Toronto, June 2012 — Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek flowed through Toronto June 5th to 8th bringing their voices and drums to Queen's Park, headquarters of the provincial government of Ontario. Grassy youth walked over 2000 kms to Toronto to raise awareness across the province about their water concerns, a report by Japanese researchers documenting mercury poisoning was released, a public panel of talks was organized, a traditional fish took place on the lawns of Queen's Park and hundreds of people marched on the streets. 

Keep Up The Pressure! Take a minute to sign the action alert at https://freegrassy.net/mercury-action-alert/ and ask your friends to do the same. Support Grassy Narrows as they lead the struggle for sovereignty, land rights and environmental justice. 

Sign up at www.FreeGrassy.org (top-right) to get emails about future actions! 

 

YouTube Video of Rally: https://youtu.be/i5IBUTH9YZo
Pictures of the Fish Fry: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fifth_business/sets/72157630076601414/
Pictures of the Rally: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fifth_business/sets/72157630087290624/

Grassy's demands: Responsibility, Safety, Compensation, Restoration & Justice (in full below) were heard loud and clear. A clear link between mercury poisoning fifty years ago and the clear-cutting taking place on their territories now was established. 

Editorial in the Ottawa Citizen, 'Grassy Narrows Needs Justice': https://bit.ly/N4181R

Immense public pressure and media attention was generated as a result of Grassy Narrow's actions forcing MP Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs to respond to Grassy's demands. Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Ontario, shamefully remained silent and only vague promises have been made by the rest of his government. Sign the action alert to ensure that the Liberal government acts on Grassy's demands: https://freegrassy.org/mercury-action-alert/

Demands in full: 

Responsibility: Acknowledge mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows, apologize, and accept responsibility to fix what was broken.
Safety: Fund a permanent Grassy Narrows run environmental health monitoring center. Strengthen Health Canada mercury safety guideline to protect all people
Compensation: Compensate all people diagnosed by the Japanese doctors, and retroactively index the compensation to inflation.
Restoration: Clean and restore the English-Wabigoon river system. Stop the mills from polluting the water and air.
Justice: Restore Grassy Narrows control over Grassy Narrows Territory. End destructive industrial logging on Grassy Narrows territory.

More media
Toronto Star Editorial, Mercury dumped in northern Ontario decades ago still causes ill health: https://bit.ly/KPxw5t
CBC, Mercury poisoning effects continue at Grassy Narrows: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/06/04/grassy-narrows-mercury.html
CBC Radio with the Youth Water Walkers: https://www.cbc.ca/superiormorning/episodes/2012/05/23/grassy-narrows/
Canadian Press, Two Ontario First Nations show signs of ongoing mercury poisoning: report: https://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/04/two-ontario-first-nations-communities-show-signs-of-ongoing-mercury-poisoning-report/#0_undefined,0_