🇨🇦 Canada’s Rings of Fire – Witness

In the far north of Canada’s Ontario province, where opiate addiction afflicts the First Nation population, nurse practitioner Mae Katt runs a mobile drug treatment programme.

Her urgent mission is to set up effective programmes to treat this devastated population in the hopes that they will be able to shape their future, on their territory, and become the employment workforce backbone of the coming “Ring of Fire” mining operations.

It is a mammoth challenge, especially as up to 80 percent of the adult population of some communities negotiating the mining developments are addicted to opiates.

This pristine territory is set to emerge as one of the richest mining sites in North America. First Nation leaders and Mae have seen their people betrayed before with broken promises; this time, they must secure their voice in the coming economic boom and take part in the opportunity to defend their land and lift themselves out of endemic poverty and isolation.

The mining developments might present a Faustian bargain, but Mae is determined that her efforts and that of her team can pave a way for her people to reclaim their health and their future on their land.

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