The following remarks were given by Rita Monias from Pimicikamak Cree Nation at the Keeyask Generation Project Public Hearings Community Meeting: Cross Lake.
“Our physical health, recreation it is not good. It is not good like — I don’t know, if it was Donald who said that in every household there is some kind of disease. And, most devastating disease that we have in Cross Lake is diabetes, and heart conditions. But, of course, there is also mental health. Elders have seen pre project, our children and grandchildren have not, and will not. There is change our behavior of people. That is the part that is not being seen or recorded anywhere. And I haven’t seen that yet anywhere. And I have been working with Pimicikamak for a while. […] Now, Manitoba Hydro, there is a problem in health, like I said before, diabetes, heart conditions. I do believe that water has a lot to do with it. The destruction of water, contamination of the water, because it comes from the Lake Winnipeg, Lake Winnipeg, into here, and there are all kinds of herbicides, pesticides, and so forth flowing through, and coming through Cross Lake from that dam, from the Hydro, when they open the dams. When I talk about water, the medicine, the natural medicine that we use have been disturbed, mostly 50 percent probably. We don’t have our traditional, not much traditional medicine. The berries that have grown along shorelines, they are gone. They were of medicinal value. The sturgeon has medicine value for our heart, for the heart, arteries, and so forth.” – Rita Monias, Pimicikamak Cree Nation
Testimony of Rita Monias from Pimicikamak. Keeyask Generation Project Public Hearings Community Meeting: Cross Lake First Nation. (October 9, 2013). Transcript of Hearings Held at the Pimicikamak Band Hall in Cross Lake, MB. Page 17-18. Retrieved from the MCEC website: http://www.cecmanitoba.ca/hearings/keeyask-generation-project/doc/Transcripts/Public_Hearing_Oct_9,2013_Cross_Lake.pdf
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