Opposition against the Deep Ground Repository

The next Land Back battleground will be north of Lake Superior, as Chiefs say no to nuclear waste on their traditional lands

OPINION

Standing up for Indigenous rights, in the face of various governments’ continued abdication of their commitments to treaties and international law, is a fight First Nations will never tire of.
 
Good thing, because the work is endless. From the militarized RCMP operations in Wet’suwet’en territory in B.C. (concerning the Coastal GasLink pipeline), to the 1492 Land Back Lane land defence in Caledonia, Ont. (a Six Nations-led effort), our peoples are both the original and present-day protectors of the land, consistently light years ahead of any climate-change movement. Sadly, our efforts to protect the environment are rarely recognized until it is too late.
 
The next battleground is to the north and west of Lake Superior, on the traditional territories of Treaty 9, Treaty 3 and the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850. It is here, in an area many Indigenous people share, where the waters of Turtle Island split and either flow north to Hudson Bay or south to urban cities. It is also the spot where the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, or NWMO, wants to send truckloads of radioactive material to be buried 500 metres deep into the Canadian Shield.
 
The proposed burial site is dangerously close to the sacred Arctic Watershed, as well as the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Ojibway Nation of Saugeen, near Savant Lake, Ont., which are technically both part of Treaty 3. However, this is a corner of Ontario where several treaties meet, including the expansive Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 territories of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, or NAN, representing 49 First Nations in Northern Ontario. The waters, land and animals here do not see the artificial boundaries set up by those who colonized our homelands.
 
As NAN Grand Chief Derek Fox on Wednesday told the annual summer assembly of NAN chiefs in Timmins, Ont., authorities will have to imprison him before he, or the 49 First Nations he represents, allow the NWMO’s proposed burial of radioactive waste to happen.
“I will do all I can to stop this,” Mr. Fox said. “If I have to be the one there, getting hauled away to jail to put a stop to this, I will be there to make sure this waste does not enter into our territory.”
 
The Grand Chief is not the only one who will put himself on the line. All those who gathered at the chiefs’ meeting this week voted to “vehemently oppose” the NWMO’s concept of a deep geological repository near Ignace, Ont., a small town of about 1,200 people between Kenora and Thunder Bay. In addition to many health and safety concerns, and the potential for devastating environmental impacts, there is also a complete lack of consent for this repository from NAN communities.
 
“Why don’t they get rid of it where they made it? Northern Ontario is not a garbage can,” said Constance Lake Chief Ramona Sutherland, who noted the Ontario government also wants to mine resources worth billions of dollars in the province’s northern Ring of Fire area, one of the most ecologically important carbon storehouses left on Earth.
 
The pillaging of the North, which has been a consistent feature of economic recovery plans since the inception of Canada, is a tiresome, unacceptable narrative.
 
Northern communities already have their hands full in fighting for basic human rights – from health care to clean water to education – while governments continue to ignore their treaty obligations. All Nations impacted along the corridors and highways that will carry the radioactive waste must also now be engaged – from New Brunswick to Quebec, and through to Ontario. According to the NAN, 60 years of waste has accumulated at Canada’s nuclear sites and will require 45 years for proper disposal.
 
The NWMO has said the plan will only proceed through areas overseen by informed and willing hosts, where the municipality, First Nations and Métis communities are all in agreement. The NWMO appears to consider “agreement,” however, to mean a decision made by the few while ignoring the many.
 
The NAN chiefs’ resolution has given a mandate to its executive council to prevent NWMO and the governments of Canada and Ontario from placing any nuclear waste in NAN traditional territories. The chiefs also stated their nations will use every option they have to stop the waste disposal, including “civil protests,” “legal action” and “any other appropriate measures.”
 
Article 29 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”
 
The Canadian government passed UNDRIP as an Act of Parliament in 2021. It should be noted that the Ontario government has refused to pass a provincial version of the legislation.
 
The long fight in the North is just gearing up, but its chiefs have now put Canada on notice.
  • The next Land Back battleground will be north of Lake Superior, as Chiefs say no to nuclear waste on their traditional lands

    OPINION

    Standing up for Indigenous rights, in the face of various governments’ continued abdication of their commitments to treaties and international law, is a fight First Nations will never tire of.
     
    Good thing, because the work is endless. From the militarized RCMP operations in Wet’suwet’en territory in B.C. (concerning the Coastal GasLink pipeline), to the 1492 Land Back Lane land defence in Caledonia, Ont. (a Six Nations-led effort), our peoples are both the original and present-day protectors of the land, consistently light years ahead of any climate-change movement. Sadly, our efforts to protect the environment are rarely recognized until it is too late.
     
    The next battleground is to the north and west of Lake Superior, on the traditional territories of Treaty 9, Treaty 3 and the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850. It is here, in an area many Indigenous people share, where the waters of Turtle Island split and either flow north to Hudson Bay or south to urban cities. It is also the spot where the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, or NWMO, wants to send truckloads of radioactive material to be buried 500 metres deep into the Canadian Shield.
     
    The proposed burial site is dangerously close to the sacred Arctic Watershed, as well as the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Ojibway Nation of Saugeen, near Savant Lake, Ont., which are technically both part of Treaty 3. However, this is a corner of Ontario where several treaties meet, including the expansive Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 territories of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, or NAN, representing 49 First Nations in Northern Ontario. The waters, land and animals here do not see the artificial boundaries set up by those who colonized our homelands.
     
    As NAN Grand Chief Derek Fox on Wednesday told the annual summer assembly of NAN chiefs in Timmins, Ont., authorities will have to imprison him before he, or the 49 First Nations he represents, allow the NWMO’s proposed burial of radioactive waste to happen.
    “I will do all I can to stop this,” Mr. Fox said. “If I have to be the one there, getting hauled away to jail to put a stop to this, I will be there to make sure this waste does not enter into our territory.”
     
    The Grand Chief is not the only one who will put himself on the line. All those who gathered at the chiefs’ meeting this week voted to “vehemently oppose” the NWMO’s concept of a deep geological repository near Ignace, Ont., a small town of about 1,200 people between Kenora and Thunder Bay. In addition to many health and safety concerns, and the potential for devastating environmental impacts, there is also a complete lack of consent for this repository from NAN communities.
     
    “Why don’t they get rid of it where they made it? Northern Ontario is not a garbage can,” said Constance Lake Chief Ramona Sutherland, who noted the Ontario government also wants to mine resources worth billions of dollars in the province’s northern Ring of Fire area, one of the most ecologically important carbon storehouses left on Earth.
     
    The pillaging of the North, which has been a consistent feature of economic recovery plans since the inception of Canada, is a tiresome, unacceptable narrative.
     
    Northern communities already have their hands full in fighting for basic human rights – from health care to clean water to education – while governments continue to ignore their treaty obligations. All Nations impacted along the corridors and highways that will carry the radioactive waste must also now be engaged – from New Brunswick to Quebec, and through to Ontario. According to the NAN, 60 years of waste has accumulated at Canada’s nuclear sites and will require 45 years for proper disposal.
     
    The NWMO has said the plan will only proceed through areas overseen by informed and willing hosts, where the municipality, First Nations and Métis communities are all in agreement. The NWMO appears to consider “agreement,” however, to mean a decision made by the few while ignoring the many.
     
    The NAN chiefs’ resolution has given a mandate to its executive council to prevent NWMO and the governments of Canada and Ontario from placing any nuclear waste in NAN traditional territories. The chiefs also stated their nations will use every option they have to stop the waste disposal, including “civil protests,” “legal action” and “any other appropriate measures.”
     
    Article 29 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”
     
    The Canadian government passed UNDRIP as an Act of Parliament in 2021. It should be noted that the Ontario government has refused to pass a provincial version of the legislation.
     
    The long fight in the North is just gearing up, but its chiefs have now put Canada on notice.
  • Letter from Brian Masse MP to Minister of Environment and Climate Change

    August 10, 2022

    Honourable Steven Guilbeault
    Minister of Environment and Climate Change
    House of Commons
    Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

    Dear Minister Guilbeault,

    I am writing today regarding the proposed high level nuclear waste deep geological repository (DGR) proposed by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in South Bruce,
    Ontario. I understand that this is one of two site selections alongside Ignace, Ontario, and I am writing specifically in reference to the proposal at South Bruce. I stand firmly against this plan to store high level radioactive waste anywhere in, or near, the Great Lakes basin.

    As you know, the former DGR proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) near Saugeen, Ontario, was dangerously close to the Great Lakes. Moreover, the residents and indigenous communities there strongly opposed the proposal.

    DGRs not only threaten the health and vitality of the respective communities at the sites, it also poses serious risks to the Great Lakes - the primary source of drinking water for over 40 million Canadians and Americans. In South Bruce, the Teeswater River is a tributary of Lake Huron and there is no guarantee that the water will not be contaminated in the future. Moreover, it is impossible to guarantee that the waste containers will not degrade and cause irreparable damage to future generations. Not one of the NWMO’s scientists or geologists can say with absolute certainty that this will not happen.

    Furthermore, I have introduced Motion 15 on the Order Paper which reads:

    M-15 — November 23, 2021 — Mr. Masse (Windsor West) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should defer further review and any approval of the Deep Geologic Repository project environmental assessment for all levels of radioactive waste at any site until such time as: (a) an independent technical body is established and has completed (i) an evaluation of the state of technical and scientific knowledge with respect to deep geological repositories for nuclear waste, (ii) an assessment as to whether Canada’s regulatory regime is sufficiently robust to adequately support an environmental assessment and licensing review of proposals for deep geologic repositories; (b) there is a full evaluation of alternatives to the proposed deep geologic repository, including alternative sites, alternative designs and alternative methods; and (c) residents, stakeholders and rights holders in the Great Lakes Basin, including in potential host communities, neighbouring communities, transportation corridor communities, and the broader Great Lakes community, are engaged in a direct and active dialogue facilitated by a trusted third party.

    An historical precedent has been set by the United States. In 1986, the US Department of Energy investigated a similar nuclear waste repository site in the Great Lakes basin. In response, then Secretary of State for External Affairs, the Right Honourable Joe Clark released an official statement:

    “I and several of my Cabinet colleagues have made it clear to our US counterparts that this Government opposes any development that could present a transboundary threat to the welfare of Canadians or the integrity of the Canadian environment.”

    As a result of Clark’s intervention, the US sites in shared water basins were eliminated from consideration.

    Minister, we know that the irradiated nuclear fuel removed from Canadian nuclear reactors is highly radioactive and will remain so for hundreds of thousands of years. In comparison, the
    Great Lakes were only formed 10,000 years ago. This irradiated nuclear fuel must be completely isolated from the environment.

    We also know that there is no operating DGR for high level radioactive spent fuel anywhere in the world, despite multiple countries having invested heavily in researching this concept over decades.

    Therefore, I urge you to consider placing a moratorium on current and future DGR proposals and alternatively consider using a “rolling stewardship” model instead. This model would provide a responsible waste management scheme in the meantime. Instead of abandoning the waste, rolling stewardship maintains the status quo until a scientifically proven safe alternative for storage can be developed. It allows for timely corrective action when needed, ensures monitoring, robust packaging and retrievability and repackaging if necessary. Rolling stewardship is not a solution but is what is required until a safe solution can be found.

    We cannot afford to harm the Great Lakes, the environment or ecosystems that these lakes support. I truly hope that you will consider action on this file before it is too late.

    Should you have any future questions or concerns on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

    Yours truly,

    Brian Masse MP
    Windsor West
    NDP Innovation, Science and Industry Critic, NDP International Trade and Canada-US Border
    Critic, and Great Lakes Critic
    Vice-Chair, Canada-US inter-Parliamentary Group

  • Nishnawbe Aski Nation opposes possible site for storage of nuclear waste

    Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s chiefs-in-assembly passed a resolution Wednesday “vehemently” opposing the possibility of an underground repository for nuclear waste in Northern Ontario.

    The chiefs’ resolution calls on Nishnawbe Aski Nation, or NAN, which represents 49 First Nation communities within Northern Ontario, to take action to stop such a possibility, including through protest and possible legal action.

    “We’re fighting for our young people. We’re talking hundreds of years from now – that’s who we’re speaking up for,” said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Derek Fox in an interview. “NAN is going to do all it can – and I was mandated by the chiefs to do all we can – to stop this from happening.”

    Chiefs, youth leaders and women’s advocates raised concerns during NAN’s annual Keewaywin Conference, which is being held in Timmins, Ont., this week. Some leaders also expressed anger at a lack of consultation of NAN’s communities over the possible site. The chiefs’ resolution speaks to a years-long search by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, or NWMO, for a site to build a “deep geological repository,” or GDR, which would see Canada’s spent nuclear fuel stored in a facility located at least 500 metres below-ground.

    That search has been narrowed to two possible sites: one located between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation in Northern Ontario, which is the site of concern to NAN, and another near South Bruce, Ont. A decision between the two sites is expected by the end of 2023, said Bob Watts, NWMO’s vice-president of Indigenous relations and strategic programs.

  • Not far from Bure, a militant and colorful mobilization against the storage of nuclear waste

    We keep going, we’ve been fighting for 30 years, it’s just one more step“, trumpeted Régine Millarakis, 71, from the collective “Bure Stop 55“, in the alleys of this militant mobilization, in Hévilliers (Meuse).

    For Juliette Geoffroy, spokesperson for the Collective against the burial of radioactive waste (Cedra), this DUP even represents “a springboard” to remobilize the opponents.

    Some 31 associations and collectives also intend to file “beginning of september“an appeal to the Council of State, according to Angélique Huguin, of the”Legal Front against Cigeo“which brings together activists, lawyers and jurists.

    Soberly named Industrial Geological Storage Center (Cigéo), the project aims to bury some 85,000 m3 of waste – the most radioactive of the French nuclear fleet – 500 meters underground on the borders of the Meuse and Haute-Marne.

    The National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra), which is piloting this project, hopes to store the first “packageof nuclear waste by 2035-2040.

    Continue reading this article at the California18 →