ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION ON THE STEPS OF THE ONTARIO LEGISLATURE

The Friday June 24,2016 Waterloo Region Record carried a story titled "Grassy Narrows supporters dump mysterious liquid outside Ontario legislature". How appropriate under the circumstances. A protest spokesperson stated "It definitely looks a lot like mercury, but I can't tell you,". "If this was Grassy Narrows, the government would take 40 years to identify it and clean it up.".

Does anyone see a pattern here? Would mercury in the Don or Humber River in Toronto be allowed to contaminate the watershed as well as into lake Ontario? Would locals or tourists fishing in those rivers and the lake who consumed fish they caught be far enough out of sight and mind that their illnesses and deaths could be conveniently ignored? Not likely. The media and opposition politicians would be all over the Ontario government and their corrupt Ministry of Environment.

Aboriginal communities off the beaten track are allowed to suffer disproportionate environmental consequences while corporations enabled by our governments run circles around the system. Here in Elmira Ontario the Old Order Mennonite community downstream of Chemtura Canada suffer the same consequences of uncaring, hypocritical and corrupt government. There have been health consequences of Dioxins/Furans, DDT and more still being discharged into the Canagagigue Creek yet we get nothing but platitudes, lies and excuses from the M.O.E.C.C.. We the residents of Elmira and Woolwich Township have fought the company, the M.O.E. and local Councils literally for decades trying to get a real cleanup. Never ending studies literally taking decades are the usual result followed by more studies all telling us what we already know.

This merry go round will eventually end. The residents of Grassy Narrows are both desperate and out of patience. Remarkable how the local liars and co-optees even yet still preach patience and process. Neither one have ever achieved results.