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Neskantaga to declare health crisis

THUNDER BAY -- Neskantaga First Nation is declaring a health crisis over what its leadership suspects is poor quality water.
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Neskantaga First Nation leaders believe health problems youth are experiencing in the remote community are related to poor quality water. AFN health chair Isadore Day will launch a campaign on Monday in Toronto with Neskantaga that will attempt to put First Nation health issues into the federal election debate. (tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- Neskantaga First Nation is declaring a health crisis over what its leadership suspects is poor quality water.

Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias will hold a press conference in Toronto on Monday to plead his community's case to the public with only weeks remaining in the federal election campaign.  

"Children are getting sick, our people are struggling in third-world conditions and living daily with three bottles of water per household," Moonias wrote in a release.

"While Canada announces their billions in surplus, our community can't access clean water? What is the priority here? Enough is enough."

Neskantaga has been under a boil water advisory for more than 21 years. Community leaders believe contaminated water is causing infections in young children but limited access to health professionals has meant no widespread diagnosis can be made.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day will join Moonias at Monday's announcement to demand First Nations health be made a federal election priority.

"Now is the time to eliminate decades of inaction by successive federal governments on providing the essential health services to First Nations," Day said in the release.

"Every single day, our children, adults and elders are suffering from entirely preventative diseases. This has been ignored as a quiet crisis, killing our people and it must end now."

Day is also the chair of the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs Committee on Health. He warned Canadians will be "shamefully embarrassed" when he releases statistics on the health of the on-reserve population, urging anger over the lack of political will to end health crises in First Nations.     





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