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APRIL 18th, 2008 |
IN THIS ISSUE: |
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CITIZENS' INQUIRY INTO THE IMPACTS OF THE URANIUM CYCLE: PETERBOROUGH
Another insightful day at the Uranium Citizens' Inquiry, this time held in Peterborough, Ontario. This particular event, hosted by Anna Petry and Safe And Green Energy (SAGE), was attended by many people from the Port Hope, Haliburton, Toronto and the Bancroft area region. Their personal accounts of how uranium has impacted their community was very moving and at times very upsetting. Today I have included a submission from Dan Rudka, a former nuclear energy worker in Port Hope, who bravely gave us a very personal account of how uranium has impacted his life. It is because of people such as Dan, that we continue to fight our collective fight. Thank you to Anna Petry and the many wonderful people of SAGE, for providing us with a great venue for the Inquiry as well as an incredible potluck dinner. The Peterborough panelists included: Marion Dewar: Ottawa mayor from 1978 - 1985 and a Member of Parliment from 1986 - 1988. She was a former Chair of Oxfam Canada and the Ottawa-Carleton Police Services Board. In 2002 she was a recipient of the Order of Canada. Marion has been politically active and volunteers her time for many community pursuits. Fraser McVie: Retired from senior positions in the Canadian justice system. While there he helped develop modern and humane approaches to corrections based on rehabilitation and treatment. He has had extensive experience in international projects and peacekeeping, including work as an expert with UN Interim Mission in Kosovo. Professor
Robert Paehlke: Trent University professor, Department of Political Studies
and Environmental and Resource Studies. He is a recipient of the 1997
Trent University Faculty Research Award and has published widely in the
areas of environmentalism and administration. He has worked with governments
and environmental organizations. The following people made presentations: Mark Winfield, Christine Artill (FUME), Robin Simpson (FUME), Mike Nickerson (The Sustainability Project), Siren Sounding the Alarm, Heather Ross (Environment Haliberton), Bruce Cox (Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada) Co-Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, Professor Paula Sherman, Julie Caron, John Miller (Families Against Radiation Exposure), Rachel Edge (Trent U Mural Group), Doug Smith (Green Party of Ontario), Kathryn Langley (SAGE), Dan Rudka, Linda Harvey (CCAMU), Raging Grannies, Kawartha World Issues Centre, Marion Burton (Occupational & Environmental Health Coalition), Corinne Mintz, Carol Winter (SAGE, Ploughshares), Steve Sharpe (NDP), Angel Hamilton, Marianne Pedretti, Michael Ketemer, Andrew Johncox, Faye More, Tom Lawson (for himself and on behalf of his daughter Molly), Pat Lawson, Peter Tabuns (MPP, NDP Environmental Critic), John Etches (SAGE), Susan Howlett (Kawartha Community Midwives), Roy Brady (SAGE), Richard Tyssen, Greg Roy, James Wilkes, Frank Morrison and Erin Parker. The Inquiry has now seen over 120 presentations with another 40 to go at the Ottawa session. To see Garth
Gullekson's photos of this event go to, The next inquiry session will be held in Ottawa: Tuesday,
April 22, 2008 2) MESSAGE ABOUT VISITING THE ROBERTSVILLE PROTEST SITE Taken from an email from Chris Reid, "As
for visiting the site, the injunction prohibits AAFN and its supporters
from being within 200 metres of any FVC employees or contractors while
they are working. FVC has posted security guards at the gate, so members
and supporters of AAFN can't go within 200 metres of the front gate. This
means you can't go, but reporters are free to go anywhere." Editors Note: There has been no activity at the Robertsville mining site over this past week and this has led to speculation. On the surface it appears that Frontenac Ventures has pulled their workers and security force from the site. The reason is still not known. For those of you who are planning to visit the site, please be aware that the OPP has advised CCAMU that they will have no choice but to charge people with contempt of court, if they come within 200 meters of the gate. The Christian Peacemaker Teams' Sunday Prayer Vigils take place 200 meters south of the protest site and are within the legal limits. The OPP are aware of these events so please feel free to come out to them. (Every Sunday at 3pm) -Lynn Daniluk 3) MINISTER OF ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS COMING TO SEE CHIEF DOREEN DAVIS OF THE SHABOT OBAADJIWAN FIRST NATIONS The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Michael Bryant, will be having a meeting with Chief Doreen Davis and then the Shabot Obaadjiwan community to discuss the uranium exploration, taking place in Frontenac County. The meeting will take place on May 9th and is closed to the public but Chief Davis hopes to have an open meeting with Bryant later in the month. 4) MESSAGE FROM CO-CHIEF PAULA SHERMAN RE: ROBERT LOVELACE Co-Chief Paula Sherman, visited Bob Lovelace on Monday and reports that he has not been getting the books that people have been sending to the Lindsay Correctional Centre. The books go straight to the library and Bob does not have access to this facility. If you would like to send him photocopies of articles and other material, he can receive small amounts at a time. Letters are always welcome. Paula reports that Bob is in good spirits and is still determined to hold his ground. Letters of support for Robert Lovelace can be mailed to: Central
East Correctional Centre 5) HALIBURTON ECHO MUNICIPALITY CALLS FOR A URANIUM MORATORIUM According
to an article by Greg Hoesktra in this week's Haliburton Echo (April 15,
2008), a second municipality in Haliburton County has signed on to support
a moratorium on uranium mining and changes to the Mining Act! The Municipality
of Dysart et al has become the 16th municipality to support a moratorium
on uranium mining! We do not have the details of the resolution as of
yet thought it appears to be a similiar, if not the same, resolution passed
by Highlands East. According to the Echo, Highlands East Reeve, Dave Burton,
took the resolution to Dysart et al. Dysart Reeve, Murray Fearrey stated
that he had received a number of phone calls from concerned residents.
Democracy works, folks (at least locally ;-) )! This message is from the AHWS program at the Katarokwi Native Friendship Centre, The Katarokwi Native Friendship Centre is having the first Sweat of the Spring. SATURDAY APRIL 19, 2008, THE FIRE STARTS 9 o/c This is a mixed Sweatlodge so children are more then welcome. Things you need to bring for the sweat: 1. 1 or
2 towels for the sweat. CONTACT
MITCHELL AT 613-548-1500 FOR INFORMATION ABOUT LOCATION 7) EVENT: THE K(NO)W URANIUM MINES BENEFIT SHOW-FOR THE WATERSHED Proceeds to Ardoch/Shabot protest fines and Ottawa Coalition Against Uranium Mining (OCAMU) Date: Sunday
April 20th at 7:00 pm This show is for all ages. The drinks are very affordable THE LINE
UP.... Uranium stories between sets. Table with info on the uranium issue will be set up and people will be there to answer questions. A Zenwarior productions event supported by Actcity Ottawa and OCAMU. For more info call Ty at cell (613-799-5282) For members of facebook, there is more info at: The K(no)w
Uranium Mines benifit show-For the watershed Above info can be found at: http://ato.smartcapital.ca/actcity?go=1797342 8) EVENT: TORONTO SOCIALIST ACTION PRESENTS-REBAL FILMS Friday,
April 25 - 7 p.m. Uranium, 49 minutes, NFB, is a 1990 documentary that
explores the consequences of uranium mining in Canada. Because of toxic
and radioactive waste, there are profound, long-term environmental hazards.
For uranium miners, there is the substantially increased risk of getting
cancer. And, because most of the mining has been on First Nations' land,
uranium mining violates the traditional economic and spiritual lives of
many aboriginal people. Each of the films in this series will be preceded by a brief introduction, and will be followed by a commentary, and an open floor discussion period. OISE, 252
Bloor St. West, Room 2-212 at the St. George Subway Station. Everyone
welcome. $2 donation requested. 9) INQUIRY SUBMISSION: DAN RUDKA, FORMER NUCLEAR ENERGY WORKER April 15
2008 Let me start by telling you that uranium is dangerous. Period. We have been too casual in our acceptance of its presence. The danger is down graded by industry. And unfortunately, by politicians, that know even less about uranium. We have no viable solution as to what to do with nuclear waste. Really, there is no such "uranium cycle". The uranium, its by products, the waste, is hazardous, deadly dangerous and will be that way from hundreds, to hundreds of thousands of years. There are
many issues of interest and concern around uranium. I would like to speak
of a more personal aspect. How it can affect life itself. The silent,
invisible nature in which uranium, radiation attacks the body with impunity. In January 1995, while at work, you are assaulted. Viciously attacked by a fellow employee, his behavior is psychotic. The resulting injuries are severe, physical and traumatic. It will be six years before you are compensated (through the WSIB- Workers Safety and Insurance Board) for this criminal act. But justice is never served. During this period you become quit ill. It starts slowly. Headaches, body pain, sleeplessness and exhaustion initially. Sores appear and grow in size, break open and weep fluids that painfully burn your good skin raw. Your face arms and hands where affected the worst. Your ear lobe goes hard and swollen. In months it will rot away. Your cheekbone, has been an open wound for over half a year, deteriorates. Later, it will be your forehead, into your skull. Flesh rotting off your jaw, your skin re-heals attached to the bone. You can hardly feed yourself for the pain. Your jaw no longer fully opens. At the same time your body is agitated, restless. Sometimes awake for days, exhausted but unable to sleep. When you do sleep, you suffer sweats, fever, awake frequently to wet clothing and bedding, your hair is soaking, you are cold and shaking. You dry off and change, some nights, several times. When the laundry is washed your bed cloths, towel you dried with and the bedding is returned and the color is washed out from your sweat. As you look at the bed sheets and pillowcase bleached out on your side of the bed, fine on the side of your spouse, your mind shudders. What is coming out of me? Your mornings
greet you with nausea, weakness and sickness - vomiting. It's become every
morning. Violently, you puke yourself white and shaking, sweat dripping
from your body. Stomach muscles heave with pain from the violent nature
of the action. It takes most of a year to get control of the problem with
medication. And still, it gets you every once in a while anyway. Nausea,
in waves, is a part of every day life. Over twelve years of it makes it
all seem hopeless that it would ever change. Since 1996 you have had a gradual shortness of breath. In 1999 you are much worse on all accounts. You have come to the understanding that you are not just sick, you are in fact, dying. Sharing this with no one, you quietly go about preparing. You will find this the loneliest year of your life. A cough that had started lightly enough, lasts for months, and becomes more intense. X-rays reveal advanced "A" typical pneumonia. After two years of various antibiotics and no improvement, you have a lung biopsy. There are complications, your lung collapses. Eventually you get home... ....for about ten hours. Worse by the hour, Doctors having been alerted, await your return at hospital emergency. You are readmitted to hospital. Blood/oxygen absorption levels have dropped to near 80% while on supplementary oxygen. All that matters is family, prayer..and breathing. Minutes too hours are so long, the days are forever. And the nights are longer, sleepless, sweat drenched, fever pitched and fearful. You have lost over one third of your body mass, now well under 100 pounds. Five pathologists have been required to diagnose the lung biopsy material. You have a very rare lung disease and there is no cure. The respirologist suggests that it could well be a result of exposure from the nuclear industry. You can see that he is not optimistic. With that your heart pounds with fear and anger. You deteriorate,
and one evening, you know that it is the last that you will see of your
children...they sit on your bedside. You see your spouse, as you never
have before. You pray that your family will be well. You blame yourself.
In their absence, you slip away into a confused, time lost delirium. Well, what
would you do? In the nuclear world of Port Hope there are also the social, political and economic factors that weigh in so heavily. That world's response for the most part has been to treat me unfairly, with indifference and even ridicule. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Health Canada, the company, the union, municipal and provincial politicians are aware of my situation. There has been denial, no response, disassociation and intimidation, from many of the same people that will be responsible for your safety. After they have forced you to accept their uranium mines. The assault,
I must include, it was the first of several injustices not addressed properly
by those of authority and responsibility. This event must be given consideration,
as it may be connected to my poisoning. The incident is a distraction
of the real problem of my contamination. The assault, my health, and where
I worked, have been the source of rumor, talk, gossip. Also labeled as
untruthful and vengeful, all orchestrated to contribute to character assassination.
Mine this time around. I am not alone in this respect. There have been
others before me, some along with me. There may well be repercussions
for speaking here today. In November 2007 at a press release at the Waterkeeper offices in Toronto, the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee (PHCHCC) and the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) released test results for uranium contamination on 9 Port Hope residents. All 9 showed U235 and U238, natural uranium, and all 9 had U234, a signature of recycled enriched uranium, unnatural, in their bodies. Three of those tested where former nuclear workers who also had U236, spent reactor fuel in their systems, another unnatural species. Eleven to 23 years after employment, it is still being released from our bodies. I am one of those contaminated workers. Consider all the illness, the uranium evidence in my body. Consider the seemingly unconscious silence of the company, union, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Health Canada, our Government and politicians across this country. It all takes on a ghostly image, shadowing unethical, unprincipled, corruption of someplace else, some other, less desirable, country. And it has shaken the very foundation of what it means to me, to be a Canadian. The proposed uranium mining effort in Ontario will not help Port Hope. For the people and environment, it is a dangerous proposal that will have far reaching affects beyond the common understanding, and trust of most Canadians. The fact is that wherever the uranium industry operates, the contamination and pollution, and exposures just cannot be avoided. There will be incidents. There is no safe effective waste solution. More importantly, as for personal contamination, there is no cure. The history of uranium, nuclear development and industry has a great deal to account for over the decades. Concerns ranging from our health and well being, to the environment, financial waste, the pollution and our future, leaves us nothing, but even more concern when uranium is involved. It is time to move in a safer, more economical and sustainable direction wherever possible. And between
now and then we need to assure recognition, assistance and compensation
for all nuclear victims, from the Canadian Atomic Veterans, to industrial
workers, to the unsuspecting children of Port Hope... Thank you
for the opportunity to share my personal experience and thoughts with
you. 10) BOOK: CARBON-FREE AND NUCLEAR-FREE: A ROADMAP FOR U.S. ENERGY POLICY New Book Shows U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Can be Completely Eliminated by 2050 A Roadmap for U.S. Global Climate Change Leadership after Bali Conference Nuclear Power Is Not Needed for an Economical and Reliable Energy System without Fossil Fuels The United States can become a global leader against climate change by phasing out nearly all carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050, according to a newly published book. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy demonstrates how the U.S. can eliminate the use of fossil fuels without sacrificing economic growth or building more nuclear power plants. "As the recent Bali conference indicates, the world is looking to the U.S. for leadership, which has not been forthcoming so far," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, the book's author. "This book is a roadmap for transforming the debate about global warming from political rhetoric to practical policies that can be implemented immediately. Making a zero-CO2 emissions' commitment is the way the U.S. can bring India and China into a serious dialog. Nearly complete elimination of CO2 emissions by 2050 is also implied by U.S. treaty commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." Dr. Makhijani holds a Ph.D. from the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. He is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in November 2007 for his "outstanding contributions to physics" and specifically for "his tireless efforts to provide the public with accurate and understandable information on energy and environmental issues." Among the book's recommendations: * Enact
a physical limit on carbon dioxide emissions (a "hard cap")
for large users of fossil fuels that steadily declines to zero; "These approaches are all technologically feasible, economically viable and environmentally benign," Dr. Makhijani explained. "Nuclear power, on the other hand, entails risks of proliferation, terrorism and serious accidents." The analysis in Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free shows that a reliable electricity grid can be created entirely from renewable energy sources, despite the intermittency of wind and solar energy. "First of all, wind and solar development should be coordinated, since wind often predominates at night and solar, is, by definition, in the daytime," said Dr. Makhijani. "Then, hydropower resources can be used when neither is available, complemented by natural gas standby." In the long term, some baseload capacity would be created using biomass and geothermal resources, solar thermal power plants with heat storage, complemented by electricity storage technologies, according to the Roadmap. Natural gas standby capacity can be replaced by bio-methane standby. The book presents the first schematic of a reliable electricity grid based entirely on renewable energy sources. "A distributed grid will actually be more reliable and less vulnerable to terrorism and large-scale black-outs than the centralized grid we have today," Dr. Makhijani claimed. "And if we focus solar energy development on commercial parking lots and rooftops, the problem of transmission corridors will be much reduced." Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free has already been embraced by a wide variety of energy and environmental experts. In a foreword to the book, S. David Freeman, former Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, writes, "This Roadmap could liberate us from an energy policy that is trashing our climate and our mountain tops, that is polluting our land, sea, and air, that is trying to resurrect dangerous nuclear power, and that has America so dependent on imported oil that our foreign policy is the prisoner of oil. It shines a light on the path to a renewable energy economy." The president of Friends of the Earth, Brent Blackwelder, the most senior environmental lobbyist in Washington, also endorsed the book's agenda. The initial, overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Roadmap, which cuts across conventional lines of partisanship and ideology, has resulted in initial planning for a national campaign to implement its recommendations. A kick-off conference is planned for spring, 2008. Carbon-Free
and Nuclear-Free is published by RDR Books and IEER Press. The book was
the result of a joint project of Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute.. Review copies are
available on request. The text is also posted on the web at http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf Wind power has huge potential as a clean energy source in Ontario. Carefully planned wind development, combined with other renewable sources like hydro, solar and biomass, can help Ontario go a long way toward replacing dirty coal power. A coalition of wind power developers in Ontario has developed a new website, isupportwindpower.com, to demonstrate that people across Ontario are keen to tap into the power blowing in the wind. If you think wind power should be a significant part of Ontario 's energy mix, we encourage you to visit the site and register your support. Thank you. Jessica
Fracassi, Communications & Membership Director 12) ARTICLE: NOVA SCOTIA POLITICIANS BACK URANIUM MINING BAN April 15, 2008 CBC News An all-party committee of the Nova Scotia legislature has reaffirmed its support for the province's moratorium on uranium mining. The standing committee of resources passed the motion unanimously Tuesday after a two-hour presentation by the province's main mining association on why the ban should be lifted. "We are not interested in having the moratorium stand in the way of legitimate mining," said Graham Steele, the New Democrat MLA who proposed the motion. To read
the rest of this article go to, 13) ARTICLE: ANTI-URANIUM MINING ACTIVISTS STAGE INQUIRY IN PETERBOROUGH INTO PROVINCE'S PLAN TO EXPAND NUCLEAR REACTORS By Nicole Riva 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." To read the rest of this story go to, |