It would be great to see regional gatherings on this. I’ve called for them as well, for communities in Canada, because there is such a massive amount of waste on reserve here and nobody’s doing anything about it (in part, because we don’t know the extent of the pollution or the effect it is having). The last reasonable study Canada did was on mercury-blood levels, and that came to an end in ’96. They found nearly 18,000 cases.

At the moment, all we know is what Canada is willing to admit: that there are 4464 toxic sites on reserve; and that Canada has a multi-billion dollar budget to clean these sites but they refuse to use it. Instead, they keep complaining about ‘not having enough money’ (even though, according to the auditor general, it would cost less than $200 million to clean the sites).

I’ve written a few pieces about all this. In particular, I’d recommend having a look at:

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada is no Steward of the land,
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indian-and-northern-affairs-canada-is-no-steward-of-the-land/

and

Former Canadian Prime Minister Suppressed Mercury Studies,
http://intercontinentalcry.org/former-canadian-prime-minister-suppressed-mercury-studies/

APTN has also done a couple relevant shows

http://intercontinentalcry.org/aptn-show-on-the-tar-sands-and-environmental-contaminants/

http://www.aptn.ca/pages/infocus/ondemand.php?wmv=20100312

In any event, it really is time to get moving on all this; because the longer we wait, the greater the impact it’s going to have–and in some cases that means genetically damaging entire generations and even disabling them from practising their culture (like how diabetes can cause amputations, which bluntly stops people from hunting, etc. )

And it seems right to build regional strategies and work with NGOs to accomplish this. We can’t afford to wait for the government.