Opaskwayak Cree Nation files suit over 2019 toxic fluid leak

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This article was published 10/10/2024 (709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba First Nation has launched a $10-million lawsuit against the paper mill in The Pas after a massive amount of toxic fluid leaked into the river where its residents fish, in 2019.

Opaskwayak Cree Nation has filed a claim against Canadian Kraft Paper and the federal and provincial governments that says it wasn’t warned about the hazard until a court ruling four years after 181 million litres of byproduct leaked into the Saskatchewan River.

In December 2023, the company was ordered to pay a million-dollar fine after pleading guilty to a charge under the federal Fisheries Act in Manitoba’s provincial court.

The company admitted that for six days, beginning Feb. 27, 2019, the mill released what Environment Canada called an acutely lethal toxin into the river, which has many species of fish, including endangered lake sturgeon. The release from a leaky pipe contained black liquor, a manufacturing byproduct that is toxic to fish.

On Sept. 27, Kate Kempton, a lawyer in Victoria, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Cree Nation that seeks $10,000,000 in aggravated and punitive damages, plus other damages as the court decides, and interest and legal costs.

The defendants have yet to respond to the lawsuit with statements of defence.

The toxic spill occurred in “the heart of OCN’s territory, just 800 metres east of OCN’s Reserve 21B, and in close proximity to numerous other OCN reserves in and around The Pas,” reads the court filing.

The spill polluted the water the Cree Nation uses to exercise its treaty rights and the river and surrounding area’s natural resources, including plants, fish and mammals, it alleges.

Neither the paper company nor the governments had notified Opaskwayak about the spill, despite its proximity to the mill and the harm posed to the water, land and resources, the lawsuit alleges.

“In fact, OCN only received notice of the spill after (the company’s) regulatory conviction in December 2023,” says the court filing.

Community members continued to fish, hunt, trap and gather food in the area affected by the spill for years.

“Long-term health effects to OCN are not yet understood,” the court papers read.

Opaskwayak wasn’t able to conduct its own risk assessment, collect data, participate in response and remediation, or bring Indigenous knowledge to the table during court proceedings because it was kept in the dark, the lawsuit says.

By contaminating the water and excluding Opaskwayak from the response, the suit argues, the defendants trampled the community’s treaty rights.

“This, in turn, has left OCN with many unresolved concerns about whether the resources in their territory are safe to consume,” the filing says. “These doubts are so serious that most, if not all, OCN members are reluctant to consume food or medicine from the area, since learning of the spill.”

The area was once a hub for fishing, the lawsuit alleges, making the Cree Nation more food insecure and costing its fishers money.

“Put simply, this spill jeopardizes OCN’s ability to maintain and sustain its way of life. It could easily have been avoided and the foreseeable harms mitigated if (the company) had operated the mill with reasonable diligence and had notified OCN in a timely manner,” the filing alleges.

Canadian Kraft Paper was ordered to conduct an independent environmental audit for Environment Canada within a year of the December 2023 court date. It must include recommendations to prevent future releases of byproduct.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca