Trudeau Celebrates April Fool’s Day By Promising Clean Drinking Water to First Nations

By Graham Kritzer

Iqaluit – While touring the Northern City of Iqaluit this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quizzed on a variety of topics by local media, including the subject of clean drinking water on Canada’s First Nation reserves.

“When can we expect clean drinking water for our First Nations peoples?” asked Alyssa Mosher of CBC North. The Prime Minister, noting the date as April 1st on his wristwatch, responded with “Right away,” pausing to grin and raise his eyebrows up and down in a seemingly comical fashion.

Trudeau was then asked to elaborate. “We have billions of dollars ear-marked for infrastructure already,” he said, stopping briefly to stifle his laughter, “And we are ready to break ground on this, like, immediately. All reserves across Canada will have clean drinking water by the end of the year.” Trudeau then winked at his Press Secretary Alex Wellstead whose mouth was agape in horror.

In 2015, Trudeau pledged to get rid of all long-term drinking water advisories on First Nations, a pledge that has yet to come to fruition. Clean drinking water has long been an issue plaguing reserves across the country with countless health and environmental issues increasing yearly as a result.

As of Press time Trudeau was overheard asking Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok to pull his finger.

Graham Kritzer is a contributing writer at The Toronto Harold. More of his work can be found at @grahamkritzer