A/HRC/45/12/Add.1 35. The struggle of indigenous peoples across Canada has been harder than has generally been acknowledged. Indigenous peoples face several more challenges than the rest of the population: higher poverty rates, greater food insecurity, greater incidence of inadequate living conditions, higher incarceration rates, lower levels of education and higher health inequalities. 42 The invisible violence inflicted by toxics is an insidious burden disproportionately borne by indigenous peoples in Canada. 36. Emblematic is the mercury poisoning of the Grassy Narrows First Nation and the Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent Nations. From 1963 to 1970, a pulp and paper mill released several tons of highly toxic mercury into the water, contaminating the English River and the Wabigoon River, including the fish and game these peoples traditionally depended upon.43 A 2016 study found mercury levels to be 130 times higher in the river sediment near the mill site than immediately upstream. 44 A subsequent assessment of the soil and groundwater at the site revealed a continued presence of elevated levels of mercury,45 giving credence to claims that those communities were still at risk of exposure due to the failure to remediate contamination for over 50 years (see sect. IV below). 37. Mercury exposure poses various health risks, especially to fetuses and to children, whose developing nervous systems are extremely sensitive. 46 Over 58 per cent of the community members examined have or are suspected of having Minamata disease, a serious neurological disease resulting from mercury exposure.47 Socioeconomic impacts include the destruction of fisheries, tourism and related industries, and severe impacts on hunting and gathering, forcing changes in modes of sustenance and negatively affecting people’s culture and sense of pride.48 Access to safe water and nutritious food has been a persistent problem. Furthermore, communities have reported delays in the delivery of effective remedies, lack of funding and inadequate political will to secure a dignified life for them and future generations.49 38. The health risks posed to indigenous peoples by the multibillion-dollar oil sands industry are also of concern. The situations at Fort McMurray, Fort MacKay and Fort Chipewyan paint a disturbing picture of the negative health outcomes of the oil sands (i.e., tar sands), outcomes that were not properly investigated for years, despite increasing evidence that the health of local communities was being affected. The alarming health trends recorded at Fort Chipewyan were raised repeatedly. 50 The oil sands situation cannot be divorced from the troubling Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, which has been strenuously opposed by many. Landfills, incinerators and waste disposal sites are often closest to indigenous reserves. For example, concerns have been expressed relating to the Swan Hills hazardous waste treatment centre, where highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls from around Canada are incinerated. 39. The situation of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia is profoundly unsettling. Deeply connected with their land, the residents on the reserve have been invaded by industry as far back as the 1940s. They are now almost entirely surrounded by over 60 industrial facilities whose presence creates physiological and mental stress among community members because of the risk of impending explosions or other disasters and because of 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 8 www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/publications/science-research/key-healthinequalities-canada-national-portrait-executive-summary/key_health_inequalities_full_reporteng.pdf; A/HRC/39/11, para. 8. www.canada.ca/en/indigenous-services-canada/news/2020/04/the-government-of-canada-andasubpeeschoseewagong-netum-anishinabek-grassy-narrows-first-nation-sign-a-frameworkagreement-to-build-a-mercury-care-.html. http://docs.assets.eco.on.ca/reports/environmental-protection/2017/Good-Choices-Bad-Choices03.pdf. www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/INAN/meeting-155/evidence. Ibid. http://docs.assets.eco.on.ca/reports/environmental-protection/2017/Good-Choices-Bad-Choices03.pdf. www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/INAN/meeting-155/evidence. Ibid. https://landuse.alberta.ca/Forms%20and%20Applications/RFR_ACFN%20Reply%20t o%20Crown%20Submission%206%20-%20TabD11%20Report_2014-08_PUBLIC.pdf.