Feature story - May 1, 2008
Nuclear energy needs uranium. In Ontario, uranium exploration is resulting in political prisoners.
Families torn apart to make way for mining companies? Uranium
exploration without consultation? Political prisoners? It might be
hard to imagine, but this is the situation right now in Ontario,
where Premier Dalton McGuinty's expanded nuclear program and the
outdated Mining Act are both having devastating consequences on the
ground.
It happened like this:
- In 2006, the McGuinty government announced it would be
expanding nuclear power, refurbishing old reactors and building new
ones across the province.
- In 2007, a company called Frontenac Ventures began to drill for
uranium on 30,000 acres near Sharbot Lake, many of which are part
of an outstanding land claim by Algonquin First Nations.
- In 2008, Ardoch Algonquin former chief Robert Lovelace, who
opposes the drilling, was found in contempt of court for failing to
comply with an injunction to leave the exploration site. He is now
serving six months in a provincial prison.
Robert Lovelace was jailed for trying to protect his community's
land from uranium exploration. Uranium exploration is an explicit
policy of our provincial government. Robert Lovelace is a political
prisoner, in jail as a result of Ontario's outdated
Mining Act and Dalton McGuinty's dirty, dangerous and expensive
nuclear policy.
Take action right now and join Greenpeace in asking for Robert
Lovelace's immediate release and a moratorium on uranium
exploration in Ontario.
Read more more about Ontario's outdated Mining Act from
Amnesty International.