Ontario will never live down the shame of Grassy Narrows – TVO

May 24, 2024

OPINION: A Dryden paper mill stopped adding new mercury to the waters upstream of Grassy Narrows First Nation decades ago — but it may not have stopped causing harm

Without fail, every time Grassy Narrows First Nation or the Wabigoon River are in the news, I find myself returning to a simple question: Is it possible for a province to be sued out of existence for gross negligence? The legislature and government of Ontario better hope the answer is no, because the actions of this province in the English and Wabigoon rivers of northern Ontario are impossible to defend.

The long, sad story of one of Canada’s worst acts of environmental vandalism starts in the 1960s, when a paper mill in Dryden started dumping mercury into the waters upstream of Grassy Narrows. Mercury accumulates in animal tissues and concentrates as you move up the food chain, so poisoning the water had the effect of poisoning the fish that Indigenous people relied on to feed themselves. By 1970, governments had to close the local fishery, and the Dryden mill was ordered to halt any further mercury dumping.

Read More: https://www.tvo.org/article/ontario-will-never-live-down-the-shame-of-grassy-narrows