Josephine Mandamin Week 1 completed – TRAILER
April 15th, 2011Boozhoo!
I’m so happy to be posting this. Jeff Bear from Urbanrez Productions is sharing the Send Off from the west. You may know Jeff’s work… www.urbanrez.ca and his Samaqan: Water Stories that show on APTN.
I’ve included his letter. In a short time he seems to have caught on to Josephine. lol
My heart is full watching this Jeff. I believe you have captured the spirit of the water walk.
Jeff is looking for feedback and would like us all to spread the word.
Chi miigwech Jeff and crew for this work, and esp. for carrying the staff for our women and the water.
Joanne Robertson, Misko Anungo Kwe, Migizi Clan
Coordinator, Central Communications Post, Water Walk 2011
www.motherearthwaterwalk.com facebook: Water Walk 2011 www.emptyglassforwater.ca/map
Hello Water Friends and my sister Shirley,
Please use this link below to see part of Josephine’s first leg of Water Walk 2011. The walk began on an overcast day that was accented by intermittent showers. There was, however, not nearly enough precipitation to dull the day brightened by the warmth and beauty of Josephine’s words, prayers, songs and sense of humor. When no one was looking but the sneakiest camera in the crowd, Josephine filled up her pale and with a gentle push walked up a steep hill in the first few steps her longest water walk yet. People were still eating, and all but a few realised that the walk was on. From that point on we couldn’t keep up to her. We chased her for a day and finally around day two we were keeping ahead of her. But it took a Suburban and a Subaru to do so. On Day three our Maori crew member was invited to carry the eagle staff and all the boys wanted in. So we all carried the Eagle for a few hundred ceremonial steps. It felt awesome to be included.
Let me just express a big thanks for all those who have helped us get this far with the story. I owe it almost all to Josephine, though, for trusting us and having faith that we would get it right. A Big thanks to Tina and Delbert for generosity, time and Delbert’s great composition and clip used in the trailer.
I hope you enjoy the glimpse and feel free to offer feedback or spread the word.
Jeff urbanrez@gmail.com
The link
http://vimeo.com/
Mother Earth Water Walks need immediate help in Washington!
April 12th, 2011Goodmorning,
I just posted this on facebook:
Good morning! I got a telephone message made at 4:30 this morning from Grandmother Josephine Mandamin. They need our help! Josephine needs me to call them and tell them that they have support walkers and staff carriers coming… and i know of no one that has stood up to do this, so I haven’t called her… yet… please answer Nokomis’ call for more walkers and staff carriers… there are only the 3 of them now, herself, Shelley and Sylvia. There are 1163 members on the facebook list, if we all email or call a relative in the west we can get them the help they need… if you can’t walk, maybe you can drive someone there that can… they have recently turned off Hwy 508 onto Cinebar Rd not far from Ike Kinswa State Park in Washington. They walk the equivalent of a marathon everyday! I want to call Josephine and tell her that help is on the way… spread the word, make the phonecalls. Miigwech.
Josephine had a frantic week prior to hitting the road… the OPSEU convention in Toronto, jet lag, and exams and papers due for univeristy… two of which she finished in Olympia, Washington and emailed in… It’s my guess she might be a little pooped… and she would never complain about it… but she telephoned me this morning, something we were going to reserve for emergencies…. she will walk through her tiredness for the water… can we make some phone calls to people in the west that might be near where they currently are (www.emptyglassforwater.ca/map click on line under map that read “Click here to see where they are right now” via GPS tracking).
I will probably beg for help for the walkers that carry the water, many times through this walk… but this will probably be the hardest part of the walk, because the word isn’t out yet…
Please email me if you or someone you know is heading to Cinebar Road to walk with the women. I want to make that phone call back to the walkers with the good news.
Josephine Mandamin, Shelley Essaunce, Sylvia Plain and the Water, need to know that help is on the way.
Miigwech.
Joanne Robertson, Migizi Clan
Coordinator, Central Communications Post, Water Walk 2011
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
www.motherearthwaterwalk.com Facebook: Water Walk 2011
www.emptyglassforwater.ca/map
ni guh Izhi chigay nibi onji
I will do it for the water.
Lo voy a hacer por el agua.
Je le ferai pour l”eau.
Ex-PMO official uses S-11 threat to sell water fitration units to FNs
March 19th, 2011http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6988
Thank you Council of Canadians for writing this article… there seems to be a ton of articles out there that are full of distracting information.Friday, March 18th, 2011
Currently, 114 First Nations communities are under drinking water advisories. Some private water companies see this as a business opportunity and aggressively pursue new ‘markets’ in First Nations communities. The CBC reports that, “Shawn Atleo, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he meets with hundreds of companies who say they have solutions to First Nations water-quality problems, but tells them to speak directly the communities.” And rather than providing the funding needed for First Nations water infrastructure needs, the Harper government has instead seen privatization as a quick fix for the water crisis in First Nations communities and has promoted public-private partnerships through its federal budgets.
Now Postmedia News reports that, “A former senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was lobbying the Indian Affairs Department to land contracts potentially worth millions of dollars for an Ottawa-based water company (H20 Global Group)…. Bruce Carson, after serving as a top adviser to the prime minister, met with staff in Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan’s office (on January 11), where he briefed them on a water-filtration project… The project involved water filtration systems for dozens of First Nations communities who are currently under orders to boil their water…” According to APTN, “Carson and company officials (had) plans to sell up to 40,000 water filtration units to 50 identified First Nations with dire water problems.”
The Globe and Mail adds that, “First nations leaders were allegedly being warned by the promoters of the H2O Pro system that new legislation (S-11) before the Senate will require them to meet stringent drinking water standards but will provide no resources to do so. The communities were allegedly told that government connections could be used to find money for the equipment and training if they purchased the systems.”
“At the same time, Mr. Carson was trying to convince the company he still had powerful access to the government. In one e-mail, obtained by the APTN, he wrote two officials at H2O Pros claiming he had spoken with the Prime Minister on Aug. 5 about the pending appointment of Mr. Duncan to the Indian Affairs portfolio. He later admitted to the APTN that he had not spoken directly to Mr. Harper, but rather to someone in his office.”
Carson was reportedly also making claims that the Assembly of First Nations backed his project. CBC reports, “A statement released by the AFN says they don’t ‘endorse, promote or support any product, service or company with which Mr. Carson is or was involved.’ It goes on to say the AFN became aware last October Carson and his representatives ‘were making claims to that effect and we moved immediately to make him and his colleagues stop.’”
Postmedia notes, “In the early 1980s, Carson was disbarred and served time in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of defrauding law clients. Carson was (then) a key adviser to Harper, both in opposition and government. He was parachuted briefly in 2006 as chief of staff to then-environment minister Rona Ambrose, as environmentalists and other critics pilloried her for insufficient action to curb climate change. Ultimately, she was demoted and Carson returned to Harper’s side full time.”
“The director of programs and services with H2O…insisted Carson never worked as a lobbyist for the company and never promised any access to government. …Federal law prohibits former political staffers from lobbying government for five years after leaving office, and Carson was never registered as a lobbyist.”
“The prime minister’s office (has) sent a letter asking RCMP commissioner William Elliott to investigate whether Carson exploited his inside connections to influence a government decision. …The Prime Minister’s Office also sent letters, obtained by Postmedia News, to the ethics commissioner and lobbying commissioner, asking them to look into Carson’s activities. Spokesmen for both commissioners and the RCMP said they are reviewing the letters before launching investigations.”
AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement has privatized Canadian water, trade committee hears
March 9th, 2011http://www.canadians.org/media/trade/2011/08-Mar-11.html
MEDIA RELEASE: Council of Canadians
March 8, 2011
AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement has privatized Canadian water, trade committee hears
Ottawa – The record-setting $130-million NAFTA settlement with AbitibiBowater has effectively privatized Canada’s water by allowing foreign investors to assert a proprietary claim to water permits and even water in its natural state, says trade lawyer and Council of Canadians board member Steven Shrybman, in a presentation to Parliament today.
“It would be difficult to overstate the consequences of such a profound transformation of the right Canadian governments have always had to own and control public natural resources,” says Mr. Shrybman in his presentation to the Standing Committee on International Trade, which is studying the AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement from last August.
“Moreover, by recognizing water as private property, the government has gone much further than any international arbitral tribunal has dared to go in recognizing a commercial claim to natural water resources.”
In 2008, AbitibiBowater, a Canadian firm registered in the United States, closed its pulp and paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL. The company asserted rights to sell its assets, including certain timber harvesting licenses and water use permits. These permits were contingent on production. More importantly, under Canada’s constitution they are a public trust owned by the Province, not by private firms. So the Newfoundland government moved to re-appropriate them as it has a right to do under Canadian law. AbitibiBowater sidestepped the courts to challenge the Newfoundland government.
“The case clearly put the concept of water as a public trust on a direct collision course with treaty-based corporate and commercial rights. However, rather than defend public ownership and control of water, the federal government has agreed to settle AbitibiBowater’s claim,” says Mr. Shrybman. “By stipulating that the payment of compensation is on account of rights and assets, the government of Canada has explicitly acknowledged an obligation to compensate AbitibiBowater for claims relating to water taking permits and forest harvesting licenses.”
By settling with the company rather than challenging its case, we have no response from the federal government to refute the company’s proprietary claims to water and timber rights, explains Mr. Shrybman. The settlement also fails to identify the particular rights for which compensation will be paid, and makes no attempt to exclude any of the company’s claims, “thereby acknowledging the validity of the claims.”
“Moreover, by recognizing a proprietary claim to water taking and forest harvesting rights, Canada has gone much further than any international tribunal established under NAFTA rules, or to our knowledge, under the rules of other international investment treaties,” he says.
A statement by the government that the settlement shall not set a precedent is “entirely ineffective,” because of NAFTA’s National Treatment clause which grants foreign companies treatment no less favourable than national companies in like circumstances.
“It is not therefore an overstatement to describe the consequences of this settlement as effectively representing a coup-de-grace for public ownership and control of water and other natural resources with respect to which some license or permit had been granted.”
Shrybman suggests water takings by tar sands operations in Alberta, a golf course in Ontario or a water bottling plant in Quebec are other examples of where even a partial recovery of water rights by the provinces could detrimentally affect business. If any of these companies were foreign owned they could claim compensation on the same terms granted AbitibiBowater.
***
The Council of Canadians strongly believes there is no place in existing or future trade agreements for such overstretching investment protections. It has repeatedly called on the federal government to reopen NAFTA to remove the investor-to-state dispute process. The Council also recently joined several other Canadian organizations in writing to all members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the inclusion of NAFTA-like investment protections in the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which could be signed by the end of the year.
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For more information:
Dylan Penner, media officer, Council of Canadians: 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org
Read Mr. Shrybman’s full presentation to the trade committee: Submissions_AbitibiBowater PDF
EG4W + Ontario Canadian Federation of Students locals + World Water Day, Canada Water Week
March 9th, 2011February 28, 2011 LETTER SENT TO ALL ONTARIO CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENT LOCALS
Boozhoo Ontario CFS Locals,
I was fortunate enough to speak to at the Spirit of the North conference to the Northern Ontario universities. We discussed plans for World Water Day (March 22/11) and Canada Water Week (March 14-22/11). There was support for holding ‘Glass Action’ days on campuses.
I am attaching a poster, and will make some suggestions here if you choose to hold a ‘glass action’ day on your campus. EG4W World Water Day 2011 POSTER PDF
It can be a one day event on World Water day, March 22/11 (register your event @ http://www.worldwaterday2011.org/)
or the inaugural Canada Water Week event from March 14-22/11 (http://canadawaterweek.com/events)… or any day of your choosing!
Here are a list of suggestions, and links that you may find useful in planning your ‘glass action’:
- stream “Glass Action’ film http://www.emptyglassforwater.ca/video.php
- stream “No Running Water” by the Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/no-running-water/
- show a feature length film, inviting the greater community to attend (i.e. Waterlife, Water on the Table)
- encourage people to bring empty glasses for water… if you have it in your budgets, you could mail in glasses for your students, or ask your MP drop them off to the Prime Minister… you could also have empty glasses on hand for people… start a water glass drive now… insert the postcards into each glass, so people can just quickly fill it out, then drop it into a box for shipping. EG4W CFS letters to PM (4 per page) PDF
- post the glasses you mail in on the EG4W website (glass counter: http://www.emptyglassforwater.ca/counter.php)
- invite the Chief or an Elder from a neighbouring community to speak at your event, find out what their water situation is… perhaps you will be doing a water ceremony that day, ‘Greet Pray Semaa’, please send us this information so we can place a virtual semaa/tobacco leaf on our website (ceremony tracker: http://www.emptyglassforwater.ca/nyk/?page_id=145)
- promote the Mother Earth ‘Turtle Island’ Water Walk at your event. (www.motherearthwaterwalk.com) This year the Grandmothers and youth are walking and carrying water from all 3 oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico, and meeting in Bad River, Wisconsin where the waters will converge on JUNE 12th. I am helping coordinate this event. Water Walk 2011 Brochure PDF
- PETITION: Manitoba Chiefs, “Water is a Human Right” http://www.manitobachiefs.com/water/index.html
- PETITION: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/grassynarrows/ Grassy Narrows background http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=218&lang=en
- Health Canada Drinking Water and Wastewater Info http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/promotion/public-publique/water-eau-eng.php
- Learn about Bill S-S11 http://www.emptyglassforwater.ca/nyk/?cat=5 NO to opening the door to privatization! Read this submission by the Council of Canadians to the Senate Committee Bill-S11 PDF
Miigwech for your support and your efforts.
Please forward questions, comments, poster designs to joanne@emptyglassforwater.ca .
Miigwech, thank you,
Joanne Robertson
Founder, Empty Glass for Water campaign
www.emptyglassforwater.ca
Mother Earth “Turtle Island” Water Walk 2011 – Brochure & Banking Info
March 4th, 2011Boozhoo Mother Earth Water Walkers and friends,
Here is the brochure that I finally got made with the assistance of Dawnis Kennedy… miigwech Dawnis! Please share far and wide.
We have also opened a *new* bank acct. The information is also on the brochure.
Email Money Transfers (Can & U.S.) – email to waterwalk2011@gmail.com
Cheques may be made out to: Mother Earth Water Walk
and mailed to:
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig
Attn: Joanne Robertson, WW Coordinator
1550 Queen Street E
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
P6A 2G3
Direct Deposit: Northern Credit Union, 14492 828 0161405641
A good fundraising idea brought to us from the Madeleine Huntjens, lead walker from the West is…
“I Support the Mother Earth Water Walkers One Step at a Time” PENNY DRIVE!!
On our last day at ceremonies we collected 36,897 pennies, so the walkers can walk 36,897 footsteps!
The walkers will be walking over 10,400,000 steps this spring… can we collect that many pennies to support them?
YES WE CAN!! 
Miigwech
Joanne Robertson
Coordinator, Central Communications Post, Water Walk 2011
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
www.motherearthwaterwalk.com Facebook: Water Walk 2011
“Ni guh Izhi chigay Nibi onji” – “I will do it for the water”.
Council of Canadians call a spade a spade!
March 1st, 2011MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
March 1, 2011
Council of Canadians raises concerns about Senate bill on First Nations water safety
Ottawa – The Council of Canadians has raised several concerns with the Safe Drinking Water For First Nations Act (Bill S-11) in a submission to the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.
With 117 communities under water advisories in December, the Council of Canadians strongly supports the creation of legislation that recognizes First Nation communities’ right to water and ensures safe drinking water for First Nation communities.
“Water is a human right, public trust and global commons,” says Council of Canadians national water campaigner Emma Lui, who prepared the submission. “We are extremely concerned that the Bill as it stands lacks funding commitments and could open the door to water privatization in First Nation communities. The Bill also currently gives the Canadian government the power to force a community to allow a private, for-profit entity to build, operate and/or manage its water services.”
The UN passed two resolutions last year recognizing the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation, with the second resolution making the right legally binding. The Council’s submission highlights that several clauses in Bill S-11 are inconsistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (DRIP), which Canada endorsed last November. In developing Bill S-11, many First Nation communities were not consulted and the bill does not require consultation in developing regulations on safe drinking water for First Nation communities.
The UN DRIP requires free, prior and informed consent to any decisions affecting indigenous lands and resources. Any bill or regulations involving safe drinking water in First Nation communities should be developed alongside First Nation communities and must include their concerns.
“It’s deeply troubling that several clauses affirm that the regulations made under Bill S-11 take precedence over aboriginal and treaty rights and First Nation laws or by-laws,” says Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow.
Last December, the Council released a report entitled Public Water for Sale: How Canada will Privatize our Public Water Systems warning of the potential impacts of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on Canada’s water systems. (see below) The report noted that, “The private sector will have the ability to enter First Nations as owners and operators of water and wastewater facilities due to a lack of infrastructure, resources and training within First Nations.” CETA and Bill S-11 combined could prevent First Nations from building, owning and operating their own water and wastewater plants.
The Council of Canadians is urging that any legislation on safe drinking water for First Nations include funding commitments, the explicit recognition that First Nation communities have a right to build, own and operate their own water systems, clear responsibilities for governments and private companies and a clause on free, prior and informed consent on any decisions affecting water systems.
The full submission is available Bill-S11. Please download and read the full submission.
For more information:
Dylan Penner, media officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org, Twitter: @CouncilofCDNs
December 16, 2010
Canada-EU trade talks put Canada’s water up for sale, says new report
Ottawa, ON — Canada’s already challenged public water systems are under threat from a broad free trade agreement being negotiated by Canada and the European Union (EU). A new report released today, Public Water for Sale: How Canada will Privatize Our Public Water Systems, warns that public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of the proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
The report from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Council of Canadians exposes how CETA would open up public municipal water systems across Canada to privatization. At the request of Europe’s large private for-profit water corporations, provincial and territorial governments are considering including drinking water and wastewater services in their services commitments under CETA. They have been asked by the Harper government to make the final decision before a sixth round of CETA talks in Brussels this January.
“CETA is a water privatization deal,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Our public water is being negotiated away behind closed doors. We need to act now or we will wake up one morning and our public water systems will be gone.”
CUPE and the Council of Canadians are calling on the provinces and territories to assert their jurisdiction and protect water from the Harper government’s reckless disregard for Canada’s public water. The report notes the CETA agreement would compound existing pressure in Canadian municipalities and First Nations reserves to privatize water systems due to a lack of proper public funding and federal programs designed to encourage privatization.
“Canadians hold a great deal of trust in publicly owned, operated and delivered water and sanitation systems,” says CUPE National President Paul Moist. “Water and other essential services – such as health care, public transit, postal services and energy – are vital to our communities. This deal will allow the world’s largest multinational corporations to profit from Canada’s water.” Moist is also calling on CUPE’s municipal locals to take action against this deal which is being negotiated without full public debate.
EU negotiators are also asking that Canada’s municipalities and their water utilities be included in a chapter on public procurement. If this happens, it would be the first time Canada has allowed our drinking water to be fully covered under a trade treaty. The goal is clearly to encourage the privatization of Canada’s public municipal water systems.
“Canada’s drinking and sewage systems are important community assets. Public drinking water and sanitation services are a human right and the lifeblood of well-functioning communities,” says Barlow.
The report is available at www.canadians.org and www.cupe.ca
For more information:
Greg Taylor, CUPE National Media Relations – (613) 237-1590 ext. 393
Matthew Ramsden, Communications Officer (Campaigns) – (613) 698-5113 (cell)
Petition of Support for Grassy Narrows and Surrounding Communities Affected by Mercury and Other Contamination in their call for a National Inquiry
February 28th, 2011Sign the Petition
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/grassynarrows/
Grassy Narrows – 40 years Later
BACKGROUND ON GRASSY NARROWS
On April 6, 1970 the government of Ontario banned fishing on the Wabigoon River due to mercury contamination from a pulp mill in Dryden. Overnight unemployment in the area rose from 10% to 90%, a primary food staple was lost, and the devastating neurological health impacts of mercury poisoning set in. At the time the government said it would take months for the mercury to wash out of the river system. Yet forty years later the effects are still being revealed.
A newly translated Japanese study on the health of Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek residents shows that while mercury levels are going down, the health impacts of mercury poisoning are substantially worse now than they were in the 1970′s. This has huge consequences for Grassy Narrows and the neighbouring communities. It also has important implications about the long- term cumulative health impacts of low level mercury exposure.
According to the Council of Canadians, private water companies have been aggressively pursuing new markets in Canadian First Nation communities. At the same time, the federal government is actively seeking new solutions for persistent water crises, like those faced in Grassy Narrows, in First Nation communities by seeking out the feasibility and desirability of public private partnerships. Over the years, the Federal funding for water infrastructure provided through the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC) has been inadequate to address urgent drinking water and wastewater treatment needs of First Nation communities. We already know that governments have a tendency to under-fund public services to allow for privatization to happen.
When privatisation of water occurs it is frequently accompanied by infrastructure neglect, cutbacks in jobs and a decline in a regulatory oversight – often resulting in a threat to water quality rather than offering a solution. First Nations communities throughout Turtle island have already felt the direct impact of crumbling infrastructure, equipment malfunctions, and a lack of adequately trained and certified water system operators – all of which result in inadequate water quality and ongoing boiling bans in place.
Unpacking the relationship between water privatisation and the quality of health is vital to understand the ongoing health issues confronting Aboriginal communities. As we are threatened with water privatization and commercialisation the health of women and the poor are at an increased risk. Elderly women living alone are among the poorest women in Canada, as are Aboriginal women and women with disabilities. Aboriginal women are amongst the poorest of all individuals in the country, with a poverty rate in 2000 of 36 percent, and are the most likely to raise children on their own (Statistics Canada, 2005) When a vital resource such as water, that gives us all life, is put up for sale or polluted the health and well-being of women and communities is directly impacted.
TAKE ACTION
Help defend public water, fight for water protections. Speak out and send a message to the Provincial government today!
To find your MPP go to the CUPE Ontario home page – www.cupe.on.ca. If you are not sure what your riding is go to http://fyed.elections.on.ca/fyed/en/form_page_en.jsp and put in your postal code.
For more info on Grassy Narrows and the struggle visit: www.freegrassy.org
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A‐in‐chut Atleo
February 28th, 2011Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples Regarding Bill S‐11, Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act
3 standout concerns voiced by National Chief Shawn, shared by other First Nation leaders across Canada. (I highlighted them in the pdf that you can download.
1 – lack of financial provisions.
2 – First Nations have said that they fell that they haven’t been properly consulted.
3 – Canada appears to give itself the authority to determine the extent to which the Crown can abrogate and derogate Aboriginal and Treaty rights.
First Nations to alert UN to water woes (Winnipeg Free Press)
February 22nd, 2011Minimum standards not being met: MKO
Winnipeg Free Press, February 16, 2011 by Mia Rabson mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA — First Nations leaders from northern Manitoba are taking their water crisis to the United Nations.
Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper told a Senate committee hearing Tuesday the lack of running water in more than 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.
MKO plans to ask the UN to investigate the violations of rights imposed by the lack of water.
“How many more people in northern Manitoba First Nations must get sick with the flu or other diseases just because they can’t wash their hands before the government of Canada will take action?” Harper asked the senators at the committee.
Last fall, the Winnipeg Free Press exposed the Third World conditions in the Island Lake region of Manitoba, where most families have less water every day than people in refugee camps.
The United Nations recommends 50 litres of clean water are needed per person every day to meet minimum standards. In disaster zones, the UN recommends at least 15 litres of clean water per person per day.
Many people in the Island Lake region get by on 10 litres per day, usually lugged by family members in pails from local water pipes. Additional water comes in untreated from lakes and rivers that have tested positive for contaminants including E. coli.
The issue has been front and centre as the aboriginal peoples committee of the Senate considers bill S-11. The legislation seeks to regulate water quality on reserves.
Chiefs nationwide have said the bill puts the regulation cart before the water truck.
Few communities have the infrastructure needed to meet any regulations on water standards and chiefs, including Harper, say the government needs to help build the systems before they can be regulated.
“Bill S-11 will not deliver clean running water into 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba,” said Harper.
Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who introduced the bill in the senate for the government, said the bill is intended as a starting place.
“Would you agree, at least, it’s a step forward?” he asked.
Harper said only if the bill also included a requirement for the government to ensure the systems were in place to meet regulations.
Several Liberal senators have indicated plans to vote against the legislation, though the Conservatives likely have enough votes on their side to pass it on to the House of Commons.
Liberal Sen. Roméo Dallaire said he finds it disturbing most Canadians don’t even have to think about clean running water at their summer homes, let alone their primary residences.
“Cottage country in Canada has much better drinking water than you,” Dallaire said.
Harper is pushing for the federal government and Manitoba to join forces to build the water-treatment plants, water holding tanks and indoor plumbing fixtures needed to ensure the Island Lake residents have enough clean water to drink, cook and bathe.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/first-nations-to-alert-un-to-water-woes-116296654.html
Coded by Northern Technomics