The Ontario NDP is demanding the province publicly release a 2010 report confirming the long-term effects of mercury poisoning in northern communities, nearly five decades after the toxic waste was dumped in the Wabigoon-English River system.

Grassy Narrows First Nations residents have complained about health problems consistent with mercury poisoning — such as tremors and loss of hearing, speech and sensation in the extremities — for decades after a paper mill dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the river system between 1962 and 1970. Since then, residents have been fighting for better diagnosis and treatment of mercury poisoning for generations of people who live in the area and eat the fish and moose feeding from the rivers.

New Democrat MPP Sarah Campbell (Kenora—Rainy River) said Monday it is time the government look into charges a 2010 report on the matter was suppressed. The report confirmed “high mercury exposure” in two communities in the late ’60s and early ’70s which caused mercury-related neurological problems.

“The people of Grassy Narrows are being left to deal with the consequences of industrial mercury dumping, while the government sat on a report for years that quite possibly validates what residents and leaders like Treaty 3 Grand Chief Warren White and Grassy Narrows Chief Roger Fobister Sr. have been saying,” Campbell said.

The report released in 2010, titled “Literature Review: The Impact of Mercury Poisoning on Human Health,” was commissioned by the Mercury Disability Board. The board was created in the 1980s after Wabaseemoong Independent Nations and Grassy Narrows agreed on an out-of-court settlement with Ottawa, Ontario and two paper companies regarding mercury contamination claims. Representatives from the province, the federal government and First Nations sit on the board.

Roger Fobister claims the report was never properly released and explained to the Grassy Narrows residents. Steve Fobister Sr., the former Treaty 3 grand chief, announced on Monday he is going on a hunger strike until the government properly addresses the mercury poisoning problem. Treaty 3 encompasses 28 First Nations in northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba.

Campbell said the Ontario government should step in and publicly release the report and its recommendations.

“A coverup involving the poisoning of an entire community is not something you expect to hear about here in Ontario,” Campbell said via email.

However, Margaret Wanlin, chair of the Mercury Disability Board, told the Star on Monday the report was never covered up and that the former Grassy Narrows chief received a briefing on the report in Winnipeg — along with the rest of the board — on Jan. 27, 2010.

A public meeting on the report was held in the Grassy community, said Wanlin, who added the board didn’t discuss putting the 100-page technical report online. “But we aren’t intentionally trying to hide it,” Wanlin said.

The board was so concerned with the conclusions in the report that they forwarded those concerns on to both the federal and provincial ministries years ago, she added.