There's Something in the Water (2019) - full transcript

[peaceful soundtrack playing]

[announcer]
What kind of country is Canada?

That depends on the eyes you put on it.

[Ellen Page] Nova Scotia:
Canada's ocean playground.

I grew up in the capital city, Halifax.

Drive less than an hour away
in any direction

and you're on a scenic shoreline
without a worry in the world.

In some ways,
Nova Scotia is the embodiment

of what many view Canada to be.

A sweet escape.

As a child, this is the image
I had of the province.



Connected to nature, open-hearted...

and welcoming to all walks of life.

After all,
Canada takes care of its people.

- [woman] Are you Canadian?
- [man laughs]

[Ellen]
We have universal healthcare.

Marriage equality became a reality
14 years ago.

[cheering and applause]

And we're the second country
in the world to legalize weed.

- [laughing]
- ♪ Cannabis, cannabis ♪

[Ellen] But when you look
beneath the surface,

the picture-perfect image begins to crack.

[protesters chanting]
No way! No way! No way!

[chanting continues]

[Ellen] Politicians promise one thing
and they do another...



Our history of colonialism
continues today.

And our chances to save the environment
are becoming slimmer every day,

as corporate interests seem
more important to the government

than public concerns.

And the more I saw, the more
I couldn't help but use my platform

to speak out.

Do you have any idea how we can get
the public and the media

to pay more attention to what's
happening in global warming?

I just want to say, too, people,
particularly the most marginalized people,

and particularly people in the world
that had nothing to do with this,

are the ones that are
suffering the most currently.

Including in Canada.

Including the environmental racism
that's happening in Canada,

including the province I'm from.

It's like, this is
something that's happening.

And it's happening,
the most marginalized people,

and we need to be talking about it.

[Ingrid over speaker] Hello. Ingrid.

- [woman] Hi, Ingrid.
- Hey, Ingrid.

- [Ingrid] Hi. I'll let you in.
- [women laugh]

Thank you.

[Ellen] I'm going to meet
with Professor Ingrid Waldron,

who wrote the essential book
on environmental racism in Nova Scotia,

There's Something in the Water.

[Ellen] Nice to see you.

- Thank you for everything.
- Nice to meet you. Oh, no problem.

I woke up one morning in my office
and I went to my Twitter.

And I saw somebody new following me.
It said "Tiny Canadian."

It didn't say "Ellen Page, actress,"
so I didn't think anything of it.

And then I think I went back
a month later

and my Twitter page had
all these comments.

Like never before.

And I was like, "What is going on?"

And I realized it was you!

And it was there that this journey began.

Environmental racism is the condition,

is the problem,

of disproportionate exposure

of indigenous communities,
black communities,

other communities of color,
to environmental burdens,

to pollutants and contaminants.

But it's also about the slow response by
government, right?

To address these issues.

What we know is that where you live

has bearing on your well-being.

In Canada, your postal code
determines your health.

So we know that certain communities

are less healthy
because of where they live.

Most African Nova Scotians live

in historical African Nova Scotian
communities,

which are rural communities,

and many of them are near landfills.

And we know indigenous communities
as well are the ones

that tend to be disproportionately located
near to these hazardous sites.

When you're living in out-of-the-way,
invisible communities

that often lack a voice,

that are invisible to government,

um, then often your voice isn't heard.

You have to look
at environmental racism

within the context of the history
of Nova Scotia,

within the context of colonialism
in Nova Scotia and Canada.

There is a reluctance,
a hesitance in Canada,

to name racism.

Racism imbeds itself
into all of our social structures,

and in Canada we tend
to steer clear of that.

Racism and environmental racism

have real impacts on the ground,

with respect
to these particular communities.

It has impacted black
and indigenous communities socially,

economically, and politically.

When you look at particular communities
as not being worthy...

of having no humanity...

of, uh, not being valuable,

which is how we typically think
of non-white peoples...

then it makes sense in many ways

that you're not going to respond

in the similar way as you would
with a white community

because...

these communities don't mean
anything to you, to individuals.

So I think there's a detachment,

as if you're not taking time
to meet communities

and get a sense of their priorities.

Their experiences, their challenges

will never get written
into environmental policy.

It requires that you listen
to these communities,

and that's typically what's not happening.

[Ellen] If you look
at a map of Nova Scotia

and you plot out the points where black
and indigenous communities are located,

and then you mark where landfills
and toxic industries are placed,

a disturbing connection becomes clear.

I'm heading to a few of these communities
to hear how these environmental burdens

impact people's lives.

The first place I'm going
is the town of Shelburne,

just about 20 minutes away
from where some of my family's from.

Seen by many
as a lily-white coastal town...

Shelburne County once had
the highest population

of freed black people in North America...

their descendants now living mostly
in the south end of Shelburne.

But from the moment
they settled here 250 years ago,

black citizens never received
the same treatment

as their white counterparts.

A reality that they still face today...

as a dump that was placed
in the town in the 1940s

continues to haunt residents
in South Shelburne

years after it was closed.

I'm going to speak with local activist
Louise Delisle to find out more.

[producer] Hey, you really like dogs.

[Ellen] Hi, precious!

- It's so nice out here.
- Yep.

Yeah, it's beautiful here.

You know my family is from Lockeport.

- Yes, I heard that.
- Yeah.

- So I've spent a lot of time...
- I know some peo...

- Do you know Fred Page?
- in Shelburne.

- Fred? No.
- No.

- I just know my dad was Dennis Page...
- From Lockeport.

Dennis Page, Lorie Page.

- I know Lorie Page.
- Yeah.

[man] Oh, jeez.
Zach does that all the time:

"My cousin, my cousin, my cousin."

- Oh, Zach Page.
- Lorie. I know Lorie.

- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah.

- Yeah.
- Nice, nice!

From the time that the black loyalists
landed here,

we, like I said, we were indentured.

When we got here,
we got here with a promise

of something better

for us, because we were slaves.

A lot of people coming through
the Underground Railroad

and people coming on ships
into the harbor,

and we're descendants of those people,

and I feel very, very honored

that I am part
of that strong, strong family

of black loyalists.

In the early '40s,
they started to gather together.

Well, you know how people are.

They gather around their family
and whatever.

And people started to build
their homes around each other.

In the late '40s, uh...

they decided they were gonna put...
it was called a dump.

Where everything went.
Nothing was sorted.

All the garbage from surrounding areas,

Shelburne, and Shelburne municipality,
all went there.

There was things like
garbage from the hospital.

In other words, there would be
body parts, probably.

Uh, there were things from the navy base,

that we don't know what was dumped there.

Things from the shipyards,
like paint and oil.

There were old cars.

There was food from stores,

there were animals dumped there,

like dead animals.

There was anything and everything...

was dumped on that dump.

They had to get rid of it because
it was like a mountain of garbage.

So they set it afire.

And that would burn for days and days...

on end, and the smell would be horrendous.

And the smoke

would cover you.

You couldn't open your windows.

I remember that, um...

someone would say,
"Oh, the dump's afire."

First thing, the seagulls
would start yelling really loud.

And they would be gone.

And then the smoke would be
just like a black cloud.

And then the soot,
when it started to die down

or it started to rain,
the soot would be all over everything.

I remember getting up and going to school
in the morning

and we'd be lucky if we got to school

without, uh, smelling like

we'd been in some kind of, uh...

chemical warfare.

And then get to school

and then have the teacher say,

uh...

"Did you wash this morning?"

Was horrible.

We have been drinking water

from brooks

and wells that are in this community

for generations.

Who knows when that dump
has leached into our wells?

Who knows?

When you're talking about, uh...

how environmental racism
has affected this community,

it has... it's killing us.

We didn't put that there.

Our families didn't ask for that.

And now we're reaping
the fallout from that

by losing the ones we love.

They're gone.

Like, you know, there's so much
cancer in our community,

and people will say,
"Oh, there's cancer everywhere."

But in this area,

we have one of the highest rates
of multiple myeloma.

People dying from it in this area.

Why?

It's from the dump.

My mother is there.
That's her sitting there.

And this is where... in our yard.

But that's me with my braids.

- Cute.
- [Louise laughs]

Where were you in the seven?

- Were you...
- [Louise] The oldest.

That's my brother Robert.

Robert here. Right here.
That's the one that...

Him and... who passed away with cancer.

And that's my sister Babe,
who has multiple myeloma.

And my youngest brother, Frank.

That's us.

That's my uncle
who just passed away recently with cancer.

Two years ago, he passed away.

After my father passed away to cancer,

he sort of stepped up and was
the father figure.

But they're gone.

I don't wanna...

I don't wanna say things
that hurts anybody,

but I try to tell the truth.

That's, that's the thing, right?

It's hard sometimes, especially
when you're talking about racism

and discrimination.

Couple of roosters. [chuckles]

The black community actually starts here.

These people, we did a well test here.

And these people had, um...

high levels of arsenic in their water.

This community, this community
is a small community.

This family lost members

of, uh... for cancer.

This man is diagnosed
and probably won't live much longer.

He, uh, he has, uh, lung cancer.

Man that lives here.

Very nice people there.

Should have took you in
and introduced you to them,

but I didn't let them know
we were coming, so better not.

[laughs]

These people's well is contaminated.

Can't drink their water.

This lady's husband died of cancer.

She lives alone there.

This lady's husband died of cancer.

He, uh... But she moved on.

Found somebody else.
A very nice man from Newfoundland.

All the family that lived in this house

died of cancer.

This is now... now belongs
to somebody else

who moved in the community
and is trying to fix it up, live in it.

But everybody that lived
in that house died of cancer.

This lady's husband died of cancer.

She's quite sick now herself with cancer.

The man that built this house,
him and his wife died of cancer.

Their daughter lives in Birchtown now.

She had cancer, survived cancer.

But, uh...

the sons, the other two sons,
died of cancer.

Yeah.

Not good.

This... this house here...

is the closest house

to the dump.

This young woman

had to move back home here

and live here.

Her mother died of cancer.
Her father died of cancer.

And she's back there now.
She has five kids living in that house.

She has no place else to live.

So she has to move back into there.

And you can, just through those trees,

is where the foot of that dump was.

It's not very far.

Yeah. We used to play in those woods.

Yeah.

Not good.

Ellen, do you want to get out
and walk up?

[Ellen]
Can we walk up to the dump?

We'll... Well, there's a sign
that says "no trespassing."

But I know how to get in there.

This is Mr. Clyke.

Mr. Clyke is very eccentric.

And Mr. Clyke is now diagnosed...

He's probably the oldest black man,
I think, in the community.

I don't know if he's home or not.

Huh?

[man speaking in the distance]

What are you doing?

This is Mr. Clyke.

This is Ian.

Ian what?

Ian, I don't know what...

[Ian] Daniel.

- Daniel.
- Ian Daniel.

Look at all these cameras.

[Louise laughs]

Here, man, look at me.

- [Louise laughs]
- You look great.

- I'm Ellen.
- What?

- My name's Ellen.
- Ellen. Ellen what?

- Page.
- Page.

Ellen's coming and talking about
the dump.

Oh...

Yeah, and we were talking.

We were talking about, uh...

how the smoke and the soot
and the ash and all that stuff...

and what we wanna get.

Yeah.

[Louise] Because everybody's gone.
'Cause you're the oldest one left now.

- Oh, I think so.
- [Louise] Yeah.

The oldest man, aren't you?

Yeah, because Wally Davis is about 70.

Wallace, yeah. Wallace is...

He's treatin' fast.

Wallace is getting treated again
for lung cancer, yeah.

And I go this week.

You go this week?

Next Friday.

Next Friday.
You go to see how you're doing.

- Yeah.
- Yes.

I get rechecked.
I go once a year.

Yeah. Do you think the dump had anything
to do with your cancer?

Who knows?

Who knows, yeah?

For sure?

'Cause the whole neighborhood's got it.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

[Louise] All the men
are gone, aren't they?

There's Frank and Selden and Ed,
and your friend Ed,

is all gone, aren't they?

- [Mr. Clyke] And Berne and Shirley.
- And Berne and Shirley, yeah.

So we're just gonna go over here
and we're gonna walk around.

We're going to sneak along the fence.

Oh, yeah, there's a path right there.

Yes, we'll go along the path.

I hope that... I hope that...

if anybody gets anything from this...

I hope...

environmentally, I hope that people learn
how to use stuff.

That way there's no dump.

I... Wouldn't it be nice

if we could find a way to...

everything that we need,
that we need, can be...

used again and again and again
and again?

How nice would that be?

So we would never have this issue,

of people dying of things
that we've consumed and...

set afire.

[Ellen] The dump was
permanently closed in 2016.

When you walk around it today,

if it wasn't for scattered remains
lying around,

you may not know it had ever been a dump.

The concern now
is what's buried in the ground

and what impact that might have
on the water and soil nearby.

[Ellen] I imagine, too, it's just like
daunting all the time

when you're just like,
"Is it in my water?

Has it reached the water?"

Thank God, now,
the water testing that we've done

and talking, going into people's houses.

I've been going to everybody's house
and talking about,

"You gotta get your well tested.

I'm here, I've got a team of people,
let's do it."

And people are becoming
conscious of that now

because they've got that water test back

that says there's something in my water.

Whether they say it's not
from the dump or whether...

We know it's our water
that's making you...

When you have coliform and E. coli
in your well,

that you use in your home to cook with,
to feed your children

and your husband or...
and to brush your teeth with

and to bath with and whatever,
you know.

And when you find out that there's
something wrong with your water,

well, it's your life.

That's your life.

Your whole life.

You know, it's our God-given right...
to clean water.

[Ellen] You shouldn't have
to fight for this.

We shouldn't have to fight for this.

We should...
And the people that we vote for

in this community should be
fighting side by side with us

for clean water.

But wake up.

They're not even... it's not an issue.

Doesn't seem to be an issue
'cause it's not affecting them.

Because they have what they call
clean, potable water

because they have town water.

We don't even have that.

We don't have that option.

We don't even have the option of saying,

"Okay, well, I'm not going to use
this well anymore

because it's contaminated,

so I'll just hook up to town water."

We don't have that option.

They have... They find it not feasible

to put in pipes
so we can have clean water.

Why are we any less in this community

than the people in that community?

[Ellen] For the past few years,
Louise has been speaking out,

pushing the government to pass
an environmental bill of rights

that would guarantee a healthy environment
for every resident,

especially
historically marginalized people.

But the response from local politicians
has been upsetting.

So racism has carried on
and it's still here.

And if we don't talk about it,
identify it,

it's never, ever gonna stop.

And my speaking out about it

has separated me from some members
in my community,

because they don't want to talk about it.

[Ellen]
You mentioned the mayor.

- Oh.
- [Ellen] Okay, there's my answer.

[both laugh]

- Oh, the mayor.
- [Ellen] I was gonna say,

what is your mayor doing?

[Louise] The mayor doesn't think
that I have the right to speak.

[Ellen] How come?

Because she...

She actually has told me that, you know,

"The community doesn't want you
to talk about this.

The community doesn't care."

But I'm sorry.

I'm gonna say it.

It's...

It's my God-given right to tell you

that you are destroying my family,
my community,

and it's been destroyed
because you decided

to dump your garbage in my backyard.

Sorry.

But that's how it is.

You either help us or you're against us,
one or the other, right?

When election time comes,

they come into this community
and they promise you the moon.

"Oh, we're gonna do this,
we're gonna do that,

we're gonna do this for you,
we're gonna do that for you,"

and people trust.

My people trust people.

And they vote for these people,
and these people just...

[scoffs]

And if you can't take care
of your neighbor...

or the people around you, or your family,

what good are you to anyone?

Like, why are you here?

If you don't care
about your brothers or your sisters

or whoever...

why bother?

Like, you know?
What do you get up for every day?

Yourself? It must be awful lonesome.

If that's what they're living for.

Right?

The love for people needs to come first.

We have to be there for each other.

We only go one way.

And if we don't do it right
the first time,

we don't get another chance
to do it again.

So, if it means making sure

that my neighbor is healthy,
in some way,

and if it's just one little thing
that I can do to ensure that,

then I'm going to do it.

[Ellen] Installing a community well

to provide clean drinking water
at a location

that Louise is proposing would cost
approximately $10,000.

This year alone
the town budgeted $35,000

for their annual Founder's Day Festival.

Just three hours north of here,

the community
of Pictou Landing First Nation

is also confronting a toxic legacy
of government neglect.

The current fight of
the Mi'kmaq people here

is reflective of a long line of struggles

between indigenous communities
and the government

since the colonization
of present-day Canada began.

Genocide, assaults from federal agents,
and Catholic residential schools

have stripped the Mi'kmaq

of much of the land and culture
they once knew.

Today, they're also dealing
with an environmental disaster

which has been plaguing
their community for over 50 years.

[bird calling]

[announcer 2] Boat Harbour, Nova Scotia.

Thousands of fish
gasping for breath and dying.

Most people who saw these pictures
on the news were disgusted, indignant.

How could it happen?

But these pictures are just the latest
in a long history of pollution here.

- [gasps]
- Oh, hello!

- It's so nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.

- Come on in.
- Yeah, sorry about that.

GPS just... The next thing you knew,
I was getting it stuck in the mud.

I kind of knew that it was the back road.
I was like, "road closed." Hmm.

[laughing] Yeah.

[Michelle] Pre-pollution,
what we now know as Boat Harbour

was called A'Se'K.

A'Se'K means "the other room."

It was the place that
our community members ran to

when the Indian agents used to come

to collect kids.

They used to run to A'Se'K.

So A'Se'K... and one of our elders
says it so eloquently, at one time

was like a parent to them.

Um... they protected them.

They fed them when they were hungry.

You know, they kept shelter,
you know, and when...

the mill came along in 1965

and started their very intentful plan
to, uh...

infiltrate our land,

um, and our A'Se'K...

uh... all that was taken away.

All that was taken away.

[announcer 2] In 1965,
the Scott Paper Company

wanted to build
a pulp-and-paper mill in Nova Scotia.

They knew exactly where
they wanted to go.

The town of Pictou.

[indistinct speech]

It was their consultant, Dr. John Bates,

who had selected the site
a few years earlier.

This is what he proposed,

that Scott Paper build a kraft pulp mill.

The waste for the mill would be piped
under Pictou Harbour

and dumped into Boat Harbour.

Eventually, the industrial waste
would make its way into the ocean.

By the time this was proposed,

Dr. Bates was no longer
a consultant for Scott.

He had become the head
of the Nova Scotia Water Authority.

Everything was in place
for a very lucrative deal

between Scott Paper
and the province of Nova Scotia.

The government agreed to look after
the waste from the mill

and began buying up land in the area.

The only problem was the Indians
who lived on the edge of Boat Harbour.

[Michelle] The Water Authority
had approached my grandfather,

who was chief at the time,
and, uh, the council,

and said, "Yeah, well, you know,
we wanna bring this mill here.

Um, yeah, don't worry about it.

Everything's gonna be great.
It'll be a fresh-water lake.

It's not gonna impact,
you know, anything."

There was documented concerns
about the impact on the environment,

the impact on their fisheries,
so they were raising the concerns

as our leadership, you know,
have done for decades.

So once they found out that we were
worried about these things,

"Oh, we'll just, you know,
we'll take them on a trip."

They went and they took my grandfather

and another councillor, Martin Sapier,

to, uh, a place in, uh...

New Brunswick,

which wasn't even a treatment facility

similar to the one
that they were building.

Mr. Wigglesworth come down,

took us up St. John's, or Lancaster,

or whatever you wanna call it,
a pulp mill up there.

And he showed us that there was
no discolor in the water, no odor.

[reporter] He showed you there was
no discolor in the water.

Discolor in the water.

There's no odor or anything coming out
of that pulp mill.

[announcer 2] The smoke here
is from the pulp mill in St. John.

But the Indians were never taken there.

All they were shown
was a water treatment plant

for domestic sewage a few miles away.

That was, you know, a facade in itself.

Um, and, you know,
spewed some lies to them,

you know, made them, you know,
try and understand

that, "It's not gonna impact this.

It's gonna be a lake.

You're still gonna be able to enjoy it,
recreation,

you're still gonna be able
to do the things, you know,

that you want to do."

And there were conditions.

There were conditions in the agreement
that were totally ignored.

You know, they wanted to,
they wanted to know...

um, for sure, you know,
what's the impacts,

and that was never followed through with.

The only thing that
was followed through with

was, uh, $60,000.

You know, $60,000 back then
to an oppressed community

that, you know, had been suffering

under the impacts of, you know,
residential school and... and...

It was a lot.

I can just imagine what was going through
my grandfather's mind.

"I'm doing so...
Like, oh, my God.

The environment isn't gonna be impacted.

You know, I feel for the county.

I feel for, you know, I'm helping.

Nothing bad is gonna come out of this."

My grandfather,
right there in New Brunswick,

along with Martin Sapier,

signed on a piece of paper.

A piece of paper.
Right then and there, they had him.

[announcer 2] The Indians had signed away
their rights to Boat Harbour,

for about $65,000.

Two years later,
the plant was in operation.

And the waste started flowing
into Boat Harbour.

They killed every fish out there,

over the next day up there,
all along the shore.

Dead fish, [indistinct] seals,
and everything all around.

They killed them right away, overnight.

[reporter] That was within a week
of the plant start-up.

[man] That's about three, four days
after it started.

Yeah. Killed everything with it.

And just to think about the grief he felt

when he realized
that Boat Harbour was dead.

He died, you know, thinking that

it was his fault.

And then he passes that down
to, you know...

that sense of guilt down to, you know,
his kids and the family

and how did they cope,
you know, when...

Then you have...

[sighs]
It's just a cycle that needs to be broken.

What would life be like for my family...

if Boat Harbour didn't happen?

My grandfather and my grandmother
had 13 kids.

My grandfather passing away
at a very, you know,

very young, late 40s.

Um...

Right now, to this day,
my mother is still living, and my aunt.

All others have been lost to cancer.

To suicide.

You know, alcoholism and drugs.

You know, took a driver's seat.

So I often wonder...
if this didn't happen,

would we have had a chance...

to live in a way...

where we could grow old together?

I'll be taking you guys out
to see the Effluent Treatment Facility...

uh, over at Simpson's Lane.

Just not far from our community.

This is the entrance
to the treatment facility

that's been here since 1967.

This is what is directly coming
out of the mill.

Raw, untreated effluent.

That used to dump directly
into, onto our land.

There was no, like,
treatment system for it,

so the pipe just used to dump.

I get so sad coming down here.

That's what our community smells like.

Sometimes you go into
our community buildings and our homes

and you feel that,
like it just sticks to the walls.

These are the aerators.

They're supposedly giving oxygen
to the water, which is fairly sad,

but, uh, back in the day when they said
that it would have no impact...

this is what we're left with.

Uh, all this is boiling over
into our community,

so not only are we suffering,

knowing that, you know,
this exists to our water,

look at our air as well.

And, uh... yeah.

It's...

It's sad.

[Ian]
Do you worry about your own health?

It's so funny that you mention that,

because, uh, just knowing, you know,
where I came from

and, you know, the family
that's gone before me,

I've never expected to live long.

I'll be 41, you know, next week.

And...

knowing that, you know,
everybody passed away so young...

uh, I'd always felt that,

you know, I wasn't gonna get
a chance to grow old.

And sometimes I think that way.

Grief... and I say that word a lot,

because I don't know how else
to describe it...

takes many forms.

It's... It's, you know...

How do you cope with this?

How would you cope with this?

[reporter] Was that a concern of yours,

that the lagoon was so close

to the Indian reserve?

Well, it wasn't doing them any harm.

They weren't in the water,
they weren't living in the water.

They were living in sight of the water.

And, uh, so what?

[Michelle] So these are some
of the community members that we've lost

since the opening of the mill.

Yeah.

And, yeah, you can clearly see that...

They die young, they die young. Yeah.
No, it's true.

I don't like to count the dead.

We had a lot.

We have a lot of people
that should be here.

[laughs] They should be here.

They should be fighting alongside us.

They should be seeing the end to...

the water, the pollution.

They should be, but they're not.

So we wanted to try and commemorate that,

where, you know, they're gonna be here.

They see what's happening.
They see what we're doing.

They're going to be proud of us.

This just reminds me, it just reminds me,
you know, why I'm doing what I'm doing,

because...

[sighs]

Enough is enough.

[Ellen] In 2014, tensions came to a head
when the mill's pipe broke,

spilling 47 million liters of toxic
untreated effluent into the area...

on land known
to be Mi'kmaq burial grounds.

The government had pledged
to close Boat Harbour several times

but never kept their word.

This time, Michelle and her community
sprung into action

and created a blockade,

vowing not to leave
until Boat Harbour was closed,

forcing the provincial government
to finally step up.

[Michelle] Since, you know, June 2014,

it was, you know, highly in the media,

of our peaceful protest

during the effluent break

from the pipeline.

We were on the front lines.

Just fed up.

Just fed up that, you know,
this keeps happening,

this effluent, you know,
that's been a burden since,

you know, for five decades,
is continuing to harm us.

We were going back and forth.

Our leadership was, you know,
we're meeting with government

quite frequently
and trying to figure out a resolve

to what was happening.

We met in our gymnasium,
our community gymnasium,

and leadership would come back
and say, "Okay,

well, we've had discussions
with the government

and this is what they say,"

and, of course, we don't trust,
you know.

This is rule number one, is,
the trust has been broken,

through several governments,

and, you know, through several,
several broken promises

throughout, you know,
the decades and decades.

So, that was the biggest thing.

That was the height of us trying
to figure out,

is what they're saying, is it the truth?

We were fortunate
to come to an agreement,

an agreement that we weren't
totally happy with, um...

that they were finally going
to acknowledge the devastation

and they were going to propose
a closure date

of the Boat Harbour
Effluent Treatment Facility.

So the date they proposed
wasn't the date that we wanted.

Um...

We were hoping sooner.

[laughs]

The date they gave us
was January 31st, 2020.

Um... We thought long,
we thought hard about that.

Um...

But we compromised.

[Ellen] To be clear, the compromise made
was not to shut down the mill,

but the Boat Harbour Effluent Facility,

which had harmed
the community for decades.

The government of Nova Scotia
passed the Boat Harbour Act,

a law that orders
that by January 31st, 2020,

using the Boat Harbour facility

"for the reception and treatment
of effluent from the Mill must cease..."

allowing time for two things:

to plan and build
a new wastewater treatment plant

and to plan the cleanup of Boat Harbour.

Northern Pulp was given five years
to come up with an alternative plan.

But four years later,
the best plan they could propose

was to build a new pipeline

that would dump the effluent

into the Northumberland Strait,

right next to Pictou Landing...

lucrative fishing grounds for both
the native and non-native community,

a plan that created public outrage.

Yeah, we wanna be happy.

We wanna celebrate the closure
of something.

We wanna start healing.

We want to do all those things
that we feel that...

we should have been able to do.

And, how can we celebrate that
knowing that they're proposing

a new pipeline or a new treatment plant

that just takes it from our backyard
and puts it in our front yard?

But what really bothers me
is that they say,

"treated effluent, treated effluent,
treated effluent."

We've been impacted
by this treated effluent

for more than five decades.

Like, we shouldn't
have to continue to fight.

We shouldn't have to be out there

saying, "What the fuck is wrong with you?

Why are you proposing to put that there?"

Like, why is the government
okay with that?

After knowing full well of the devastation
that we've been through.

Our history.

We're...
We're never gonna be free of it.

[Ellen] In early 2019,
the Pictou community came together

to keep public awareness focused
on the planned 2020 closure date.

[reporter] The room was filled
with optimism

as the Pictou Landing First Nations
kicked off their one-year countdown

to the Boat Harbour
Treatment Facility closure.

Together, we want a clean environment.

Together, we want to make things right,
and that's what this is all about.

This date means so much
to not just Pictou Landing First Nation,

but it means a lot to everybody.

"I want my kids to already be able
to swim and fish in Boat Harbour

at my current age.

So then they have the childhood
that I didn't."

[Ellen] At the very same time
the community was celebrating,

Northern Pulp decided
to have their own gathering.

Without an alternative
treatment plan in place

and hoping to avoid
a full mill shutdown,

they asked for an extension
to keep the Boat Harbour facility open.

We all have the same goal

and that is to see Boat Harbour
return to its natural state.

We simply need a bit more time
to ensure the time and due diligence

to carry out each phase,

from environmental assessment

to construction, and finally commissioning
of this new facility.

Well, today was meant to be a celebration,

just an hour before the event kicked off,

Northern Pulp Mill made an announcement
that they would be requiring an extension

to shut down the Boat Harbour facility.

Chief Andrea Paul says the timing
of that announcement is disappointing

and says an extension
would be unacceptable.

They knew by 2015,

and had they taken that time
to be proactive

instead of reactive to the news,

they would have been further ahead
in what they wanted to accomplish.

[Ellen] And then, Stephen McNeil,
the premier of Nova Scotia,

and the first head of government
to be firm on a closure date,

now also seemed to be bending.

We gave them five years,
and I've been very clear about that,

that on January 31st, 2020,
is our deadline.

I've also said, to the community
and to this company,

if you can come together and find a path

that you can find
and land on an extension,

then I would consider that.

Instead of manning up and to say,

"No, A'Se'K's government created
a legislation to close January 31st, 2020,

and we're going to stick by that,"

they chose to...

use us as a scapegoat.

"Okay, well, you know, we could maybe,
if Pictou Landing agrees..."

I thought that was very unfair.

That was very unfair to us.

If it was true, a true relationship...

like they like to boast about,

they would have said,
"January 31st, 2020.

We created the legislation,
we're gonna stick with it,

that's it, the end."

But they didn't.

I just want so desperately
to believe in something,

and...

and right now I believe
in January 31st, 2020.

I just hope that people will realize

that, you know, we're not doing
these things to be troublemakers

and to, you know,
to cause everybody grief.

We're doing it because we need a future.

We need to be connected to the land.

We need to, you know,
have sustainable environment,

um, for our kids,

for our kids' kids.

And, you know, we do it because
we're meant to be here and do this.

The bottom line is,
is that we're sick of being sick.

And we hope to heal.

We hope to heal from all this,
eventually,

but there's a quote
that I always go back to,

is that you can't, you can't heal

in the same environment
that made you sick.

So in order for us to start healing,
that water has to stop flowing.

[Ellen] If or when the waste water
does stop flowing,

an intensive cleanup process is needed,

estimated to take up to five years

and cost over $200 million,

to remove toxins like mercury
from Boat Harbour.

The hope is that eventually
the area will return

to something close to its original state.

We've already started to talk about...

what would Boat Harbour look...

What will it look like in the future?

What do you want to see, you know,
when we're able to revisit A'Se'K,

when we're able to reclaim that again?

Because we talk about,
you know, we call it Boat Harbour,

you know, but that is the pollution name.

Boat Harbour is
the pollution name of that.

You know, it was A'Se'K,

so when we get back to A'Se'K,
what do you wanna see?

We talk about nature
and we talk about, you know,

they just want to be able
to reconnect with the land.

Something as simple as that
is healing, you know, for people.

I want, you know, my grandfather
to rest peacefully.

I want all the Boat Harbour warriors
before us to rest peacefully.

And I want them to be proud

that we fought right till the end.

[Ellen] While Michelle and her community
continue to push

towards Boat Harbour's closure date,

only an hour away,
history could very well repeat itself,

with the government being influenced
by corporate interests,

again at the expense
of an indigenous community,

which brings me to my last stop,

where, in the town of Stewiacke,

they are fighting
to keep that from happening.

The Alton Gas Corporation
is proposing to build

an underground storage facility
on unceded Mi'kmaq territory.

Alton Gas discovered
underground salt caverns

near the Shubenacadie River

that could store natural gas.

In order to do that,

they've planned to dissolve the cavern's
salt deposits with river water

and then dump that salt water mixture
back into the river,

up to 3,000 tons per day.

The brine mixture carries salinity levels

six times higher than what's considered
safe for fish to survive.

Naturally, community members
and local leaders are not pleased.

Community is not happy about it.

[reporter] The Sipekne'katik Band
is against the project.

Chief Rufus Copage says
the latest environmental report

wasn't properly explained
to his band council.

I was hoping we'd have a chance
to talk to them,

but it don't seem like the government
wants to give us an opportunity,

so I guess we'll have to fight.

They've never done this
anywheres in the world before.

Why do they want to do it here
in little Nova Scotia?

Why do they want to do it in our river

that our kids fish every year,

where they get their food from,

where our community members
have gathered

for many, many, many generations?

The real public safety issue is Alton Gas.

[chanting]

[Ellen] I'm going to meet
with the local Water Protectors

in the Sipekne'katik district,

who are known
as the Grassroots Grandmothers.

They're leading the resistance

to prevent not only
an environmental catastrophe,

but also a travesty
of their treaty rights.

And several of them were arrested
just a few days before our visit.

[protestors chanting]

[reporter] The Mi'kmaq women say
they're protecting the land and water,

and when they wouldn't leave voluntarily,
they were taken into custody

for civil contempt of an injunction order.

They say their movement is far from over.

We're going to always stand
and protect the sacred.

We're not going to stop.
Mark my words, Alton Gas...

you're not going to be successful.

[Ellen] I'm meeting Dorene and Michelle,
two of the Water Protectors.

They're taking me
to the main Alton Gas gate,

where they've been
actively disrupting the project.

We're going to, uh, the...

the Alton Gas gate.

Where they arrested the ladies, yeah,
the women.

[Michelle P.] They took
the tobacco ties off.

- [Dorene] Yes, they did.
- [Michelle P.] Oh, no.

I'm gonna ask them about those.

[Michelle P.] Why is there a police car
right here?

I don't know.

[Ellen] Over the last four years,

this has been the front line
of resistance,

resulting in almost daily conflict.

[Dorene] I just came down to check in
on the tobacco ties,

those prayer ties that were on the gate.

[Michelle P.] That was done in ceremony.

We put those ties up in ceremony.

We did do our best to respect them.

We made sure the other side stayed up
and we double-taped those.

I can give them to you now.

I... Can I just collect them?
I'll just get them myself?

I can't let you over the gate,
but I can bring them over to you.

[Michelle P.]
That's not right, that's disrespectful.

[Ellen] Alton Gas even ended up creating
a designated protest area

to keep them from disrupting
the entrance.

[Dorene] So this is our cage.

This is the protest cage that they built.

I won't step inside of that cage.

'Cause my spirit won't go in that cage.

"Peaceful protestors
can use this designated area

during daylight hours
to maintain a safe and clean area for all.

Please remove all garbage.

Do not park vehicles,
camp or light fires.

Note that the use of alcohol and drugs
is strictly prohibited. Thank you."

The level of ignorance and disrespect

that those words convey...

[sighs]

What are you guys doing here?

[officer] We were talking to them about
playing it safe.

She knows we're concerned.

I just don't recognize you, that's all.

- Oh.
- Your faces.

I recognize this. [laughs]

But not your faces.

A lot of money is being
spent by the province...

to allow, aid and abet the real criminal.

And the criminalization
of our own people...

has not, uh, been really spoken about.

The real criminals are the company
that's trying to come in here

and dump salt in this river.

They're the real criminals,
but yet they're being protected

by, uh, the police services. It's...

it's incredibly, uh, disturbing.

Look, another one.

[Ellen] Dorene is taking us to meet
the other grandmothers

at their second site of resistance,

the treaty truck house,

where she accidentally stumbled upon
the start of the Alton Gas construction

three years ago.

By building the truck house,

the Water Protectors actively asserted
their treaty rights and occupied the area,

effectively delaying the company
from moving forward

and impeding on unceded Mi'kmaq territory.

[Dorene] This is a public access road.

And there was a backhoe up here,

uh...

filling in this dike.

And I ran up, I ran up
and asked them what they were doing,

and they said,
"Oh, you're not supposed to be here.

This is for a construction site.

And, uh, we had to build up the dike

on orders
of the Minister of the Environment."

And I said, "What?
She ordered you to do that?"

I said, "When is she gonna order you
to go the hell home, get out of here?"

And I went down to the river

and I was offering my tobacco
and praying,

and, uh, two security guards
came up behind me

and they stood there
while I was singing to the water.

And then they escorted me
back to my car.

And that's when I put that video out,

showing that there's backhoes up here
and they were building.

And, uh, told people,
"This is what they're doing to the river.

You better come."

And that weekend we came and built...

I'll take you over
to the treaty truck house.

All right.

- All right.
- [Ellen] You want me to grab this?

This is where it all began,
as far as the occupation of this site.

It was women who were here that day.

And we also had a copy of our treaty
that was rolled up like a scroll,

and we unrolled it and we
put it up to them

and we said, we recited the clause,

number four on our 1752 treaty,
that states,

"If the Indians shall decide,

a truck house will be built
on the river Shubenacadie."

And we all looked at each other
and we said, "We decide."

As soon as you get to the top
of this step, one view...

In one view, in one instant,
you'll realize why we are here.

This river is sacred to us.

This river is the superhighway
of our nation.

It connected our whole territory.

From time immemorial.

And we continue to do that.

And we won't let this company destroy it.

[drums beating, protestors chanting]

One of the things I think
is really important

is, uh, to know that
women are carriers for the water.

And the reason why women
are given this responsibility

is because women are the life givers.

It's passed down to the women,
the females in our families,

that the water is sacred
and it's our responsibility.

We are given a gift,

but we also have been given
a responsibility.

[Ellen] With their water endangered,
their treaty rights violated,

and the country's
environmental laws ignored,

these grandmothers have begun
confronting the very politicians

sworn in to protect them.

Honor our treaties, Mr. McNeil!

[Michelle P.] Talk to us, talk to us!

- [woman] Why won't you speak to us?
- Roll your window down. [tapping glass]

Roll your window down. Come on.
Roll your window down.

- Don't block that car.
- I'm not blocking it.

Step back or you're gonna get arrested.

Do not block the car.
You can protest all you want...

[woman 1] You need to learn to honor
the treaty!

[woman 2] Respect...

- [Michelle P.] Speak to the people.
- [woman 1] Honor the treaty!

[Michelle P.] Stop Alton Gas!

No, you are federal government,

you are the one that puts this
through our laws.

You are poisoning our waters.

You're allowing other companies
to come into our wa...

No, no, no "thank you" yet.

I'm thanking you for being direct with me.

- I'm a very straight-up grandmother.
- I really appreciate that.

While you're [indistinct] forward,
the regulations...

No regulations, we don't want
gas under our ass!

We're gonna be working with the indigenous
leadership, working with the province...

Why don't you work
with the grandmothers?

Take Alton Gas out of our province now.

[protestor] And the legislation
that Trudeau is trying to pass

needs to be stopped.

Because he's changing the legislation

so that Alton Gas can dump brine
in the river.

They're not in compliance
with the regulations as it is right now,

and the federal government proposes
to create and design new regulations

to make them... be in compliance,
I guess, which has just...

[protestor] Moved them up.

Yeah, it's just...

It's just another example
of their contempt

and their disregard for our rights.

They're doing it,
and they're not even tricking us.

They're just doing it now,
you know, blatantly.

And here we have
the Department of Fisheries, for one,

of the opinion, I guess,
that they're not able to step in

unless and until something
actually goes into the water.

You know?

And we're saying,
we're not gonna let that happen

because that risk is too great.

You can't unring the bell
once it's been rung.

Right? Like once that brine
goes in that river,

it will upset the salinity levels.

It will kill the fish.

You know, and then... and then what?

They're opening up
our territory for business.

Whether it be Alton Gas
or fracking companies

or rare-earth minerals

or gold mines,

those are all projects
that affect our treaty rights.

So they're blatantly
disrespecting our rights,

but they're granting Alton Gas
the exemptions to these regulations.

Canada, Canada is not a nation.

Canada is not a nation,

let's get that straight,
it's a corporation.

You know, doctrine of discovery.

They didn't discover nothing.

And each and every time we asked them,
"Well, give us the proof,"

they can't show us no proof.

This is why we never get justice
in this system,

because we're native,
because we're indigenous.

And it's time for it to stop.

It's time for us as women
to embrace who we are

as Mi'kmaqis,

remember our ancestors
fought for this land,

and that we need to wake up.

We need to rise our spirits again.

We need to go and tell them to leave.
They're not wanted here.

Right? And that's just basically
what we've been doing,

is telling them to leave.
They're not wanted here.

We don't want them here.

Now, you see that this
not only happens here,

it happens in every part of the world.

Every part of the world.

When you look at where industry

is affecting the lives of people,
those are indigenous people,

from those lands.

And those corporations,
the majority of them,

are Canadian companies.

And they have the power

to have people killed.

They have had the power
to assassinate grandmothers

and kill the people that are
standing in front of their gates.

I said, "We're doing the same thing
as what they did in Guatemala.

Standing in front of a corporation."

And people have been killed there.

If we were less visible,
they would knock us off, too.

[woman] They are knocking us off.

Look at the numbers on the missing
and murdered indigenous women.

They have been killing our women.

Our truth is that we don't have a choice.

This is who we are,

and this is who we are
always meant to be.

It's in our DNA.

It's in our blood.

They cannot stop us

from being indigenous anymore.

[woman] It's our identities.

They cannot stop us from learning
how to take care of the Earth,

what our relationship is.

And they cannot stop us from teaching,

not only our children,
but everybody's children.

The prophecy that we're taught

was that, if we didn't start taking care
of our Mother Earth,

our lands and our waters,

our food and our medicines,

and the animals and the flowers
and everything that sustains us,

one day an ounce of water
is gonna cost more than an ounce of gold.

It says that no matter
how much money you have,

you're not gonna be able to buy that...

ounce of water

because of how precious it is.

It wouldn't matter if you had gold.

You can't drink gold.
You can't drink money.

So it was a teaching for,
not only indigenous people.

We carry the message.

It's for all human beings, all mankind.

Everybody who's living now,
we have to be able

to tell our grandchildren
and those that are unborn

that we did everything in our power
to make a change

and to make a difference

and to stop the destruction,
to stop the pollution,

and to stop it from persisting.

We're just regular people.

We're all rights holders here,
sitting in front of you here.

And how we are connected to you
is that you were born here.

You're from here, too.

You have that connection to the land.

When your feet touch on other territory,
you're still from here.

Your spirit is from Mi'kma'ki.

And I hope what happened here today
you'll carry with you

in your spirit, and that's powerful.

[no audible dialogue]

[Ellen] The picture-perfect image I had
of my home growing up

was broken some time ago.

But I've come to realize
I just wasn't seeing all of the pieces.

And that, behind the shadow
of corporations,

beyond governments turning a blind eye

on the citizens
it has made most vulnerable,

a love for nature and one another
can prevail.

I was instilled with a sense of power
and purpose

by the Grassroots Grandmothers,

and all the women I've met
along this journey.

The truth is, even with their sacrifice,

there's no way we can know
what the future holds,

for them or for our planet,

unless we look to each other
and those in power

to be held accountable,

unless we start to shift our view
to see beyond ourselves...

to see that what affects one of us

affects us all.

You share DNA with a fruit fly.

You are connected
to every living thing on Earth.

You have the power of life.

Use it.

[water rushing]

And this is one of the hardest decisions
that we as a government

have had to make.

The commitment I made
to clean up Boat Harbour

was a serious one

and not something
our government did lightly.

Many governments before us
said they would clean it up,

but did not.

We will not repeat that pattern.

The Boat Harbour Act will be enforced

as of January 31st, 2020.

Northern Pulp will be ordered to stop
pumping effluent into Boat Harbour.

And let me be clear.

There will be no extension.

[water rushing]