LETTER: NWMO leader should meet with Indigenous leaders – TBNewsWatch.com
May 7, 2024
Chief Turtle and the other chiefs in the Land Defence Alliance are, like Mayor Baigrie, the heads of local governments.
I was honoured and humbled to attend the First Nations Land Defence Alliance’s rally against nuclear waste in Thunder Bay on April 30. Informed, passionate speakers from communities at risk from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO’s) proposed transport and burial of nuclear fuel waste travelled up to 500 km to be present. Over 100 residents of Thunder Bay and area turned out to welcome them.
An April 30 article on NWONewswatch provided quotes from Chief Rudy Turtle of Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation (Grassy Narrows) and other leaders. A subsequent article with a response from an NWMO rep appeared on May 2.
Chief Turtle’s community of Grassy Narrows is well-known (or have people forgotten?) for the calamitous mercury contamination of its waterways by industry effluents allowed to flow into the Wabigoon River system a short way upstream, brought to light in the 1970s. Community residents continue to suffer the devastating effects today.
