Article content

OTTAWA — The chief of the Grassy Narrows First Nation has rejected an apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying Ottawa needs to put its promised funding for a mercury poisoning treatment centre into a trust in order to ensure the money will be available over the long term.

“Trudeau’s apology rings hollow while our people are suffering without the care and support that we need,” Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle said in a written response to the National Post.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or ‘Trudeau’s apology rings hollow:’ Grassy Narrows chief rejects apology, calls for long-term mercury treatment funding Back to video

Trudeau apologized to Grassy Narrows after a video surfaced of the prime minister telling protestor Lana Goldberg “thank you very much for your donation” in response to her interruption of a high-end Liberal Party fundraiser Wednesday, where she was raising awareness about the First Nations community.

Grassy Narrows has been suffering from mercury poisoning in its local water supply for decades, after an upstream pulp and paper mill dumped thousands of pounds of effluent into the English-Wabigoon river system through the ’60s and early ’70s. Goldberg was representing an advocacy group called Free Grassy Narrows, which aims to help the community secure a long-term care facility for patients of mercury poisonings.