River, Fobister, now in his 60s, is still asking for government intervention, particularly medical help. But he does this from a walker, his body wracked by severe mercury poisoning.
Fobister suffers from Minamata disease, named after the area in Japan where the Chisso Corporation dumped mercury beginning in the 1950s, killing more than 100 people.
At Grassy Narrows, reportedly 90 per cent of the community suffers from some form of mercury poisoning, including Fobister’s grandchildren, Darwin and Catherine. Darwin, for example, experiences extreme headaches, as well as memory and concentration problems — all indicators of mercury poisoning.
“They’re never going to grow up normal,” Fobister said.
While early research suggested mercury poisoning could only occur through direct ingestion, recent studies indicate it can be passed on to children through the placenta. The mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows is now inter-generational.
In Grassy Narrows, children are literally being born into suffering and death from mercury poisoning.
One of the international crimes against humanity is persecution.
A crime against humanity requires that aperpetrating state know that its conduct is part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. To be guilty, the government of Can- ada would have to know that what is happening in Grassy Narrows is happening by design and not by tragic accident.
The experience of Grassy Narrows must be understood as part of the legacy of decades of mistreatment of Canada’s Indigenous people by the government and industry — something that follows from extortionist government policies that forcibly removed Indigenous communities to areas unsuited to their traditional ways of life.
Canada has a history of forcibly displacing Indigenous communities, an act that itself is a crime against humanity under international criminal law.
Forced removal is indeed an aspect of the Grassy Narrows history. The community was relocated in the early 1960s. According to a 1987 paper by researcher Christopher Vecsey in the American Indian Quarterly, this was part of a larger effort by the Canadian government to “modernize” Canada’s Indigenous population by putting them closer to preexisting roads and infrastructure.
The community resisted the move, Vecsey notes, which was apparently imposed upon them by Indian Affairs agent Eric Law, who allegedly “threatened loss of family allowances to those who resisted.”
While the recent pledge by Premier Kathleen Wynne to provide $85 million to clean up the area is positive, it is an insufficient response to the pattern of neglect and potential persecution of the people of Grassy Narrows.
It is a deficient response to what might well constitute a crime against humanity in Grassy Narrows.
At Grassy Narrows, reportedly 90 per cent of the community suffers from some form of mercury poisoning
Stephen Bede Scharper is a professor of environment and anthropology at the University of Toronto. Annamaria Enenajor is a criminal defence and constitutional lawyer at Ruby, Shiller & Enenajor, Barristers.