[All] Super event!

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hi folks

I just wanted to send my thanks to all the folks who came out this evening for 
the Pollution Vs. Human Rights event, I thank John for hosing and I'd like to 
thank GREN executives for making this event possible. Our guests gave excellent 
presentations that touched upon so many issues. Some of the highlights include 
the following points:

-There is no expiration on pollution emission permits.
-There is no consideration given to cumulative impacts when several permits are 
issued within the same area.
-The province does not keep records on what activities they have permitted. When 
concerns arise, it's up to each company to present their permit.
-The province states they have no jurisdiction on aboriginal lands because it's 
a Federal Issue.
-The Federal government doesn't get involved in emission concerns on reserves 
because they state it is a Provincial concern.
-In cases of illegal dumping, neither the Federal Government nor the Province 
gets involved because it's on aboriginal lands. This means aboriginal 
communities are basically left to fend for themselves. This complicates issues 
regarding who's duty it is to clean up environmental spills etc.
-The placement of factories appears to be situated in a location which exploits 
the fact the adjacent lands are home to aboriginal communities. (Less 
constraints because their neighbours downwind are not living on either Federal 
nor Provincial lands)
-The permits are not subject to planning legislation because they are often 
signed by ministers in processes that exclude public participation. It is 
literally between industry and government. No public say.
-Because lands are designated industrial, there are no planning processes for 
expansion of projects in these areas. 

-They have used the Environmental Bill of Rights to secure a request for review 
but their process has taken two years so far without any tangible results. 

-Ada Lockridge and Ron Plain are the only two members of the community 
spearheading this effort. The rest of the community cares of the issue but feel 
torn by the fact that so much of the area relies on the refineries for their 
jobs and pensions. Because many worked for the companies they bought into the 
corporate rhetoric that everything is fine, that the problems are taken care of. 

-The processes being done at the refineries adjacent to their reserve, includes 
the removal of sulfate from gas products. Instead of allowing sulfate to burn 
out of tailpipes, they simply discharge it into the air in large volumes at this 
location instead.
-The toxicity of the refineries increases during times of power outages because 
the protective filtration systems won't function without electricity.

I had taken a couple of group shots of the guest speakers but when I got home, 
my data card malfunctioned and I lost the photos. I was able to see the photo on 
my camera but when I tried to copy them it appeared as an empty file then I 
wasn't able to find them again.  None the less,  if anyone else took photos that 
evening, please forward them along to me. 


Thanks!

Lulu :0)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20110406/3476028e/attachment.html>