JOHN DOE: Lack of Safe Water on First Nation Reserves: A Canadian Human Rights Crisis Task 1: Annotated Bibliography: Drinking water crisis in First Nations communities violates human rights. (2017, February 24). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://www.ecojustice.ca/drinking-water-crisis-first-nations-communitiesviolates-human-rights/ Kaitlyn Mitchell wrote an article for ecojustice about the drinking water crisis that First Nation communities face. She bluntly states that the lack of swift action on rectifying the situation is unacceptable and completely violates human rights. She also states facts about us as human beings: without air and water we could not survive, and that when we consume contaminated air or water, we suffer physically. Kaitlyn makes reference to the David Suzuki Foundation as well as, The Council of Canadians which are working hard to bring awareness to the situation. They are also, attempting to keep Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government accountable for their words and promises they made during the 2015 election. She goes on with facts about how 71 First Nation reserves are on long-term water advisories and how it is unacceptable. This is a great article because it brings truth to the situation many Native Canadians are facing. When people are exposed to dirty water and air; cancer rates go up, sink infections, skin diseases, all health deteriorating aspects increase. Not only, is this morally wrong and completely baffling, but the amount of stress put on the economy and health care system when people get ill and need to visit doctors or get medication is astronomical. The system can only take so many people needing assistance all at once before it breaks and becomes difficult to sustain itself. I will be able to add some of the information about the health issues in my poster, it will give people a better understanding of the long-term risks that First Nation communities on boil water advisories are exposed to. Globe and Mail, F. L. (2017, June 19). Unsafe to drink: Water treatments fail on Canadian reserves, Globe review finds. Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/watertreatment-plants-fail-on-reserves-across-canada-globereviewfinds/article34094364/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com& According The Global and Mail article by Matthew McClearn, several times per week water trucks get sent to Serpent River First Nations, where they get emptied into their reservoir. This community is one of 90 First Nation communities that cannot drink their tap water, bathe in it, or brush their teeth with it. This article has many aspects to it due to the extensive investigative reporting, which include; what went wrong with the filtration system and the infrastructure, why the engineers cannot get the filtration systems to work properly and how would can the situation be made better. Matthew McClearn found public records in his investigative journalism to show that the Federal Government has in fact supplied the Indigenous and the department of Northern Affairs Canada with billions of JOHN DOE: dollars to fix the infrastructure and get the communities safe water. The problem is that substandard contractors were hired to perform the work and many of the water treatment plants were poorly designed and would never have worked in the long term. They were designed to fail and in doing so the Federal government yet again, has failed the First Nations people of Canada. This article can prove to be important in my poster/social media outreach because it will shed light on the lack of fundamental care that the First Nations people receive. It shows that although money was given to the department to fix the infrastructure, nobody was really watching and no oversight was provided to ensure that the work actually got done with high standards. Though this article has a lot of information, some limitations that I may experience are the fact that I simply cannot incorporate all the information on my media outlet, and sifting through the information to find the key points will be challenging. Make it Safe. (2017, June 06). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/07/make-it-safe/canadas-obligation-end-first-nations-watercrisis This article by Human Rights Watch will provide me with statistics for my poster, as well as critical information on what the government says they will be doing with the money allocated to the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada office. There are many parts of this report that have provided me with information that I was not aware of before starting this research, which include the amount of communities that face no access to fresh water, the severity of health problems these people face, and the fact that so much money has been spent into trying to upgrade the systems. Because of the lack of oversight and workmanship on some of these projects, the filtration systems were often under designed, poorly designed, or simply do not have the right technology for the application. No excuses for boil water orders on First Nations reserves - Michael's essay. (2017, March 03). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/water-on-first-nations-reservesislam-and-isis-prison-poem-pricey-glasses-heather-o-neill-1.4005479/no-excuses-for-boil-water-orderson-first-nations-reserves-michael-s-essay-1.4005482 This article written by Michael Enright captures the severity of the lack of fresh water supply on First Nation reserves across Canada. As of November of last year, there have been 130 boil water advisories in 85 First Nation communities. This number is outrageous, and a human rights violation. Michael Enright expresses his concern with how quickly the government acted when the town of Walkerton had E.coli contained water due to manure run off into the well supply. But the lack of media coverage and attention some Native communities get really irritated this writer, considering some of these locations have been on boil water advisories for over 15 years. In this article the writer states that these innocent people cannot even pour themselves a glass of water, they do not have the luxury of not having to worry about the water coming out of the tap. A limitation to this article is that it expresses the writer’s opinion, and is biased in its presentation of the facts. It does, however, emphasize the extreme position these community members face, which will be helpful in the positioning of my message for the poster. JOHN DOE: Spotlight on Canada: Indigenous concerns with water quality continue. (n.d.). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from http://safe-water-project.ca/spotlight-on-canada-indigenous-concerns-with-water-qualitycontinue/ In this article, Safe Water Project references the report that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) produced about the quality of water that the First Nations communities face. In this report it is said that the Canadian government and its lack of action in dealing with the situation violates the United Nations agreement that states: Everyone be provided access to safe, affordable, accessible and acceptable quality water. But yet, the First Nation communities do not receive this, some of these communities have been without safe water for nearly 20 years. The article states that some cultural rituals performed by Native people have been altered due to the lack access to clean/safe water. Cultural practices that have been affected include: fishing, ceremonies, women’s role of water keepers, and hunting. Some Aboriginal people have had to change their hygiene habits, to avoid contamination and some people have had to crowd into homes, while they await suitable infrastructure. Some members of the community have given up on dealing with the contaminated water, that they have begun bathing in it, and using it. Many First Nations people feel that living day to day is a complete struggle. This article is helpful in providing an international framework for the injustice that is being perpetrated on the First Nation peoples of Canada. I creates the context for the argument that it is a Human Rights violation, when it violation a UN code. The Council of Canadians. (2017, June 29). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://canadians.org/fn-water Safe water for First Nations people has been an ongoing problems for many years, there is little to no hope that this situation will be fixed any time soon. The Council of Canadians voiced their concern about the First Nations Utility Service’s becoming a public-private partnership (P3s) with Terasen Utilities. The Council of Canadians believe that with the water partially privatized, the Federal Government can avoid some responsibility for the on-going crisis by avoiding Health and environmental concerns, and the accountability to the community. This agreement was supposed to help with upgrading water facilities, and assist in training and certifying members of the community on how the new water facility treatment plants would operate. It is suggested that the Federal Government needs to come up with a plan on how to fix this problem that has been looming over the First Nations people for many years. Each Native community has a different story on how long they have been on a boil water advisory, but it all comes back to the same thing, it is not being fixed soon enough. This group of Canadians provides awareness nationally and internationally on the crises that First Nations communities face on a daily bases. They want everyone to be aware of what they are going through, so that maybe change will come. This source is useful as an example of an advocacy group that is positioning facts to convey a message. Not only with the facts and content be useful for my project, but the style will be a good example. The Council of Canadians. (n.d.). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://canadians.org/blog/howstudents-and-teachers-can-take-action-clean-water-first-nations JOHN DOE: In this article, Emma Lui writes about the lack of the basic human right of access to fresh-clean drinking water. Emma examines Justin Trudeau and the Liberals action plan on providing access to all First Nation communities to clean drinking water and ending all water advisories. According to David Suzuki Foundation and The Council of Canadians, the Federal Government will not be able to meet its commitment it made during the 2015 election, to end all water advisories in First Nation communities. The only way this would be able to occur is if the Liberals took some serious actions on addressing the issues. Some communities such as Kitigan Zibi, which is nearly two hours away from Parliament Hill has had a boil water advisory for nearly twenty years. Some of the wells where they draw their water are so highly contaminated with uranium that you cannot shower with the running water without skin irritations and rashes. The Council of Canadians has taken action into asking teachers to educate students on the lack of clean water on Native reserves. This includes writing a letter to the Trudeau government. It is a very important article because educating children who will be the future of this country is extremely effective in creating positive change for future generations. The usefulness of this article is that the letter in which Emma Lui provided can be used on my poster or used as an example. Task 2: Communication plan Brainstorm means of communication: • • • • • • Pamphlet Social media account Website Posters around the community Article in the news paper Community gathering Pros and Cons list of communication method: (Posters made for Twitter post) • • • • • • Pro: can easily be put up Pro: numerous people are involved in social media, so it has the potential to reach more people Pro: can get more people involved in the awareness/participation Pro: if positioned correctly with the right #, it can go viral Con: not sure if people will read them/ retweet them Con: Need to have people following the grassroots organization on twitter in order to get more retweets and likes Pros and Cons list of communication method: (Pamphlet) • • Con: Doesn’t have the ability to reach as many people instantly Con: you have to hand them out to people, they can be easily ignored or thrown out JOHN DOE: • • • • Con: We are becoming a green society – less paper waste the better Con: Not everybody reads the paper they are handed on the street Pro: You are able to put more detailed information in the pamphlet Pro: You can reach the older demographic who doesn’t use the internet/ social media Task 3: Publish your action plan See attached PDF for the two posters, which will be intended as two posts on twitter. The posts are mean to be re-tweeted online, and start an email writing campaign to get the government to take action. To show that the people of Canada stand with First Nations Communities. Task 4: Metacognition I believe that the positive impact of my action plan will be that I am bringing awareness to an issue that people know of, but do not understand the severity of water safety on First Nations reserves. This is not a new issue that the First Nations cultural group faces: it has been ongoing for many years. It seems as if people who are not involved in the day-to-day have become desensitized to what it actually means to not have safe water. Bringing awareness back to the issue is extremely important. There are so many things that are now possible: we all have access to endless information, cellphones – major advances in green technology and artificial intelligence, but some people do not have access to fresh water. To me it hardly seems possible that this is the reality for many people. My vision is to create a poster that can be placed throughout the city, but also be put on social media via twitter. By creating a poster that could be placed in many locations throughout the city, the information can be drawn to right person’s attention, and create an impact for one person to innovate or a make a change that could have a meaningful impact in the need for new technology to support these indigenous communities. Not only will the poster be placed in locations in the real world, I am also intending to place it on the social media platform Twitter. With the average monthly twitter users exceeding 330 billion people, I am hoping that I will be able to access many more people via this platform. The purpose of my poster is to encourage people to write to their Members of Parliament about the human rights crisis the First Nations communities of Canada are facing, with their lack of fresh water. I am hoping with increased pressure from citizens in their districts the MPs will give answers on the ongoing conditions. The hope is to hold the government true to their promise of having the First Nation water crisis fixed by 2021. For the social media aspect, I will be providing a web link with all of the Members of Parliament and their contact information, this will allow people to locate the person in their riding. I will also be providing a prewritten letter of what they can send to their MP, adding in only their specific information. The roadblocks I could potentially face are: nobody stops and reads the poster, the poster gets wet, and it can be located in low foot traffic area. On Twitter, I could have nobody interested in my poster/cause, it could potential not get retweeted, which will in turn, will have less people who will be able to see it. I could improve a few of these issues by: printing the poster on paper that does not smear when wet, or by making it waterproof. I could avoid the dilemma of nobody seeing it by putting it in high traffic areas where lots of people come together. I could also avoid the possibility of nobody reading it by situating it in places in which people are either standing around or are in a location for a long period of time with JOHN DOE: nothing to do: for example; inside of bus stops. For Twitter, I will have to work hard to get people with lots of followers to tweet my poster. I may need to contact them individually to get their attention and their support for my cause. These could include Canadian celebrities or government officials. There are always roadblocks when it comes to getting your concern across to large masses of people. People will think what is the motive? It doesn’t involve me, so why should I care? Along with many other thoughts. It is hard to target everyone with just one means of media or communication, this is why I have chosen to do a poster. It will allow me to place it in the physical life, where people who do not use social media can have access to the information, as well as, on social media, where many people are constantly viewing information and sharing information with one another. Sample Annotation in Section on Annotated Bibliography
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