Canada

Robert Williamson says he remembers watching his parents lose their only source of income as his neighbours started to get sick.

Now, he's sick, too, but his hope is that his grandchildren won't suffer the same symptoms he does.

Williamson, like roughly 90 per cent of residents in Grassy Narrows First Nation, has been impacted by mercury poisoning that dates back to the 1960s and '70s, when the Dryden Paper Mill dumped about nine tonnes of the toxin into the English-Wabigoon River System in northwestern Ontario.

On Wednesday, he joined fellow mercury sufferers in a groundbreaking ceremony for the community's long-awaited Mercury Care Home.

"It's something that should have happened a long time ago, instead of us having to fight so hard to get to this point," said Williamson.