February 2020

Regarding Nuclear Waste Storage

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First Nation votes ‘no’ on nuclear waste storage in Bruce County, Ont.

Scott Miller

Published Friday, January 31, 2020 12:07PM EST Last Updated Saturday, February 1, 2020 11:06AM EST

SOUTHAMPTON, ONT. —

First Nation votes ‘no’ on nuclear waste storage in Bruce County, Ont.

Members of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) have voted down plans to bury Ontario’s low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste within 1.2 kilometres of Lake Huron.

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In 2013, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) said they wouldn’t build the $2.4 billion underground facility under the Bruce Power site without the SON’s approval.

On Friday,  1,232 members of the First Nation band voted. The vote results saw 1,058 ‘no’ votes, with 170 ‘yes’ and 4 spoiled ballots.

It means Canada’s first permanent nuclear waste facility will need to be built somewhere else in Ontario.

OPG will now have to start searching for a new host community to house over 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate- level nuclear waste.

OPG says finding a new site may set the project back 20 to 30 years.

Concerns over the project’s proximity to Lake Huron ultimately doomed the nuclear waste plan.

Support for the project was strong in Bruce County, but largely panned around the Great Lakes, where over 200 municipal resolutions opposed the project.

Ontario Power Generation say while they are disapointed with the outcome of the vote, they respect S.O.N.’s decision and will not proceed with plans to build the storage facility in Saugeen Territory.

RELATED IMAGES

 

  • Nuclear waste DGRAn illustration shows the plan for a nuclear waste burial project on the Bruce Power site.

  • Nuclear waste burialA sign is visible at the site proposed to bury nuclear waste near Lake Huron, Ont., Wednesday, May 6, 2015. (Scott Miller / CTV London)

Indigenous Rights Challenged

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What you need to know about the Coastal GasLink pipeline conflict

Dispute in Wet’suwet’en territory over natural gas line has high economic and political stakes

Chantelle Bellrichard, Jorge Barrera · CBC News ·
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/wet-suwet-en-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-1.5448363
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs from left, Rob Alfred, John Ridsdale and Antoinette Austin, who oppose the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, take part in a rally in Smithers, B.C., on Jan. 10. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)

The conflict over a natural gas pipeline in northwestern British Columbia is the latest flashpoint between resource development and Indigenous rights and title in a province where large swaths of territory are not covered by any treaty.

At the centre of the conflict is a multi-billion dollar natural gas project — touted as the largest private sector investment in Canadian history — and an assertion by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs that no pipelines can be built through their traditional territory without their consent.

 

Missing and Murdered Women

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https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/striving-to-make-indigenous-women-girls-feel-safe-in-alaska-bMROecUEz0-uo4-yMFzg2g

 

MM

Organizers of the Vigil and Heartbeat of the Drums for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls shown here left to right: Ruth Miller, Dena’ina Athabascan, Communications Organizer, Native Movement; Rochelle Adams, Athabascan, Indigenous Engagement Coordinator, Native Peoples Action; Kendra Kloster, Tlingit, Executive Director, Native Peoples Action; Charlene Akpik Apok, Inupiaq, Gender Justice and Healing Coordinator, Native Movement; Kelsey Wallace, Yup’ik, Communications Director, Native Peoples Action; and (not pictured), Emily Edenshaw, Executive Director, Alaska Native Heritage Center. (Photo by Joaqlin Estus)

Joaqlin Estus

by

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‘We face total negligence… when it comes to prosecuting attackers or murderers of our women’

As the names of more than 200 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls were read, people listened in silence, many staring into space or at the carpeted floor of the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. A few quietly wiped away tears. Healers burned braids of sweet grass and bunches of sage, waving the smoke onto the half-dozen men reading the names.

Charlene Akpik Apok, Inupiaq, director of gender justice and healing for the nonprofit community advocacy and training organization Native Movement, was emcee of the Vigil and Heartbeat of the Drums for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She told the audience of more than a hundred people she had asked men to read the names to remember and honor allies in the fight against the loss of Indigenous women.”

 

 

Saving Lake Huron

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/04/saugeen-ojibway-nation-has-saved-lake-huron-from-a-nuclear-waste-dump/

Photograph Source: Kevin M Klerks – CC BY 2.0Lake Huron

February 4, 2020

Saugeen Ojibway Nation Has Saved Lake Huron From a Nuclear Waste Dump

by Joyce Nelson

A major victory for Canada’s First Nations has just been won in Ontario. On January 31, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) overwhelmingly voted down the proposed deep geological repository (DGR) for storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive nuclear waste next to Lake Huron. The DGR had long been proposed by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), but in 2013 OPG had committed to SON that it would not build the DGR without their support.

Canadian Pipeline

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John Ivison: Pipeline dispute raises important question — who speaks for First Nations?

Reconciliation means making one system compatible with another, not Indigenous law trumping Canadian law at the behest of some self-anointed aristocrats

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-pipeline-issue-raises-important-question-who-speaks-for-first-nations

chiefs-1Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline hold a press conference in Smithers, B.C., on Jan. 7, 2020.Amy Smart/The Canadian Press/File

The “territorial re-occupation” of land along the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C. by hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en people has raised some thorny constitutional questions and some surprising interventions.

The $6.2 billion, 670 km pipeline route runs from Dawson Creek, near the Alberta border, to Kitimat in B.C.’s north coast region, crossing through traditional Wet’suwet’en territory.