EXAMPLES
MINE
Giant Mine
Northwest Territories
After Giant Mine opened in 1949 near the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, it polluted the surrounding areas for 50 years. The mine contaminated the land and people of Yellowknife with arsenic, at one point, a staggering 7.26 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust per day, which coated the land and snow, a major source of drinking water for the Dene First Nation. After the death of a 2 year old Dene boy from acute arsenic poisoning, authorities posted warnings in the area and local newspapers in English, which the Dene people could not understand.
The mining companies expenses and productions were routinely prioritized over the health and livelihood of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation people. Their food and water sources were contaminated, even the trees and plants destroyed. The lands that had sustained the way of life promised in treaties became a source of violence. The toxic legacy of the arsenic from the mine lives on in 237,000 tonnes of mobilized arsenic dust in Canada’s worst long-term contaminated site.
The violence of Giant Mine lives on, despite its ceased operations. The arsenic from the 1940s continues to effect lives today, and threaten the safety of future generations. There is violence and injustice in the poisoning, the displacement, and the threat to the future.
See: The Toxic Legacies Project
DUMP
Shelburne Dump
Nova Scotia
South Shelburne is home to a large Black community, many of whom descendants of what was once the highest population of freed Black people in North America. Today, this community lives with the legacy of the Shelburne dump.
It was placed in their town in the early 1940s, less than 100m from some of their homes, where for over 75 years, industrial, medical, and residential waste from all of Eastern Shelbourne county was deposited and burned. The toxic remnants would seep into the groundwater supply, and the town would be blanketed with smoke.
According to Raymond Sheppard of The Nova Scotia Advocate, “the single most important factor in predicting the location of hazardous-waste sites in Nova Scotia is the ethnic composition of a neighbourhood”. The health effects of living in close proximity to landfills has been well-documented, with particular impact on children and seniors. Cancer, birth defects, genetic mutations, and more have been linked to long-term exposure to dangerous waste, like the chemical by-products of landfills. Though the dump closed in 2016, South Shelburne’s residents still bear the health impacts.
See: Toxic Facility Siting in Nova Scotia
Contents of landfills decompose and interact with each other, creating leachate, or “garbage soup”, a highly toxic liquid which leaks out into the air, soil, and groundwater. The impacts go far beyond the boundaries of the landfills themselves. Chemicals such as chlorides and heavy metals can be picked up and redistributed to nearby animal habitats and drinking water through natural water cycles. This can compromise the health of wildlife in the water and on the land of neighbouring areas, and render drinking water sources unusable.