CW/TW: Indigenous racism, COVID-19, physical health,

While the legacy of Justin Trudeau may not be obviously connected to the actions that his father Pierre Trudeau took while in office, they are when it comes to the treatment of Indigenous Canadians. When Trudeau took office in 2015, a five year promise was made concerning the undrinkable, inaccessible, often not-even-there water in a majority of Canada’s First Nations reserves. Trudeau “vowed to end First Nations boil advisories” in this time period1. After taking countless trips to “third world” countries and calling out the human rights abuses of those countries, what has Justin Trudeau done about one of the largest and clearest violations to human rights: the right to clean drinking water? It should be noted that water is one of the most basic human rights, and that this situation is ironic in the sense that the only people who didn’t immigrate to this country are the ones being affected by it. It’s 2021 and 6 years have passed since Trudeau took office and to quote Justin himself, “This has gone on for far too long".2

I think it’s also worth noting that while it’s known that political promises often go untouched once elected officials take office, this is more serious than promising to fix a pothole. Not having access to clean water has setbacks in every area of life. It affects the health of everyone in that community and with COVID-19, a disease whose spread can be stopped by washing hands with soap and water, it also places Indigenous people at higher risk of contracting and dying from the disease3. Just based on political priorities in general, it may have been more or less expected with a Conservative government in power. But if this is the liberal approach, I’m terrified of what the water crisis would’ve looked like with the conservatie approach. 

First let’s talk about the water crisis itself. There are currently 33 communities on the official water advisory website by the Canadian government. This only pertains to long-term water advisories. There are more water advisories than are actually accounted for. This comes from a  credible (all sources are backed up by at least 2 reputable sources) non-government run website called watertoday.ca, who reports there being 800+ more communities that are actually affected4. 73% of Indigenous communities are at risk of not having clean drinking water (contaminated water)5. 

Classification is very important as it can be used as a means of determining which communities are on and off the government’s advisory list. What counts as clean water is a matter of semantics rather than whether the water is actually clean or not. Boil advisories means that the water can (although it is advised against) be drunk after it is boiled thoroughly. ‘Do not consume’ is pretty straightforward. ‘Water shortage’ refers to a lack of clean running water and ‘Cyanobacteria bloom’ refers to toxic algae in the water6. Long term advisories are also usually more focused on how long the water has been undrinkable, but this negates communities with boil advisories or other types of “short term” contamination and as a result, these communities are often forgotten. 

In order to further understand where the government is falling short we also need a clear timeline of promises and the lack of resulting deliverances. In 2015, the Trudeau government promised that the crisis would be completely solved by 20207. This seemed feasible at the time: 5 years to fix 155+ long-term water advisories. By December of 2020, however, it was clear that this was not the case. 33 long term advisories remain while there are still at least 800+ “short”-term advisories remaining with communities frequently switching between the ‘boil advisory’ and the ‘do not drink advisory’ (while not all of the communities affected by the advisories are Indigenous, a disproportionate majority are). When this came to light, a new timeline of March 2021 was proposed, giving the government an extra 90 days (Dec 31st-March 31st)8. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed (with Covid and whatnot), but it's May 2021. 

The new timeline estimates that it’ll take until 2023-2024 for all of the long term water advisories to be lifted, and till 2025-2026 for long term permanent solutions to clean water access to be implemented9. Again, water is a basic human right. It’s listed on the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights10. Canada endorses and recognizes this covenant meaning that they agree to abide by it and still have somehow managed to be in violation of it for decades. 

How long can this issue continue to be ignored? Water is the basis of most daily and necessary activities. Indigenous communities are often isolated, and marginalized away from public view. It’s easy not to care if you aren’t directly affected by this. From the time Pierre Trudeau was in office the infrastructure of these communities has been an issue. Each new government that comes into power simply extends a timeline and then never completes it, leaving the next government to come in and do the same thing. The cycle has deadly consequences. One water advisory can mean that potentially 5,000 Indigenous members of a community are left without clean drinking water11. Water is also essential to combat Covid-19. Indigenous peoples are more likely to contract Covid-19 and due to boil and other do-not-drink advisories are unable to correctly and frequently sanitize their hands safely12. 

This should upset all of us. Canadians often brag about the good-will and good-nature reputation of our country and our country’s willingness to help others in times of need. This crisis is right here at home and its very existence threatens life daily and for future generations. If we continue to let this issue sit, no government will be held accountable to fix it and the date will continue to get pushed. As an ally, and a fellow Canadian you can help by donating, volunteering, fundraising, and simply by starting a conversation/raising awareness about this issue.  Resources are listed below. 

Resources:

https://waterfirst.ngo/what-you-can-do/

https://truenorthaid.ca/water/

https://www.safewater.org/donate

Learn More about the water crisis:

https://www.watertoday.ca/

https://davidsuzuki.org/resource_tag/drinking-water-advisories/

https://globalreportingcentre.org/lytton-water/

1 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-justin-trudeau-first-nations-boil-water-advisories-1.3258058

2 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-justin-trudeau-first-nations-boil-water-advisories-1.3258058

3 https://www.covid19facts.ca/en/fact-checked/indigenous-communities-are-more-susceptible-to-covid-19

4 https://www.watertoday.ca/map-graphic.asp

5 https://canadians.org/fn-water

6 https://wcwc.ca/cyanobacteria-cyanotoxins/

7 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/indigenous-services-minister-drinking-water-target-1.5824614

8 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/indigenous-services-minister-drinking-water-target-1.5824614

9 https://globalnews.ca/news/7836421/first-nations-water-trudeau-broken-promises/

10 https://www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/human-rights#:~:text=General%20Comment%2015%2C%20of%20the,countries%20who%20have%20endorsed%20the

11 https://canadians.org/fn-water

12 https://www.covid19facts.ca/en/fact-checked/indigenous-communities-are-more-susceptible-to-covid-19