[IPSM] Ontario airlifts 1000 Cree out of reserve

[lcarle at po-box.mcgill.ca]

What I want to know is why we're talking (again) about relocating Native
communities instead of addressing the real pollution problems.  Who's dumping
untread sewage and chlorine into the water to begin with?  Is it from the
community itself, or somewhere else?  Who will potentially benefit from the
removal of this community?  In any case, it's sewage treatment and dumping that
are the real issue.  Yes, it's clear that these people need emergency medical
attention, but we should be talking about cleaning up whatever is lacking in
the sewage treatment systems that are causing the problem, so that these people
can live safely and happily on their own land, not about permanently re-locating
them.  If modern indoor plumbing is what is desired by this community, then it
can't just stop at that--the infrastructure and education for ecologically
sound waste reduction and disposal are also a necessary part of the picture. 
It ends up just looking like another example of the status quo of finding
excuses to get rid of Indians.  Here's an opportunity for change for the
better.

Loren Carle
Montreal


>
> Ontario to airlift 1,000 from Cree reserve
> Last Updated Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:21:36 EDT
> CBC News
> About 1,000 residents of the Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario
> will be evacuated from their reserve, where high amounts of E.coli
> bacteria have fouled drinking and bathing water for years.
>
> Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay says about half of the
> residents of the remote reserve on the shores of James Bay will be flown
> out of the area beginning Wednesday.
>
>
> Untreated water from the Kaschechewan reserve in northern Ontario. (CP
> Photo)
> "We've decided we're going to start a medical evacuation of patients who
> need to be treated," said Ramsay. "The doctors told us better treatment
> could be obtained outside of the community."
>
> Traditionally, he said, serious medical cases have been treated in Timmins
> or Cochrane, both about 450 km to the south.
>
> "It is a medical emergency, so these people really need to be removed."
>
> About half of the reserve's 1,900 residents are suffering from skin
> conditions aggravated by the high levels of chlorine being used to
> disinfect the water, which has high levels of E. coli.
>
>
> Protesters on the Kashechewan First Nation reserve.
> The Cree reserve has been under a boil-water advisory for two years, but
> intermittent water problems have been reported for five years.
>
> Ramsay also says that in the long term, the entire community may need to
> be relocated.
>
> Grand Chief Stan Louttit of the Mushkegowak credits Premier Dalton
> McGuinty with ordering the medical evacuation, but wants to know why it
> took so long.
>
>
>
> As for the possible relocation of the entire community Louttit says,
> "There needs to be some discussions ... to the continuing problems of this
> community."
>
> NDP critic Gilles Bisson says there are 50 other native communities in the
> province that also have to boil their drinking water.
>
> The Walkerton inquiry recommended the province take over responsibility
> for drinking water in native communities. So far, Bisson said, nothing's
> been done.
>
> _______________________________________________
> IPSM-l mailing list
> IPSM-l at lists.resist.ca
> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ipsm-l
>