Listen to this alarm, Editorial June 21

An excellent lead editorial. In 1980, I was hired on contract by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as their public participation officer, northwestern Ontario region, to help with consulting First Nations on land-use planning concerns. I saw, first hand, how the white man treated our native people. We didn’t treat them well at all.

I stayed in Kenora for three years. Then I was hired by the Ontario Royal Commission on the Northern Environment in 1983. As a researcher, I drafted the following 1984 text for Ed Fahlgren’s final report:

“From this one incident has emerged a general feeling of apprehension and deep-rooted mistrust relating to potential impacts from large-scale resource developments or major industrial enterprises. Native Bands such as North Caribou Lake community view pollution of their water supply as having serious implications for the quality and extent of Indian subsistence.”

I quoted from the Anti-Mercury Ojibway Group submission in January 1979: “Mercury has robbed us of our health, our psychological well being, our lifestyles, our jobs and our food. It has provided us with no replacements for any of these.”

Thirty or more years later, I would strongly argue that next to nothing has changed since I tried to contribute meaningfully to the Royal Commission’s report. Please, Ontario government, do something substantive, and soon, to investigate and correct the damage that was done years ago.

Richard MacFarlane, Toronto