Clean water for First Nations critical during the COVID-19 pandemic: Activists
Activists in Northeastern Ontario continue the fight for safe, clean water after the Liberal government announced in December that it would not fulfill its commitment to end all long-term water advisories by March.
Jan 10, 2021 12:46 PM By: Colleen Romaniuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Autumn Peltier, 16-year-old water-rights activist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and chief water commissioner for the Anishinabek First Nation, gained international recognition for confronting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations in 2016. Katherine Takpannie/Takpannie Photography.Colleen Romaniuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Try refreshing your browser. Sudbury man aims to make political splash with swims for clean Indigenous water Back to video
Jordan Cheff’s Cold Water 4 Clean Water campaign came to a close Saturday after he spent a month taking daily swims in Lake Nepahwin to raise awareness about the lack of clean water in Indigenous communities across Canada.
Some of these communities have been without potable water for upwards of 25 years, as is the case with Ontario’s Neskantaga First Nation, and there are more than 30 Indigenous reserves currently under some form of water advisory in Ontario alone. Many Indigenous people in Canada have spent most of their lives without reliable access to clean drinking water.
Sudburians brave Nepahwin s freezing water to raise awareness of First Nations water woes sudbury.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sudbury.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Author of the article: Kevin McSheffrey
Publishing date: Dec 10, 2020  â¢Â December 10, 2020  â¢Â 3 minute read  â¢Â Photo by KEVIN McSHEFFREY/THE STANDARD As many as 15 men and women strolled into Elliot Lake, which was covered with a thin sheet of ice on Sunday, Dec. 6. The event was to raise awareness that many First Nations in Ontario, and across Canada, do not have access to clean drinking water. Many have been under boil-water orders for years, and some for decades.
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On a sunny Sunday afternoon, more than 60 people went to Spruce Beach to watch 15 men and women take a quick dip into Elliot Lake where the water temperature was a bone-chilling plus four degrees Celsius.