As Chief Randy Foster later said, this was the “historic day” of the Third Treaty First Nations, with approximately 1,000 members living in a protected area 80 kilometers north of Kenora.

As it approached noon, the young and old in the community watched Mark Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services of Canada, jumped out of the car, and his assistant was next to him.

Where he announced Nearly $69 million in funding Long-term care and services are provided in the treatment center, which will provide specialized treatment for the aboriginal mercury poisoning patients after the completion of the treatment center. This is in addition to the $19.5 million previously announced in April 2020 for the construction of the facility, which is scheduled to open in 2023.

After enjoying the banquet side by side and watching the community, Miller and Forbester signed the “Mercury Nursing Home Framework Agreement”, promising the federal government to provide necessary medical care to the aborigines.

When the pen was slid on the paper, applause rang out. The camera flashed and the selfie was taken, with a relieved smile on his face.

Forbester and Miller then stood up from the folding table and walked side by side, surrounding the drums beating from the center of the POW field. Community members followed.

“This is an important milestone, the next step towards the ultimate goal, which is to work hard to make people affected by mercury healthy,” Forbester told CBC News. “It’s been a long time.”

The works of the family for decades

This is an announcement that has been brewing for decades.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Dryden chemical plant at the Reed Paper plant upstream of Grassy Narrows dumped 9,000 kg of mercury into the U.K.-Wabigon River. This fish is full of poison, and Caotan people who feed on fish are found to contain this chemical element in their body.

Ingested mercury “bioaccumulates”, which means it can be passed on from generation to generation through the placenta-from mother to child. Mercury poisoning can cause a series of physical and mental health effects, including tremors, headaches, neuromuscular effects, and memory loss.

Therefore, while the recently announced housing grant is a reason for indigenous people to celebrate, it also reminds people of the long and hard struggle to obtain the necessary medical care and the lives lost in the process.

The first thing many people think of is Steven Fobister Sr., a former chief of the Treaty 3, a skilled hunter and a loyal supporter of his community. Even with severe symptoms of mercury poisoning, he went to the front lawn of Queen’s Park and held a hunger strike in 2014 to arouse people’s concern about pollution.

His hunger strike brought momentum to the Mercury Nursing Home. In 2017, Jane Philpott, the then Federal Minister of Health, pledged to build and operate a specialized treatment center, and continue negotiations with Ottawa in 2019 and 2020 until the framework agreement is finalized this year.

Chrissy Isaacs watched the agreement signing with tears in his eyes, thinking of Fobister Sr., the former leader of Grassy Narrows.

Isaacs, now 40, has spent most of his life fighting for mercury justice. Since she was a teenager, she has organized parades, lecture tours, and participated in the blockade.

Isaacs said she also suffered from symptoms of mercury poisoning, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.

“Mercury poisoning prevents us from having a beautiful, happy, and healthy lifestyle because it affects our minds, brains and even the body functions in daily life,” Isaac told CBC News.

According to a report issued by indigenous people, before the mercury dumping, Grassy Narrows was a largely self-sufficient community with a strong cultural atmosphere and an employment rate of 95%. After the poisoning, the employment rate dropped to 5%.

Watch | Chief Grassy Narrows talked about the impact of mercury dumping on First Nations:

“I didn’t know that this land and water had been poisoned since I was a child,” said Randy Fobister, Chief of the Grassy Narrows First Nations. 2:30

“It started to cause social problems such as addiction, alcohol, drugs and despair,” Isaac said. “This has become a way of life, you know, it has become the norm.”

The first step of “Mercury Justice”

This is why Grassy Narrows sees nursing homes as the first step in so-called “mercury justice”.

“Our young people know that what is being done here is wrong… they are educated and they dare to speak out,” Isaac said.

Speaking to Miller and his community, Elder Tommy Casey said that the agreement is only the beginning. He talked about the need to teach the children of Grassy Narrows to restore the relationship with the land and waters of the traditional territories of the Aboriginal people.

Keesic also called for an autopsy report to investigate the premature death of Grassy Narrows.

The indigenous people are still waiting to clean up the industrial pollution in the river.

They called for compensation to all community members to address the widespread effects of mercury poisoning, and demanded that logging and other industrial activities be stopped on their traditional territories.

“Today is an important step, but you know, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Forbester said.