Good morning, everyone.
My position as national coordinator for the First Nations Environmental Network of Canada is what brings me here. My position in life is to speak on behalf of the land and for the people. My family come from Shoal Lake, Lake of the Woods, Nishnawbe territory. I acknowledge the Musqueam territory here, and I'm thankful to be here.
I have experienced poverty, and I can tell you that it's not pleasant by any means, but what I see across the nation in the years that I've been travelling is a poverty that speaks at a far deeper level. The people I deal with on a daily basis are experiencing... When you don't have clean water, when the water carries chemicals and disease, and your families are dying--your elders, your children--no amount of material goods can make up for that, when the soil and the air are poisoned. The people in the communities that I speak to are like canaries in a coal mine. They live invariably next door to these resource extraction industries. It's something that's going to affect all of us, as people, as humans, but it always seems to affect them first, and hardest and most tragically.
It's a sad thing. As I say, no amount of material wealth can remedy that. When it comes down to what really makes us human, our emotions and what comes from our hearts is what is really important. We all recognize that, and when our days come to an end, our lives, we review our lives and think about what is really important.
One thing that appears to be happening across the country is that both government and industry, and now sadly, environmental groups, have been formed to facilitate the removal of resources. And when you have poverty on one hand and vast amounts of money being offered on the other, people have to make a really tough choice in taking the jobs, in taking the money, when it's going to ruin their land, it's going to ruin the future for their descendants. I was speaking to one young man yesterday who had worked for ten years earning a high wage driving a truck in the tar sands. He's now working for all he's worth to remove that industry from his territory, because he sees the deaths, the cancers. There was a doctor in his community who was charged with eight various trumped-up charges. He's been cleared finally, after several years. Just last month he was cleared of the last charge. He had to leave the community. Charges were brought by the industry against him because he brought to light the fact that people were dying of rare cancers. I've met some of the young people, in their early twenties, who have these rare cancers. They're living downstream from this type of industry.
There's more to poverty than financial means, and as I say, this is something that's happening all across the country. I'm heartened that there are people from these communities--elders and young people--who are very strong on this issue, but they're having a hard time because they're elected officials. All of the processes that have been put in place by the government are the ones that are being used against them. Their own people have turned against them. In virtually every community I know, they're divided. This is a position that's put forward by government and industry and these large foundations with vast amounts of money that are fronting themselves as environmental organizations. There is a lot of money changing hands, but it's bringing this type of long-term poverty that we're going to have a hard time ever pulling out of, because it takes a long time to remove the toxins from these places and to undo the tragedies that have taken place.
That's an aspect that I wanted to bring to this table, because it's something that I see all the time. It's really difficult. Government has to look seriously at its position and what it's doing, and if my voice can somehow bring that to the fore, then I thank you for this opportunity. It's all I can do, and I'm hoping that you will take this message seriously and take it to your heart, because it's going to affect us all.
Thank you very much.