40 years later

I spoke up about this tragedy 40 years ago at great personal cost, 40 years later I am still pounding this topic: mercury contamination in Ontario. Oct. 26, 1974, the day Suzanne and I got married, the same day the students at the Art Gallery of Ontario staged a protest  on the front steps of the AGO. They dumped a load of dead fish on the steps to protest Reid Paper sponsoring an art exhibition. At the time Reid Paper was dumping raw mercury from their paper plant into the Wabagoon River system in northern Ontario; right next door to our family cottage.  40 years later the paper mill/Ontario government is still dumping poison with impunity.

There was an awkward moment at the reception at Suzanne's parents home in Toronto, we were meeting all the guests having a wonderful time. The neighbor and close friend of the family approaches us to wish us well; Thank you Howard I replied. Howard was a high ranking executive at the paper plant, he was just being kind and generous when he offered to let Suzanne and I stay at his villa in the Bahamas for a honeymoon retreat. I thanked him and declined his offer, explaining we intended to go up north to spend our honeymoon to do some hunting and fishing, near the Wabagoon River system.

The awkward moment: I said to him; “Howard, that protest at the AGO today, your company is pouring so much mercury into the river we are having to send our native people to Japan to get treated for Minimata Disease (mercury poisoning) because we don't know enough about it to treat them over here. I told him I would be grateful if he would just stop poisoning the lakes in Ontario. His face went beet red, by this time a number of other guest started to pick up on the incident. It was ugly to say the least. I spoke up when it counted, I'm still speaking up about it now. Most of my friends know all about this story, I could have kept my big mouth shut and gone on to benefit from the family business connections; I just couldn't stomach it. Nothing has changed, big business always wins, and the poor pay the price.