‘Painful reality’ is that ‘money is more important than us’: Judy Da Silva on why there’s still mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows

A grandmother from Grassy Narrows First Nation says it’s time for the Ontario government to clean up mercury poisoning in the waterways that run near her community.

Judy DaSilva, 54, environmental health co-ordinator for Grassy Narrows First Nation, told Metro Morning on Thursday that mercury poisoning in the Wabigoon River has sickened many members of the community. The Ontario government has refused to act despite several reports.

“We are not valuable enough to be considered,” she said. “We, as indigenous people, are expendable. And that’s why the poison is allowed to be still in the river. Money is more important than us,” DaSilva said.

‘Please clean the river’: Judy Da Silva from Grassy Narrows calls for action from Queen’s Park

“You can’t see the mercury, but we know it’s in there. Being a land-based people and a river people historically, it has been devastating through time,” she said. “It has taken time for us to be where we are today.

“I have mercury poisoning. It affects me physically. I’m like the age of the mercury poisoning. I was in my mother’s womb when the poison was being poured into the river.”

She said her late father was a commercial fishermen and the family always ate fish from the river. Now, she is suffering.

“It’s like slow degenerative form of dying,” she said.

The poisoning has robbed the community of its way of life, she said. People have to live on welfare to survive. Some band members have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and dementia. Some are in hospital. Mercury attacks the brain, she said.

‘Their mind is gone’: Judy Da Silva talks about how mercury poisoning is killing her friends and family in Grassy Narrows First Nation

“My mom is still alive and she says they roamed the land freely. They fished, they hunted, they lived off the land. They hardly went to the store. They were very independent economically and socially,” she said.

“Now, it’s like our hands have been severed.

“The river system is poisoned and it has impacted our community in all levels.”

DaSilva said the government hasn’t wanted to spend the money to clean up the river despite numerous reports. “For me, I think, it’s about the money,” she said. 

The band is staging a rally and protest today on the lawn of Queen’s Park.

DaSilva said if Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne were to speak to her, she would say: “The bottom line is the river needs to be cleaned up. Can you please clean the river?”

The river was contaminated in the 1960s when an estimated 9,000 kilograms of mercury were dumped into the river by a pulp and paper mill in Dryden, Ont.