Emera See the Faces, Hear the Voices at Risk From Muskrat Falls [Ontario-Muskrat Falls Coalition] 24 May 2018
Toronto, Canada, World See the Faces, Hear the Voices at Risk From the Boondoggle Muskrat Falls project NL CanadaJoin the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition, Council of Canadians, Labrador Land Protectors and Grand River Keeper at the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, 250 Front Street West on Thursday, May 24 from 1 to 2:30 pm.
“I would love to see a national day of action to stop Site C Kinder Morgan and Muskrat Falls. Even to add Standing Rock to show how powerful we are together.” @beatlhunter Beatrice Hunter 12 May 2018
EVENT DETAILS
Information Vigil at the Annual General Meeting of Major Muskrat Falls Partner Emera Inc.
DATE and TIME - Thursday, May 24, 1 pm
LOCATION - Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, 250 Front Street West, TorontoOn Thursday, May 24 from 1 to 2:30 pm, join us as we bring the faces and voices of those most at risk from the lethal Muskrat Falls megadam to the project’s biggest beneficiaries, the shareholders of Emera, Inc.
BACKGROUND
“Make no mistake, Emera and Nova Scotia are the principal beneficiaries of the Muskrat Falls project.” – Des Sullivan, former Newfoundland and Labrador Executive Assistant to Premiers Frank D. Moores (1975-1979) and Brian Peckford (1979-1985).
The Muskrat Falls Megadam in Labrador threatens Indigenous people and settlers alike with methylmercury poisoning and mass drowning via catastrophic dam break.
Their lives and their lands and waters, as well as all life forms in the area, have been turned into a national sacrifice zone that the Trudeau government is backing to the tune of $9.2 billion.
An act of impending cultural genocide is well under way.One of the biggest stakeholders in the dangerous Muskrat Falls Megadam is Halfax-based Emera Inc., which describes itself as a “geographically diverse energy and services company … with approximately $29 billion in assets and 2017 revenues of more than $6 billion."
Emera has built and expects to profit from the Maritime Link, the overland and subsea transmission lines expected to carry power generated by Muskrat Falls.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS?
Emera prides itself on its self-described values of "health andwellness….[building] trust by finding common interest and acting with integrity….[being] tenacious in our pursuit of creative solutions” and safe and clean energy delivery (“cleaner, affordable energy…committed to working in a way that is respectful and protective of the environment”). Emera says that it is committed to “building respectful and cooperative relationships” with Indigenous peoples.
DISRESPECT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
But those values to not square with the reality of the lethal risks posed by the Muskrat Falls megadam, which has never received the free, prior, and informed consent of all Indigenous people affected by the project.
Emera makes no mention of the downstream Inuit and Innu peoples directly facing poisoning and the risk of drowning via flash flood.
Emera has been silent regarding the criminalization of Indigenous land protectors facing jail for trying to protect their way of life.
REAL RISKS
The risks are real: a 4-year, peer-reviewed Harvard University study confirmed that massive spikes in methylmercury poisoning will occur (especially since the project’s main backer, Nalcor Energy, refuses to clear trees, vegetation, and topsoil in the dam reservoir area, leading to the bioaccumulation of the neurotoxin into the country food web relied upon by a population that is 90% Indigenous).
Other poisons are insinuating their way into the environment and tainting country foods and medicine via the spraying of areas around transmission towers with the herbicide Agent White (which, with its better known carcinogenic cousin Agent Orange, was dumped by the millions of gallons on the people of Vietnam and still results in horrific birth deformities and the painful, early deaths of civilians and soldiers who were exposed).
In addition, hydrodams are NOT green energy. They produce significantly greater amounts of methane than previously thought.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies methane as a global warming accelerant which, measured over a 20-year time frame, is 84 times more potent than CO2.
Finally, the health and wellness of those living downstream is threatened with catastrophic dam break because a significant portion of the reservoir, a natural formation known as the North Spur, is made up of quick clay (sand that moves and liquefies under pressure).
The world’s leading quick clay expert, Stig Bernander, has studied the area and determined that Nalcor has failed to provide science-based assurances as to the North Spur’s stability.
A 2016 Happy Valley-Goose Bay study predicted catastrophic damage to the town and the complete destruction of the town of Mud Lake if the dam gives way. The province has refused to launch an independent review of the North Spur.
NO PROFIT FROM POISON
Join us as we urge Emera shareholders to speak up about the devastating social and environmental consequences of the Muskrat Falls dam. We will also urge them to pledge that unless this project receives the free, prior and informed consent of all Indigenous peoples affected, it must be abandoned.
Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition,
(613) 267-3998
This vigil co-sponsored by the Council of Canadians, which has joined the call on the federal government to withdraw its $9.2 billion loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls.”
[ https://goo.gl/C22Qk3 Toronto, Canada, World - See the Faces, Hear the Voices at Risk from Lower Churchill Muskrat Falls Boondoggle Hydro project - Join the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition, Council of Canadians, Labrador Land Protectors and Grand River Keeper at the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, 250 Front Street West on Thursday, 24 May from 1 to 2:30 pm. “Never, Never, Never Give Up” Churchill https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRSIfLtKcnlX_hTxlqC1IJ3g1QUpIOkOtWKPjmetG1Ea7E1tyeFmVFZ0Ud0EKPjxpn8tqlcAgRrjVdE/pub ]
Location: 250 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3G5, Canad
