Notes from the London Council of Canadians potluck on October 21, 2015 (including a letter to Justin re Protecting the Thames)

London Council of Canadians supporters collect water from the Thames River at the Forks.

Twenty two members celebrated the end of the Stephen Harper era at our October 21 potluck meeting held at the Mary Campbell Common Room. The room has a fresh coat of green paint and all chairs are new! It is a beautiful place to meet and we are indebted to Kathy Kaill for reserving it for us to use. Conversation was intense, and about the election of course. Thank you all for bringing such wonderful food to share. 

After we finished eating, the subject for discussion was “Where do we go from here?” Suggestions considered came from 350.org, the Council of Canadians, and the Green Party as well as others with proportional representation appearing at the top of most people’s lists.

 http://campaign2015.fairvote.ca 

Rod Morley volunteered to head up a group which would collect a bottle of Thames River water to deliver to Justin Trudeau on Nov. 7 as part of a “Climate Welcome” gift. 

http://climatewelcome.ca/water 

Rod wrote, and Meg edited, a letter (see below) from our chapter to Prime Minister Trudeau asking him to protect our river from toxic oil spills. Dimitri Lascaris agreed to accept the bottle of water and deliver it and our letter personally when he goes to Ottawa. 

We had a guest, Jim Joyce, formerly from London, who plans to relocate here from Yellowknife and wants to become active with our chapter. In Yellowknife they are opposing fracking. Jim serves as Treasurer for the Yellowknife chapter. 

Upcoming events: 

 1) The next monthly event will be our annual AGM, November 18, with our business meeting at 6:30 pm and our potluck at 7:30. It will be at the Mary Campbell Co-op common room. 

 2) Climate Rally in solidarity with the Paris Climate Conference - Victoria Park - Nov. 29 - 1 - 4pm 

 3) “This Changes Everything” a film by Avi Lewis and Naomi Kline, will have its London debut on Dec. 7 as part of our Cinema Politica program of monthly documentaries. Venue and details will follow. 

Roberta Cory, Chair 
London Chapter, Council of Canadians 

----------------------------------------- 

October 26, 2015 

Dear Justin, 

We, the Council of Canadians London Chapter, are writing to you today and sending along a water sample from the former Heritage River known as the Antler/Thames River from Southwestern Ontario. We are providing this gift to you to remind you of your pledge to safeguard Canada’s bodies of water. 

We in Southwestern Ontario are deeply concerned about the possible environmental damage that could occur to Antler/Thames River should the Line 9 pipeline rupture where it crosses this once protected waterway. The Line 9 pipeline is over forty years old and was never purposed to transport the heavy and toxic diluted bitumen that it is now authorized to carry. 

Many of us in Southwestern Ontario do not want to see the repeat of tragedy that occurred near Kalamazoo Michigan just over five years ago when the Line 6B pipeline ruptured, spilling diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River. The Line 9 pipeline was built at the same time, and was built with the same materials and safeguards as Line 6B. We wouldn’t want to see the same devastating result here in Canada, and would hold your two new London MPs responsible should they not heed our warnings and work to stop this accident waiting to happen. It isn't a matter of if it happens – it's when.  

The good people of Southwestern Ontario would love to open up a dialogue with a representative of your government to see if we could come up with alternatives to seeing the start of diluted bitumen – dilbit - being transported through this pipeline. We would love to see if we could come up with new ways to power Canada’s prosperity, without destroying the environmental treasure that is Southwestern Ontario. 

Yours in hope,

Council of Canadians London Chapter http://www.londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/

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

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.)

Who is up for joining a shale fracking protest in Sarnia?

From Tobin Black:

On May 19th there will be a closed door meeting for corporate players that are scheming to poison Ontario and waste VAST amounts of fresh water for a new form of natural gas extraction that many people just call "fracking" (rather than "hydraulic fracturing") -

http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3077519

If you've seen the documentary Gasland

<http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/gasland/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TopDocumentaryFilms+%28Top+Documentary+Films+-+Watch+Free+Documentaries+Online%29>,

then you'll know what I'm talking about. Here's an 11 minute trailer for it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Nc-kxWfmc

An activist in Sarnia is trying to arrange a rally out there, and I'm up for getting together carpooling from London.

That Sarnia activist (Zak) also gives toxic tours of the Chemical Valley area -- including the native reserve that is surrounded by petro-chemical plants. A visit to the area is an unforgettable experience.

Here's a quick run-down of what shale fracking is all about - Water, toxic chemicals, and sand is blasted very deep underground. As a result, people's drinking water becomes flammable, and there's a risk of their homes exploding. There certainly have been explosions at the actual spots where the fracking is done -- not far from homes, in many cases. Various substances (e.g. methane, e.g. radioactive materials) also are released from underground as the mixture of fluid is blasted down there. Hundreds of chemicals that have been injected into the earth and the ground water are trade secrets -- yet they still end up flowing around the environment. There also is air pollution, mini earthquakes, and the fresh water waste is absurd. Millions of gallons of fluid is injected into each well. Pools of toxic sludge are left above ground in tailings ponds that should be expected to leak into the environment before long. The industrial operations also involve a lot of truck traffic, and other noise. All of this can happen near a property (e.g. a

farm) with no consultation with the owner, and farmland and streams can be poisoned indefinitely. Water and air pollution flows across property lines. The methane released during this process is a very dangerous greenhouse gas that impacts the world-wide climate.

Without resistance, all of that will happen in Chatham-Kent, Lambton, and between the Greater Toronto Area and Lake Simcoe. I also think there might end up being operations around Georgian Bay. But the schemes aren't publicized, so it's hard to know what will happen.

These operations are well underway in nearby U.S. states, where there also increasingly is resistance from activists.

In Canada, there are active anti-fracking campaigns on the east coast -

-

http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Fracking-Way-New-Brunswick/199663823391584

<http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Fracking-Way-New-Brunswick/199663823391584>

-

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Fracking-In-Nova-Scotia/192536797443762

<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Fracking-In-Nova-Scotia/192536797443762>

In Ontario the conflicts are coming. And why should we wait for environments to be poisoned indefinitely first? The companies that are looking to profit from this devastation already are active.

The pollutants -- including radioactive substances -- would flow into multiple Great Lakes around the area.

In Quebec there actually is a partial moratorium right now. And there are moratoriums in Maryland, New York State (in a more limited sense), and the city of Pittsburgh.

In Alberta there has been more passivity in the face of this devastation, but this woman is filing a lawsuit - http://tinyurl.com/3wtlaya This documentary is about a local conflict in Alberta - http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2010/burningwater/

ELECTION 2011: WHERE DO THE PARTIES STAND ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES?

Environmental Defence, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Equiterre and the Pembina Institute asked the five main political parties to respond to 10 questions on key environmental issues. (The Conservative Party did not respond...)

Click here for the results.

Watch "Burning Water" Online

If you missed our screening last night, you can watch the entire documentary online here. It is a fascinating, if depressing look at how a private citizen can be crushed by a private corporation acting with impunity with the help of an unsympathetic government (in this case, the Alberta provincial gov). Fracking will soon come to Ontario, and we will be in the same boat. Forwarned is forarmed.

World Water Day Film: "Burning Water"

World Water Day documentary film presented by the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians
Tuesday March 22, 2011
6:30 p.m. Reception; 7:00 p.m. (sharp), film, "Burning Water", followed by discussion & Q&A
Free to all; donations always welcome
The Black Shire Pub, 511 Talbot Street (2 doors north of Dufferin Avenue)

Coming soon to an aquifer near you!

For recent info on contamination of Canadian water supplies by "fracking" for natural gas, see

http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/fracking-natural-gas-affects-water-quality

http://www.sqwalk.com/q/alberta-firm-eyes-ontarios-untapped-shale-gas

For a poster of World Water Day events in London, Ontario, click here.

To see what other CoC chapters around the country are doing to mark WWD, see

http://canadians.org/water/issues/World_Water_Day/actions.html