KENORA – Grassy Narrows community members hosted a rally Tuesday afternoon in downtown Kenora to send a message to federal politicians: Respect First Nations’ right to say no to nuclear waste disposal.
The rally followed an email sent “on behalf of families from Grassy Narrows First Nation” to the members of Parliament for Kenora-Kiiwetinoong, Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Thunder Bay-Superior North and three other northern Ontario ridings.
That letter asks each MP “to clearly state your position on the proposed nuclear waste disposal site near Ignace during this (April 28) federal election.”
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a federally mandated body funded by Canada’s nuclear power producers, wants to construct a deep-underground repository for spent nuclear fuel at a site west of Ignace and east of Wabigoon Lake First Nation.
“Voters deserve to know whether their representatives will stand with First Nations in defending our rights and protecting the land.”
The right to say no “is an inherent Indigenous right that is recognized in international law, including in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” the letter states.
Willow Crow, a councillor in Naotkamegwanning (Whitefish Bay) First Nation, came to Kenora from her community to lend support.
She said she chose to participate in the rally because she takes issue with “nuclear waste and just nuclear energy in general.”
Crow said she is taking a stand for the Anishinaabe people and against “the destruction of our land.”
