The Saskatchewan Aboriginal Women’s Circle Corporation of Saskatchewan also passed a resolution last year, opposing the transportation and storage of nuclear waste in Saskatchewan. The resolution was then adopted by the Native Women’s Association of Canada at its annual general assembly held in Saskatoon in August 2012.
Stopping Nuclear Waste in its Tracks Communities, Indigenous organizations pass resolutions against transportation and storage of nuclear waste in Saskatchewan The Dominion, by SANDRA CUFFE, 8 Oct 12, Growing numbers of communities in Saskatchewan are vowing to block nuclear waste from being transported through their territory BEAUVAL, SK—Three places in northern Saskatchewan may be on the map in Canada’s search for a high-level radioactive waste dump site, but the spent nuclear fuel bundles may be stopped in their tracks.
Communities and Indigenous organizations along potential transport routes and
beyond have been passing resolutions against nuclear waste.
The Northern Village of Pinehouse, English River First Nation and the
town of Creighton are all currently in the Nuclear Waste Management
Organization (NWMO) site selection process to find a “willing host
community” for a deep geological repository to house the waste piling
up at nuclear reactors in Quebec, New Brunswick and especially
Ontario.Canoe Lake First Nation, the town of La Loche, trappers from
the Fur Block near Beauval, the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, the
Saskatchewan Aboriginal Women’s Circle Corporation (SAWCC) and the
Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) have all formally opposed
the transportation and storage of nuclear waste in Saskatchewan.
Others criticize NWMO for refusing to deal with site selection process
on a regional basis, even though a decision would affect much more
than a single community.
Emil Bell has been educating Band and town councilors about the
Nuclear Waste Management Organization process and the dangers of
nuclear waste. A Cree grassroots activist, he lives in Fire Lake,
outside of the Canoe Lake First Nation reserve.
“Canoe Lake is against this whole thing,” Bell told the Media Co-op.
Located in northwestern Saskatchewan, east of the Cold Lake Air
Weapons Range and tar sands exploitation, the First Nation passed a
Band Council Resolution against the transportation and storage of
nuclear waste.
“I was the one that was going around, getting all the signatures of
the councilors,” said Bell. “They are dead set against the nuclear
dump. It goes against our Treaty rights, our inherent rights. If we
get a major disaster wherever they put the nuclear dump, our waterways
are, you know, shot. Animal life, the plant life, are going to be
drastically affected.”
Bell has been traveling up and down the province, meeting with other
First Nations, municipal authorities and groups and urging them to
take an official stance against the transportation and storage of
nuclear waste. “There’s a few of us that are going around, doing a lot
of work, and we do it out of our own pocket,” he said.
But northern activists are not the only ones speaking about nuclear
waste in the region. “The nuclear industry people, NWMO, have a lot of
money. They’re also going around, trying to convince people to, you
know, accept the nuclear dump [with] the promise of a lot of money,
the promise of jobs…they keep telling people ‘oh yeah, it’s safe,
it’s safe,’” Bell told the Media Co-op.
The predominantly Métis community of Île-à-la-Crosse has yet to take
an official position on nuclear waste transportation and storage and
will likely revisit the issue after the October 24 municipal
elections. Île-à-la-Crosse Mayor Duane Favel says he and others
requested that NWMO communicate and deal with municipalities in
northwestern Saskatchewan collectively because a nuclear waste
repository in the area would impact the entire region……
we were successful in getting a two thirds majority approval at the
assembly, for the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan to take the official
position to oppose the storage and transportation of high-level
nuclear waste anywhere in Saskatchewan,” said Lee.
The Saskatchewan Aboriginal Women’s Circle Corporation of Saskatchewan
also passed a resolution last year, opposing the transportation and
storage of nuclear waste in Saskatchewan. The resolution was then
adopted by the Native Women’s Association of Canada at its annual
general assembly held in Saskatoon in August 2012.
The town of La Loche and the trappers’ organization from a Fur Block
in the Beauval area have also passed similar resolutions. More
communities and organizations are currently considering taking an
official stance against nuclear waste in the province.
NWMO is moving forward in its search and Pinehouse, English River
First Nation and Creighton are still under consideration. But with all
the resolutions against nuclear waste transportation, whether the
high-level radioactive waste would ever make it to a storage site in
northern Saskatchewan without roadblocks along the way is beginning to
look increasingly unlikely. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4757
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/10/09/powerful-opposition-growing-against-nuclear-waste-in-saskatchewan/
