As part of Truth and Reconciliation day which took place at the end of last month, we want to bring awareness to the ongoing health crisis in Grassy Narrows, Ontario. On September 23rd thousands showed up at Grange Park to march to Queen’s Park to protest decades of government inaction at Grassy Narrows. It is a small First Nations community which has been plagued by mercury poisoning from Reed Paper mill (Dryden Chemicals Ltd.) since the 1960’s. The mill, now under the name Dryden Fiber Canada, is still operational and in spite of hundreds of illnesses related to mercury, no one from the mill has ever been charged. Evan Wexler, journalist and potter, joined me at the protest to cover the march for the Rabble.
Want to show your support for Grassy Narrows? On this page you’ll find links to sign petitions to the Prime Minister to demand his government take action as well as a link to print out your own sign/poster for Grassy Narrows. You can even get Grassy Narrows merch.
Photo Credit – Evan Wexler
Pottery TV with Evan Wexler
Back in 2020, when the studio was a pile of unpacked boxes and half-built furniture, a somewhat disheveled, bohemian-looking young man sauntered into the studio one evening asking if he could learn to make super large plant pots. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it would take him months, possibly years to get there, plus I was eager for students to enroll in classes.
Evan Wexler slowly became a fixture at the studio in our opening years, and a fixture in many of the surrounding clay studios in the East End. An acclaimed journalist and documentary filmmaker, pottery would become Evan’s second love.
In July of 2023, in response to Bill C-18 – a law which banned social media platforms from sharing the news — Evan launched Pottery TV, where he would post pottery videos in which he reads the news out loud, subverting the new law. We met up with Evan at Thomas Bollmann’s studio to talk about his project.
Produced by Evan Wexler: journalist, documentary filmmaker, and accidental potter
Filmed at Thomas Bollmann’s studio, Toronto, 2026
