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In this past week of remembrance we are sobered, grateful and acutely aware of our good fortune. We remember not only the lives lost (and still counting) in conflicts worldwide, but the peace and security with which we have been blessed in our lives. At least, I hope we do.
The words have become almost cliche. At James Bolton School, students pray daily in the ‘morning reflection’ “that conflicts throughout the world will end in fairness and peace.” They say it so routinely that I often wonder if they really think about it..
Until our ‘peace, order and good government’ is threatened, we will not likely think about it. We assume that Canadians by and large have, if not the privileged life style that we enjoy, at least food and shelter, peace and good government.
But I received a shocking message last week concerning a community right here in Ontario. A community that is frightened and hurting, without clean water or housing, without even a school, or enough warm clothes for the coming winter. And this settlement is on the shores of James Bay where ‘winter’ is already beginning.
The community of Attawapiskat always lived off the land in their traditional ways of hunting and gathering, but when the off-shore DeBeers corporation moved in on Attawpiskat Cree land to mine for diamonds, the lifestyle of these gentle, self-sufficient people took a turn for the worse. The drinking water became contaminated and sickness weakened them.
Many elders and families with disabilities and poor health are living in tent frames. Others are crowded into an old abandoned healing lodge. In one case, 30 people are living in a bungalow with three bedrooms. Some who lost their home are in a Catholic church. Social Services reports that over 1000 people over the age of 18 are considered homeless. The community has a population of close to 2000.
Tragedy has devastated this settlement again and again, and high rates of youth suicide (social invisibility and extreme poverty) have destroyed hope.
This is an isolated rural community with only air access in summer and ice road in winter. Their request for assistance has been utterly ignored, and as winter (with temperatures of – 50 degrees Celsius) approaches, the enormity of living without a real home, without toilets or running water, is beginning to dawn on those living in tents. Children as young as 12 months are impacted in this, in one of the harshest environments in Canada.
After allowing DeBeers, a company with unimaginable wealth and a contemptible record of social and environmental practices to mine for diamonds in Northern Ontario with no social or environmental responsibility, our governments have ignored the cries for help from the citizens whose lives have been decimated by this company. DeBeers was recently in a law suite from a South African native community accusing it of genocide in its attempt to take over the territory. The pattern is apparently “eerily similar” to what we’ve been hearing from Attawapiskat.
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How can we help?
Contact the Minister of Indian Affairs, Chuck Strahl (strahl.c@pal.qc.ca), contact our M.P., David Tilson and MPP Sylvia Jones. Here is a possible list of contacts to make something happen: PM Stephen Harper; Federal Liberal Leader, Michael Ignatief; Federal Environment Minister; Premier Dalton McGuinty; Tim Hudak, Leader of PCs of Ontario, NDP Leader Andrea Honwarth; Ont. Environment Minister; Ont Minister of Northern Development and Mines.
If you belong to an organization (church, youth group, service club etc) make a project of getting help to this community. These families need canned goods, powdered milk, winter clothes, blankets, pillows, pillow cases, vitamins, diapers. The cost of shipping goods is the catch here. This is where we need government assistance. (Ministry of National Defence?)
And they need our prayers. Together we are genius.
(For more info, contact slogan458@hotmail.com or Tammie Reid, onegreyhair@hotmail.com )
