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An estimated 400 people gathered in Waverley Park in Thunder Bay for powerful speeches by First Nation leaders speaking in opposition to the transportation and burial of nuclear waste in northern Ontario.
The event in Waverley Park was followed by a march through Thunder Bay’s north-end downtown area to the Spirit Garden on the shore of Gitchegami/Lake Superior, where many gathered to hear further speakers into the early evening.
Speakers included Fort William First Nation Chief Michele Solomon, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, Land Defence Alliance Chair and former Chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation Rudy Turtle, Neskantaga First Nation Chief Gary Kwisses, and former Neskantaga Chief Chris Moonias. A local Indigenous women’s drum group opened and closed the Waverley Park event, and Chrissy Isaacs of Grassy Narrows First Nation served as MC.
The emphatic consensus among speakers was that nuclear waste must not be brought to northern Ontario – given the risk of contamination that would threaten the lands, the waters, and the traditional way of life – and that opposition is strong and growing.
The rally was organized by Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong) First Nation and supported by many First Nations and by We the Nuclear Free North, and alliance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups and residents opposed to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s intent to use the Revell site between Ignace and Dryden for the processing, burial and abandonment of all of Canada’s high-level nuclear waste. Groups forming part of the We the Nuclear Free North alliance were represented among participants and supporters, including Environment North, Nuclear Free Thunder Bay, Sunset Country Spirit Alliance, NO CANDU, No Nuclear Waste in NW Ontario, and Northwatch.
“The opposition is united – the NWMO’s project must be stopped”, commented We the Nuclear Free North spokesperson Charles Faust, an organizer with Nuclear Free Thunder Bay.
“It’s our honour to be here in support of Treaty 3, NAN and Robinson-Superior treaty nations putting the federal government on notice that the burial of nuclear waste in northern Ontario is a non-starter.”
The July 4 event was preceded on the evening of July 3 by a premiere screening of the short feature film The Moth, by Thunder Bay Indigenous filmmaker Michelle Derosier, which portrays a possible future of industrial contamination and desolation in northern Ontario. The screening took place at the auditorium of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law (Lakehead University), and filled the auditorium to capacity.
