Is Genocide by Sewage Acceptable Policy in Canada?

Darcey at Dust my Broom highlights the issue of the sewer water in Kashechewan in the House of Commons:

Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the people of Kashechewan First Nation have been under a boil water advisory for eight years. This past weekend an E. coli outbreak hit the community. The school is closed, the health centre is closed and a Health Canada official told the people that it was perfectly safe to bathe their children in E. coli contaminated bathwater. That is like telling those Cree people to bathe their children in toilet water.

Would the health minister or any of his staff be willing to come up to Kashechewan and bathe their children in this kind of water?

Hon. Ujjal Dosanjh (Minister of Health, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, obviously that is a very serious issue. I will look into it and I would be happy to provide an answer to the hon. member.

For 8 years this situation has been allowed to fester and when the matter was brought up recently in Parliament last week the only answer the Honourable Minister of Health gives is that he will be happy to look into it and provide an answer. My question is; how long does it take to have this issue addressed and, more importantly, how long before action it taken to resolve it?

Darcey has more details and I believe that he is correct in asserting that this is an issue that has gone under reported in Canadian msm. The Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs has an operating budget of $6.2 billion and funds allocated represent 3.8% of the total budget for 2005-2006 which makes it a larger expense than the allotment for Heathcare (2.7%), Foreign Affairs & International Trade (2.7%), Industry (2.9%) etc., according to sources used by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

I am not going to argue whether the funds allocated were justified or not. I have absolutely no idea how the budget breaks down or what is owed under the various treaty obligations and/or otherwise. I am not going to argue whether the situation in Kashechewan First Nation is the result of a corrupt chief or band mismanagement.

What I do believe is when the Ministry of Indian & Northern Affairs pays for a water treatment plant; then the Ministry has a responsibility and duty to ensure that the water treatment plant does not poison anyone, and they do so in a timely fashion. Eight years is not timely under any measure of law, furthermore, I think one would be hard-pressed to find a justice in this country who would accept that 8 years was an inadequate time frame to resolve this issue.

Maybe I didn’t get the memo and genocide by sewage is now the official Liberal Indian & Northern Affairs policy. I doubt that it is, but it’s sure starting to appear that genocide by negligence and omission is acceptable under the current federal administration in Canada.