Effect on Indigenous Peoples

People living in the Aamjiwnaang reserve are disproportionately affected by the environmental hazards of Chemical Valley. The oil industries that have slowly taken over their backyards have shown little respect for their ancestral land. Instead of the vast expanse of forest Aamjiwnaang people once had access to, a Shell petroleum refinery now makes up the backdrop of their sacred burial grounds.

There are many reasons for why these industrial encroachments of land over the years have led to disadvantages for the Aamjiwnaang people. These reasons are a perfect demonstration of the prevalence of environmental racism in Canada.

This proximity to numerous factories means that the Aamjiwnaang reserve contains some of the poorest air quality of the region, and any chemical spills or leakages can pose serious threats to the people living there.

Multiple chemical spills are reported to occur each year, but companies may not own up to them until they are called out.

“I was struck by the incredible proximity of the affected First Nation to dozens of intense chemical production and processing facilities, which resulted in incredible releases of pollution and waste affecting the [residents’] health.”
Baskut Tuncak (UN special rapporteur on toxic chemicals)

“As a parent, you do everything you can to make sure that your children are safe, and when something like that happens, you feel like you’ve lost control […] What if it had been a bigger spill? You think you’re prepared but really you’re not. It feels helpless.”
Christine Rogers (on the chemical spills near Aamjiwnaang reserve)

In one such instance in 2013, a spill near a primary school resulted in the hospitalization of dozens of young children, who were misdiagnosed as having the flu due to lack of information.

Learn more about chemical spills

Additionally, chemicals from Chemical Valley have contaminated the soils and waterways of the area, so the Aamjiwnaang people cannot practice traditional hunting, fishing and gathering practices due to health concerns. This forces many of them into finding jobs in the very industry that endangers them.

Members of the community have long voiced their concerns that rates of disease in the reserve are much higher than average, but a lack of government support and attention has made it difficult to gather the funding for a formal scientific study.

In 2017, an Aamjiwnaang resident took the provincial government to court after 8 years of empty promises of an air quality review. This was the push that seemed to be needed, as a study has finally been conducted. Go to toxicological effects to read about the results.

The irony of the situation is clearly illustrated by one example in particular. A neighbouring white community called the Village of Blue Water once existed nearby, but the people were evacuated and relocated (on the government’s dime) into Sarnia in 1966 due to the unsafe living conditions.

The same urgency and aid has not been given to the Indigenous people of the area.

Sources