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| Fort Carlton |
Children of the Poisoned River.
(http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/children-of-the-poisoned-river-mercury-poisoning-grassy-narrows-first-nation/) - Jody Porter
It's a half-century and twelve hundred
kilometres away from where I'm sitting today. Grassy Narrows,
Ontario. 1967-69. We lived in a ten by forty mobile home and taught
adult education classes in the community hall which we'd divided into
a literacy and an advanced classroom. Twenty-five to thirty men would
show up in the morning and we'd do school: Science, Math, English,
History.
We didn't know it until a few years
later, but our two years in Grassy Narrows Reserve coincided with the
arrival there of severe mercury contamination from the Dryden Pulp
and Paper Company. The Wabigoon River and connected lakes still look
clean, almost pristine, but mercury lodges in the cells of its fish,
transfers to people who eat the fish, is passed on to a next
generation in the placenta of mothers. Invisible mercury has been
known for a long time to play havoc with the human nervous system,
it's symptoms often resembling Parkinson's or Huntington's Chorea,
producing developmental deficiencies and/or deformity in infants and
at the extreme: Minamata
disease, it's deadly, worst manifestation.
My family and I carry
in our bodies a low level of mercury poisoning from our two years
there.
Occasionally, when I read about the
persistence of physical and mental health issues in Grassy Narrows
resulting from the colonial past, the mercury poisoning and resource
starvation, the names and faces flood back: Gabe Fobister, Andy
Keewatin, the Necanapenaces, Ashopenaces, Loons, Hyacinths,
Kokopenaces. Friends? We were outsiders paid by government to live in
a fenced compound with water in the tap, an indoor flush toilet,
diesel-powered electric service while they hauled water up from the
lake in tubs on the hoods of battered cars, carried it up the hill in
pails, heated overcrowded houses with wood, lighted them with
kerosene.
The numbered treaties struck a
bargain: the inhabitants of the land and waters gave us the access we
settlers needed in order to build this rich European-styled country;
in exchange, we gave them empty promises and the finger.
It's evident at every turn. The
persistence of ignorance about our history, racial prejudice and
discrimination in Canada make the prospect of reconciliation with our
indigenous neighbours hard to imagine. Prime Minister Trudeau spent
valuable time in his speech at the UN General Assembly recently
decrying the sordid history of colonialism in Canada, promising that
the future would be brighter than the past. Both in the media and on
the street, the reactions included puzzlement, resentment, even
derision. And some applause. The perception in the general population
seems to be that European settlement constitutes the real
indigenous Canada and that aboriginal peoples are the refugees, the
immigrants. It's incredible, but the mentality is substantiated by
the fact that Senator Beyak can urge our Indian population to trade
in their status cards for citizenship . . . and be applauded by many,
retain her position in the leadership institution of this country.
The prospects for a better Grassy
Narrows' future are not good. Although there are knowledgeable, good
people who understand what has to change in Canada, and why, they
face an overwhelming culture of, “They're just a bunch of lazy bums
manipulating for handouts. And what's more, who gives a damn?!”
All Canadians ought to put their
pre-judgments aside long enough to read a heart wrenching article by
Jody Porter at
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/children-of-the-poisoned-river-mercury-poisoning-grassy-narrows-first-nation/.
