More than three years ago, high water levels on Canada’s Lake Manitoba forced the provincial government to make a choice: allow the water to swell and flood neighboring homes, land and resources, or divert it into Lake St. Martin, and inundate a 140-year-old native reserve.

The Manitoba government chose the latter, saving urban and agricultural properties from catastrophic floodwaters, but decimating the Lake St. Martin First Nation community, and prompting its inhabitants’ evacuation.

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