TORONTO—In face of protests by Crees on the Kashechewan Reservation on James Bay 500 miles north of Toronto, the Ontario government decided October 27 to evacuate up to 1,100 of the reserve’s 1,900 residents, and the federal government issued a pledge to relocate the reserve and build a new water treatment plant. The old one had been built downstream from sewage lagoons, which contaminated the water supply, including with the potentially deadly e-coli disease. Hundreds of residents became ill from the water. This problem is not confined to Kashechewan. In Ontario alone, 39 Native reservations are under a boil water alert.

—BEVERLY BERNARDO  
 
 
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