Dr. Gordon Edwards

~ Biographical Notes ~

Gordon Edwards graduated from the University of Toronto with a Gold Medal in Mathematics and Physics (1961). He earned Master’s degrees in Mathematics and English at the University of Chicago (1962-64) under a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. After teaching at the University of Western Ontario for 4 years, he obtained a Ph.D. in Math from Queen’s University (1972).

In 1970 he became the editor of Survival, an environmental newsletter with subscribers in 13 countries. In 1973 he coordinated a 7-volume study of the Role of Mathematics in Canadian Business, Government, and Science for the Science Council of Canada. In 1974 he joined the Faculty of Vanier College where he has been a teacher ever since.

In 1975 he co-founded the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) and rose to prominence as one of Canada’s best known independent experts on nuclear technology, uranium, and weapons proliferation. He created the CCNR website: www.ccnr.org

Dr. Edwards first became involved in uranium mining during the Cluff Lake Board of Inquiry into Uranium Mining in Saskatchewan in 1977, where he cross-examined industry and government witnesses on a daily basis for three weeks. In 1978, Dr. Edwards produced a ground-breaking analysis showing that the cancer risk from radon gas is much higher than Canadian authorities claimed. His work was confirmed by the BC Medical Association and by experts hired by the Atomic Energy Control Board.

Dr. Edwards was instrumental in bringing about a halt to uranium exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. He testified to the Territorial Assembly of the Northwest Territories in Yellowknife on three separate occasions in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s he participated in public meetings in Baker Lake and gave a two-hour presentation on the health and environmental impacts of the proposed Kiggavik uranium mine; the project was rejected by the local community.

In the late 1990’s Dr. Edwards visited the community of Deline, on the West shore of Great Bear Lake, where the health effects of exposure to uranium concentrates has been particularly devastating. He participated in several meetings and gave a three-hour public presentation explaining the nature of the health risks for the first time to the residents.

He has acted as a consultant to many governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Auditor General of Canada, the Ontario Royal Commission on Electric Power Planning, the Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Affairs, the United Steelworkers of Canada, the Siting Task Force for Radioactive Wastes, and many others. He has done educational and analytical work for aboriginal organizations, including Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Assembly of First Nations, the Canadian Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Mohawks of Kanesetake, the Chippewas of Nawash, and others.

On December 1, 2006, Dr. Edwards was awarded the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Award in the Education Category. He recently gave the keynote address at an International Conference on Nuclear Waste in Stockholm, Sweden, and will be giving a similar address at an International Conference on Uranium Mining in Salzburg, Austria, in October 2007.