Last Updated on October 5, 2025
For generations, Grassy Narrows First Nation has lived with the painful legacy of mercury poisoning. Now, the community faces another looming danger: a Toronto-based mining company is pushing for permits that would allow it to dump industrial wastewater into rivers flowing toward their territory, threatening to compound an environmental crisis that has never been fully resolved.
Kinross Gold, a multinational mining giant, is no stranger to controversy. Three years ago, the company was fined for more than 3,500 water violations in Washington State, raising serious questions about its ability to safeguard waterways.
Despite this record, Kinross has applied to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks for two key permits:
One would allow the company to draw local water for industrial use. The other would authorize the discharge of mine wastewater into waterways feeding Grassy Narrows.
Environmental experts warn that the company’s proposed treatment plan does not account for sulphate, a pollutant that can intensify the toxic effects of mercury in fish.
For Grassy Narrows, this is not a distant or abstract concern: fish remain a vital source of food and cultural identity, even after decades of mercury contamination.
If approved, the project could produce over a million tonnes of waste rock, leaving behind risks that will persist long after the mine closes.
The Ontario government, led by Minister Todd McCarthy, is now weighing the permits. A decision is expected any day.
For Grassy Narrows, it’s a no-brainer. The community continues to call for clean water, remediation, and respect for its rights — not another industry project that threatens to worsen an already dire situation.
The looming decision highlights a familiar pattern in Canada: extractive industries advancing projects at the expense of Indigenous communities already carrying disproportionate environmental burdens. Grassy Narrows has long been a symbol of resistance against such environmental injustice.
This latest battle underscores how far the fight for clean water and Indigenous rights still has to go.
The public is being asked to sign a petition rejecting Kinross Gold’s mining proejct.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is how little attention it receives.
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barely covers it and the coverage is fragmented. The public is left without the context
needed to understand what is truly at stake.
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