After an E.coli water contamination forced the second evacuation of the Kashechewan reserve in six months, the Canadian federal government has promised a 10-year relocation plan for the remote northern Ontario Cree band residing there.
The Kashechewan reservation has been under a boil-water advisory periodically for the last eight years, but when E.coli, a gastrointestinal virus that can cause severe complications in children and the elderly, was detected in the water on October 12, Chief Leo Friday demanded a federally-funded evacuation.
Instead, Indian Affairs flew in bottled water, and, according to Charlie Angus, the Minister of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay, Health Canada said children could continue bathing in the contaminated water.
"It was the ultimate insult," Angus said in a phone interview. "Nobody [in the government] was moving."
When the Kashechewan people had encountered crises in the past with water quality and flooding issues, Angus said the government failed to satisfactorily address the problem. The government’s lack of concern for the area created what Angus called "the worst thing I’ve ever seen on a reserve."
To get the government’s attention to the area, the tribe invited the national media to the reservation to take pictures of the children, many of whom were infected with skin ailments like ringworm and scabies either caused or worsened by the water contamination, according to Angus.
Nearly two weeks after the virus was detected, the federal government agreed to an evacuation of the reserve to other areas within Ontario, reported Health Canada’s website. Currently, over half of the Kashechewan’s 1,900 members have been evacuated, primarily to receive medical attention for problems exacerbated by the high levels of chlorine needed to sanitize the water, Dale Tonelli, the communications officer for the Minister of Parliament and Minister Premier of Parliament, said in a phone interview.
The contamination led to "embarrassing" finger-pointing between the federal and the provincial government, according to Tonelli, because in Canada, water quality issues are provincial responsibility, but First Nations issues are federal responsibility.
In what Angus called an "unprecedented deal," the federal government reached an agreement with the Kashechewan nation to sponsor relocation over the next 10 years to higher ground above the flood plane where they were forcibly relocated in 1957. The Kashechewan moved to the northern banks of the Albany River after a religious split with another Cree band in the 1950s, but the government forced them to reside on the flood plain because of concern that the barges would not be able to reach them if they lived any farther upstream, reported the Globe and Mail online.
Included in the deal is a plan to build 50 houses every year over the next 10 years, build a new school, and bring in at least a dozen nurses.
The area was evacuated earlier this spring when high river levels broke the dike and flooded the reservation. The flooding caused heavy mold in some of the houses, many of which are occupied by three and four families, according to Angus.
"Basically," said Angus, "we have to rebuild the whole thing because there’s nothing left to salvage [from the spring’s floods and subsequent mold]. But we want the community to build their own homes, so we’re going to do it slow."
Jane Wynne, a Kashechewan woman who has lived on the reservation her whole life, said in a phone interview that she remains skeptical about whether or not the government will follow through with its promise of relocation. "I’ll believe it when we are relocated," she said. "Maybe in another century it will happen."
"You think you’re in a third world country somewhere," Tonelli said of the reservation living conditions, "not in Canada in North America."
The attention drawn to the Kashechewan Reservation has led other First Nation groups around Canada to demand attention to their own plight, ultimately provoking a meeting between Members of Parliament and First Nations Leaders. At the meeting, scheduled for late November, the government is expected to commit $3 billion to $4 billion to help with First Nations housing and water quality issues.
As of October 27, 85 First Nation communities were under a boil-water advisory in Canada, according to Paul Duchesne, the media relations officer for Health Canada.
"We don’t want Kashechewan to be the one-off project," said Angus, voicing a concern that the government would appease the Kashechewan while ignoring the rest of the First Nations with similar problems.
Wilton Littlechild, a member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to the United Nations and Cultural Survival Program Council member, echoed Angus’s sentiments of skepticism surrounding the meeting.
"It seems like there’s going to be effort that previous experiences [of hollow promises] aren’t going to be repeated," Littlechild said in a phone interview. "But there’s really no motivation for them [the government] to do anything. We’re not a political threat."
