Anti-uranium mining activists stage inquiry in Peterborough into province's plan to expand nuclear reactors

Posted By NICOLE RIVA/Examiner Staff Writer

Posted 1 day ago

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.”

Cox said the four hearings being held by the activists across the province are exactly what is needed to get the government to listen.

“What politicians do respond to is public pressure,” he said.

Nearly 50 people attended the inquiry's afternoon and evening sessions.

The inquiry was overseen by a panel, said Anna Petry from SAGE, which will gather information from the hearings and present them to Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Former Ottawa mayor and MP Marion Dewar and Fraser McVie, a retired official with the corrections system, made up yesterday’s panel.

Anyone wishing to present to the inquiry only had to submit their name by April 1, Petry said, and organizers had no previous knowledge about presentations.

Speakers included concerned citizens, politicians, scientists and activist groups who came from surrounding areas including Port Hope, Haliburton, Toronto and the Bancroft area.

Cox spoke adamantly against the government’s $40-billion proposed nuclear expansion involving up to eight new reactors and said public discussion is needed to preserve Ontario’s natural heritage for future generations.

Rachelle Sauve pushes a three-eyed fish in a shopping cart outside MPP Jeff Leal's constituency office on King Street before walking to trent University's Sadleir House on George Street to attend a a meeting staged by anti-uranium mining activists Tuesday. The citizens inquiry was organized by the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium.

Clifford Skarstedt, Examiner

“The corporations have been heard. They’re in the backrooms of the province. This is one of the few times to hear the other side of the story.” Bruce Cox, executive director,This is one of the few times to hear the other side of the story.”

Cox said the four hearings being held by the activists across the province are exactly what is needed to get the government to listen.

“What politicians do respond to is public pressure,” he said.

Nearly 50 people attended the inquiry's afternoon and evening sessions.

The inquiry was overseen by a panel, said Anna Petry from SAGE, which will gather information from the hearings and present them to Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Former Ottawa mayor and MP Marion Dewar and Fraser McVie, a retired official with the corrections system, made up yesterday’s panel.

Anyone wishing to present to the inquiry only had to submit their name by April 1, Petry said, and organizers had no previous knowledge about presentations.

Speakers included concerned citizens, politicians, scientists and activist groups who came from surrounding areas including Port Hope, Haliburton, Toronto and the Bancroft area.

“All stages (of production) release some form of radioactive waste,” he said. “One million years is the life expectancy of high-level nuclear waste.”

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan was quoted on concerns about nuclear terrorism.

“Nobody has targeted wind turbines for terrorist action,” Cox said.

Cox was followed by Trent professor and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation co-chief Paula Sherman who was arrested and fined for contempt of court after a blockade against uranium mining exploration on Sharbot Lake in March along with Ardoch’s spokesman Robert Lovelace, who is serving a six-month sentence at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay.

Lovelace was called a hero several times during the day and calls for his release were repeated during yesterday's event.

Sherman demonstrated the need to keep uranium in the ground by reading from the story “Christopher Coyote and the Seeds of the Sun.” In the story once the secrets of the seeds of the sun are revealed everything dies.

Sherman, along with several other speakers, spoke about how the uranium mines encroaching on First Nations ancestral land was a form of colonialism and that a review of Ontario’s Mining Act is needed.

Mark Winfield, former Ontario policy director for the Pembina Institute, explained how uranium negatively impacts the environment at each step and produces radioactive tailings that can contaminate surface and groundwater.

“We’re looking at discharges largely of uranium and other heavy metals notably nickel, arsenic and lead,” Winfield said. “Health Canada, Environment Canada have said the effluent is a toxic substance.”

Presentations from Port Hope residents added a personal feel because of their proximity to the Cameco uranium processing facility, which has had operations curtailed since last July by a contamination leak under one of the plants.

John Miller, from Families Against Radiation Exposure (FARE), described the Cameco situation as being “too close for comfort.”

The 1,500 FARE members are working to force Cameco to clean up from an ongoing leakage and keep the community safer.

“Cameco knows the public wants emissions reduced, health testing done and to ensure the site’s security,” Miller said.

A former Cameco employee, Dan Rudka, told his story of radiation poisoning, which nearly killed him. The poisoning has not been officially acknowledged, he said, but he has tested positive for having uranium in his body.

Rudka recounted how his skin started to rot away, losing one-third of his body mass and how colours were washed out of sheets from his sweat.

Several speakers said uranium can leach into water systems and travel a great distance, and pointed out how if water near Haliburton and Bancroft is affected it could carry down to Peterborough since the areas share a watershed.

“The toxins don’t stop at the plant gate,” said Marion Burton from the Occupational and Environmental Health Coalition. “Communities have a right to know what chemicals exist in our neighbourhoods.”

COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

EXAMINATION OF THE UNITED STATES 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th PERIODIC REPORTS

OF APRIL, 2007

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

IN THE UNITED STATES

CONSOLIDATED INDIGENOUS SHADOW REPORT

Submitted by Alberto Saldamando

International Indian Treaty Council

2390 Mission Street, Suite 301

San Francisco, California, 94110 USA

Tel: + (415) 641-4482

Fax: + (415) 641-1298

Email: alberto@treatycouncil.org

http://www.treatycouncil.org

Dedicated to Floyd Redcrow Westerman

American Indian Movement Statesman, Warrior,

IITC Spokesman, Leader and Guide

Who passed into the Spirit World on December 13, 2007

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge all of the testimonies provided by Indigenous Peoples, Nations, Organizations and individuals that, in their own words, make up the substance of this Shadow Report. Although not all could be included, all contributed to whatever richness and scope it may have. Contributions and testimonies are cited in the body of the report.

This Shadow Report is an enlargement of the US National Indigenous Shadow Report. Contributors include: Alberto Saldamando, Working Group Co-coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council; Julie Fishel, Working Group Co-coordinator, Western Shoshone Defense Project; Hope Clark, Candidate for Masters in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from the School for International Training; Manuel Pino, Professor, Scottsdale Community College; Josh Clark; Jaime Arsenault; Roxanne Ornelas, University of Minnesota; Sakura Saunders, CorpWatch; and, Andrea Carmen, International Indian Treaty Council.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 1

Introduction – Major Concerns and the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples 3

The Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples 5

I.Omissions of the US Periodic Report 5

II.Un-recognized Indigenous Peoples 6

III.Indian Reservation Apartheid 7

A. Life Expectancy on the Indian Reservation 8

B. Unemployment and Poverty in Employment 9

C. Disproportionate Victimization, Incarceration and Sentencing 10

Racially Discriminatory Constitutional Foundations 13

I.The Marshall Trilogy: The Origins of Racist Constitutional Doctrine 13

A. The Plenary Powers Doctrine 14

B. The “Trust” Relationship 15

II.Current Application of Racist Constitutional Doctrines 16

A. The Termination of Recognized Indian Tribes 17

B. The Abrogation of Treaties between the United States and Indigenous Peoples 20

C. The Continuing “Taking” of Indian Lands 22

D. The Corruption of the “Trust” Doctrine 24

E. The Continuing Denial of the Right of Self Determination: “Criminal” Jurisdiction 26

III.The Failure of Recognition of Indigenous Peoples as Peoples 28

A. “Unrecognized” Indigenous Tribes 28

B. Alaskan Native Peoples 29

C. Native Hawai’ians 31

D. The Indigenous Peoples of Puerto Rico and Guam 32

Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice 33

I.Sacred Lands 34

A. Recognized Tribes and Treaty Rights: The Lakota Nation and Bear Butte (Mato Paha), Black Hills, South Dakota: 36

B. Dishonored Treaty, Seeking Recognition: The Winnemmem Wintu of Northern California, McCloud River: 38

C. Indigenous but with No Recognized Rights: the Native Peoples of Hawai’i, Mauna Kea: 39

D. No recognition and no rights at all: The Taino, Native Peoples of Puerto Rico, The Sacred Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado, Borikén: 39

II.The Religious rights of Prison Inmates 41

Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights 44

I.The Right to Life: The Nuclear Fuel Chain and Environmental Racism 46

II.Environmental Racism and the Right to Food 48

III.Health and Environmental Racism 49

The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life 51

I.The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health 51

II.Freedom from Violence - Violence against Indigenous Women 54

III.Racism in “Homeland Security” 55

A. Death along the Border: 55

B. Desecration and Denial of Access to Sacred Places: 56

C. The confiscation of Indigenous lands: 58

IV.Voting Rights 59

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent 60

I.The Indigenous Human Genome 60

II.The Wild Rice Genome: 1Manoomin and the Anishinaabeg 63

Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention 65

I.Boarding Schools 65

II.Textbooks 69

III.Racist Sports Mascots and Logos 72

United States and its Transnational Companies Violations of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Abroad 73

I.US Transnationals Abroad 73

II.United States Complicity: the Manufacture and Exportation of Banned Pesticides 77

III.Direct US Government Environmental Racism Abroad: 82

IV.US military bases on Indigenous communities in the Philippines 84

Conclusion and Recommendations 84

Executive Summary

The Introduction reviews the standards by which compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) should be measured, reviewing the recent passage of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the lack of recognition and respect of the rights of many Indigenous Peoples and Nations within the jurisdiction of the United States (US). Many rights contained in the UN Declaration are already customary international law and recognized by the US itself but only with reference to “recognized” tribes. The Introduction also points out that the US takes the attitude that recognition of Indigenous rights, particularly political rights, are a form of “racial preference” and not a matter of rights.

The US fails in its Obligation to Report on Indigenous Peoples. We cite data on the overwhelming disparities in income, life expectancy, poverty and unemployment, as well as disproportionate victimization, incarceration and sentencing suffered by Indigenous Peoples on Indian Reservations, not reported by the United States. The data contained in this section as well as others (see, e.g., Violence Against Women, The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health) reflect what can only be describe as a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation, by purpose or effect, on many if not most Indian Reservations, where Indigenous people are warehoused in poverty and neglect, their only option being to abandon their lands, families, languages and cultures to search for a better life.

The United States Racist Constitutional Foundation, Legal Structure is examined, as is the current application of racist constitutional doctrine established by the United States Supreme Court in the 1830s. Incuded in current application are the threat of termination of the Cherokee Nation, Treaty abrogation, corruption of the so-called “Trust Doctrine” and the continuing negation of Indigenous Peoples’ right of self determination.

Considerable attention is paid to Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice, as it continues to be of paramount importance to Indigenous Peoples, whether recognized by the US or not. The Addendum, Sacred Lands, incudes Indigenous Peoples’ own testimony on the negation of religious rights in all parts of the United States. Given the disfavor in international law to the extinguishment of Aboriginal Title, and the fact that most of these Sacred Lands are owned and administered by agencies of the United States, a major recommendation of this Shadow Report is the recommendation to the United States of the return to Indigenous Peoples of these Sacred Lands, still in use by them for Spiritual and religious practice in spite of great obstacles posed by the US and its agencies. Environmental Racism and its effects on Indigenous human rights is examined as it permeates all aspects of Indigenous life, including Spiritual Practice examined above, as well as means of subsistence, health and well-being, culture and religion.

Other current and particularly discriminatory policies and practices are examined in The Denial of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural or any Other Field of Public Life, including the right to health, violence against women, so-called “Homeland Security” and the lack of protection for the right to vote.

Racist Science and the Collective Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent describes how scientific inquiry in th United States particularly attacks Indigenous Peoples in their own human genome and identity and that which they hold Sacred.

US compliance with Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention is examined particularly with regard to the lack of any reparation or apology for Indian Boarding Schools (the kidnapping of children in order to “kill the Indian and save the man), as well as texbooks in public schools and the use of racist logos and mascots by US sports teams.

United States Racial Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples Abroad describes racism in the conduct of US foreign policy negatively affecting the human rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad. Domestic US policy, the allowing of the manufacture for export of pesticides banned in the United States affecting the life, health and well being of Indigenous Peoples abroad is also documented. The conduct of US transnational Corporations is examined, with another major recommendation that the US be held accountable for its own behavior as well as the behavior of its corporations, as they affect the rights of Indigenous Peoples abroad.