"It concerns us. The water, the land, the medicine on it will be destroyed. The caribou that are roaming in that area and all the mushrooms and wild rice there. All of it would be contaminated," said Elder Eileen Linklater, one of the eight grandmothers who organized the protest. "Mines usually have spills. Yes, they build reservoirs, but they overflow and it would go into water streams. Also, they will release a lot of gasses into the air." Asked to comment on the concerns being expressed by the protesters, Foran said some of the information the concerns are based on is "misleading and untrue."

"The Dene people are committed to good relations with our land, water, plants, and animals," N'dilo Yellowknives Dene First Nation Chief Fred Sangris said in a statement. "The participation of Yellowknives Dene businesses in remediating the former Giant Mine site fits within these values. It offers increased opportunities for skills-building to our young people that they can take with them as they build their careers."

A group that claims to speak on behalf of citizens of Kanesatake is calling for an independent commission of inquiry with the participation of the United Nations on the crisis in the Mohawk community of Kanesatake. NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice participated in a demonstration that brought together about 25 people in front of the office of the Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller Tuesday in Montreal. The MP brandished a container of gray and opaque water in front of the journalists, demanding a parliamentary commission concerning the alleged toxic discharges into a watercourse adjacent to the G&R Recycling site at the northwest end of Kanesatake.

The federal government is providing bottled water and mental health services to First Nations struggling to deal with a spill from a tar sands tailings pond that went unreported for months in northern Alberta. “They’re devastated and their communities are devastated,” Indigenous Services Canada Minister Patty Hajdu said at a press conference in Ottawa on Monday. “They’re afraid that the water is contaminated.