Grassy Narrows First Nation has never stopped leading this fight. They hold the longest-running blockade in Canadian history. Every year, their youth and Elders walk hundreds of kilometres to Queen’s Park. They are demanding justice after the Dryden paper mill dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River in the 1960s. Six decades later, an estimated 90% of community members still show symptoms of mercury poisoning. 86% get no compensation at all.

Ontario promised a cleanup in 2018 and put $85 million in trust. Eight years later, there is still no remediation plan. Now a new threat has entered the same watershed. Canada’s nuclear waste agency has chosen Ignace to bury the country’s used nuclear fuel. Ignace sits upstream from Grassy Narrows. “This decision puts the people of Grassy Narrows in grave danger,” said Joseph Fobister, the community’s land protection team lead. Grassy Narrows was left out of that decision. It was also left out of the decisions that poisoned its river in the first place.

Grassy Narrows has told us what justice requires. Our job is to amplify this call for justice:

• Compensate everyone in Grassy Narrows fairly for the mercury crisis. Today, 86% of community members still receive nothing.
• End the pollution. Stop the Dryden mill’s ongoing contamination. End the mining and nuclear waste plans that threaten Grassy Narrows, including the Ignace repository.
• Support Grassy Narrows in restoring their community and way of life from the damage that mercury has done.