Uranium News: June 11, 2008: Coming soon: the 2nd anniversary of the Frontenac/Lanark Uranium Mining Blockade at Robertsville
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Steev Morgan
Jun 12, 2009, 7:41:17 AM6/12/09
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URANIUM NEWS JUNE 11TH 2009
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) CCAMU EVENT JUNE 28TH: BEATLEJUICE ROCKS AGAINST RADIOACTIVE ROCK!
2) PRAY FOR THE LAND: JUNE 28TH 2009
3) NO URANIUM ANTI-NUCLEAR ART SHOW A SUCCESS
4) HALIBURTON EVENT: LIVING WITH URANIUM
5) SEPTEMBER 27: ANTI-URANIUM PROTEST RALLY AT QUEEN’S PARK
6) C.U.M.E FEATURED ON CHEX TV
7) ARTICLE: ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL
8) GREENPEACE'S CALENDER OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND EVENTS
9) REPORT FROM ROBERT LOVELACE
10) ARTICLE: COTTAGER GROUP APPEALS TO MUSKOKA TO HELP STOP URANIUM MINING
11) UPDATE FROM ONTARIO CLEAN AIR ALLIANCE
12) ARTICLE: WHY IS SOMEONE DRILLING IN MY BACKYARD?
13) ARTICLE: ARE RADIOACTIVE HOME PRODUCTS CREATING CANCER?
----------------
CCAMU EVENT JUNE 28TH: BEATLEJUICE ROCKS AGAINST RADIOACTIVE ROCK!
Looking to teleport back to the 1960's and have some fun this summer? Well, look no further. We have the event for you. Beatlejuice, the fabulous Beatle's cover band, is returning to Maberly Hall and promises to get you up and dancing! Beatlejuice sounds so much like the real thing, people have thought that they were listening to a lip-sync act.
So come on out and rock the hall against radioactive rock…
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009 (The 2nd anniversary of the Frontenac/Lanark Uranium Mining Blockade at Robertsville)
Time: Potluck dinner starts at 5pm followed by Beatlejuice at 7pm
Place: Maberly Hall, Maberly
(Just North of #7 Hwy, 20 minutes west of Perth, 10 minutes east of Sharbot Lake)
Cost: $10 (minimum) donation at the door
This is a Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium (CCAMU) fund raiser. The same group that brought you the Uranium Citizens’ Inquiry is now raising funds to bring world renowned Dr. Helen Caldicott, MD from Australia to Eastern Ontario.
The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Caldicott, has devoted the last 35 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.
For more information about Dr. Caldicott go to http://www.helencaldicott.com/index.htm
For information on CCAMU: www.ccamu.ca
For information on the Uranium Citizens’ Inquiry: www.uraniumcitizensinquiry.com
CCAMU IS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP OUT WITH THIS EVENT. PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING.
------------------
2) PRAY FOR THE LAND: JUNE 28TH 2009
June 28th 2009
On the Robertsville mine site
Participate in a universal call to prayer!
Human beings have an innate understanding of their relationship with the earth and when the time comes we all welcome it among the most meaningful obligations of our lives. People of every faith recognize their sacred responsibility to care for the earth. On June 28th, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation is inviting people of all faiths to join them again in praying for their homeland which has been seriously harmed by uranium exploration.
If you have ever felt the need to speak up for creation and seek justice for people who live close to the land please come to Robertsville to join us. If you can’t come out to the land please encourage your faith community to remember the Ardoch struggle when you gather together.
For information:
Robert Lovelace
705-748-9685
love...@queensu.ca
For a map to Robertsville, more pictures and site information go to the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation Website: http://www.aafna.ca/
-------------------
3) NO URANIUM ANTI-NUCLEAR ART SHOW A SUCCESS
The No Uranium Anti Nuclear Art Show was a grand affair at the Maberly Hall on the afternoon of Sunday, May 31st. Dumb Glow the 26 billion dollar nuclear white elephant made an appearance with his corporate handler and a member of the Nuclear Cover-Up Company. Wonderful paintings, sculpture, collages and murals filled the hall. The venue was a visual feast, awash in the colour and passion of over 70 artists and participants. Dwayne Scudder delighted us with his cautionary song, The Miner's Are a Comin'. The afternoon was full with the buzz of great conversations and spoken word poetry and deep appreciation for our collective talents and strengths. The show sent a strong message about our love of the earth and our commitment to stand up with truth and even humour to the nuclear industry.....and to stop the uranium mine.
The show will be on display next month, July 10-12, at The Art of Being Green Festival. And look for the online show at the CCAMU site, up soon at www.ccamu.ca . If you want to be included in the online show please contact Sulyn Cedar with a photo of your work. sul...@gmail.com.
-------------------------
4) HALIBURTON EVENT: LIVING WITH URANIUM
"Environment Haliburton" is hosting an event called LIVING WITH URANIUM on Sat. June 20, 1-4:00 at Fleming College in Haliburton village. CCAMU's Dr. Linda Harvey MD will be one of the keynote speakers.
------------------------
5) SEPTEMBER 27: ANTI-URANIUM PROTEST RALLY AT QUEEN’S PARK
Mark this date on your calendar! A community-wide, anti-uranium protest rally will be held at Queen’s Park, Sunday Sept. 27, 2009, 2:00-4:00pm hosted by Cottagers against Uranium Mining and Exploration (C.U.M.E.)
-----------------------
6) C.U.M.E FEATURED ON CHEX TV
Last week, C.U.M.E's Susanne Lauten took a reporter from CHEX TV (Peterborough) along on a visit with Haliburton-Kawarthas MPP Rick Johnson, and the local protest group FUME, to the uranium exploration site between Gooderham and Tory Hill in Haliburton County. She reports,
"The entire drill site (which looks like a bomb-site blasted out of dense forest) slopes steeply down towards the Irondale River. And there are several deep drill holes about 100 feet from this water source. If this site ever becomes a functioning uranium mine, the highly acidic radioactive run-off would almost certainly spill into this river, which is the headwaters to the Trent Severn Waterway. Unbelievable that miners can cause this much devastation in exploration alone-- without environmental assessments."
You can view the CHEX clip on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PrkSH4nzY
For those of you who don’t have high-speed internet, you can view the CHEX clip on YouTube.
Susanne went on to say,
"At a public function the next day, I spoke to Barry Devolin, our Haliburton- Kawarthas Conservative MP, and he couldn’t fathom why I was concerned about uranium mining. He said, “Few people understand that this area has a history of uranium mining.†I wanted to say: Two wrongs don’t make a right, but reminded him instead, that in the past 50 years, the economy of the region has shifted entirely from mining and forestry to cottaging and tourism. And the two are not compatible.
Readers can send their comments to:
Conservative MP Barry Devolin, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock
dev...@parl.gc.ca
Liberal MPP Rick Johnson, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes- Brock rjohnson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org"
--------------------
7) ARTICLE: ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL
CCAMU would like to thank the Watershed Sentinel for granting the permission to preprint the article, "On the Yellowcake Trail." A must read!
To view this article, click on the URANIUM SCIENCE tab, then the "ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL WATERSHED SENTINEL JUNE 2009" subtab on the CCAMU website.
--------------------
8) GREENPEACE'S CALENDER OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND EVENTS
Greenpeace updated their calendar of nuclear accidents and events on March 21, 2009.
A shocking read!
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html
-------------------------
9) REPORT FROM ROBERT LOVELACE
Ecuador May 3-12
Almost a month has passed since I traveled to Ecuador at the invitation of CONAIE. While it had been requested that this report be completed soon after the visit several personal issues arose that needed to be addressed. However, even if there were no immediate distractions, it has taken time to process the Ecuador experience and to draw some conclusions that might be useful to others.
Ecuador is a very different place than Ontario, Canada. I could cite many examples of this but without a critical analysis of these differences it is hard to interpret the meanings. On the last day of our visit we had time to relax and walk around Quito. In the “old town†we were walking down streets, among baroque buildings that had been built in 1600; a time when Champlain constructed the first crude log trading post in what would become Canada. Across Ecuador there are signs that this “Nation†was born out of colonial liberation and that revolutionary democracy continues to dominate the political discourse. Canada’s democracy has been intellectually constructed and is dominated by commerce and industry. Definitions of prosperity, wealth and poverty must also be challenged when trying to understand what you see in Ecuador. Peasant farmers who I met seemed far quicker of mind and articulate than the college students who I teach in Ontario.
While there are differences to be considered our visit happened because my colleagues, Ann Marie Sam, Monique Ross, and I had in common with our Ecuadorian hosts concerns about the effects of extractive industries on people and the environment. This was a wonderful opportunity to connect and bridge our experiences. And this is where we began to recognise similarities. Many of the corporations involved in mining in Ecuador are Canadian. President Correa has promoted the Canadian “model†as clean, sustainable and essential to the well being of indigenous people. The worries expressed to us by indigenous people every day of our visit were the same as those of indigenous people in Canada. Conversations revealed similarities in the pacifying rhetoric of mining representatives and the eventual intimidation tactics used by mining companies when people could not be removed as quickly as trees and earth. Most important to me was the evidence of fear and suffering brought on by the challenge to normal life, to culture, to long standing community relationships. My own community in Ontario has suffered greatly even in the early stages of exploration, and I saw the same distress in the eyes of the Ecuadorians faced with mining activity in their homelands.
During the trip I was able to video tape interviews with people who wanted to tell their story to Indigenous people in Canada. These videos will be edited and used to educate people about how indigenous people in Ecuador feel about mining and what they think can be done to protect them. By gathering these narratives and through the experience of seeing first hand we will be able to re-tell their stories and enlist informed help.
It became clear to me in Ecuador that affected communities cannot carryout successful resistance on their own. Not only do communities need outside moral and financial support to conduct their local struggle but the problems created by extractive industries are universal. Success for a few communities who are able to stop encroachment does not change the way this industry does business. Environmental, cultural and personal disaster remains a significant means of reducing corporate overhead costs. When one community stands-up to defend itself it stands-up for every other community because it challenges the unearned privilege that the extractive industry has claimed. So, when Pangui farmers say no to displacement from their lands for a gold mine they are challenging the threat that uranium exploration causes to our tourist industry in North Frontenac. When the indigenous mayor of Cotacachi insists that national and international laws be respected and enforced to control a Canadian company from undermining democratic institutions he is standing-up for democracy in Canada. When Ardoch refuses to accept provincial manipulation and intimidation it helps shut the door on politically motivated abuse of indigenous peoples. By our efforts at home we are engaged in a global struggle with people who regard their lives and land as important as we regard ours. They are our friends and allies. What happens to them happens to us.
There is a union of ideas and effort underway to change the way that we regard and use our environment. Our visit to Ecuador also reminded me that people share a commitment, a fundamentally indigenous interest in protecting the living land. After crossing a river by barge late one afternoon we met with Indian and mestiso farmers in the small village of San Marcos in the Amazon watershed at the base of the eastern Andes. Serious exploration for gold and copper was underway by a Canadian company in the hills nearby. A violent confrontation had already occurred between the people, private security forces and the army. San Marcos had been designated as the best potential site for the mine tailing dump. As we stood and talked in a circle it was evident that not everyone was in agreement. Some people were bitter that the company had come from out of nowhere to change their lives, take their land and trade dependence on the land for wage labour. Others thought that the company’s promises of jobs, schools, and stores would be an improvement to their lives. As the discussion progressed, darkness closed in around us. Angry words were exchanged between neighbours. Finally, a man who had been vocal in challenging the mine turned to me, and as if expecting I might know the alternative to the dilemma asked, “If we don’t accept the mine, what will we do?†I wanted to make promises that life would improve anyway, promises better than the mining company had made, or to denounce the false economy and expound on the social catastrophe that a mine would bring. I wanted to address the sense of incompleteness that now existed through undefined dreams. The silence between us only intensified the desire of everyone in the circle to know what this Indian from Canada thought. Only the truth would be accepted. “We will do what we always do. We will always work hard, and we will take care of the land, and the land will take care of us.†When the translator had finished, almost every voice in the circle expressed with a sense of courage and tone of relief, “Es tan!†, “It is so.†While we live in diverse environments and speak other languages, while we toil in different fields and walk separate paths, real human beings have an innate understanding of their relationship with the earth and when the time comes we all welcome it among the most meaningful obligations of our lives.
Nine days in Ecuador will remain a constant memory for me. It has reinforced my own commitment to challenge the way that extractive industries do business and above all, to protect the land. It has also given me a strong sense of camaraderie with people in Ecuador, and other distance places, who are committed to protecting the earth and their way of life. The alliances we have formed will grow. In Canada we have a lot to learn from people who have been born into a revolutionary democracy and have experience and knowledge of protecting democratic principles. This journey will certainly make me a better teacher, activist and advocate.
We were a team. This was not a journey that could have been accomplished alone. The itinerary was planned months in advance and every intended stop was accomplished as well as impromptu encounters when opportunities arose. Each day was full and meaningful. My fellow travelers, Ann Marie, Monique and Mike became a source of inspiration and support. Those people who drove, guided, translated, fed and accompanied us were totally committed to the success of our purpose. Our ultimate guide, mentor, translator, time keeper and host, Isabela Figueroa is professional in every sense of the word. Her consistency and good nature moved us all through every experience with ease and understanding. Like all good journeys, I was disappointed to see this one come to an end and friends go their separate ways. However, I know that those nine days in Ecuador will nurture and inform our struggle at home and build unity among people in the world.
Robert Lovelace
P.S. Below I have copied below an email from Niels Boel, a reporter who interviewed me in Ecuador, which contains the link to the story he has done for Danish National Radio. Someone may find it interesting.
Dear Robert,
I am the Danish journalist whom you met in Quito. I was very happy to meet you. I hope your travel to see the proposed mining area and the affected people in Southern Ecuador also proved useful.
Yesterday my interview with you was broadcasted on Danish National Radio (which reaches 70 % of the Danish population). The program includes long quotations, you can listen to it choosing the following link
www.dr.dk/P1/orientering/indslag/2009/05/25/191526.htm
(It might require you to have the program RealPlayer, which can be downloaded for free.)
All the best
Niels Boel
------------------------
10) ARTICLE: COTTAGER GROUP APPEALS TO MUSKOKA TO HELP STOP URANIUM MINING
May 14, 2009
By Marcia Downham
"Some landowners in Muskoka and Haliburton are asking the District of Muskoka to join them in their efforts to get the Ontario government to place a moratorium on all uranium exploration and mining in cottage country.
"We have been trying to get Muskoka involved because we know they hold some significant political power and are very influential, and if they got on board, we believe it would really help to make a difference," said Suzanne Lauten, founder of Cottagers Against Uranium Mining and Exploration (CUME)."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.muskokasun.com/article/136032
----------------------
11) UPDATE FROM ONTARIO CLEAN AIR ALLIANCE
Recently, the Government of Ontario received the price bids from the three companies that want to build two new nuclear reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station. According to the Globe and Mail, Energy Minister George Smitherman had “sticker shock†when he saw the prices being quoted.
As a result, the McGuinty Government is now asking the federal government to subsidize the construction of new reactors for Ontario. This doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons.
· First, if you want to create a culture of conservation, you shouldn’t subsidize the cost of electricity supply.
· Second, according to a new Ontario Clean Air Alliance report, Powerful Options, Ontario’s electricity needs can be met at a much lower cost with an integrated combination of energy conservation and efficiency, wind power, natural gas-fired combined heat and power and hydro-electric imports from Quebec and Labrador.
· Third, shifting subsidies from one set of taxpayers to another is just a way of hiding the fact that nuclear is not economically competitive.
Please go to http://www.cleanairalliance.org/send_a_message to contact Prime Minister Harper and the leaders of Canada’s other federal parties and tell them that you don’t want your tax dollars used to subsidize new high-cost nuclear reactors for Ontario.
Please pass this message on to your friends.
Thank you for your support.
Jessica Fracassi, Communications & Membership Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1
Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 245
Fax: 416-926-1601
Email: jes...@cleanairalliance.org
Website: www.cleanairalliance.org
Website: www.OntariosGreenFuture.ca
-------------------------
12) ARTICLE: WHY IS SOMEONE DRILLING IN MY BACKYARD?
Jun 06, 2009
By: Peter Gorrie TheStar.com
"The province claims it made peace with residents of cottage country when it made private property in Southern Ontario off-limits to prospectors.
Its new policy, announced this spring, "takes bold steps toward a modern, innovative Mining Act that would balance all of our respective interests, benefit Ontario communities and support a vibrant Ontario minerals industry," says mines minister Michael Gravelle."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/645838
--------------------------------
13) ARTICLE: ARE RADIOACTIVE HOME PRODUCTS CREATING CANCER?
Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products
June 3, 2009
By: Isaac Wolf, Scripps Howard News Service
"Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactive metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world.
Common kitchen cheese graters, reclining chairs, women's handbags and tableware manufactured with contaminated metals have been identified, some after having been in circulation for as long as a decade. So have fencing wire and fence posts, shovel blades, elevator buttons, airline parts and steel used in construction."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43577
-------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) CCAMU EVENT JUNE 28TH: BEATLEJUICE ROCKS AGAINST RADIOACTIVE ROCK!
2) PRAY FOR THE LAND: JUNE 28TH 2009
3) NO URANIUM ANTI-NUCLEAR ART SHOW A SUCCESS
4) HALIBURTON EVENT: LIVING WITH URANIUM
5) SEPTEMBER 27: ANTI-URANIUM PROTEST RALLY AT QUEEN’S PARK
6) C.U.M.E FEATURED ON CHEX TV
7) ARTICLE: ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL
8) GREENPEACE'S CALENDER OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND EVENTS
9) REPORT FROM ROBERT LOVELACE
10) ARTICLE: COTTAGER GROUP APPEALS TO MUSKOKA TO HELP STOP URANIUM MINING
11) UPDATE FROM ONTARIO CLEAN AIR ALLIANCE
12) ARTICLE: WHY IS SOMEONE DRILLING IN MY BACKYARD?
13) ARTICLE: ARE RADIOACTIVE HOME PRODUCTS CREATING CANCER?
----------------
CCAMU EVENT JUNE 28TH: BEATLEJUICE ROCKS AGAINST RADIOACTIVE ROCK!
Looking to teleport back to the 1960's and have some fun this summer? Well, look no further. We have the event for you. Beatlejuice, the fabulous Beatle's cover band, is returning to Maberly Hall and promises to get you up and dancing! Beatlejuice sounds so much like the real thing, people have thought that they were listening to a lip-sync act.
So come on out and rock the hall against radioactive rock…
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009 (The 2nd anniversary of the Frontenac/Lanark Uranium Mining Blockade at Robertsville)
Time: Potluck dinner starts at 5pm followed by Beatlejuice at 7pm
Place: Maberly Hall, Maberly
(Just North of #7 Hwy, 20 minutes west of Perth, 10 minutes east of Sharbot Lake)
Cost: $10 (minimum) donation at the door
This is a Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium (CCAMU) fund raiser. The same group that brought you the Uranium Citizens’ Inquiry is now raising funds to bring world renowned Dr. Helen Caldicott, MD from Australia to Eastern Ontario.
The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Caldicott, has devoted the last 35 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.
For more information about Dr. Caldicott go to http://www.helencaldicott.com/index.htm
For information on CCAMU: www.ccamu.ca
For information on the Uranium Citizens’ Inquiry: www.uraniumcitizensinquiry.com
CCAMU IS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP OUT WITH THIS EVENT. PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING.
------------------
2) PRAY FOR THE LAND: JUNE 28TH 2009
June 28th 2009
On the Robertsville mine site
Participate in a universal call to prayer!
Human beings have an innate understanding of their relationship with the earth and when the time comes we all welcome it among the most meaningful obligations of our lives. People of every faith recognize their sacred responsibility to care for the earth. On June 28th, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation is inviting people of all faiths to join them again in praying for their homeland which has been seriously harmed by uranium exploration.
If you have ever felt the need to speak up for creation and seek justice for people who live close to the land please come to Robertsville to join us. If you can’t come out to the land please encourage your faith community to remember the Ardoch struggle when you gather together.
For information:
Robert Lovelace
705-748-9685
love...@queensu.ca
For a map to Robertsville, more pictures and site information go to the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation Website: http://www.aafna.ca/
-------------------
3) NO URANIUM ANTI-NUCLEAR ART SHOW A SUCCESS
The No Uranium Anti Nuclear Art Show was a grand affair at the Maberly Hall on the afternoon of Sunday, May 31st. Dumb Glow the 26 billion dollar nuclear white elephant made an appearance with his corporate handler and a member of the Nuclear Cover-Up Company. Wonderful paintings, sculpture, collages and murals filled the hall. The venue was a visual feast, awash in the colour and passion of over 70 artists and participants. Dwayne Scudder delighted us with his cautionary song, The Miner's Are a Comin'. The afternoon was full with the buzz of great conversations and spoken word poetry and deep appreciation for our collective talents and strengths. The show sent a strong message about our love of the earth and our commitment to stand up with truth and even humour to the nuclear industry.....and to stop the uranium mine.
The show will be on display next month, July 10-12, at The Art of Being Green Festival. And look for the online show at the CCAMU site, up soon at www.ccamu.ca . If you want to be included in the online show please contact Sulyn Cedar with a photo of your work. sul...@gmail.com.
-------------------------
4) HALIBURTON EVENT: LIVING WITH URANIUM
"Environment Haliburton" is hosting an event called LIVING WITH URANIUM on Sat. June 20, 1-4:00 at Fleming College in Haliburton village. CCAMU's Dr. Linda Harvey MD will be one of the keynote speakers.
------------------------
5) SEPTEMBER 27: ANTI-URANIUM PROTEST RALLY AT QUEEN’S PARK
Mark this date on your calendar! A community-wide, anti-uranium protest rally will be held at Queen’s Park, Sunday Sept. 27, 2009, 2:00-4:00pm hosted by Cottagers against Uranium Mining and Exploration (C.U.M.E.)
-----------------------
6) C.U.M.E FEATURED ON CHEX TV
Last week, C.U.M.E's Susanne Lauten took a reporter from CHEX TV (Peterborough) along on a visit with Haliburton-Kawarthas MPP Rick Johnson, and the local protest group FUME, to the uranium exploration site between Gooderham and Tory Hill in Haliburton County. She reports,
"The entire drill site (which looks like a bomb-site blasted out of dense forest) slopes steeply down towards the Irondale River. And there are several deep drill holes about 100 feet from this water source. If this site ever becomes a functioning uranium mine, the highly acidic radioactive run-off would almost certainly spill into this river, which is the headwaters to the Trent Severn Waterway. Unbelievable that miners can cause this much devastation in exploration alone-- without environmental assessments."
You can view the CHEX clip on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PrkSH4nzY
For those of you who don’t have high-speed internet, you can view the CHEX clip on YouTube.
Susanne went on to say,
"At a public function the next day, I spoke to Barry Devolin, our Haliburton- Kawarthas Conservative MP, and he couldn’t fathom why I was concerned about uranium mining. He said, “Few people understand that this area has a history of uranium mining.†I wanted to say: Two wrongs don’t make a right, but reminded him instead, that in the past 50 years, the economy of the region has shifted entirely from mining and forestry to cottaging and tourism. And the two are not compatible.
Readers can send their comments to:
Conservative MP Barry Devolin, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock
dev...@parl.gc.ca
Liberal MPP Rick Johnson, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes- Brock rjohnson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org"
--------------------
7) ARTICLE: ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL
CCAMU would like to thank the Watershed Sentinel for granting the permission to preprint the article, "On the Yellowcake Trail." A must read!
To view this article, click on the URANIUM SCIENCE tab, then the "ON THE YELLOWCAKE TRAIL WATERSHED SENTINEL JUNE 2009" subtab on the CCAMU website.
--------------------
8) GREENPEACE'S CALENDER OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND EVENTS
Greenpeace updated their calendar of nuclear accidents and events on March 21, 2009.
A shocking read!
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html
-------------------------
9) REPORT FROM ROBERT LOVELACE
Ecuador May 3-12
Almost a month has passed since I traveled to Ecuador at the invitation of CONAIE. While it had been requested that this report be completed soon after the visit several personal issues arose that needed to be addressed. However, even if there were no immediate distractions, it has taken time to process the Ecuador experience and to draw some conclusions that might be useful to others.
Ecuador is a very different place than Ontario, Canada. I could cite many examples of this but without a critical analysis of these differences it is hard to interpret the meanings. On the last day of our visit we had time to relax and walk around Quito. In the “old town†we were walking down streets, among baroque buildings that had been built in 1600; a time when Champlain constructed the first crude log trading post in what would become Canada. Across Ecuador there are signs that this “Nation†was born out of colonial liberation and that revolutionary democracy continues to dominate the political discourse. Canada’s democracy has been intellectually constructed and is dominated by commerce and industry. Definitions of prosperity, wealth and poverty must also be challenged when trying to understand what you see in Ecuador. Peasant farmers who I met seemed far quicker of mind and articulate than the college students who I teach in Ontario.
While there are differences to be considered our visit happened because my colleagues, Ann Marie Sam, Monique Ross, and I had in common with our Ecuadorian hosts concerns about the effects of extractive industries on people and the environment. This was a wonderful opportunity to connect and bridge our experiences. And this is where we began to recognise similarities. Many of the corporations involved in mining in Ecuador are Canadian. President Correa has promoted the Canadian “model†as clean, sustainable and essential to the well being of indigenous people. The worries expressed to us by indigenous people every day of our visit were the same as those of indigenous people in Canada. Conversations revealed similarities in the pacifying rhetoric of mining representatives and the eventual intimidation tactics used by mining companies when people could not be removed as quickly as trees and earth. Most important to me was the evidence of fear and suffering brought on by the challenge to normal life, to culture, to long standing community relationships. My own community in Ontario has suffered greatly even in the early stages of exploration, and I saw the same distress in the eyes of the Ecuadorians faced with mining activity in their homelands.
During the trip I was able to video tape interviews with people who wanted to tell their story to Indigenous people in Canada. These videos will be edited and used to educate people about how indigenous people in Ecuador feel about mining and what they think can be done to protect them. By gathering these narratives and through the experience of seeing first hand we will be able to re-tell their stories and enlist informed help.
It became clear to me in Ecuador that affected communities cannot carryout successful resistance on their own. Not only do communities need outside moral and financial support to conduct their local struggle but the problems created by extractive industries are universal. Success for a few communities who are able to stop encroachment does not change the way this industry does business. Environmental, cultural and personal disaster remains a significant means of reducing corporate overhead costs. When one community stands-up to defend itself it stands-up for every other community because it challenges the unearned privilege that the extractive industry has claimed. So, when Pangui farmers say no to displacement from their lands for a gold mine they are challenging the threat that uranium exploration causes to our tourist industry in North Frontenac. When the indigenous mayor of Cotacachi insists that national and international laws be respected and enforced to control a Canadian company from undermining democratic institutions he is standing-up for democracy in Canada. When Ardoch refuses to accept provincial manipulation and intimidation it helps shut the door on politically motivated abuse of indigenous peoples. By our efforts at home we are engaged in a global struggle with people who regard their lives and land as important as we regard ours. They are our friends and allies. What happens to them happens to us.
There is a union of ideas and effort underway to change the way that we regard and use our environment. Our visit to Ecuador also reminded me that people share a commitment, a fundamentally indigenous interest in protecting the living land. After crossing a river by barge late one afternoon we met with Indian and mestiso farmers in the small village of San Marcos in the Amazon watershed at the base of the eastern Andes. Serious exploration for gold and copper was underway by a Canadian company in the hills nearby. A violent confrontation had already occurred between the people, private security forces and the army. San Marcos had been designated as the best potential site for the mine tailing dump. As we stood and talked in a circle it was evident that not everyone was in agreement. Some people were bitter that the company had come from out of nowhere to change their lives, take their land and trade dependence on the land for wage labour. Others thought that the company’s promises of jobs, schools, and stores would be an improvement to their lives. As the discussion progressed, darkness closed in around us. Angry words were exchanged between neighbours. Finally, a man who had been vocal in challenging the mine turned to me, and as if expecting I might know the alternative to the dilemma asked, “If we don’t accept the mine, what will we do?†I wanted to make promises that life would improve anyway, promises better than the mining company had made, or to denounce the false economy and expound on the social catastrophe that a mine would bring. I wanted to address the sense of incompleteness that now existed through undefined dreams. The silence between us only intensified the desire of everyone in the circle to know what this Indian from Canada thought. Only the truth would be accepted. “We will do what we always do. We will always work hard, and we will take care of the land, and the land will take care of us.†When the translator had finished, almost every voice in the circle expressed with a sense of courage and tone of relief, “Es tan!†, “It is so.†While we live in diverse environments and speak other languages, while we toil in different fields and walk separate paths, real human beings have an innate understanding of their relationship with the earth and when the time comes we all welcome it among the most meaningful obligations of our lives.
Nine days in Ecuador will remain a constant memory for me. It has reinforced my own commitment to challenge the way that extractive industries do business and above all, to protect the land. It has also given me a strong sense of camaraderie with people in Ecuador, and other distance places, who are committed to protecting the earth and their way of life. The alliances we have formed will grow. In Canada we have a lot to learn from people who have been born into a revolutionary democracy and have experience and knowledge of protecting democratic principles. This journey will certainly make me a better teacher, activist and advocate.
We were a team. This was not a journey that could have been accomplished alone. The itinerary was planned months in advance and every intended stop was accomplished as well as impromptu encounters when opportunities arose. Each day was full and meaningful. My fellow travelers, Ann Marie, Monique and Mike became a source of inspiration and support. Those people who drove, guided, translated, fed and accompanied us were totally committed to the success of our purpose. Our ultimate guide, mentor, translator, time keeper and host, Isabela Figueroa is professional in every sense of the word. Her consistency and good nature moved us all through every experience with ease and understanding. Like all good journeys, I was disappointed to see this one come to an end and friends go their separate ways. However, I know that those nine days in Ecuador will nurture and inform our struggle at home and build unity among people in the world.
Robert Lovelace
P.S. Below I have copied below an email from Niels Boel, a reporter who interviewed me in Ecuador, which contains the link to the story he has done for Danish National Radio. Someone may find it interesting.
Dear Robert,
I am the Danish journalist whom you met in Quito. I was very happy to meet you. I hope your travel to see the proposed mining area and the affected people in Southern Ecuador also proved useful.
Yesterday my interview with you was broadcasted on Danish National Radio (which reaches 70 % of the Danish population). The program includes long quotations, you can listen to it choosing the following link
www.dr.dk/P1/orientering/indslag/2009/05/25/191526.htm
(It might require you to have the program RealPlayer, which can be downloaded for free.)
All the best
Niels Boel
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10) ARTICLE: COTTAGER GROUP APPEALS TO MUSKOKA TO HELP STOP URANIUM MINING
May 14, 2009
By Marcia Downham
"Some landowners in Muskoka and Haliburton are asking the District of Muskoka to join them in their efforts to get the Ontario government to place a moratorium on all uranium exploration and mining in cottage country.
"We have been trying to get Muskoka involved because we know they hold some significant political power and are very influential, and if they got on board, we believe it would really help to make a difference," said Suzanne Lauten, founder of Cottagers Against Uranium Mining and Exploration (CUME)."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.muskokasun.com/article/136032
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11) UPDATE FROM ONTARIO CLEAN AIR ALLIANCE
Recently, the Government of Ontario received the price bids from the three companies that want to build two new nuclear reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station. According to the Globe and Mail, Energy Minister George Smitherman had “sticker shock†when he saw the prices being quoted.
As a result, the McGuinty Government is now asking the federal government to subsidize the construction of new reactors for Ontario. This doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons.
· First, if you want to create a culture of conservation, you shouldn’t subsidize the cost of electricity supply.
· Second, according to a new Ontario Clean Air Alliance report, Powerful Options, Ontario’s electricity needs can be met at a much lower cost with an integrated combination of energy conservation and efficiency, wind power, natural gas-fired combined heat and power and hydro-electric imports from Quebec and Labrador.
· Third, shifting subsidies from one set of taxpayers to another is just a way of hiding the fact that nuclear is not economically competitive.
Please go to http://www.cleanairalliance.org/send_a_message to contact Prime Minister Harper and the leaders of Canada’s other federal parties and tell them that you don’t want your tax dollars used to subsidize new high-cost nuclear reactors for Ontario.
Please pass this message on to your friends.
Thank you for your support.
Jessica Fracassi, Communications & Membership Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1
Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 245
Fax: 416-926-1601
Email: jes...@cleanairalliance.org
Website: www.cleanairalliance.org
Website: www.OntariosGreenFuture.ca
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12) ARTICLE: WHY IS SOMEONE DRILLING IN MY BACKYARD?
Jun 06, 2009
By: Peter Gorrie TheStar.com
"The province claims it made peace with residents of cottage country when it made private property in Southern Ontario off-limits to prospectors.
Its new policy, announced this spring, "takes bold steps toward a modern, innovative Mining Act that would balance all of our respective interests, benefit Ontario communities and support a vibrant Ontario minerals industry," says mines minister Michael Gravelle."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/645838
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13) ARTICLE: ARE RADIOACTIVE HOME PRODUCTS CREATING CANCER?
Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products
June 3, 2009
By: Isaac Wolf, Scripps Howard News Service
"Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactive metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world.
Common kitchen cheese graters, reclining chairs, women's handbags and tableware manufactured with contaminated metals have been identified, some after having been in circulation for as long as a decade. So have fencing wire and fence posts, shovel blades, elevator buttons, airline parts and steel used in construction."
To read the rest of this article go to,
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43577
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