Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. It’s a warning we often recall at pivotal moments that echo the darkest parts of our history. So it is especially awful, during national Indigenous history month, to witness the injustices of Grassy Narrows once again rear their mercury-tainted heads.

Grassy Narrows First Nation is the site of one of Canada’s worst environmental disasters. The northern community of some 1,000 sits near the Ontario-Manitoba border, downstream from a Dryden pulp and paper mill once owned by Reed Paper Group. Half a century ago, a neighbouring chlor-alkali plant – another Reed subsidiary – used mercury to make chlorine, used to bleach paper at the mill.

Between 1962 and 1970, the mill was responsible for dumping nine tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. Mercury poisoned the fish that were a staple food source and a mainstay of the local economy. It poisoned the water. It poisoned the air.

Residents were assured the river would clean itself over time. It did not.

When mercury enters rivers and lakes, microbial activity and other processes convert it to its most toxic form, methylmercury. Small fish absorb methylmercury from plankton and water passing over their gills. The toxin bioaccumulates up the food chain, in larger fish, and everything that eats them. Birds. Bears. People.

Nine out of 10 people in Grassy Narrows exhibit symptoms of mercury poisoning. They can include tremors, loss of balance, digestive difficulty, compromised lung, kidney and immune function, and cognitive impairment. Exposure is particularly dangerous to a developing fetus.

A new report by Western University researchers shows methylmercury in the Wabigoon River is double the level it should be. The dispiriting culprit: sulphate emissions and organic matter from the Dryden mill.

There is some good news lurking in this terrible finding. Lead researcher Brian Branfireun said if regulators move quickly to stop the contributing emissions, “we can bring down mercury levels in fish relatively quickly.” It’s not the whole solution, but it’s a good immediate step.

Unfortunately, help for Grassy Narrows has not exactly been characterized by speed, at any level of government.

The Mercury Disability Board was set up in 1986 to administer claims arising from the contaminated river system. Compensation is not enough.

Ottawa committed to building a mercury care home in Grassy Narrows in 2017. Construction finally is expected to begin this summer.

Also in 2017, after decades of refusing to do remediation, Ontario announced $85 million to clean up the English-Wabigoon River system. The government is working with the English and Wabigoon rivers remediation panel, of which Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle is a member. In its last annual report, the panel still did not have a timeline for remediation.

Meanwhile, Grassy Narrows has had to fight to prevent industrial activities such as mining and clear-cutting, which could worsen the effects of contamination.

Last summer, a peer-reviewed study linked mercury to youth suicide attempts in the community, which are three times higher than in other Canadian First Nations.

It would seem Grassy Narrows has reached the end of its rope. This week, Chief Turtle announced the First Nation is suing the provincial and federal governments for failing to protect its treaty right to fish safely.

“We have had hundreds of meetings, dozens of different studies, negotiated, demonstrated, walked, prayed, and done everything in our power to cry out for justice, but we have been met with a hard heart,” the chief said Tuesday.