INDEX PCB Digest - 4/28/02
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - For Immediate Release
- 4/28/02
National Campaign Launched to Stop To PCB
Incinerator in Kirkland Lake
2) June 17th Global Day of Action Against Waste Incineration
3) Watch the evening CBC National News, Tuesday,
April 30th
Coverage of the Bennett toxic incinerator on the
evening CBC National News is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April
30th. The Earlton rally will be one of the features.
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - For Immediate Release
- 4/28/02
National Campaign Launched to Stop To PCB
Incinerator in Kirkland Lake
Earlton -- A crowd of nearly 300 people were on hand
today at a hockey arena in Northeastern Ontario to declare war on a
PCB import and burning plan. Bennett Environmental is looking to set
up a toxic incinerator in this region to burn PCB and
dioxin-contaminated waste from across North America.
Dr. Paul Connett, an international expert in dioxins
and PCBs, spoke to the keynote theme – kicking off a national
campaign “Respect the North” to raise awareness against the
Bennett proposal.
“This is not a local issue,” Dr. Connett
told the crowd. “This is not a regional issue or even a national
issue. Your fight is of international importance. What you do to stop
the importing and burning of toxic waste from the U.S. and Mexico
must be known by people all across the continent.”
By far the biggest impact from the event came from the
appearance by Grand Chief Carol McBride of the Algonquin Nation
Secretariat. Grand Chief McBride was given a standing ovation and was
joined by Chief Daniel Chief of Timiskaming First Nation and an
honour guard of native drummers.
“Over the last century and a half, our people
have lost too much,” Grand Chief McBride told the crowd. “
We are not willing to risk losing any more. The Algonquin Nation will
protect its legal interests as defined by Supreme Court law. We have
aboriginal title to this land. It cannot be infringed upon. This
project will never go ahead.”
Organizer Terry Graves says the national campaign,
complete with bumper stickers, t-shirts and a full time office staff
of volunteers has already had an impact. He points out that in the
last week, the stand taken by 34 local doctors against the
incinerator (and the subsequent attacks on these doctors by the pro-waste
Kirkland Lake council) was the subject of two different radio shows
in Manitoba.
Graves says that over the next two weeks the campaign
against Bennett will physically move beyond the confines of the
Temiskaming region.
For more information contact:
Terry Graves (705) 647-7307 / (705) 672-3450
Grand Chief Carol McBride (819) 723-2019
Dr. Paul Connett (315) 379-9200
-30-
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2) June 17th Global Day of Action Against Waste Incineration
The First Global Day of Action Against Waste
Incineration is just two months away: June 17, 2002. This is an
opportunity to take a global stance against this poisonous and
wasteful technology. Whether your community is fighting an
incinerator, working for an incinerator ban, o lobbying your
government to ratify the POPs Treaty, this is a day to use GAIA's
network to illustrate the strong international opposition against incinerators.
June 17 is the first day of the sixth
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 6) meeting on the
Stockholm Convention. This is relevant to our work because
incinerators have been identified as primary sources of
unintentional POPs such as dioxins and furans. We can tie in to the
POPs Treaty to tell our governments that incineration is
inconsistent with the Treaty's goals of elimination of POPs,
and to demand that authorities and citizens shift to clean
production, zero waste and sustainable waste management systems.
There are many actions your group could take on this
day, depending on your current campaigns, your situation, and
your time. For example, some ideas are to: organize an
informational community event, hold dialogues with policy
makers, organize calls to key policy makers, protest in front of
an incinerator, issue a press release on the Stockholm POPs
treaty and incinerators, ask people to write letters on the
POPs Treaty or a local waste issue, symbolically hand over
petitions to the recipient, hold a press conference, release a
document on local issues... not to mention the multitudes of
things that every group plans and organizes every year. The
scale of your participation and the amount of time you put into the
day of action is completely up to you, but we hope you will
consider being part of this exciting opportunity.
We will soon be circulating an action kit for the day
of action that may be of assistance to you, including a sample
press release and other tools that you can use as you wish.
PLEASE let us know if you are planning to do something
on the Day of Action, and what you have planned. We'll give
periodic updates about what groups are planning to do so
hearing from you will encourage and inspire others to
participate too! Contact Manny Calonzo at [email protected]
and Monica Wilson at [email protected]
Thanks to everyone who has already let us know of
their plans!
We hope that this global event will generate broad
interest and participation from all corners of the world and
lead to a stronger opposition against waste incineration. We
look forward to your participation in the First Global Day of
Action against Waste Incineration!
Please also note that the International POPs
Elimination Network (IPEN) is marking the first anniversary of
the adoption of the Stockholm Convention with an International
Day of Action on 23 May 2002 - to raise awareness about POPs
and to ask governments to ratify the treaty. We also
request members to support this initiative in ways possible.
Please contact our friends Jack Weinberg ([email protected]) or
Morag Carter ([email protected]) for details.
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3) Watch the evening CBC National News, Tuesday,
April 30th
Coverage of the Bennett toxic incinerator on the
evening CBC National News is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April
30th. The Earlton rally will be one of the features.
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PCB Digest
http://members.fortunecity.com/toxic/
PCB Information
http://www21.brinkster.com/nopcb/