Newsletter #7
Sierra Club - Chebucto Group
Welcome to the 7th issue of Sierra News from the Chebucto Group.
In this issue: Upcoming Events
Forestry Working Group
Potential Mining Working Group
Mining Issues
SC Candu Reactor Case
Sierra-Candu WebSite Update
$hell Update
Excomm List
We always need volunteers (anyone interested in fundraising?)
Contact any excomm member for more info.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, June 17, 7 p.m.
Letter writing night. Meet at the Oxfam office, 2099 Gottingen St., to
write letters about Nova Scotia's protected areas systems plan, including
Jim Campbells Barren. Some background material will be available (but
more is welcome!). For more information, contact Nadia at 425-5119.
Tuesday, June 24, 6:30 p.m.
Conservation Working Group meeting and potluck. Everyone is welcome.
Location and more information available by contacting Nadia, 425-5119 or
Cass
July 11-13
Earth Festival, Garrison Grounds, Halifax. We need help
with the Sierra Club display, please contact Allison to volunteer,
FORESTRY WORKING GROUP
The Conservation Working Group has formed a sub-group to research forestry
issues. If you are interested in this group, please contact Ron, 425-7381.
(POTENTIAL) MINING WORKING GROUP
If anyone is interested in working on mining issues, please contact
Heather,
MINING ISSUES -- LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I saw in your last E-mail newsletter the problem with some mining claims.
I have a mining E-zine newsletter that I do as chair of the SC Mining
Waste Rock Task Force. If you know of anyone who would like to subscribe,
let me know. Also, you can pass to me any info about mining issues in
Canada so that I can include it in the newsletter.
>From Drusha Mayhue
LIBERALS BLASTED FOR SELLING NUCLEAR REACTORS TO CHINA by Charlie Smith
Georgia Straight
The Federal Court of Canada has dismissed a Sierra Club of Canada
application for federal documents relating to the $4-billion sale of two
CANDU reactors to China. In a May 23 decision, Federal Court Judge Paul
Rouleau concluded that the Sierra Club was seeking a "myriad of
information" unrelated to its application for judicial review of the
legality of the sale. Rouleau invited the environmental group to submit a
revised request for documents pertaining to its central allegation that
the sale violates the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
The Chretien government has guaranteed a 22-year, $1.5-billion loan to
China to finance the purchase of two CANDU reactors - the largest
government- guaranteed export loan in Canadian history, according to
Sierra Club executive director Elizabeth May. She told the Georgia
Straight that her group is still considering whether or not to file an
appeal.
"We asked for the contracts between the Canadian Crown corporation
involved and the Chinese nuclear agencies, and we asked for more details
around the financing," May said. "Quite astonishingly, the federal
government filed in response affidavits that no one in the federal
government, no one in Finance Canada - no one anywhere - reviewed the
details of this. They just somehow decided that $1.5 billion of a loan
guarantee was in the national interest without benefit of details."
Peter Cameron, the Finance Ministry official who oversees the Export
Development Corporation, claimed in an affidavit that his department has
not seen or reviewed the sales and financing contracts. He also claimed
the design, construction, delivery, and financing of the project was the
responsibility of two crown corporations, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
and the Export Development Corporation. AECL claimed in a November 26 news
release that the sale would create 27,000 direct and indirect jobs.
"As a Crown corporation transaction for export financing, it would not
require an environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental
Assessment Act," Cameron claimed in his affidavit. "China is the world's
second largest holder of foreign exchange and is considered a good credit
risk."
The Sierra Club has alleged that under the act, the federal government is
required to conduct an environmental review of any project that is
guaranteed by a government loan, even if it is being built in a foreign
country. On November 6, the federal cabinet changed the regulations and
passed an order-in-council rewriting the law, but these new regulations
weren't published for the public in the Canada Gazette until November 27,
the day after the deal's signing ceremony.
May told the Straight that it is unclear who will be responsible for
covering the costs if there is a nuclear accident in China. Nucleonics
Week, a U. S. nuclear-industry trade journal, has also raised concerns
about the Chinese government's attitude about accepting liability in the
CANDU deal.
Human-rights campaigners and anti-nuclear activists have condemned the
sale because of China's human-rights record. According to Amnesty
International, China has killed more than 3,500 of the 4,272 prisoners who
were executed worldwide in 39 countries in 1996.
David H. Martin of the Ottawa-based Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout wrote a
report last November claiming that Canada's nuclear program has cost the
Canadian treasury more than $13 billion to the end of March 1995. He
reported that the AECL will receive a $174-million public subsidy in
1996-97. "Given the fact that the prospects for foreign sales of CANDU are
minimal, the ongoing subsidization of the Canadian nuclear industry cannot
be justified," Martin wrote.
Martin's report also pointed out that all of AECL's past customers -
India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Romania, Argentina, and South Korea - have
pursued nuclear-weapons programs. "Because China has given aid to
'threshhold' nuclear weapons states like Pakistan, the United States
government will not allow its privately owned nuclear companies to sell
reactors to China," Martin wrote.
CANDU WEB SITE
The Sierra Club of Canada National Office has recently updated its web site
for materials related to the Sierra Club's CANDU court case. The url is
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/nuclear/
NO B. C. MINISTER'S AWARD FOR $HELL CANADA... Contributed by
Lower Mainland Group
It's official. Cathy McGregor, British Columbia Minister of Environment,
Lands and Parks, did not give an award to $hell Canada and the three
other oil companies. However, Irving Fox and Elaine Golds, two Sierra
Club members, received awards. Congrats Irving and Elaine.
CHEBUCTO GROUP EXCOMM
Chair (away until July) Paul Falvo 492-1995 pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca
Vice (Acting) Chair Nadia Stuewer 425-5119 n_Stuewe@bass.stmarys.ca
Conservation Nadia Stuewer 425-5119 n_Stuewe@bass.stmarys.ca
Cass Elliott 455-3852 au361@chebucto.ns.ca
Outings Henrietta Mann 496-8235 HMANN@shark.stmarys.ca
(away until mid-June)
Programme Jack Devenney 463-0090
Henrietta Mann 496-8235 HMANN@shark.stmarys.ca
(away until mid-June)
Youth Arciris Garay 443-8472 af169@chebucto.ns.ca
Membership Allison Denning425-1379 adenning@is2.dal.ca
Derek Fenton 423-6486 Derek.Fenton@maritimes.dfo
Secretary Allison Denning425-1379 adenning@is2.dal.ca
Publicity Heather Breeze 429-5094 aa670@chebucto.ns.ca
Jeff Johnston optimal@istar.ca
Treasurer Jack Devenney 463-0090
Fund Raising vacant
Web Master Ben Tremblay 423-8682 ab006@chebucto.ns.ca
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