Grassy Narrows launches lawsuit over mercury poisoning + travel alternatives ahead of Toronto’s potential total transit shutdown – The Star
June 5, 2024
A mercury-poisoned First Nation launches lawsuit, how to get to work during the potential TTC strike and “unimaginable grief” after fatal shooting.
Good morning. This is the Tuesday, June 4 edition of First Up, the Star’s daily morning digest. Sign up to get it earlier each day, in your inbox.
Here’s the latest on a lawsuit from a mercury-poisoned First Nation, the scramble for solutions ahead of a potential TTC strike and the last moments of an Etobicoke shooting victim.
DON’T MISS
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Grassy Narrows is suing governments for failing to clean up mercury pollution
After decades of little action on the part of governments to clean up the tonnes of mercury dumped into the river system near Grassy Narrows First Nation, the community is now suing the federal and provincial governments, Morgan Sevareid-Bocknek reports. The lawsuit accuses Ontario and Ottawa of allowing the Wabigoon River to be polluted by the paper mill upstream, then neglecting to clean it up — all while authorizing industrial production and prospecting. “Our mercury nightmare should have ended long ago, but it has been longer and worse because of the government’s failure to live up to its obligations,” said Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle. Here’s what you need to know.
