Attawapiskat declares state of emergency!

By Chelsey Romain, The Daily Press
March 25, 2009


The remote First Nation community of Attawapiskat has said enough is enough
and has declared a state of emergency.

Community officials, along with the local education authority issued a
release late Tuesday night stating both the elementary and high school have
been closed until further notice.

In recent weeks, the building that used to house the J.R. Nakogee Elementary
School was torn down. It was during the demolition that members of the
community allegedly began smelling a strong ordour of fuel. According to the
release, the old school, which became contaminated following a diesel spill
in 1979, was dumped just four kilometres west of the city, five kilometres
south of the community's water intake site. Both the high school and the
portables now being used as an elementary school are a mere five to 10 feet
away.

The release says the community is tired of the ignorance by Indian and
Northern Affairs Canada as they continue to struggle through years of
fighting to get a new school, new water intake, a new dump site, on-going
water plant and sewage problems.

"Finally the community has said enough is enough," the letter stated. "This
will always be a struggle unless addressed by Indian and Northern Affairs
Canada, as First Nations are wards of the Crown.

"As always, comments will be made by INAC that they are working on it, but
these are only band-aid solutions."

An Empty Glass for Water

Welcome.
I have created this blog in order to spread the word that safe drinking water is a human right.

In Canada, there are currently 109 First Nation communities that are under boil-water advisories - some for more than a decade.

Indian & Northern Affairs Canada lists only 22 on their website. I added up the number of people affected from the 22 listed communities, using their census figures from 2006. The total tells me that there are approx. 10,000 people that can NOT go to their tap tonight and get a drink of water. This figure is of course much higher, because they've only listed 22 of the 108 First Nation communities.

I don't understand how our Prime Minister can justify his belief that not everyone has a right to safe drinking water. Perhaps if he saw the numbers in front of him, he could visually see how big the problem is. So that's how I came up with this project. A glass to be filled for every person that needs a drink of fresh, safe water.

I would like you to join me in sending an EMPTY GLASS FOR WATER to our Prime Minister in Ottawa... an empty glass for every person that can't go to the tap tonight and fill it up with safe drinking water. These people cannot be invisible any longer. Send an empty glass to the hill and request that PM Harper fill it up with clean, safe water!

Please spread the word! Start a movement for change. Mail your EMPTY GLASS FOR WATER or drop it off on the hill if you're in the area.

Mail your EMPTY GLASS FOR WATER with a note saying "FILL IT UP 4 FNs" to:

Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON, Canada
K1A 0A2