The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.32           September 14, 1998 
 
 
Letters  
Natives protest uranium
A litter over a year ago, the Dene First Nations of Great Bear Lake in the Canadian Northwest Territories learned that the uranium they had helped to transport from the nearby government-owned Port Radium mine was used to build the bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. This has since been confirmed by Canadian government officials.

On August 6, a delegation of the Dene from Great Bear traveled to the Hiroshima Memorial Service to explain to the Japanese people that this horrible act perpetrated on them by the U.S. government, and supported by the Allies, was also a terrible experience for the Dene people.

Beginning in 1943, while white miners and laboratory workers were routinely tested for uranium contamination, the Dene "cookies" as they were called carried sacks of uranium on their backs without any of the protective clothing and showers provided to white workers. The lethal dust was brought home to their families. As one of the few carriers still alive says, "Nobody said nothing about it being dangerous. We didn't know what this stuff was. We didn't know what cancer was. Our people used to live a long time.... The majority of our people have died of cancer."

When the mine was closed down in 1960, 1.7 million tons of uranium ore was still left to contaminate water, fish, and soil in and around Great Bear Lake. Now young Dene, outraged by the government's racist contempt for the lives of the past generation and of their own, have painstakingly carried out interviews with survivors and their families and are demanding acknowledgment of responsibility from the federal government, disclosure of all documents related to the mine, compensation for spouses and children of those who have died of cancer, and a comprehensive health, environmental and social assessment to be done by independent experts acceptable to the Dene.

However, Peter Brown, the Director of Uranium and Radioactive Waste at the Department of Natural Resources says it could be difficult to prove a link between the radioactive material carried by the men and cancer.

The government said it would investigate the Dene claims.

Bea Bryant

Blenheim, Ontario

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.

 
 
 
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