Treatment, at last

In 2014, Japanese scientists testing people on the Grassy Narrows and Whitedog First Nations found that 90 per cent had symptoms of mercury poisoning.

Despite that, neither the federal nor Ontario governments saw fit to build a treatment facility for the 1,500 residents. Instead, those suffering from the debilitating symptoms had to be sent hundreds of kilometres away from friends and family for specialized care.

Finally, that insensitive inaction appears to be coming to an end.

On Wednesday, Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott committed the government to funding a treatment centre for the community. It’s about time. As Chief Simon Fobister said, it’s not the first time the chiefs from Grassy Narrows and Whitedog have made this request of both governments.

Indeed, three years ago, Steve Fobister Sr., a former chief, held a news conference at Queen’s Park after he went on a hunger strike to protest inadequate health care for the mercury victims. Nothing was done.

This was unconscionable, but consistent with the tale of broken trust and incompetence shown by a series of federal and provincial governments since Reed Paper dumped 10 tonnes of mercury in the 1960s into the Wabigoon River upstream from the reserves, poisoning the fish and everyone who ate them.

At last, though, the federal and provincial governments appear to be acting to protect the people of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog, as they should have done all along.

Last February, for example, the province announced it would finally spend $85 million over 10 years to clean up the contaminated water system.

Now it appears that, subject to a feasibility study, the federal government will build a treatment centre that can provide palliative care, physiotherapy, counselling and traditional healing to those suffering from mercury poisoning.

The peoples of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog have suffered for far too long without support. The treatment facility can’t be built soon enough.

At last, governments are acting to protect the people of Grassy Narrows and Whitedog