Discuss: Nuclear Caribou

There is no one in prison near Sharbot Lake or anywhere else for interfering with Frontenac Ventures’s exploration of our neighbourhood.  One person, Robert Lovelace, was imprisoned for not bowing to the court’s injunction to allow passage of FV’s exploration team onto (Ardoch) Algonquin Territory.  His incarceration was appealed and he was released.  FV tried to have the case bumped up to the supreme court of Canada but the court refused to review the appeal and as it stands now, another branchof the Algonquin, shabot Obaadjiwan, has given the exploration company permission to drill for core extraction.  Odd, seeing that Shabot Obaadjiwan are not from this region and have no claim over this territory.  Their consultation with the Province of Ontario was heralded as a brave example of how co-operation results in benefits for all.  Seems to the Province that an indian is an indian, and bugger where they come from.

I say we should return to the use of the stocks and public spanking for liars and politicians.

Terry Tufts
Robertsville, Ontario
North Frontenac County
(Five minutes from the exploration site)

Some sobering statistics in this piece about just how much uranium is native-owned. One heartening storyline about people turning away from that quick/enormous buck comes from Australia, the story of Jeffrey Lee, the last of the Djok aboriginal clan, who turned down an offer of $5 billion from uranium mining interest Areva:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/13/1183833772710.html?from=top5

Asked about it, he said: “I’m not interested in money. I’ve got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That’s all that matters to me.”

That’s grassroots gumption, along the lines of Bidder 70.

Erik,
Orion Grassroots Network
http://www.oriongrassroots.org

A very comprehensive treatment of the issue of nuclear power and its impact on native people, the environment, and the ecology of the area. I think that we all have to learn to consume less and less of everything, including enerty/power, so that the problems become less and less difficult to handle and resolve.

Mr. Dowie:

Your article is an interesting look at the development pressures besetting many aboriginal communities across the Canadian North—you might, for example, look at the recent 3-year moratorium on uranium development declared by the Labrador Inuit of Nunatsiavut.

But you might also check a few of the historical facts: most of the historic uranium mining of the region was concentrated on the eastern shore of Great Bear, not Great Slave Lake. Few, if any, Dene worked underground, although they were exposed to radiological hazards as transport workers on barges and transshipment sites along the shipment route for the uranium ore. This region is simultaneously undergoing environmental remediation and monitoring as well as new staking and exploration activities.

Does anyone know if the 10th circuit court has ruled on the Navajo vs. NRC case yet?  The article said they were expected to rule in December but I can’t find any information about it.

I wondered what happened with the court case..My state of Oklahoma’s legislators are working on a plan to stream line the process of getting nuclear plants in the state.People like me who do not want plants should figure a way to help Native people live a better life so they do not sell to the uranioum mining companies.

Yes every one should aware of pros and cons of nuclear energy, it will be considered as part of a broader inquiry into uranium reserves - even though nuclear power was deliberately left out of the inquiry’s terms of reference.

I think, the revival of the nuclear industry will never be achieved in the West, where treehuggers have been poisoning the minds of the populous with anti-rational and anti-scientific thinking for decades.