Mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows: Clean water for First Nations communities!
- Details
- Luke Harris
For decades, the residents of Grassy Narrows First Nation, a small community near the Manitoba border, have suffered from the effects of mercury in local lakes and rivers, eating poisoned fish and falling prey to illness from unsafe drinking water. The Ontario government’s shameful inaction to the ongoing crisis in Grassy Narrows is a testament to the low priority of human needs such as the health of Indigenous people in a state run on behalf of the capitalist class.
At the start of a new school year, a new wave of young, excited students enter university. They are looking to pursue life goals, discover their passions, learn about the world, and get involved with student groups. But for corporations and banks, these new students are seen as a great business opportunity. For example, at McGill’s Activities Night - a 3-day event held every semester for the over 250 student clubs - a giant bank, Tangerine, took up at least one quarter of student club space on the 3rd floor. This left many students scratching their heads. Isn’t Activities Night for student groups? What is a giant bank doing here? But this shouldn’t really be that surprising; in fact, corporatization is par for the course at McGill.
Since July of this year, rumours have been circulating of a major Canadian Forces deployment in Africa. Those rumours have now been confirmed. As of late August, the Trudeau Liberals have pledged up to 600 troops in support of United Nations missions on the continent. This comes on the heels of an earlier commitment, made in late-June, to deploy 450 troops to Latvia in support of NATO missions in eastern Europe, as well as the addition in February of over 100 special forces to Canada’s mission in Iraq. In total, the Liberals have pledged to deploy more than 1000 soldiers across the globe in the short span of just seven months. This is a far cry from what was supposed to be a departure from the Harper era. In many ways, it is far worse.
In this continuation of our two-part analysis of the repercussions of the Port of Churchill closure, we detail the economic depression facing the North, the impact of the world capitalist crisis on the resource extraction sector, the social crisis facing nothern communities and the struggle against anti-aboriginal racism.
In response to the closure of the Port of Churchill a movement has arisen demanding that the port be nationalized to save the jobs in this strategic industry. Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton has come out in support of this demand for nationalization against the latest symptom of the crisis of capitalism. We support the call by Ashton and the community. In part one of this two-part article we detail the struggle in Churchill.
People around the world are questioning and challenging capitalism and the set-up of our society, and nobody is more critical of the status quo than the youth. Does this come as a surprise to anybody given the world we live in today?
