Following the story out of the Kashechewan Reserve this past week has been a painful practice. It seems I'm quick to criticize other nations when there are third world conditions in my own province.
The water treatment plant for the Kashechewan Reserve was built on the cheap in 1996, downstream from a large sewage lagoon, which is thought to have leeched dangerous bacteria, including the potentially deadly E. coli, into its water system. The plant was managed by unqualified personnel with an emergency back-up system that was never connected and no emergency paging system that warns operators when something is wrong. The chlorine system, essential for killing E. coli, malfunctioned earlier this month. Kashechewan has been under a boil-water order for two years and an estimated 1,000 people suffer from skin problems due to the high level of chlorination needed to disinfect the water.
How long have these people been left with water that causes impetigo, scabies, various other skin conditions and flu-like symptoms? "A lot of people don't know what really goes on in our communities ... they think they have to go to Africa or South America to see the Third World. I say to them you don't have to go far for the Third World - (just) come to my riding," NDP MPP Gilles Bisson said yesterday. In that statement, Bisson told the startling truth that no Canadian wants to hear. The province has known about E. coli problems for two years and federal officials delayed telling the community for 48 hours that the deadly bacteria was in their drinking water again. Nowhere else in this country would we allow our citizens to be treated in this dreadful manner. Aboriginal peoples in Canada are living under third world conditions and that's absolutely unacceptable.
The Aboriginal peoples were the first people to live in Canada. The way we treat them is a damn shame.
