Dear Friends, Do you have children or grand children? Do you have little nieces and nephews? Do you know any little babies or children? Imagine going through this in Canada in 2008 at your local hospital! Please think about it. For Land and Life, John H.W. Hummel Nelson, B.C. ----- Original Message ----- From: maria swain To: John Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 3:12 PM Subject: Mercury Poisoning! Hi John; i been recieving your emails, and thank you for that. I am a member of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, i was born and raised in Grassy Narrows. My father Jim Swain was a guide for Ball Lake lodge and we were pratically raised there till the Lodge shut down, my parents continued to caretake for Barney Lamm after the lodge shut down. When the murcury was first discovered, my brother Chris Swain and Matthew Beaver had a real how level of mercury in their system, i think that's when the attention came to light about the mercury poisoning in the people of Grassy Narrows. I remember that my brother and Matthew were used to bring attention and awareness about the poisoning, the people protested and they took over the Indian Affairs office here in Kenora. I know that my brother recalls that time, and i think Keith Pahpasay was badly damaged by the poisoning. It's so sad to see how Health Canada limits how people are affected by this. Canada will never take responsibility and be accountable for the damage they have caused our people. As of today, alot of children are being born with epilepsy, my granddaugher is one of them, my granddaughter was less than a year old when she started having seizures. When it first happened she was just sitting on the floor palying with other children, when she just fell over and had a seizure, she was rushed to the hospital and while my daughter was there with her, the nerve of the nurses and doctors had questioned my daughter about child abuse...can you believe that? my daughter was floored by their suspicion, anyway it was a good thing that our family doctor was there and literally told the nurses and doctor present that we were a good family and that he knew all my family members. The doctors did not bother to check out as to why she had a seizure, they just sent her home and that she would be "ok". The second seizure came in a multiple form, one after another, luckily my daughter was in Thunder Bay when it happened, and they rushed my granddaughter to the Health Science Centre there, while on their way to the hospital, she had another seizure and the other two in the emergency room, so the doctors witnessed the multiple seizures, they immediately started doing tests on her, and it was discovered that one side of her brain wasnt fully developed and today, she is 4 years old now and she has been on medication since. But theres so many babies born with that. Another big issue is that alot of our people both Whitedog and Grassy the people are being born with hip displasia, theres so many of them out there like that, i don't know if anyone ever noticed that, but if you go into the communties, you will notice people walking with a limp and some are very severe. The other long outstanding concern is that, the mercury disability board was set up by the government itself and it make it difficult for people to apply for it. I don't understand why? and how the government of Canada can set a critieria to how the disability is determined, first of all they probably have no clue to the long term effects of the poisoning, i bet they have never studied anything about mercury poisoning and yet they don't want to hear from the top specialists such as Dr. Harada and to them its all accoutability, they don't want to take responsibility for the damage and to this day it is still evident. Some things that i have come across with health canada is that, with the water situation, there was an epidemic of rashes and boils under the skin of the members. I brought the attention to them when i came across the situtaion with 2 of my daughters, one of them almost had blood poisoning and it almost spread throughout the body, it could of been fatal if she didn't catch it on time. I had to go and tell the leadership that something was wrong with the water system and they had the nerve to tell me that "we had the best water treatment plant in Northwestern Ontario", so i told them that if something happened to my daughter that i would them accountable, and another thing was that, the health inspector Randy Percy happened to be in the community and i told him the situation, and sure enough he took water samples and within a week, there was boil water advisory notices posted up all over the reserve. Anyway, those are jus a few to mention. i don't know if we will ever see justice. peace John <jhwhummel@shaw.ca> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: > To: "John" > Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 11:08 AM > Subject: Mad as a Hatter: Canada's mercury pollution on Indigenous lands > > >> Hey John, >> >> Well, it's a bit rough around the edges, but here's the article I was >> promising about mercury pollution in Canada... >> http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1981 >> >> Respectfully, >> Ahni Maria Swain-Korshever Turtle Island Wide Solidarity Grassy Narrows First Nation ,