MAY 12 @ 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group will be hosting a workshop for folks to learn more about Grassy Narrows and how you can get involved in this year’s River Run happening June 2, 2016.
Location: TBD.
For more information email cupe3903fnswg@gmail.com
See the event on Facebook for updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/1720545314884466/
The workshop is open to CUPE 3903 members interested in learning more about Grassy Narrows and how to get involved. Organizers are hoping to make this year’s River Run the largest yet, and we would like to bring a large CUPE 3903 contingent on June 2.
On the week of May 30-June 3 members of the Grassy Narrows community will come to Toronto for River Run 2016. They will lead a week of events to raise public awareness about their struggle for justice and water protection. The week will culminate in a large march to Queen’s Park. Through these events, the Grassy Narrows community will show their strength, present their demands, and garner public support for their struggle for clean water and control over their lives and their lands.
Grassy Narrows community members will be demanding:
- justice concerning the toxic levels of mercury that are in their fish,
- an end to clear-cutting in their territory, and
- sovereignty over their territory in order to prevent such environmental disasters in the future
About Grassy Narrows and the River Run:
Fifty years ago, a paper mill in Dryden, Ontario began contaminating the Wabigoon River upstream of the Grassy Narrows community. The community continues to be drastically affected by this contamination. New evidence indicates that mercury levels in some lakes continue to rise, while the long term exposure has resulted in increasing symptoms of mercury poisoning in the community, including signs of congenital mercury poisoning in young children. Grassy Narrows community members are calling on the Wynne government to clean up the river system and address the ongoing effects of mercury poisoning.
In April 2014, the ten-year Forestry Management Plan for the Whiskey Jack Forest began, which plans for logging within Grassy Narrows’ traditional territory. This Plan does not have the consent of the people of Grassy Narrows and is a breach of their treaty and Aboriginal rights. Clear-cut logging has already destroyed large swaths of forest, impacted traditional hunting and trapping practices in the community, and is associated with increased release of toxic mercury.
The week of the River Run will be filled with events that will pressure the government of Kathleen Wynne to act on these deplorable situations.