Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A Grassy Narrows First Nation woman who suffers from mercury poisoning is adamant that Prime Minister Mark Carney must apologize for saying he could “outlast” her during a March protest.
Chrissy Isaacs stood with Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief Sherry Ackabee, NDP Leader Avi Lewis and a large delegation of community members carrying photos of their deceased loved ones on Parliament Hill on Thursday, demanding both an apology and the closure of the paper mill Isaacs said is still poisoning her people.
The Dryden paper mill released thousands of kilograms of mercury into the community’s river system in northwestern Ontario from the 1960s to 1970s. Community members are still dealing with the fallout today.
“When Mark Carney said that he can outlast me, well, I’m here,” Isaacs said.
“You need to apologize to my people. And you need to clean the river, shut down that mill and compensate our people because our lives matter. We were robbed of a good life.”
Chief Sherry Ackabee of Grassy Narrows First Nation and Clayton Cameron, a spokesperson for Wabaseemoong Independent Nations, spoke to media during an NDP news conference to call on the government to take action on mercury contamination in their northwestern Ontario communities. They say the Dryden paper mill, which dumped about nine tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River System in the 1960s and ’70s, continues to pollute the water system.
The incident took place in March when Isaacs and a group of community members attended a news conference Carney held in Toronto with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to announce new funding for housing. She and the other protesters could be heard chanting and shouting in the background about the mercury contamination.
“I can outlast her,” Carney said, laughing briefly along with Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a media statement at the time that the prime minister could not hear what the demonstrators were saying and that members of his staff spoke to them afterward to hear their concerns.
It’s not clear if Carney knew why the protesters were there when he made the remark.
Isaacs said she still doesn’t buy that explanation.
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty stopped to talk to the delegation from Grassy Narrows on her way into the House of Commons after their news conference wrapped.
The federal government has tabled legislation on providing clean drinking water to First Nations. But the bill has different language from a previous version, which stated safe drinking water is a human right. This version says the bill will advance that idea.
She pulled Ackabee aside for a conversation in the House of Commons foyer. Isaacs later said the minister asked for a meeting with her, but she declined the invitation.
“She doesn’t have any power to shut down the mill, she doesn’t have any power to clean the river, she doesn’t have any power to compensate our people,” Isaacs told The Canadian Press.
“My whole purpose of this trip was to come here and invite Mark Carney to come and talk to me. That’s who I came here for.”
Carney was in Vancouver, where he was set to attend the FIFA World Cup game between Canada and Qatar.
Grassy Narrows is located 150 kilometres from Dryden, Ont., close to the Ontario-Manitoba border.
The mill is upstream from the Grassy Narrows First Nation, a community of fewer than 1,000 people. Wabaseemoong Independent Nations, which also was represented at the news conference, is nearby.
NDP Leader Avi Lewis said the Liberals’ recently tabled Bill C-37 ‘removes language making clear that clean and safe drinking water is a human right.’ Its predecessor, the Trudeau-era Bill C-61, recognized First Nations’ human right to have access to clean drinking water. ‘It is simply appalling that in a country as rich as ours we can’t even uphold the basic right of clean water to First Nations,’ Lewis said.
The communities’ water was contaminated when the mill dumped the mercury into the English-Wabigoon River System. The mill stopped using mercury in its industrial process in the 1970s, but mercury levels downstream from the plant haven’t decreased significantly since the 1980s.
One study estimated that 90 per cent of the Grassy Narrows population suffers from some degree of mercury poisoning. The heavy metal can be passed from mothers to babies they carry, making it a problem that spans generations.
A 2024 study from Western University found emissions from the mill, including sulphate, continue to wreak havoc on the community by generating methylmercury.
The report found levels of methylmercury — the most toxic form of mercury — in the Wabigoon River’s fish may be twice as high as they would have been without the mill discharge.
Mercury poisoning can cause neurotoxicity and damage human nervous systems, causing premature deaths. Children and babies are most at risk.
“We’ve tried to ask Carney to come to Grassy. He hasn’t even come. So we come here and we bring our people,” Ackabee said.
“Our people need to be respected and listened to and not pushed around person to person. The government should shut down the mill because it’s taking our children.”
