What happens when you are surrounded by Canada’s largest
concentration of petrochemical factories? You start losing your
male children. The Aamjiwnaang First Nation has learned this
fact the hard way. The Aamjiwnaang First Nation (a community of
Chippewas), population of 850, is a small reserve covering 3,250
acres along an area near Sarnia, southwestern Ontario just
across the border from Port Huron, Michigan. It lies within an
area commonly referred to as “Chemical Valley” one of the
largest concentrations of petrochemical manufacturing in Canada
along with one of the largest hazardous waste dumps in the
country. Over the years, the community had learned to live with
the acrid smells, the smokestacks, the oil slicks and the air-
raid siren that would scream out its warning whenever the wind
shifted in the wrong direction, cautioning everyone that the air
quality was so bad they should head indoors and shut all the
windows. They knew they lived in a contaminated area, but when
Suncor Energy announced in 2003