Children of the Broken Treaty by Charlie Angus

Author:Charlie Angus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 2017-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

PEOPLE IN TENTS

“Nothing ever changes. Nothing ever makes a difference.” Shannen drew her knees to her chest. “I give up, Serena. Winning this fight is impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible, ShanShann. You said it yourself,” Serena said, through her own tears… .

“But we said exactly the same thing a whole year ago. We were sure that the government would promise a new school. It was just a matter of time.…And look what happened—nothing. In fact, the situation in Attawapiskat is worse. Much worse!” …

“Do you remember when I felt like giving up?” Serena repeated her father’s words. “You get up, pick up your books, and keep walking in your moccasins.”

“I’m tired of walking, nimis [big sister].”

—Janet Wilson161

The third state of emergency declared at James Bay in 2009 was the result of failing infrastructure. On July 11, 2009, the sewage lift station in Attawapiskat failed, causing raw sewage to back up into eight homes. In the overcrowded homes of the community, this flood of human waste left ninety people homeless, including many infants and elders. Even for families who could have handled their own repairs, the nearest construction supply store was 500 kilometres away by air. Cleanup of the homes would be expensive and take months.

The homes were too contaminated for people to stay in them without becoming sick. There was no place to put ninety residents in a community already under pressure from an ever-growing backlog of people waiting for housing. Over the previous decade, the population had grown by 40 per cent,162 while the number of new houses didn’t come close to replacing even the aging and deteriorating housing stock. The local arena lacked the facilities to provide safe housing for people over an extended period of time.

With nowhere to house the displaced families, the band council declared a state of emergency and asked the federal government to have residents flown to Cochrane until a remediation plan could be put in place. Indian Affairs refused to support the request. Although government officials stated their willingness to repair the homes, they told the community that it was on its own in dealing with the homeless people.

On July 25, 2009, the band council paid the cost to fly the displaced families to Cochrane to be housed in hotels. The costs of the flights and accommodations created serious financial drags on the band’s limited budget. As each week passed, the band fell further into debt.

Attawapiskat wasn’t the only James Bay community struggling with infrastructure collapse that year. Fort Albany was also in the midst of a major infrastructure crisis. It started in 2007 when community members began raising alarm bells about excessive levels of black mould in twenty-six houses recently built in the community. Like so many other approved infrastructure projects, this development fell well short of the required housing needs of the James Bay region. The basements were built without drainage weeping tiles even though, given high groundwater levels, they were sitting in the water table.

As well, sewage lines from the homes lacked back-flow valves to stop sewage from coming into the homes in case of a sewage system failure.

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