Opinion: Clean water for First Nations must be a national priority

Three years ago, a study on the health effects of the Alberta oilsands reported worryingly high levels of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and selenium in wildlife of the Athabasca River region. Although members of the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations communities that commissioned the study had low levels of consumption of traditional foods, 20 of the 94 participants had been diagnosed with some form of cancer, a strikingly high proportion. Many of them had either worked in the o