Water ‘source of fear’ for native communities, report says

Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, May 22, 2008

Tyler Anderson/National PostDavid Friday unloads bottled water at the airport on Kashechewan Reserve in northern Ontario.

OTTAWA — Water quality in aboriginal communities and reserves across the country has reached a “boiling point,” warns a new report released Thursday by the Polaris Institute, the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Labour Congress.

“The deplorable conditions that First Nation people live in would not be accepted in any other part of the country,” the report states. The report was co-authored by Andrea Harden and Holly Levaillant from the Polaris Institute.

“For many, water has become a source of fear, and people have good reason to believe that what comes out of their taps may be making them sick. What is happening should be considered a violation of fundamental human rights in this country.”