First Nations have good reason to be skeptical, Chief says

The Chief of Fort William First Nation says history tells her to be skeptical about the safety of storing high-level nuclear waste in Northwestern Ontario.

“Our people, we have heard countless times — over and over and over again, for hundreds of years — how things are safe, things are not going to be harmed. ‘We’ve done our research, we’ve done our assessments,’” Michele Solomon said Friday during an Indigenous environmental forum in Thunder Bay.

She says First Nations people know that’s not true.

“Because our people are impacted every day by dirty water, and impacts on our fish and impacts on our forests. Just recently, there was an effluent spill into the Kam River, and I still today don’t know the full impact of that. I know one of our members, their granddaughter was swimming in that water just within a couple of days of this happening,” she told the Niniibawbawtam Anishinaabe Aki (“stand up for the land”) Gathering.

She said another example of reassurances not kept is in Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong) First Nation, where mercury poisoning from a pulp mill upstream had devastating impacts.

More than 50 years later, the mercury contamination “continues to impact that community,” Solomon said.

“So the word of NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) or the word of governments is just not enough for me, and I’m pretty confident saying it’s not enough for leadership in any of our communities.”

The NWMO, mandated by federal legislation and funded by the nuclear power industry, wants to construct a deep geological repository at a site west of Ignace and east of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.

Ignace and Wabigoon Lake have been named host communities for the facility, which would be the destination for used fuel from Canada’s nuclear power plants.

Former Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle said the Land Defence Alliance that his First Nation is a founding member of has “spoken up as loud as we can” against the NWMO’s project.

Ojibways of Onigaming Chief Jeffrey Copenace said his nation considers protecting the water to be a sacred responsibility.

“When water is no longer safe (and) our ability to fish, harvest wild rice and gather medicine is lost along with vital teachings for our youth,” he said, “these aren’t just economic losses. They’re losses to identity, to pride. They’re losses to our way of life, as to who we are as people.”

Elysia Petrone, one of the forum’s organizers, said its mission was “to bring together local community activists and academics who are fighting, standing up for the land.”

She told Newswatch one thing the Niniibawbawtam Anishinaabe Aki group is against is “the narrative that nuclear waste is absolutely going to be buried in this territory, when it is not the case. So we’re here to say that nuclear waste is not going to be buried in Northwestern Ontario.”

After working at newspapers across the Prairies, Mike Stimpson found where he belongs when he moved to Northwestern Ontario. He covers regional issues across Northwestern Ontario under the Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada. A version of this story was first published by NWOnewswatch.com on October 18, 2025