FIT TO BE TIED
A pair of worthy candidates share Lou Marsh Trophy as country’s top athletes of 2020
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs who gave up his season to work as an orderly at a long-term-care facility, and Alphonso Davies, who helped Bayern Munich claim the UEFA Champions League crown, have been named co-winners of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.
I recently came across a meme online that floored me. It was a hypothetical question posed to Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa, asking, “If we can build oil pipelines through Indigenous land, why can’t we build water pipelines to Indigenous land?”
I’m almost certain Alexa wouldn’t be able to give an answer. But the statement was so poignant, yet so simple and it got my mind churning. I shared the meme on Twitter, which immediately received thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets in agreement. Not surprisingly, others connected with its frankness, too.
I wish the answer was easy. It makes sense Canada should fix the water crisis, right?
There is a human rights crisis of access to clean drinking water to hundreds of First Nations communities in Canada, which has been going on for decades. Safe drinking water and sanitation are “basic human rights,” according to a 2019 United Nations Water Development report.
But, Canada, being one of the wealthiest countries in the world and home to 20 per cent of the planet’s freshwater resources, is failing thousands of Indigenous Peoples the right to clean water.
The federal government committed to end the water crisis by 2021, but has since stated it won’t reach its initial goal to end water advisories for the current 59 First Nations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited barriers to travelling to First Nation communities due to COVID-19 as being one of the reasons.
In November, Canada watched in dismay as the entire nation of Neskantaga in northern Ontario was evacuated to Thunder Bay due to unsafe water. The Neskantaga nation has been under a water boil advisory for more than 25 years — an entire generation has grown up not being able to drink water from their taps.
Other remote First Nations are struggling to conduct day-to-day life activities without access to safe water, even in a pandemic when sanitation is crucial to prevent transmission of COVID-19.
There are families whose children react to contaminated water and break out in bloody sores and get sick with autoimmune diseases. Human Rights Watch reported in 2016 contaminants in some reserves included coliform, E. coli, cancer-causing Trihalomethanes and uranium. Exposure to these types of contaminants can cause health problems ranging from serious gastrointestinal disorders to increased risk of cancer.
The federal government is funding a $19.5-million methylmercury poisoning treatment centre in Grassy Narrows and
Wabaseemoong First Nations in Northern Ontario. This follows after years of advocacy from the communities after industrial pollution poisoned their main water system, the English-Wabigoon River in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Human Rights report states that in many cases, the lakes, rivers and streams that contribute to the source water for First Nations communities have deteriorated because of pollutants from industries and growing municipalities.
On the other hand, the Trudeau government has invested an estimated $12.6 billion to build the state-owned Trans Mountain pipeline. Some of the pipeline is being constructed through Indigenous lands and Indigenous land defenders opposing it are doing so to protect their last remaining, sacred water sources.
During the pandemic, governments have allowed industrial projects to continue at full-speed and do whatever it takes to get the job done, in the “national interest.”
The cost of fixing the on-reserve water crisis is estimated to be about $3.2 billion. The commitment, time and priority of remedying this crisis is on the shoulders of the federal government un
der the Constitution Act, 1867, which grants it jurisdiction over “Indians and lands reserved for the Indians.”
If unsafe drinking water conditions existed in 41 non-Indigenous communities, I’m certain they would be fixed immediately. If this complacency isn’t racism and oppression, then I don’t know what is.
Even though Trudeau has said time and again his No. 1 priority is reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, his actions speak far louder. Yes, his government has lifted 97 long-term water drinking advisories in First Nations so far, but there are still thousands of people waiting.
The government needs to move as fast as they are to build the pipeline and live up to its obligations to the first peoples of the land, whose lands were stolen, rampaged and continue to be contaminated.
Certainly the health of human beings should take precedence over economic gain in a prosperous, vast and demographic country like Canada?