Judy Dasilva says she can feel deteriorating.
The old woman, the grandmother and the Environmental Health Coordinator for Asubpeeschoseeewagong Netum Anishinabek, known as Grassy Narrows Funst Nation, says she has been affected by mercury poisoning for years.
Pollution in your community dates back to the 60s and 70sWhen the Dryden paper factory threw about nine tons of mercury into the English-Wabigoon river system.
Dasilva was among dozens of people outside Queen’s Park on Tuesday to celebrate a vigil for people who say they have died prematurely or have been harmed by Mercury pollution.
They want the provincial government to prevent the factory from “Dumple toxins in the water” to end all industrial contamination threats and compensate for the members of the community.
The organizers invited the progressive conservative leader Doug Ford to the vigil, but he was in Ottawa campaigning for the provincial elections on Thursday.
“This is the fourth time that the members of the Grassy Narrows community have made the trip to Toronto to try to meet with Doug Ford in the last year, and this is the fourth time he has refused to meet them,” he said Grassy Narrows in a press release Tuesday.
CBC News has communicated with Ford to comment, but I had not received an answer for publication time.
“Why is it [Ford] Ignoring us? Why does the Narrows community covered with grass ignore? “Dasilva asked.
For me, this is very, very difficult to continue again here and call Doug Ford to do the right thing for my community.– Judy Dasilva, Environmental Health Coordinator, Grassy Narrows First Nation
It is estimated that 90 percent of the population of Grassy Narrows has symptoms of mercury poisoning, which can cause problems that include tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction.
While fish are a basic part of the community diet, they are also one of the main ways in which mercury pollution has been transmitted.
A study published in the spring of the University of Western Ontario in London suggests Contamination is worsen because of the ongoing industrial pollution. Since then, Grassy Narrows First Nation has increased lobbying efforts:
“For me, this is very, very difficult to continue again here and call Doug Ford to do the right thing for my community,” said Dasilva.
‘This is how colonialism looks’: or of t professor
Less than 1,000 people live in the first nation of Grassy Narrows, located about 150 kilometers from Dryden, near the border of Ontario-Manitoba.
In 2017, the Ontario government committed $ 85 million to finance the cleaning and remediation efforts of Mercury in the English-Wabigoon River system.
The same year, the Federal Government promised to build a Mercury Care house on grass narrows. According to Dasilva, construction is expected to begin in March. The work was previously anticipated last summer and took two to three years to complete.
Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee told Vigil participants that he is not impressed with how long it takes both governments to act.
“I have a son who was born sick; also my sister’s,” Ackbee said. “It is quite sad that Dryden’s mill is still open and they are still throwing anything.”
CBC News contacted the owner of The Mill, Dryden Fiber Canada, to comment, but had not received an answer for publication time.
Jeffrey Ansloos is an associate professor of health and social policy at the University of Toronto and member of the Nation Fisher River Cree.
His research has found a direct link between water and safety, and suicide, in the first nations in Ontario, he told those who attended Tuesday’s vigil.
“What does a person tell them again and again: ‘Don’t drink this, but we are not going to do anything about the conditions?’ What does a community when the relatives of the fish on which they have been based during food generations, for survival, are toxic? “
“What does a child grow, knowing that the Ford government sees them as disposable? It is not just a physical suffering, which is, it is also psychological, economic, social, cultural and spiritual damage. This is what is what Colonialism seems like. “
Despite the toll, his mental and physical well -being, Dasilva, said he continues to go out to manifestations and other events in the hope of protecting the next generation.
“I have them to carry out this fight,” he said. “If you will take another 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, we will continue to return, and with each government that comes, you will be sure we will be here until justice ends.”
