Overview
- Grassy Narrows Chief Sherry Ackabee called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to visit the community to apologize face to face for saying he could “outlast” a protester.
- The remark came during a Toronto news conference on Monday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, when Chrissy Isaacs and others protested mercury poisoning in their community.
- Carney laughed after the comment, and reporters said Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow laughed as well.
- The Prime Minister’s Office said Carney could not hear the chants, and a spokesperson said Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty is working with leaders on a new health centre, housing and a mercury care home.
- Political pressure grew as Conservative MP Billy Morin and NDP MP Leah Gazan urged Carney to apologize, while leaders from Grassy Narrows and nearby Wabaseemoong pressed for a meeting and compensation tied to the long-running contamination from the Dryden Paper Mill, which dumped about 9,000 kilograms of mercury in the 1960s and 1970s.