Mercury dumped in northern Ontario decades ago still causes ill health
Wed. June 6, 2012
Toronto Star Editorial
Being invited to a traditional First Nations fish fry is usually a good thing for a politician. But the one Premier Dalton McGuinty has been invited to on Wednesday comes with more than a few strings attached. The fish come from a Northern Ontario community devastated by the mercury dumped into its river system by a paper mill more than 40 years ago.
The environment ministry assures Ontarians that it’s generally okay to eat a couple meals a month from the Grassy Narrows Lake, so if McGuinty or any other politician decides to take up this lunch offer they’ll be okay. What’s clearly not okay, though, are the people who live on the shores of the contaminated Wabigoon-English rivers and its lakes.
The latest report by Japanese experts in mercury poisoning – who have shown more interest in this environmental disaster than Canadian officials ever have – found ongoing health problems. Fifty-nine per cent of the 160 people they tested in 2010 had symptoms of mercury poisoning. That included people who were born long after the toxic dumping stopped, a commercial fishing ban was put in place and the federal government closed the books on the problem.
Shamefully, Ottawa has refused to conduct ongoing, comprehensive environmental and health testing of the community, despite this research team repeatedly finding plenty of cause for alarm. The compensation package set up in the 1980s is so inadequate that it now doesn’t cover most of those with symptoms of mercury poisoning.
Two years ago, when the Japanese scientists issued a research update, McGuinty expressed grave concern that their conclusions differed so greatly from Health Canada’s all-clear message. He vowed to get to the bottom of it. But so far, nothing has changed.
Now, it’s Ontario’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne who says she wants to use this new report to mend fences with these native communities and find a way forward.
It won’t be easy. They, understandably, have little faith or trust in government promises. She must not let them down.