Right to Water, Right to Health

Over breakfast last week I was reading the recent issue of the UofT Magazine and saw a short article by Alec Scott talking about the right to health. Scott begins by pointing to one of the recommendations from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission asking governments “to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law and constitutional law, and under the Treaties.”

This article resonated in part because of the recent story about the Neskantaga First Nation community who have been living under a boil water advisory for twenty years. That was a truly shocking thing to learn. But it gets worse. The news story goes on to report that there are over “160 water advisories in nearly 120 First Nations across Canada.”

Why this is not a front and centre issue with an election around the corner truly boggles the mind. What better opportunity to raise awareness and address the need to provide clean water as a minimum requirement for promoting health for everyone in Canada. Instead politicians are content to debate about the niqab and leave these “life-threatening problems” to the First Nation communities to deal with on their own.

Scott ends his article by noting that “Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms … does not explicitly protect socioeconomic rights, but periodically plaintiffs have claimed, with mixed success, that the Charter’s security-of-the-person and equality protections apply in the health-care context.” He concludes that “the Canadian story, it seems, is still unfolding.”

On this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for clean water and my own relatively good health. But I’m deeply saddened that not all Canadian citizens will be able to say the same.