Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2022-03-03 19:30:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Chief Duncan Malcolm Michano (Chief, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg)",
        "fr": "Chef Duncan Malcolm Michano (chef, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"7016831\" data-originallang=\"en\"> <em>Meegwetch</em> for giving me the opportunity. I'm Chief Duncan Michano from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. We live in northern Ontario. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016832\" data-originallang=\"en\">The issue is that the Government of Canada is delegating the governance and policy-making for nuclear waste to the nuclear industry. I liken it to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016833\" data-originallang=\"en\">The nuclear industry in Canada has been creating high-level nuclear waste now for approximately 60 years. During that time, the nuclear industry has created somewhere in the order of three million used fuel bundles, probably more. These highly radioactive bundles need to be cooled for a period of time in pools of water, which themselves become contaminated.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016834\" data-originallang=\"en\">The NWMO, which is an industry-owned organization, has been delegated by the nuclear industry to determine methods to safely store this waste, waste that is created in the nuclear reactors. Some of these elements exist nowhere else in the universe but are created solely in these nuclear reactors. This waste is deadly to all forms of life on our planet, and toxic for thousands of years\u2014hundreds of thousands of years in a lot of cases.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016835\" data-originallang=\"en\">The method the NWMO has chosen to dispose of this deadly waste is to bury the nuclear waste in deep geological repositories. The intent is to bury that waste at some point and then walk away, leaving future generations to deal with the issues and the contamination of their homelands by an industry that cares only about the bottom line.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016836\" data-originallang=\"en\">I would like to point out that as a prospector\u2014I wander around the bush all the time, and I study geology\u2014I understand geological processes, and the earth is not static; it's plastic. Over geological time, all rock formations move. These movements will eventually allow the toxic nuclear waste to then leach into the environment. It's not a matter of if it will eventually leach out but when. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016837\" data-originallang=\"en\">What is the legacy that we wish to leave our descendants? A legacy like Chernobyl? Think about that, please.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016838\" data-originallang=\"en\">The Governments of Canada and Ontario must ensure that they, not the nuclear industry, are in charge of nuclear waste policy and must phase out the production of electricity by nuclear means so that no more of this deadly waste is produced.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016839\" data-originallang=\"en\">Attached are numerous resolutions\u2014and you may have that in your files because I sent them in\u2014passed by the Anishinabek Nation and other first nation organizations, including our chiefs in Ontario and the AFN. Some of these resolutions were moved by me. They include opposing the storing of nuclear waste on their lands and our lands and opposing the creation of SMNRs, and demanding that nuclear power be phased out.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016840\" data-originallang=\"en\">There are other\u2014</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"7016831\" data-originallang=\"en\"> <em>Meegwetch</em> de me donner cette occasion. Je suis le chef Duncan Michano de Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. Nous vivons dans le Nord de l\u2019Ontario. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016832\" data-originallang=\"en\">Le probl\u00e8me tient \u00e0 ce que le gouvernement du Canada d\u00e9l\u00e8gue la gouvernance et l\u2019\u00e9laboration de politiques en mati\u00e8re de d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires \u00e0 l\u2019industrie nucl\u00e9aire. C\u2019est comme si l\u2019on confiait au renard le soin de s\u2019occuper du poulailler.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016833\" data-originallang=\"en\">L\u2019industrie nucl\u00e9aire canadienne produit une \u00e9norme quantit\u00e9 de d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires depuis pr\u00e8s de 60 ans. Au cours de cette p\u00e9riode, l\u2019industrie nucl\u00e9aire a cr\u00e9\u00e9 environ 3 millions de grappes de combustible \u00e9puis\u00e9, probablement plus. Ces grappes hautement radioactives doivent \u00eatre refroidies pendant un certain temps dans des bassins d\u2019eau qui, \u00e0 leur tour, sont contamin\u00e9s.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016834\" data-originallang=\"en\">C\u2019est \u00e0 la SGDN, une organisation d\u00e9tenue par l\u2019industrie, que l\u2019industrie nucl\u00e9aire a demand\u00e9 de d\u00e9terminer les m\u00e9thodes d\u2019entreposage s\u00e9curitaire des d\u00e9chets. Il s\u2019agit de d\u00e9chets cr\u00e9\u00e9s dans les r\u00e9acteurs nucl\u00e9aires qui n\u2019existent nulle part ailleurs dans l\u2019univers. Des d\u00e9chets toxiques et l\u00e9taux pour toutes les formes de vie sur notre plan\u00e8te qui persisteront pendant des milliers, voire des centaines de milliers d\u2019ann\u00e9es pour certains d\u00e9chets. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016835\" data-originallang=\"en\">La m\u00e9thode retenue par la SGDN pour se d\u00e9barrasser des d\u00e9chets l\u00e9taux consiste \u00e0 enfouir les d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires dans des formations g\u00e9ologiques profondes. L\u2019objectif est d\u2019enterrer ces d\u00e9chets et de les oublier en laissant le soin aux g\u00e9n\u00e9rations futures de r\u00e9gler le probl\u00e8me et de composer avec la contamination de leurs terres par une industrie qui ne se pr\u00e9occupe que de ses r\u00e9sultats.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016836\" data-originallang=\"en\">J\u2019aimerais souligner qu\u2019en tant que prospecteur qui tra\u00eene sa bosse un peu partout, je comprends les processus g\u00e9ologiques, et je comprends que la terre n\u2019est pas statique. Elle est plastique et, au fil du temps g\u00e9ologique, toutes les formations rocheuses bougent. Ces mouvements permettront \u00e9ventuellement aux d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires toxiques de s\u2019infiltrer dans l\u2019environnement. La question n\u2019est pas de savoir si ces d\u00e9chets finiront par s\u2019infiltrer, mais quand ils le feront. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016837\" data-originallang=\"en\">Quel est l\u2019h\u00e9ritage que nous souhaitons laisser \u00e0 nos descendants? Un h\u00e9ritage comme Tchernobyl? Pensez-y, s\u2019il vous pla\u00eet.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016838\" data-originallang=\"en\">Les gouvernements du Canada et de l\u2019Ontario doivent garantir que ce sont eux, et non pas l\u2019industrie nucl\u00e9aire, qui sont responsables de la politique en mati\u00e8re de d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires et doivent cesser progressivement la production d\u2019\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 par des moyens nucl\u00e9aires afin de ne plus produire ces d\u00e9chets l\u00e9taux.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016839\" data-originallang=\"en\">J\u2019ai joint aux documents que j\u2019ai envoy\u00e9s \u2014 et que vous devez avoir en dossier \u2014 de nombreuses r\u00e9solutions adopt\u00e9es par les organisations anishinabek et des Premi\u00e8res Nations, dont certaines que j\u2019ai moi-m\u00eame propos\u00e9es, qui s\u2019opposent \u00e0 l\u2019entreposage des d\u00e9chets nucl\u00e9aires sur nos terres et \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation de PRNM et qui exigent l\u2019abandon progressif de l\u2019\u00e9nergie nucl\u00e9aire.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"7016840\" data-originallang=\"en\">Il existe d\u2019autres...</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/environment/44-1/7/chief-duncan-malcolm-michano-1/",
    "politician_url": null,
    "politician_membership_url": null,
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "11559090",
    "document_url": "/committees/environment/44-1/7/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fcommittees%2Fenvironment%2F44-1%2F7%2F"
    }
}