2018-04-27 Maybe this can be of assistance re the pipeline? Chief Maureen Thomas

Chief Maureen Thomas said:

Short clip, 2016, Chief Maureen Thomas (National Observer).

Transcribed,  (29 second marker):

At the end of the day, it comes right down to   water,  food. 

For us, a number of our community members have fallen ill because the shellfish is so poisoned.  They continue to eat it.

When you keep depleting all the natural resources, the health of them, it’s going to gradually flow out to everything else and that is really dangerous for our community and the surrounding area.  And we keep working at trying to rehabilitate it, to the best of our ability and with the help of the Government on that. 

But, at the end of the day, if there is a huge oil spill there, where are we left to go?  That is our home.  Our ancestors lie there.  It’s who we are.  We are tied to our land.   And if we don’t have the ability to be tied to that land, it really will destroy us.

– – – – – – – – – –

“Thomas”, a B.C. resident,  describes the current strategy:  Close the water and food source down, hope nobody else gets sick. . . .    

I would add: . . .    Or, as in the Aamjiwnaang and other REAL WORLD examples,  are forced to leave, to vacate their homes.  The Aamjiwnaang have resided – – I don’t know – – forever? along the River in Sarnia, ON, next door to where the Suncor refineries were built (Suncor is the major player behind the EXPANSION that drives the Kindermorgan pipeline).   “Search” this blog with Aamjiwnaang for what happens.   And then repeat the words of Chief Thomas:

When you keep depleting all the natural resources, the health of them, it’s going to gradually flow out to everything else and that is really dangerous for our community and the surrounding area.  And we keep working at trying to rehabilitate it, to the best of our ability and with the help of the Government on that.   But, at the end of the day, . . .

 

At the end of the day,  poisons in our water,  kill.  They kill health, they will kill the economy.   I remember when my cousins from Windsor, ON, sold with sadness their cabin on Lake Erie because the water had become so polluted.    They were fortunate, they had another “home” that was still theirs.

Whether it’s a vacation property, or your home you are forced to leave because of poisons (“pollution”) in the water,  you know that you and others in your community will take a large financial hit, as the word spreads.   Your best bet is the arrival of unsuspecting purchasers, and the persuasive ability of glossy brochures.  It will be best if you keep your mouth shut about the real reason you are leaving.   If you react quickly enough,  you might get enough of your equity out, that you can still buy a home somewhere else.

The alternative is to do as others are doing:  join in “the good fight”.   You will be rewarded.

– – – – – – – – – –

Perhaps these 2 items can be helpful to Chief Thomas and others?

1.  Poisons in Water, cholera, norovirus, Vancouver Island (French Creek, Qualicum Bay, Deep Bay, Denman Island)

In 2005 when I received a phone call requesting me to report to TB Control (after being very sick),  I almost said,  “The test results must have been mixed up.   I’m white, middle-class”.   I also thought that TB had been eradicated from Canada, by aggressive programs in the 1950’s.   I remember the TB van that came to every small town;  it was foreign and a bit scary when I was young.

I learned in 2005 that there is TB in Canada,  we just don’t hear about it – – it’s in First Nations communities and in many of the places that provide over-night shelter for those who don’t have homes.   Some choose not to use the shelters for that reason.

Conclude:  it doesn’t make sense NOT to look after the people in our communities, if only for one reason – –  you are dreaming if you think dis-ease can be confined, any more than wild Water with the poisons we put into it, can be confined.

Dawn Martin-Hill, a First Nations professor, was interviewed about the water situation on the Six Nations Reserve not far from Hamilton, ON.   How long do you think we can hear about water issues in First Nations communities before we start hearing about serious water issues in “our” water?

I think it’s damn serious when there’s cholera in Canadian waters, and therefore in food that comes from that water.   Lots of people swim, fish, ride paddle boards, in that water.   The idea may be foreign to City dwellers,  to those who only know chlorinated pools:  there are actually people who immerse in real water and take sustenance from it.

I can’t swim without getting water in at least one of eyes, ears, nose, mouth.  Nor can you.  The “most plausible” cause of the cholera and the norovirus offshore Vancouver Island, BC, is “human sewage in the marine environment“.   See Poisons in Water, cholera, norovirus.  

Chief Maureen Thomas says it simply and well, better than I’ve heard from any university-trained hydrologist or toxicologist or doctor.

When you keep depleting all the natural resources, the health of them, it’s going to gradually flow out to everything else and that is really dangerous for our community and the surrounding area. 

I choose leaders who are wise.  I would like to claim Maureen Thomas as my leader.

 

2.  You’ll have a good laugh over this one.  You know the shtick:  “Why! we are THE most heavily regulated industry . . .  ”,  “Our highly-trained emergency teams . . .”,  “deliver rapid response to emergency”.  Rah, rah.

Take a look at the posting, Nuclear: In support of Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee.  It contains what the rhetoric conceals about the real world, in actual fact – –  if you can read it without falling into laughter,  I will be surprised.   In this instance,  and still about WATER, the poison is high-level radioactive waste.  In the Kindermorgan expansion example, it’s dilbit, oil, bitumen – – a seven-fold increase in super-sized tanker traffic.

 

With the announcement that Canada is aggressively pursuing Nuclear as an answer to Climate Change at the Bonn, Germany meetings May 2018, Canadians are being set up to be further hosed by the uranium/nuclear industry.   It’s not too hard to figure out,  if you have the information.   I hope the posting makes clear the enormity of the actual dollars involved.  It’s an economic argument – – you don’t even need to include health costs to make the case.

What you do need is the detail regarding corruption, included in the posting.  There is a very good reason for what happens.

Our network has information that was missing from the CBC interview.  Chief Madahbee did a great job.  The additional documentation should be helpful to him,  to the CBC, and to others.

The story is the same, regardless of the natural resource sector we are talking about.

 

The work of Chief Madahbee in Ontario and of Chief Maureen Thomas in BC is the protection of homeland against poisoning.   Their feet are firmly planted in reality.   Their brains are not housed in shtick.

If other Government and Business leadership in Canada

are not capable of understanding the role of  Water and Food in Life – – in actual LIVING,

then I hope that the information in  In support of Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee 

makes clear the enormity of the ECONOMIC COSTS

that Canadians will be required to cover,

if we do not rise in revolt against our collective ignorance and dysfunction.

 

We are all in this together.       /Sandra

P.S.   There is a new film out, “Directly Affected:  Pipeline Under Pressure“.   Because of high turn-outs, additional showings have been added in Vancouver.   See Directly Affected  for where and when to see the film.   It will be showing in Ottawa.   I am hopeful that maybe it will be downloadable by everyone,  maybe for free through UPLOAD TV?   More later.  /S