Where the Waters Divide: Neoliberalism, White Privilege, and Environmental Racism in Canada By Michael Mascarenhas. Lexington Books. 2012. 161 pages. $59.99 cloth

Abstract

Across Canada, First Nations communities experience a striking lack of access to crucial resources, including clean water—a state of affairs that has been highlighted most recently by the Idle No More movement.1 The lack of clean water on reserves, which has intermittently made headlines over the past several years, has also been recognized by international bodies such as Amnesty International: “An estimated 20,000 First Nations people living on reserves across Canada have no access to running water or sewage. In addition, the federal government reports that as of April 30, 2012 the tap water in 122 First Nations communities was not safe to drink” (2013). This lack of clean water has been described as the predictable outcome of historical and contemporary colonial relations in Canada (Murdocca 2010; Palmater 2011). In a study of “death by poverty,” for example, Pam Palmater explains how “[f]ederal laws presume jurisdiction over First Nations and every aspect of their lives, yet corresponding policies fail to live up to those constitutional responsibilities” (113): this results in conditions of “extreme poverty” in many communities, including the lack of “[r]unning water and indoor plumbing” (Palmater 2011:113). In 2006, in fact, “an expert panel appointed by the federal government” concluded “that drinking water problems in First Nations communities were primarily the result of federal underfunding” (Amnesty 2013).