Author: Lauren Anthony
Author Origin Country: Canada
Orange-brown coloured wastewater from the mine waste leaks. Photo credit: Nick Vardy for Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (3).
In Canada, there were two incidents of toxic mine waste leakage and contamination of the surrounding environment, impacting certain Indigenous communities, which may be linked to environmental racism.
During the first incident, at Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine facility, toxic mine fluid leaked and contaminated the environment, and surrounding Indigenous communities were not made aware of the situation for nine months.
Nonetheless, this incident had major environmental consequences impacting both wildlife and downstream Indigenous communities, including Chipewyan and Dene Nations communities. It was only after a second incident of additional mine waste leakage that the general public and communities were made aware of the situation.
These incidents bring light to the importance of learning from these toxic waste leaks to develop and implement policies and laws that truly work for protection of the environment and human health.
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