Grassy Narrows First Nation sees start of mercury treatment facility — decades after river was poisoned

Sarah Law · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: March 6

WARNING: This communicative contains references to suicide.

Robert Williamson says helium remembers watching his parents suffer their lone root of income arsenic his neighbours started to get sick.

Now, he's sick, too, but his anticipation is that his grandchildren won't endure the aforesaid symptoms helium does.

Williamson, similar astir 90 per cent of residents successful Grassy Narrows First Nation, has been impacted by mercury poisoning that dates backmost to the 1960s and '70s, erstwhile the Dryden Paper Mill dumped astir 9 tonnes of the toxin into the English-Wabigoon River System successful northwestern Ontario.

On Wednesday, helium joined chap mercury sufferers successful a groundbreaking ceremonial for the community's long-awaited Mercury Care Home.

"It's thing that should person happened a agelong clip ago, alternatively of america having to combat truthful hard to get to this point," said Williamson.

Standing connected the mud-covered world beneath the agleam wintertime sun, a mates of 100 radical gathered arsenic the aureate shovels deed the crushed successful the Ojibway community adjacent the Ontario-Manitoba border.

The location volition supply in-patient services for 22 radical and outpatient services for each affected assemblage members. First promised successful 2017 and delayed for respective years, the state-of-the-art installation — shaped similar a sturgeon — is anticipated to beryllium acceptable successful 2 to 3 years.

The national authorities says it's spending $82 cardinal connected the operation of the 6,500 square-foot home and $68.9 cardinal connected a assemblage spot to enactment ongoing operations.

Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee says having these health-care services successful the assemblage means mercury sufferers who person moved elsewhere for attraction tin travel home.

"That's what we've been waiting for, and that's what our elders person been waiting for," Ackabee said.

Poisoned river, tainted livelihoods

The main mode the mercury is transmitted is by radical eating food from the river. It tin past beryllium passed connected to babies during pregnancy — something Ackabee says happened to her child.

Fewer than 1,000 radical unrecorded successful the community and food has ever been a staple of their diet. Williamson says they aren't consenting to springiness it up.

"We can't assistance ourselves; it's the nutrient that's here," helium said. "We request it."

The river's contamination besides meant the demolition of the First Nation's sportfishing industry.

"It affected the societal well-being of everyone successful the assemblage and it led to a batch of drinking and a batch of suicides implicit the people of my lifetime," Williamson said.

Donna Mergler has co-led respective studies connected mercury successful Grassy Narrows. Her enactment has recovered a nexus betwixt mercury vulnerability and premature mortality, and a heightened hazard of suicide among young people.

Symptoms of mercury poisoning see tremors, insomnia, representation loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches, and some cognitive and centrifugal dysfunction.

Chrissy Isaacs, a mercury sufferer and activist, said an 11-year-old successful her household died by suicide.

Whether the symptoms are intelligence oregon physical, she said, many assemblage members are brushed disconnected successful health-care settings owed to racism.

Her anticipation is that providing much services successful the assemblage volition pb to amended health-care outcomes.

However, successful the agelong term, she and galore others privation to spot the Dryden Paper Mill unopen down, particularly aft a survey emerged from Western University successful London, Ont., that suggests the river's contamination is being made worse by ongoing concern pollution.

"When I'm gone, I anticipation that my children transportation that on, to support warring for justness for our assemblage and for the lives that were lost," Isaacs said.

Creating jobs, community-led solutions

The attraction location is expected to make much than 100 jobs, from nurses and idiosyncratic enactment workers to attraction staff.

Lauri-Ann Marshall, manager of the Mercury Care Home, said enactment is underway to bid arsenic galore assemblage members arsenic possible.

"It makes bully and close consciousness to prosecute that pathway, due to the fact that who amended knows what the assemblage members are surviving and experiencing, right?" she said.

Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu said it took clip to get the national authorities and Grassy Narrows connected the aforesaid leafage for the project, but it was indispensable to marque definite the assemblage led the way.

"Once we had a communal understanding, past my occupation was to spell and find the spread betwixt what the resources were that we had already earmarked for the project, and what we knew we were going to request to implicit it to this vision," said Hajdu.

While waterways are provincially regulated and the Ontario authorities is tasked with the stream system's remediation, Hajdu said Ottawa volition support supporting Grassy Narrows, adjacent aft the attraction home's construction.

But the conflict isn't over; the First Nation continues to propulsion for the stream to beryllium cleaned up and for each affected assemblage members to beryllium compensated.

Grassy Narrows has taken some the provincial and national governments to court implicit the issue, appealed to a human rights commission past year, and has held a number of demonstrations, including a vigil conscionable past week.

Still, radical similar Williamson stay hopeful that the Mercury Care Home is simply a motion of amended days to come.

"That's a truly bully feeling to cognize that idiosyncratic volition beryllium determination to instrumentality attraction of maine erstwhile I request it," helium said.

If you oregon idiosyncratic you cognize is struggling, here's wherever to get help:

• Nishnawbe Aski Mental Health and Addictions Support Access Program: 1-844-NAN-HOPE (626-4673) Open 24/7. Crisis enactment telephone enactment for NAN members.
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: Text oregon telephone 9-8-8 for intelligence wellness support. Open 24/7.
• Hope for Wellness: 1-855-242-3310 Open 24/7. Provides escaped telephone and unrecorded online chat counselling connected the website for Indigenous people. Support disposable successful Ojibway (Anishinaabemowin), Cree and Inuktitut upon request. 
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Open 24/7. Free telephone and unrecorded chat counselling connected the website for younker successful Canada. 
• Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour situation centre.
• This usher from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines however to speech astir termination with idiosyncratic you're disquieted about.