Anti-uranium mining activists stage inquiry in Peterborough into province's plan to expand nuclear reactors
Posted By NICOLE RIVA/Examiner Staff Writer
Posted 1 day ago
The dangers of radiation, health problems and environmental sustainability took centre stage at a meeting staged by anti-uranium mining activists at Sadleir House Tuesday.
Organized by the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium and facilitated by Peterborough group Safe and Green Energy (SAGE), the Citizens Inquiry into Impacts of Uranium Mining was dubbed a neutral hearing by organizers. But of the nearly 40 speakers, there was no one on hand to defend to represent mining companies.
The goal of many participants is to seek a moratorium on uranium mining and exploration in Ontario.
A lack of public debate about uranium mining and nuclear energy was criticized by several speakers, but the executive director of Greenpeace said those groups have said enough.
“The corporations have been heard. They’re in the backrooms of the province,” said Bruce Cox. “This is one of the few times to hear the other side of the story.”
Cox said the four hearings being held by the activists across the province are exactly what is needed to get the government to listen.
“What politicians do respond to is public pressure,” he said.
Nearly 50 people attended the inquiry's afternoon and evening sessions.
The inquiry was overseen by a panel, said Anna Petry from SAGE, which will gather information from the hearings and present them to Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Former Ottawa mayor and MP Marion Dewar and Fraser McVie, a retired official with the corrections system, made up yesterday’s panel.
Anyone wishing to present to the inquiry only had to submit their name by April 1, Petry said, and organizers had no previous knowledge about presentations.
Speakers included concerned citizens, politicians, scientists and activist groups who came from surrounding areas including Port Hope, Haliburton, Toronto and the Bancroft area.
Cox spoke adamantly against the government’s $40-billion proposed nuclear expansion involving up to eight new reactors and said public discussion is needed to preserve Ontario’s natural heritage for future generations.
Rachelle Sauve pushes a three-eyed fish in a shopping cart outside MPP Jeff Leal's constituency office on King Street before walking to trent University's Sadleir House on George Street to attend a a meeting staged by anti-uranium mining activists Tuesday. The citizens inquiry was organized by the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium.
Clifford Skarstedt, Examiner
Cox said the four hearings being held by the activists across the province are exactly what is needed to get the government to listen.
“What politicians do respond to is public pressure,” he said.
Nearly 50 people attended the inquiry's afternoon and evening sessions.
The inquiry was overseen by a panel, said Anna Petry from SAGE, which will gather information from the hearings and present them to Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Former Ottawa mayor and MP Marion Dewar and Fraser McVie, a retired official with the corrections system, made up yesterday’s panel.
Anyone wishing to present to the inquiry only had to submit their name by April 1, Petry said, and organizers had no previous knowledge about presentations.
Speakers included concerned citizens, politicians, scientists and activist groups who came from surrounding areas including Port Hope, Haliburton, Toronto and the Bancroft area.
Cox spoke adamantly against the government’s $40-billion proposed nuclear expansion involving up to eight new reactors and said public discussion is needed to preserve Ontario’s natural heritage for future generations.
“All stages (of production) release some form of radioactive waste,” he said. “One million years is the life expectancy of high-level nuclear waste.”
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan was quoted on concerns about nuclear terrorism.
“Nobody has targeted wind turbines for terrorist action,” Cox said.
Cox was followed by Trent professor and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation co-chief Paula Sherman who was arrested and fined for contempt of court after a blockade against uranium mining exploration on Sharbot Lake in March along with Ardoch’s spokesman Robert Lovelace, who is serving a six-month sentence at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay.
Lovelace was called a hero several times during the day and calls for his release were repeated during yesterday's event.
Sherman demonstrated the need to keep uranium in the ground by reading from the story “Christopher Coyote and the Seeds of the Sun.” In the story once the secrets of the seeds of the sun are revealed everything dies.
Sherman, along with several other speakers, spoke about how the uranium mines encroaching on First Nations ancestral land was a form of colonialism and that a review of Ontario’s Mining Act is needed.
Mark Winfield, former Ontario policy director for the Pembina Institute, explained how uranium negatively impacts the environment at each step and produces radioactive tailings that can contaminate surface and groundwater.
“We’re looking at discharges largely of uranium and other heavy metals notably nickel, arsenic and lead,” Winfield said. “Health Canada, Environment Canada have said the effluent is a toxic substance.”
Presentations from Port Hope residents added a personal feel because of their proximity to the Cameco uranium processing facility, which has had operations curtailed since last July by a contamination leak under one of the plants.
John Miller, from Families Against Radiation Exposure (FARE), described the Cameco situation as being “too close for comfort.”
The 1,500 FARE members are working to force Cameco to clean up from an ongoing leakage and keep the community safer.
“Cameco knows the public wants emissions reduced, health testing done and to ensure the site’s security,” Miller said.
A former Cameco employee, Dan Rudka, told his story of radiation poisoning, which nearly killed him. The poisoning has not been officially acknowledged, he said, but he has tested positive for having uranium in his body.
Rudka recounted how his skin started to rot away, losing one-third of his body mass and how colours were washed out of sheets from his sweat.
Several speakers said uranium can leach into water systems and travel a great distance, and pointed out how if water near Haliburton and Bancroft is affected it could carry down to Peterborough since the areas share a watershed.
“The toxins don’t stop at the plant gate,” said Marion Burton from the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition. “Communities have a right to know what chemicals exist in our neighbourhoods.”
