Mining Justice Film Festival this weekend!

A weekend long film festival focusing on the role of Canadian extractive industries at home and abroad. Eye-opening documentaries; current, relevant and controversial issues. Panel discussions, refreshments, information tables.
Get informed, join the debate, get involved! We will be at the Stevenson-Hunt Rooms of the Central Library.

Extracting the Earth is a 3 day free film series that will examine the impact of Canadian extractive industries on the communities where they operate, here and in Latin America. Our intention is to educate and inform the public, as well as to foster discussion on the many aspects related to extraction such as: First Nations rights; environmental and health impacts on the affected communities; human and labour rights; social and economic aspects, including the corporate social responsibility of these multinational corporations. It will be the first time in London that a 3 day film festival is dedicated entirely to these topics.

Dates: November 15, 16 and 17th, 2013

Place: Public Central Library, Stevenson-Hunt rooms

FREE ADMISSION

REFRESHMENTS

MUSIC

INFORMATION TABLES

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Sponsors: Council of Canadians (London Chapter), Heart-Links, King's Centre for Social Concern, Latin American-Canadian Solidarity Association (LACASA), Root Cellar Organic Cafe, and Seeds of Hope.

Day 1- Friday, November 15th, 6:00-10 pm Focus on Guatemala

• Introduction and analysis by Grahame Russell of Rights Action via Skype.
• London premiere of Gold Fever: feature film on the impact of open pit gold mining in Guatemala and the role of Canadian mining giant Goldcorp.

Discussion

Refreshment break

• Short film on the eviction of a Mayan peasant community in El Estor, Guatemala, and Defensora (trailer).
Presentation by professor Lorraine McNeil, Fanshawe College, about the pending court cases in Ontario against Hudbay Minerals, the company linked to the events depicted in the films.

Discussion

Day 2- Saturday, November 16th, 5:30- 9:00 pm Focus on Peru and Mexico

• Accountability Gap: a short film on the conflict in Durango, Mexico, with Canadian mining company Excellon. Presentation by Esla Arismendi on the work done by the NGO ProDesc and the Steelworkers of Canada;
• In the Heart of Conga: feature film on the Conga gold mine in Cajamarca, Peru;

Refreshment break

• Kañaris: shorts on Canadian mining company Candente in Lambayeque, Peru.

Discussion via Skype with Gustavo Gorretti, renowned Peruvian journalist, and the public.

Day 3- Sunday, November 17th, 1:00-5:00 pm Focus on Canada

• H2Oil: feature film on the impact of tar sands extraction on the Athabasca First Nations communities;
• Shattered Ground: feature film on hydraulic fracking in Canada and the US, narrated by David Suzuki.
Presentation on fracking by Gary Brown, environmentalist, and discussion with the public.

Refreshment break

• Panel discussion with CBC journalist Karin Wells, Jamie Kneen of Mining Watch Canada (TBC), a First Nations spokesperson (TBC) and a legal expert (TBC).

Q&A session

Acknowledgements and conclusion

For more information, go to:
        http://bit.ly/ETEfilmseries

or email: lacasa.london@gmail.com

Some resources:
-   Petitions: http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/ETEpetitions.pdf
-   Complete list: http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/ETEresources.pdf

-   Rights Action: http://www.rightsaction.org/

-   Mining Watch: http://www.miningwatch.ca/

-   Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability:
     http://cnca-rcrce.ca/

-   Council of Canadians: http://canadians.org/

-    Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:
     http://www.policyalternatives.ca

-   Amnesty International:
     www.amnesty.ca/open-for-justice

More Announcements from our Facilitator

Members,

I have news for you on four items.

1. The first issue is we have had a change of date for our monthly meeting. Due to conflict we have had to change just this meeting from Tuesday Oct. 8th to Thursday Oct. 10th at the Tolpuddle CO-OP. Start time is still 7:00PM.

I am putting an agenda together and I should have done by tomorrow at the latest. If anyone has any items that they would like to bring forward, please send them to me ASAP.


2. I missed one event from the last blast. Starting Friday November 15th, a film series brought to you by The Seeds of Hope, the Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association, Heart-Links, Mining Watch, The Centre for Social Concern at King's University College and the Council of Canadians: Extracting the Earth: Canada and Beyond.

It is a free film series about how Canadian and American resource companies are conducting themselves not only in Canada but in Latin American countries as well. Discussions follow the movies.

All films are being shown at the Stevenson-Hunt Room at the Central Public Library.

Friday Nov. 15th, 6:00-10:00PM: London premiere of Gold Fever. A movie about mining in Columbia.
Saturday Nov.16th, 5:30-9:00PM: Films about Canadian and American mining in Peru and Mexico
Sunday Nov. 17th: The Hole Story and films about fracking in Canada.

For more details email LACASA at LACASA.London@gmail.com

3. If anyone is interested in participating in this event: October 19th is the day of the Global Frackdown#2. It is a day to join with people around the world to say no to fracking anywhere. Some chapters are getting involved but most of them are being directly affected by fracking. London has not been affected by fracking yet but with fracking occurring around the Great Lakes basin, it will only be a matter of time. Check out : www.globalfrackdown.org for more details.

4. There has been an interest to try and resurrect the London Environmental Network. It was originally started to try and bring environmental groups together in London and to try and support the actions of other groups and to make sure to try to coordinate events  so there wouldn't be five or six environmental events happening on the same day. With what is happening with Pen-Equity, London Hydro being threatened and other issues around London, there has been a jump of people joining the LEN Facebook site. Perhaps it is time that environmental, social justice groups and political groups to come together. Check out the Facebook site (search for London Environmental Network) and lets get the conversation started.

Rod Morley, Facilitator, London Chapter, Council of Canadians

Maude Barlow in London, Ontario on May 30, 2012!

http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/GreatLakesNeedGreatFriendsLondonposter.pdf

The Great Lakes of North America form the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, holding more than 20 per cent of the world's surface freshwater and 95 per cent of North America's. They provide life and livelihood to more than 40 million people and are the economic centre at the heart of the continent. Yet the Great Lakes of North America are in serious trouble. Multipoint pollution, climate change, over-extraction, invasive species, and wetland loss are all taking their toll on the watershed.

With a patchwork of limited government protection that is hampered by inadequate funding and differing political priorities, the Lakes urgently need people to join together to forge a new future for them, one that will ensure the Lakes will thrive for generations to come. To help forge links and build relationships in communities surrounding the Great Lakes' waters, the Council of Canadians has launched the "Great Lakes Need Great Friends" tour.

Video: click here.

Doors open 6:30 Event 7:00-9:00

Maude Barlow The Great Lakes Needs Great Friends Tour.
How many of us went to camps on Georgian Bay or summer at the cottage?  Don't we all love taking the family to the beach for a refreshing swim on those hot summer days.  It is time we begin to bring our Great Lakes back into focus to ensure that our children and grand children have the chance to make some of their own memories about this world treasure.
Come join the conversation as the Council of Canadians and the Aeolian Hall present a special evening with Maude Barlow and the Great lakes Needs Great Friends Tour.
Also speaking, Great Friends
Thom McClenaghan President, Friends of the Coves Subwatershed.
Patrick Donnelly, Urban Watershed Program Manager City of London
along with displays from partners in watershed protection in London.
Location:  Aeolian Hall
For more information contact Gary Brown GPBrown@Rogers.com
Admission is free and donations are welcome.
There will be a special performance by the children’s choir El Sistema London from 6:30 to 7:00 http://www.aeolianhall.ca/el-sistema-aeolian

http://www.aeolianhall.ca/events/great-lakes-need-great-friends

http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/Great_Lakes/index.html

Documentary Film: "Gasland"

7:30 p.m.
Tuesday August 9, 2011
Aeolian Hall
795 Dundas St. E (at Rectory)
London, Ontario

NOT TO BE MISSED! Fracking is coming to Ontario in the London area soon! You have been warned!

"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

http://www.aeolianhall.ca/events/gasland

The case for a ban on gas fracking:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/the-case-for-a-ban-on-gas-fracking/

Radon threats are grounds for precaution.

Chemical Valley industries are arranging to use shale gas supplies that very likely could be contaminated with radon, given how these gas feedstocks are extracted through fracking — a technique that is used to retrieve gas from shale rock located very deep underground. Two Texas companies have agreed to send this shale gas from the northeastern United States to the Nova Chemical plant in Sarnia, and there is wider industry support for these imports of gas from fracking.

For the sake of the health and safety of the residents of Sarnia-Lambton — and others around the region — it is important that we apply the precautionary principle to this issue. We should assume that shale gas could come with radon contamination, if we cannot prove otherwise.

This gas is from shale that often contains significant quantities of uranium, as well as the products of its radioactive decay, including radium and radon, a colourless, odourless, and intensely radioactive gas. Because it is common in many rock formations throughout North America and elsewhere, radon is responsible for most of our daily exposure to damaging radiation. Radon gas that seeps up from subterranean rock formations often accumulates in basements — sometimes resulting in dangerous levels. Lung cancer caused by breathing radon contaminated air already is estimated to cause 25,000 deaths per year in the United States alone and is the second most frequent cause of lung cancer, after cigarette smoking.

It is very possible that gas from fracking frequently is radioactive, since radon could be mixed with shale gas, due to their occurrence in the same rocks. Radon is chemically inert, which means that even when radon-containing gas is burned, the radon portion emerges intact. When this radon is released into the atmosphere along with the carbon dioxide from burning the methane in the gas, the air around us would become polluted with radioactive gas. When shale gas is burned in an enclosed space (e.g. inside a building) the air inside could become radioactive if there are any leaks in the exhaust ductwork. Similarly, when shale gas is converted into other gases by petrochemical industries, those product gases might also be radioactive due to radon contamination.

The difficulty of studying the impacts of substances that already are used and produced in Chemical Valley should be clear, now that years of delays have held back regional health study plans. There is no independent and officially recognized study of any impacts from the known carcinogens, as well as endocrine disruptors, and numerous other dangerous substances, in and around the Sarnia-Lambton petrochemical facilities. Bringing shale gas that may be contaminated with radon into Chemical Valley would complicate these matters further.

Would there ever be any independent testing for radon contamination? How thorough would such tests be? Would the full results be disclosed to employees, and the general public?

We ask these questions because possible radon contamination is not being discussed by companies and organizations which are pursuing shale gas imports for Sarnia-Lambton, without addressing any pollution threats (during the recent Sarnia-Lambton Shale Gas Conference, for example — which was held to discuss and promote shale gas imports into Sarnia-Lambton).

We are focusing on threats from radon, but there are many health and environmental dangers associated with shale gas. Water contamination is the worst of the impacts around the sites which are fracked to retrieve this gas. Yet, there are plans for fracking in Ontario — beginning in south Lambton. Importing shale gas for petrochemical industries would stimulate further fracking in Ontario, and elsewhere. In the meantime, the worldwide movement to ban fracking is gaining momentum with the recent bans by France and New Jersey.

In view of the potential negative impacts on the health and well-being of our citizens, we will suggest that there should be a ban on fracking across Ontario.

There also should be an immediate moratorium on imports of shale gas to Ontario until tests for radon in the gas have been completed and publicized. If radon is found in shale gas, it would be one more good reason to ban fracking altogether.

Toban Black, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology with Environment & Sustainability;
Robert Cory, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Chemistry

(An abbreviated version of this blog was published as a letter to the editor in The Observer, Sarnia, Ontario.)