BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to the drinking water situation in a First Nation community in northern Ontario. For more on the story, click here.
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Access to safe drinking water must be legislated into a human right. I say this because the Neskantaga First Nation had to evacuate many of its members last week to Thunder Bay because of a water treatment problem.
This is not the first time. Their community had been promised water treatment and facility upgrades by the Liberal government since 2018. To date, the community has had to boil its water for nearly 30 years.
While governments and opposition parties bicker over political corruption and financial scandals, it would do for them to review those things the rest of us take for granted.
Our community has excellent schools, clean drinking water, and sufficient public services. The Neskantaga community had to close its nursing station and school until the water treatment problem is resolved.
Our nation has experienced much hardship and suffering this year. There are still many injustices to resolve. But if we fail to provide the necessaries of life by withholding funds, excluding others from jobs or opportunities, or failing to provide adequate shelters, we are no better than the very worst nation states.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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