THUNDER BAY — On Monday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh started a week-long tour of Indigenous communities.
On Monday, Singh was in Neskantaga First Nation with NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) and NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa to meet with community members who have been under a boil water advisory for 26 years.
Later on Monday, Singh attended a sharing circle at the Sacred Fire at Lakehead University.
The event started at 8:00 PM in a very welcome heavy rain, and media waited for the NDP leader who was able to speak with them at about 11 PM.
The NDP leader stated that the impact of being in Neskantaga where he met with youth and elders was to see that words are not enough to end boil water advisories in First Nations communities.
One of the youth told Singh that he feels like they are being treated like “sub-humans” or animals.
Speaking on Grassy Narrows, Singh spoke on how Canada has a responsibility.
“If any other body of water was poisoned with mercury that was caused by a company pouring mercury into the water, no one would hesitate to fix it”.
There was a fairly large group of people at the university site for the NDP leader’s visit. Provincial NDP MPPs Sol Mamakwa and Judith Monteith-Farrell also were in attendance as well as Federal NDP candidate Yuk Sem Won (Thunder Bay Rainy River) and soon to be nominated candidate for Thunder Bay Superior North Chantelle Bryson.
