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IN THIS ISSUE:
	- Conservation Update: ACE committee underway!
	- Outings Update
	- Membership: help wanted! no experience necessary!
	- Sierra Cape Breton: toxic exchange with Georgia
	- Sierra Youth Coalition: buy-nothing-day 28 Nov
	- Sierra Club of Canada: CANDU trial 

to contact any of the members mentioned in this newsletter, see below for
a list of NAMES, PHONE NUMBERS and EMAIL ... or hit 'Reply'

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UPCOMING EVENTS - call 492-1995 for details by phone or fax

date:		event:					contact:

Nov 29		ACE meeting				Allison
Dec 1		Conservation meeting			Cass
Feb		cross-country skiing? 			Outings WG

If you would like to see Sierra Club events in *your* area, RSVP! 

We'll give you advice ... and we can help you publicise your event [nb:
due to space limits, plus a desire not to duplicate other email forums, we
normally do not publicise non Sierra Club events on sierra-news]

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SIERRA CLUB HOTLINE/FAXBACK				902-492-1995

To find out what's happening in Chebucto Group call 492-1995 anytime for a
regularly updated recording with the latest events schedule.  Call from a
fax line to receive a membership brochure and other info by fax. 

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CONSERVATION UPDATE - contact Cass (below) or Doreen (422-4956)

next conservation committee meeting is Mon, Dec 1, 7:00pm, in the Sierra
Club Office, Oxfam Bldg, 2099 Gottingen St, Halifax

see Doreen Huybers on the CBC National Magazine - representing Sierra Club
and NS Forest Caucus in their national documentary feature on Nova Nada

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Atlantic Coast Ecoregion (ACE) Task Force - contact Allison

next ACE committee meeting is Sat 29 Nov at Coburg Coffee House, 1:30

From: Mike D'Amico, Ace task force:
"I would like to know if anyone in Canada is interested in working with
me on the plight of the Atlantic sturgeon. It's historic range is from the
St. Lawrence River in Canada to the St. Johns River in Florida and it is
about to become a very hot issue in the USA. It has been petitioned for
listing under our Endangered Species Act and for folks in Canada who may
wish to learn more about how our conservation laws work this would a good
one to get involved in."

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OUTINGS UPDATE - contact Lola

we hiked out to Pennant Point this weekend ... contact Lola if you have
ideas or would like to help plan future outings!

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MEMBERSHIP - contact Paul or Allison

Sierra Club memberships make a great holiday stocking stuffer ... starting
at $15 (student/senior/limited), $35 regular, $50 sustaining.  Add another
person at the same address for $7

and Volunteers are needed for a Membership Committee that would conduct
membership drives and generally help us increase our #s ... rsvp!

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HELP WANTED! 

in fact, VOLUNTEERS are generally needed in all aspects of Chebucto Group,
including publicity, funding, and all the committees mentioned here.  
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY ... TRAINING PROVIDED!  

for example ... we have recently acquired the Diet for a New America Video
and we'd like to have a SierraNite with a screening of that video ...
maybe a vegetarian potluck ... rsvp if you can help us run that

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CAPE BRETON REPORT - contact Fran Morrison

Sierra Club of Canada has received funding to conduct a "Toxic Exchange" 
project.  This project will run from the fall of 1997 though Spring 1998,
and will involve Cape Breton and the community of Fort Valley, Georgia. 
The community in Fort Valley has a toxic site which is a result of
Canadyne-Georgia Corp. dumping the worst of toxic contamination more than
a decade ago when it began cleaning up the old Woolfolk pesticide plant. 

Fran Morrison, Sierra Cape Breton, will be the Project Coordinator
locally, John McCown, Sierra Club Project Coordinator in Macon, Georgia,
both of whom will be assisted by Sierra Club personnel in Ottawa.  This
truly a community-driven grassroots project to seek and share knowledge
with another community. 

A delegation of 8 people will be traveling from Cape Breton to Georgia in
December 1997, and will be meeting with various community groups there; 
this will be a fact-finding expedition to learn about another terribly
contaminated site and to find out any similarities between theirs and our
site, i.e. size and scope of site, similar health problems, similar
problems in getting cleanup, what the community interest, input and
support (or lack thereof) is, and also what the economic conditions of the
area are.  Each traveler will write of their experience in Georgia and
submit to Sierra Club and the entire project will be video-taped and
well-documented for future reference and use by community and or media. 
In the spring of 1998, a delegation of 6-8 people from Fort Valley will
travel to Sydney to view the Muggah Creek Watershed and meet with various
community groups. 

Prospective travelers from Cape Breton are Dan & Clothilde Yakimchuk and
Lillian Marsman (residents of Whitney Pier); John Martell, a steelworker
who grew up in Ashby; Shirley Christmas (representing the Mi^ÒKmaq
community), Sr. Ellen Donovan (a spiritual representative); Mark Biagi, a
marine biologist (presently residing within the Muggah Creek Watershed
area), and Sharon Lee Carter (an environmental health student from UCCB). 
Elizabeth May, Executive Director of Sierra Club of Canada, will meet the
Cape Breton delegation in Fort Valley Georgia.

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SIERRA YOUTH COALITION - contact Arciris

BUY NOTHING DAY (NOVEMBER 28)  IS SYC's SECOND NATIONAL CAMPAIGN THIS TERM.
HERE'S SOME IDEAS FOR BUY NOTHING DAY:

*hanging posters, distributing pamphlets (in public, on car windshields in a
mall parking lot) SYC has a flyer if you want one sent to you.

*sending out a brief Buy Nothing Day Public Service Announcement to media.
This is supposed to be done three weeks in advance, so snap to it!

*letters to the editor

*calls to radio talkback shows

*renting time for Buy Nothing Day ads on TV. 
if you want to do this, call your tv station right away about booking time.
then call the media foundation (adbusters) at 1 800 663 1243, and they 'll
send you (on loan) a free broadcast copy of the BND ad. it'll cost less than
you'd expect. you can get people who support the cause to donate $10. this
will ad up quickly. you can often get a package deal (eg. 30 ads for $360).

*organize public events such as barter (no money) fairs, credit card
cut-ups, street theatre

*dress up as aliens, or CEOs (fat pigs)- you can make 12 pig snouts from a
pink egg carton and a little string

*distribute gift exemption vouchers (entitles receiver to not give a
xmas present to the giver or the voucher

*send a press release to local media three days before BND, announcing what
actions will/have been taking place (email The Media Foundation if you could
use a sample press release).

*make BND t-shirts

*make BND patches to pin on your bookbag. these can just be a piece of
material and markers. they make great advertizements for the day and people
will stop you on the bus or at school to ask you what it means. Just say buy
Nothing day - November 28 ... or whatever elso you wish to say.

*organize a public meeting on consumerism and the environment

Amelia Clarke
Sierra Youth Coalition
sierrayc@web.net
709 456 2253 (Nov 16 - 21)

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From: Sierra Club of Canada [sierra@web.net]
Subject: SCC News Release - CANDU Turkey Disclosures

Government Experiences Credibility Meltdown on CANDU Exports During
Question Period

Thursday, November 6, 1997

Ottawa - Environment groups today were outraged by the federal
government's response to questions raised in connection with the leak of a
confidential cabinet document concerning CANDU exports to Turkey. The
document a "Record of Cabinet Decision" from a meeting held on April 24,
1997 indicates that cabinet: 

- 	Approved up to $1.5 billion in financing, should the sale of two
CANDU 6 reactors to Turkey proceed.

- 	Discussed means by which the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act
(CEAA) could be circumvented including undertaking a secret "shadow"
assessment.

- 	Discussed the Sierra Club of Canada legal challenge to the sale of
CANDU reactors to China. The document notes that the Department of Justice
advised the government that "its case is not strong and that the Federal
Court may well rule in favour of the Sierra Club."

During the House of Commons Question Period yesterday, Prime Minister John
Chrétien, Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale and other Ministers
defended the government's position on CANDU exports. Prime Minister
Chrétien claimed that all information concerning the export of CANDU
reactors to China was publicly available. Minister of Natural Resources,
Ralph Goodale repeatedly claimed that Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
conducts "environmental analysis" on all of its projects. 

Responding to these assertions, Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club of Canada
stated that, "the Prime Minister's statements regarding the availability
of information on CANDU exports are simply untrue. None of the key
documents relating to the sale of CANDU reactors to China are publicly
available, despite protracted legal efforts over the last six months." She
also noted that the claim that AECL conducts environmental analysis is
both inaccurate and irrelevant to the requirements of the CEAA. "AECL has
already contradicted Goodale's claim that they undertake environmental
analysis on their projects. Furthermore, the findings of the Marbek Report
(undertaken prior to the sale of CANDU reactors to China) clearly
indicated that materials that had been gathered from AECL for the purposes
of review were insufficient to fulfill the requirements of a preliminary
screening." 

As reported in the press in August, the Marbek Report was commissioned by
the government to assess environmental impacts related to the construction
of CANDU reactors in China. The report found that further environmental
studies were required in order to undertake a preliminary screening. In
spite of the report's findings (and the requirements of the CEAA) the
government went ahead with the CANDU sale to China. 

May added that, "the commitment of the Chrétien government to overseas
nuclear sales - at all costs - is breathtaking. Knowing that they very
well may be breaking the law again, they are still prepared to risk $1.5
billion to do a deal with Turkey." 

Kristen Ostling of the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout noted that "the
Natural Resources Minister's assertions as well as the Prime Minister's
claims that CANDU reactors are safe and offer a solution to climate change
are simply unfounded.  Not only are CANDU reactors plagued with safety and
nuclear waste problems that won't go away, studies have shown that every
dollar invested in renewable energy displaces seven times as much in the
way of CO2 emissions as the same dollar invested in nuclear power." 

For more information:
Sierra Club of Canada, (613) 241-4611
Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout(613) 789-3634
Nuclear Awareness Project, (905) 852-0571

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Chebucto Group Excomm: [officially effective 1 January 1998]

Group Chair	Arciris Garay	443-8472	af169@chebucto.ns.ca

Vice / Treas.	Jack Devenney	463-0090	jack.devdart@ns.sympatico.ca

Secretary	Allison Denning 423-6486	adenning@is2.dal.ca

Outings / Fund.	Lola Doucet	455-6365	doucetl@is2.dal.ca

Publicity 	Paul Falvo	492-1995	pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca

Cape Breton	Fran Morrison	737-2855	fran.morrison@ns.sympatico.ca

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Sierra Club is North America's most effective grass roots environmental
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