It’s hard to ignore the awkward timing.
On Monday, September 21, Parliament’s first order of business was to table Bill C-39, The Building Canada Strong Act, an omnibus piece of legislation designed to speed up approvals for major infrastructure projects.
The bill expands on the One Canadian Economy Act, and extends the government’s power to fast-forward environmental impact assessments, weaken labour protections, and consolidate consultations with Indigenous stakeholders for the sake of efficiency.
All this under the auspices of “winning” an escalating trade war with the United States.
Meantime, on Wednesday, September 23, thousands of protesters were marching in Toronto seeking justice for decades of inaction on the catastrophic mercury poisoning of the communities in Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek), downstream from Kenora, On.
The Grassy Narrows river run protests have become a bleak annual ritual – an inter-generational consequence of sidelining Indigenous communities and the environmentalists, the way C-39 proposes.
Grassy Narrows is an emblem of the damage that can be wrought when our country’s policies allow companies to prioritize profits and shareholder equity over people.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Reed Paper mill (Dryden Chemicals Ltd.) in Dryden, On. dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River. At the time, mercury was used as a bleaching agent in pulp and paper production, and although the dangers of mercury were known, Reed failed to consider the downstream impact the powerful neurotoxin would have on the fish that was a staple of the Grassy Narrows Ojibwe Nation’s diet.
Grassy Narrows is now considered one of the worst cases of environmental poisoning in Canadian history, and nobody from the mill was ever criminally charged.
“In 1969, the Dryden paper mill dumped mercury in our river system and it has had a devastating effect to this day,” said Grassy Narrows Councillor Aaron Kokopenace. “The majority of our people are dying due to health problems related to mercury and subsequently it’s taken a toll on us.”
Studies have estimated that up to 90 per cent of the Grassy Narrows community still suffers from the effects of mercury poisoning – tremors, vision loss, feeling “pins and needles,” impaired coordination, speech and hearing. In 2023, a study by a Montreal physiologist who specialises in the effects of neurotoxins linked the poisoning of Grassy Narrows to high rates of attempted teen suicide in the community.
At Wednesday’s protest, Sol Mamakwa, Ontario MPP for Kiiwetinoong, explained the problem further:
“I think the struggle right now you see is the impacts of the tariffs and they’re using that, you know, to develop resources, and to continue to develop resources in Northern Ontario including Grassy Narrows … both levels of government are looking to the north without proper free prior form consent of first nations.”
The Dryden Pulp Mill still operates, now as Dryden Fiber Canada, and a 2024 report by a researcher at Western University showed that Sulphate-infused industrial wastewater sped up a bacterial process to create methylmercury, a biomagnified form of the deadly toxin.
“We’re sick, we were born sick, and it has to stop,” said Sherry Ackabee, Chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation, at Wednesday’s protest. Right now, the mill is still open. It’s a shame. Our people are getting more sick. All the ages… it’s from kidneys, liver, mental health, all kinds of sicknesses. It’s too much to say. Because everybody’s affected.”
Currently, the community is building the Paapiiwaaniimaan Grassy Narrows Mercury Care Home, an $82-million health-care center that is projected to open in 2027 to help the community deal with the chronic effects of mercury poisoning. Indigenous Services Canada has committed $68.9M through a 30 year agreement for the center’s operation.
And yet, although Grassy Narrows has been demanding the mill be shut down for decades, this hasn’t happened, nor is any shutdown planned.
What is happening instead is a cyclically destructive economy, which allows a crisis to happen, profits from the crisis, and then profits again from building an infrastructure of restitution – while leaving the underlying problems untouched for the future.
“We’re gonna be having children and I’m afraid for them, for what’s going to happen to them,” Chief Ackabee said. “We’re all sick already, we’re seeing what’s going on already. And it’s just going to be even worse. I’m fearful for our future generations to come,” she said.
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