NDP critic says Japanese mercury study is authority on health of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong people
NDP health critic France Gelinas.
The Ontario government said it will review the Japanese report on mercury poisoning symptoms in two First Nations, but still wants to work on finding the best solution for remediation.
In response to questioning from NDP Indigenous affairs critic France Gélinas, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation David Zimmer quoted the report’s lead author Dr. Masanori Hanada who said dredging would possibly make contamination in the Wabigoon-English River system worse.
Zimmer attributed the quote to the report which focuses on environmental and medical studies conducted in 2014 of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations and the extent of mercury contamination in the two communities.
His office later clarified that the quote was taken from the Japanese team’s press conference on the report. The exact quote does not appear in the report and only mentions possible solutions briefly.
Gélinas had asked Premier Kathleen Wynne if any field work has been done with the $300,000 the government committed to Grassy Narrows in May.
She mentioned in her question that Environment Minister Glen R. Murray said he didn’t think anything else could be done for the community last week.
“Are you kidding me?” Gélinas said in a phone interview. “This is shameful. This is such an important issue. People’s health and lives are in the balance and you have two ministers who take it so lightly.”
Zimmer said in response to Gélinas that the government is reviewing the Japanese study.
He didn’t say if there were any follow-up plans in response to the findings, which found high incidences of mercury poisoning symptoms in the two communities. He didn’t say what has been done so far with the $300,000 either.
Gélinas, who is also the NDP health critic, said there is a stark disparity between the health of First Nations and the rest of Ontario.
“If it wasn’t for those people from Japan who came here to study the health of the local people, we would know nothing,” she said.
“We have one of the best health care systems in the world, we have the best public health system in the world, and none of them bothered to look at what was happening,”
Hanada’s comments on Tuesday are consistent with another report on possible remediation techniques released to the public in May.
That report’s lead author, Dr. John Rudd, said in a July interview that although dredging is mentioned, it is not actually recommended because of potential environmental damage and its high cost.
Wynne has mentioned concern about dredging multiple times since the May report was released.