Right now, it just seems really flexible for the industry companies to keep polluting and to exceed the levels. If there were something firm in place where they knew that they were going to be held accountable, would they be testing the limits?
As I've stated to you before, it feels like we're a test site. It's like, let's see how much we can pollute and get away with, and then through the data of the different generations of community members, it will show through. It shouldn't be that way.
The special rapporteur in a recent report, published by the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, classified Aamjiwnaang as a “sacrifice zone”. That's really what we feel like. It shouldn't get to that point. There should be more accountability for the industry to produce the results of their chemicals, and have action plans and reinvestment plans.
There's a lot, and we're just a small example of many issues that are faced by vulnerable populations of indigenous people across Canada. We seem like ground zero as the worst-case scenario for Canadian environmental issues, but we don't want to be that. We should be an example of how you can fix that, and how we can collaborate together.