Grassy Narrows First Nation

Representatives of Grassy Narrows First Nation marched to Ontario's legislature on Tuesday to deliver their statement of claim for a lawsuit against the federal and provincial governments.

The discovery that pollution from a paper mill is contributing to long-standing mercury poisoning afflicting the nearby First Nation is another example of how widespread and persistent the problem has become, federal MPs say.

On a rock-covered beach in the heart of the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, Alex Moonias gazes east, then north. All he sees is undisturbed land, water and air.

“Our way of life has been totally destroyed.”

Reconciliation isn’t the only thing threatened when mining exploration companies fail to get consent from Indigenous nations, says one ethical investor. 

New money for a treatment centre for those living with the effects of chronic mercury poisoning comes as a ray of hope for a northern Ontario First Nation that has spent the past six decades in the shadow of a decades-old water contamination scandal.

For years, the northern Ontario First Nation has been asking the federal government to make good on its 2017 promise to fund the home. Grassy Narrows has dealt with the effects of mercury contamination for decades, after a nearby paper mill dumped it into the nearby river system in the 1960s.

“My parents had mercury poisoning — they died. All my brothers have mercury poisoning — they’ve died... My kids have mercury poisoning. My grandkids have mercury poisoning,” Grassy Narrows elder Bill Fobister said.

With the front-runners catching their breath, the battle for third place seized the campaign spotlight on Saturday, October 5, 2019, as the NDP and the Green party each promised a new deal of sorts for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

The chief of a northwestern Ontario reserve —and an NDP candidate in this fall's federal election — is calling on Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regan to sit down to hammer out an agreement on a long-promised treatment facility for mercury poisoning.

With a federal election campaign just weeks away, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh scored a blow against Justin Trudeau's Indigenous bona fides on Monday, July 29, 2019, as he introduced a prominent First Nation chief as one of his party's candidates in northern Ontario.

The federal government failed to reach a planned agreement Wednesday on a specialized health facility with a northern Ontario First Nation plagued by mercury contamination.

Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regan is being urged to ensure a long-awaited visit to an Ontario First Nation is substantive and not a pre-election photo opportunity.

An appearance by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an event for Liberal supporters in Toronto was interrupted by a protester from Grassy Narrows First Nation on Thursday, May 9, 2019.

Ontario took another step on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, on the long road towards cleaning up mercury contamination upstream from the Grassy Narrows First Nation — a community that also wants the federal Liberal government to help generations of residents deal with the toxic aftermath.