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Nazigate: Canada’s top general won’t apologize for applauding Ukrainian Waffen-SS vet

WYATT REED, ·SEPTEMBER 28, 2023,  https://thegrayzone.com/2023/09/28/nazigate-canadas-general-ukrainian-waffen-ss/—

As Canada’s top officials express embarrassment for honoring a WWII Nazi collaborator in parliament, the leader of the country’s military, Gen. Wayne Eyre, refuses to apologize for his standing ovation. The Canadian military has trained Ukraine’s notorious neo-Nazi Azov Battalion for years.

Canadian politicians have been in frantic damage control mode since feting a former member of the Waffen-SS during a parliamentary reception for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 22. The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, resigned following the incident, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented it as “extremely upsetting,” and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre branded the affair the “biggest single diplomatic embarrassment” in Canada’s history.

But amid the gratuitous public rites of contrition, one influential official has been conspicuously absent: Canada’s highest-ranking general. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre has “declined to apologize for his standing ovation” for Yaroslav Hunka, the now-notorious 98-year-old former member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, whose members gained international infamy for hunting down anti-Nazi partisans, massacring thousands of civilians, and burning hundreds of Polish villagers alive.

The notion that the Nazi proclivities of figures like Hunka could have escaped Eyre’s notice now appears increasingly remote. In 2017, Ukraine’s Azov Battalion published photos on their website publicizing their meeting with high-level Canadian military officials, who had arrived in Ukraine to help train the notoriously neo-Nazi infested unit, which was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard.

A year later, Azov posted photos on its official social media channels showing Canadian military attaché Col. Brian Irwin meeting with its personnel. Responding to a query from journalist Asa Winstanley, a Canadian military spokesman justified training the fascist military on the grounds that the session “includes ongoing dialogue on the development of a diverse, and inclusive Ukraine.”

Just four months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies sent a letter to then-Acting Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan demanding an investigation into the decision to train Ukrainian neo-Nazis. The Jewish group urged them to ensure that such instruction did not continue.

“If Canada is going to be providing military training to foreign forces, then it is our responsibility to know we are not training neo-Nazis,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, policy director of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. “It is our obligation to our Canadian veterans who sacrificed so much defeating fascism in Europe.”

But such warnings apparently went unheeded. The Canadian military not only declined to discontinue its Nazi-training policies, it escalated its program of coaching avowed fascists. Since Russian military operations in Ukraine kicked off in Feb. 2022, Canada has invested a further $1.6 billion USD in the arming and instructing of Kiev’s military.

On the sidelines of Zelensky’s now-infamous address to the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa authorized the further disbursement of another $483 million USD in aid and training on F-16 fighter jets.

Canada’s scheme of funneling weapons to Kiev and coaching Ukrainian forces officially began in 2014, just months after anti-Russian forces toppled the democratically-elected government of Viktor Yanukovych in a brutal US government-backed coup d’etat. Under the auspices of “Operation UNIFIER,” more than 33,000 Ukrainian troops received “advanced combat instruction by Canadian soldiers,” Canada’s state-affiliated CBC reported in 2022.

Ukraine’s ambassador in Ottawa, Yulia Kovaliv, heralded the training initiative as a “very important initiative.”

“It is also important to further provide Ukraine with heavy weapons,” she added.

In the UK, where Canadian forces frequently travel in order to school Zelensky’s army in the art of killing Russians, the program received a similarly warm welcome. An ebullient British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement at the time that he was “delighted” that “the Canadian Armed Forces will be joining the growing international effort to support the training of Ukrainian soldiers in the UK.”

“Canada’s expertise will provide a further boost to the programme and ensure that the Ukrainian men and women, coming to the UK to train to defend their country, will get a wide pool of experience and skills from both UK forces and our international partners,” Wallace crowed.

Just what exactly the nationalist-leaning members of Ukrainian armed forces did with the training and tacit blessing of Canada has yet to be ascertained. But Azov members have been implicated in a number of war crimes. Despite the unit’s recent push to whitewash its Nazi tendencies, Azov — which has since expanded to a full-fledged brigade under Kiev’s official command — retains as its leader Andrey Biletsky, who once described Ukraine’s role on the global stage as helping to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen.”

Biletsky has taken pains to distance himself from the comment, but the unit has not undertaken similar efforts to distance itself from Biletsky. In September 2023, Biletsky was photographed proudly shaking hands with Zelensky during an intimate meeting with the Ukrainian President on the outskirts of Bakhmut. And Zelensky himself appears to have few problems with publicly associating with the group.

In a post commemorating the encounter with Ukraine’s most celebrated Nazi formation, Zelensky declared: “I am grateful to everyone who defends our country and people, who brings our victory closer.”

October 1, 2023 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

German ambassador applauded Ukrainian Waffen SS Nazi – Berlin

Members of the Canadian parliament stood and gave long ovations for the 98-year-old Hunka when he was introduced during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Friday. Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the enthusiastic participants in the cheers.

Ukrainian Nazi collaborators slaughtered thousands of Poles during World War II. Hunka was among thousands of Ukrainian fighters who were allowed to emigrate to the UK and Canada after World War II, despite their possible participation in war crimes.

https://www.rt.com/news/583676-germany-ambassador-nazi-ovations/ 29 Sept 23

The foreign ministry has claimed that its diplomat was not aware that Yaroslav Hunka fought with a notorious WWII Ukrainian-based battalion

Germany’s Foreign Office has shrugged off the participation of its ambassador to Canada in last week’s embarrassing standing ovations for a Ukrainian veteran of the Waffen SS, saying she was unaware that he was a Nazi when she joined with Ottawa lawmakers in applauding him.

Foreign Office spokesman Sebastian Fischer acknowledged the gaffe for the first time on Wednesday, when asked at a press briefing about Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser’s honoring of World War II Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka.

Members of the Canadian parliament stood and gave long ovations for the 98-year-old Hunka when he was introduced during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Friday. Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the enthusiastic participants in the cheers.

Sparwasser simply didn’t know about Hunka’s Nazi affiliation when she joined with others in applauding him, Fischer claimed. The spokesman conceded that the incident was unacceptable, but Hunka’s true identity was not known to the German diplomat or other members of the crowd because his attendance at the event was not announced beforehand.

However, when House Speaker Anthony Rota introduced his guest to the crowd, he noted that Hunka “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians,” which by definition suggested that he served on the side of the fascist Axis powers. “He’s a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” the speaker said.

Rota resigned from his position on Tuesday and apologized for his mistake in honoring Hunka. The war veteran was a volunteer in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a Ukrainian unit, which committed atrocities against Jews and Poles on the Eastern Front.

Asked about how Sparwasser could fail to understand Hunka’s Nazi affiliation – despite being told that he fought against the Red Army – Fischer said there were other possible explanations for his role in the war. For instance, he theorized, Hunka could have been a fighter for the Polish Home Army, which fought against both German and Russian forces.

Ukrainian Nazi collaborators slaughtered thousands of Poles during World War II. Hunka was among thousands of Ukrainian fighters who were allowed to emigrate to the UK and Canada after World War II, despite their possible participation in war crimes.

Moscow called the incident a cynical abuse of the memory of the victims of Nazism and an example of blatant Russophobia, and said it may launch a probe into potential war crimes and request the extradition of Hunka. Poland, which has been among the top backers of modern-day Ukraine in its fight against Russia, has also urged a probe into potential war crimes committed by Hunka.

September 30, 2023 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

New Brunswick Indigenous communities and Canadians need facts about Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, not sales hype.

Until the government shares facts instead of sales pitches for small modular nuclear reactors, Indigenous nations must assume that representation is not connected to people, but to industry.

BY HUGH AKAGI AND SUSAN O’DONNELL | September 28, 2023

FREDERICTON, N.B.—Governments and other nuclear proponents are failing both Indigenous and settler communities by promoting sales and publicity material about small modular nuclear reactors (SMNRs) instead of sharing facts by independent researchers not tied to the industry.

For decades, nuclear proponents, including both the federal and New Brunswick governments, have focused on the ‘dream of plentiful power’ without highlighting the risks. The nuclear fuel chain—mining uranium, chemically processing the ore, fabricating the fuel, fissioning uranium in a reactor creating toxic radioactive waste remaining hazardous for tens of thousands of years—leaves a legacy of injustices disproportionately felt by Indigenous Peoples and all our relations.

Now the same is happening with the push for SMNRs. We are promised safer reactors by nuclear startup companies in New Brunswick using modifications of reactor designs—molten salt, sodium cooled—that have never operated successfully and safely on a grid anywhere despite billions of dollars of public funds spent in other countries.

Only one example of the misguided SMNR sales pitches for Indigenous and settler communities in New Brunswick is that used CANDU reactor fuel can be “recycled” to make new fuel. The technical name for this process is “reprocessing.” Calling it “recycling” is a buzzword meant to reassure people because the truth is impossible to accept. Less than one per cent of the used fuel at Point Lepreau is plutonium and other elements that could possibly be extracted and re-used for new fuel. The more than 99 per cent left over will be a toxic mess of new kinds of nuclear waste that nobody knows how to safely contain.

The reprocessing method planned for New Brunswick is based on a technology developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars so far, over two decades, attempting to reprocess a small amount of used fuel.

In different countries, commercial reprocessing has been an environmental and financial disaster. In just one example, a small commercial reprocessing plant in the United States operated for six years—heavily subsidized by the federal government and New York state—before shutting down for safety improvements. After the owner abandoned the project in the 1970s, the multi-billion-dollar cleanup continues today.

The research on reprocessing used fuel is clear: it’s an expensive nuclear experiment that could leave a multi-million-dollar mess affecting entire ecosystems and the health of people and other living beings. Why are governments sharing sales and promotional material about the project, and fantasies about ‘recycling’ instead of facts about reprocessing and the experiences in other countries? Why are New Brunswickers and First Nation leaders not demanding the evidence?

The lack of transparency by governments on the risks of SMNRs indicates that either they are not concerned with the risks, or they choose not to share them—the opposite of what is required under the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Much of society’s standards for integrity have been lost. We accept circular references, we accept that no one is declaring a conflict of interest in conversations surrounding nuclear. When our integrity is lost, so is our quality of life. Words such as “protect” and “conservation” have no meaning anymore. Though we use the terms “transparency” and “accountability” more and more often, they have less and less meaning.

The Peskotomuhkati Nation in Canada and Wolastoq Grand Council cannot provide consent for any new nuclear developments in New Brunswick without considering the lessons they have learned in the past, the current relationships and communications they are experiencing, and the impacts of toxic wastes that remain dangerous forever. First Nations in New Brunswick cannot provide consent for toxic radioactive waste to be sent to Ontario, where Indigenous nations also do not want it on their territories.

The Wolastoq Grand Council, which issued a statement on nuclear energy and nuclear waste in 2021, opposes any destruction or harm to Wolastokuk which includes all “Flora and Fauna” in, on, and above their homeland. Nuclear is not a green source of energy, or solution to a healthier future for our children, grandchildren and the ones who are not born yet. Wolastoqewi-Elders define Nuclear in their language as ‘Askomiw Sanaqak,’ which translates as ‘forever dangerous.’

The Peskotomuhkatik ecosystem includes Point Lepreau. The Peskotomuhkati leadership in Canada has repeatedly tried to bring facts about both New Brunswick SMNR projects and their potential environmental implications to the attention of New Brunswickers and all Canadians, writing twice to Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault urging him to designate the SMNR projects in New Brunswick for a federal impact assessment, so that all the facts could be made public. Both attempts were denied, the most recent in August this year.

Peskotomuhkati leadership has participated, and continues to participate, in Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and various provincial processes, and has firsthand experience that these past and current engagement and assessment tools do not provide a sufficient framework to address adverse effects and impacts to Indigenous rights.

The SMNR projects planned for Point Lepreau within Peskotomuhkatik homeland will have profound and lasting impacts on Indigenous rights as well as those of Indigenous communities in Ontario where the nuclear industry is proposing to build a deep geological repository for the used nuclear fuel and other sites for intermediate radioactive waste. The SMNR projects will also have profound and lasting impacts on the Bay of Fundy, the marine life the bay supports, and coastal communities.

Until the government begins to ask for and share facts about SMNRs instead of sales materials, Indigenous nations must assume that representation no longer means peoples’ representation, but rather representation of the industry.

Hugh Akagi is chief of the Peskotomuhkati Nation in Canada. Dr. Susan O’Donnell is the lead investigator of the CEDAR research project at St. Thomas University in Fredericton

September 30, 2023 Posted by | Canada, indigenous issues, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Nuclear experts raise new concerns about industry-led policy proposals to separate plutonium in Canada

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility Sept. 25 2023  http://www.ccnr.org/Media_Release_final_Sept_25_2023.pdf

Twelve internationally recognized nuclear experts have sent an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, expressing new concerns over nuclear weapons proliferation risks associated with a government-funded nuclear reprocessing project in New Brunswick. 

The authors cite new information obtained through Access to Information. They quote from recently released internal documents that reveal a governmental “policy-making process on reprocessing in collaboration with the international CANDU Owners Group (COG)”.

The letter points out that such activity runs counter to the G7 statement that Canada endorsed in Hiroshima, on 19 May 2023, pledging “to reduce the production and accumulation of weapons-usable nuclear material for civil purposes around the world.”

In 2021, Ottawa gave $50.5 million to Moltex, a UK-based company. Moltex plans to separate plutonium and other materials from used nuclear fuel already stored at Point Lepreau nuclear plant on the Bay of Fundy. Moltex hopes to use the materials as fuel in its “molten salt” reactor.

Moltex says its technology is proliferation resistant, that the material extracted is not “weapons usable”. However, the letter cites two expert U.S. studies , published in 2009 and 2023, that challenge that claim. Both conclude that protection against weapons use is marginal at best.

Reprocessing is a technology for extracting plutonium from used nuclear fuel. It is a sensitive technology because plutonium is a nuclear explosive.  Any nation or subnational group with access to separated plutonium can use it to make a nuclear bomb. 

In 1974 India exploded its first atomic bomb using plutonium from a Canadian research reactor.  U.S. President Carter banned reprocessing in 1977, and Canada followed suit by nixing commercial reprocessing in Canada.

Civilian reprocessing runs the risk of spreading the bomb by making weapons-usable materials more easily available. This is especially true when such technology is exported, as Moltex eventually hopes to do. But even without exports, government funding of reprocessing sends a signal to other countries that reprocessing is perfectly acceptable as a civilian energy strategy.

The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility warns that the new information raises questions about the extent to which nuclear promoters are writing public policy on nuclear issues in Canada.

In fact, Canada’s 2019 Impact Assessment Act exempts reprocessing plants of a certain size from Environmental Assessment, implying that such plants are under consideration. A plant producing 100 tonnes of plutonium per year (enough for 15,000 A-Bombs annually) is exempt from review.

Frank von Hippel, PhD, Professor of Peace and International Affaoirs, Princton University, fvhippel@princeton.edu

Gordon Edwards, PhD, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, ccnr@web.ca, (514) 489 5118.

Susan O’Donnell, Coalition for Responsible Energy Development N.B., susanodo.ca@gmail.com , (506) 261 1727

September 29, 2023 Posted by | - plutonium, Canada | Leave a comment

Canadian Parliament Gives Standing Ovation to Man Who Served in Waffen SS

Daily Sceptic, BY NOAH CARL, 24 SEPTEMBER 2023

“…………………………………………….. On September 22nd, Justin Trudeau invited a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man named Yaroslav Hunka to the parliament in Ottawa. Hunka was introduced as a “veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians”. Greeted with a standing ovation, he was described as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero”.

Left out was the fact that Hunka fought with the Nazis as a volunteer in the Waffen SS ‘Galicia Division’.

There seems to some dispute about whether or to what extent this particular unit was involved in atrocities. Wikipedia notes that although it “has not specifically been found guilty of any war crimes by any war tribunal or commission”, the unit faces “numerous accusations”, and goes on to list several atrocities in which it was allegedly involved.

What is true is that by the time the ‘Galicia Division’ was formed in 1943, the Nazis and their collaborators had already murdered hundreds of thousands of Hunka’s fellow citizens (mostly Jews and ethnic Poles). So regardless of exactly what his unit did during the war, fighting with the Nazis against the Soviets is hardly something a Western parliament should be honouring as “heroic”.

Indeed, “heroic” would have been to resist both the Nazis and the Soviets, as some Eastern European partisans did.

My point here is not that ‘Ukrainians are Nazis’. My point is that the Canadian parliament are taking us for fools. They honoured a man with ‘associations’ (to put it mildly) that in any other context they would have viciously denounced. Either that or they didn’t do basic due diligence…………………………………..

Stop Press: The speaker of the Canadian parliament has apologized and accepted responsibility for honouring Hunka. So it seems that neither Trudeau nor the Canadian parliament was aware of Hunka’s role in the Waffen SS. Was not a single parliamentarian just a little bit suspicious?  https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/24/canadian-parliament-gives-standing-ovation-to-man-who-served-in-waffen-ss/

September 29, 2023 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Trudeau warned of nuclear weapon risk over emerging small modular reactors

National Observer, By John Woodside | News, Energy, Politics | September 27th 2023

A dozen nuclear energy experts are calling for a formal risk assessment of emerging nuclear technologies and warning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if a company in New Brunswick were to be successful, its product could be used by other countries to make nuclear bombs.

The open letter sent to the Prime Minister’s Office is dated Sept. 22, and spells out concerns that Saint John-based nuclear startup Moltex is embarking on a risky path. The proposed Moltex reactor is planned to be built at the site of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in Saint John, where it would essentially recycle spent nuclear waste sourced from CANDU reactors to produce more energy. The letter, signed by experts like former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commissioner Peter Bradford, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists Edwin Lyman, George Washington University research professor and former State Department official Sharon Squassoni, says the risk is the plutonium in the used nuclear fuel could be separated and used to make weapons.

Despite Moltex claiming its technology is “proliferation-resistant,” the expert letter says there is “every reason to be skeptical of Moltex’s reactor technology.” The letter points to failed attempts in the United States and the United Kingdom to reprocess nuclear waste as a fuel, resulting in hundreds of billions worth of cleanup costs. To date, Moltex has received at least $50.5 million worth of federal government subsidies, $10 million from New Brunswick, and $1 million from Ontario Power Generation –– and is eyeing roughly $200 million more.

……………………………………………………For the experts who wrote the letter, inadvertently creating a product that could be used to make nuclear weapons is a very real concern, and one with precedent. As the letter to Trudeau details, Canada and the United States were both exporting nuclear reactor technology to India decades ago for power generation purposes and ended up increasing the risk of nuclear war.

“Some of the plutonium India produced and separated with that assistance was used in the plutonium-fuelled prototype bomb India tested in 1974, precipitating the South Asian nuclear arms race,” the letter reads.

Canada and its allies are concerned that as new nuclear technologies are developed, the technology could similarly lead to unexpected nuclear weapon development. In May at the annual G7 meeting, Canada committed “to prioritizing efforts to reduce the production and accumulation of weapons-usable nuclear material for civil purposes around the world.”

The letter requests a nuclear weapons proliferation risk assessment of the technology………………………………………………..

As the energy transition unfolds, nuclear energy is increasingly seen as a contentious fuel. While it is non-emitting, making it a potentially valuable tool in the race to decarbonize, nuclear waste is a long-lasting environmental concern with unclear storage options given it can be hazardous for thousands of years. Moreover, preventing the worst impacts of climate change requires slashing fossil fuel use by about half globally by the end of the decade, meaning experimental technology not yet suitable for use does not have any meaningful role to play in near-term emissions reductions.

In fact, a report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded small modular reactor designs like Moltex’s would struggle to be deployed by 2050, and require tremendous large-scale investment to succeed.  https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/09/27/news/trudeau-warned-nuclear-weapon-risk-over-emerging-small-modular-reactors#:~:text=A%20dozen%20nuclear%20energy%20experts,countries%20to%20make%20nuclear%20bombs.

September 28, 2023 Posted by | Canada, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Canadian parliament and its visitor Zelensky applaud Nazi Waffen SS veteran (VIDEO)

 https://www.rt.com/news/583456-zelensky-trudeau-canada-galician/ 24 Sept 23

The 1st Galician Division, formed from Ukrainian volunteers during WWII, is blamed for multiple atrocities against Poles

Ukraine’s president and Canada’s prime minister greeted a former member of the infamous SS 1st Galician Division, which fought for the Nazis in World War II, as they attended a parliament session in Ottawa, according to images shared by the Associated Press.

One of the photos, taken in the House of Commons on Friday, showed a smiling Vladimir Zelensky clenching his fist and Justin Trudeau offering applause to somebody outside the image.

AP’s caption explained that the two leaders “recognize Yaroslav Hunka, who was in attendance and fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.”

What the US news agency described as “the First Ukrainian Division” was in fact the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician Division.

Similar images have been shared by AFP, which described Hunka, aged 98, as a “Canadian-Ukrainian war veteran.”

Videos from parliament also showed MPs giving a standing ovation to the former Nazi unit fighter.

The 1st Galician Division was assembled the Nazis in 1943, when the Soviet Union was gaining the upper hand on the Eastern Front. It comprised some 80,000 volunteers, mainly Ukrainians, from the region of Galicia, spanning what is now southwest Poland and western Ukraine.

The infamous unit participated in brutal anti-guerrilla operations across Poland and Soviet Ukraine, and were accused of massacres and other atrocities against the Polish, Jewish and Russian civilian populations. It was crushed by the Red Army in July 1944 and soon rebranded as the Ukrainian National Army, before surrendering to the Western Allies after the fall of Berlin in May, 1945. After the war, some of the members of the 1st Galician Division fled to Canada, which has a large Ukrainian diaspora.

During his speech to the Canadian Parliament, Zelensky said Canada has always been on the “bright side of history” during previous wars, and thanked Trudeau’s government for the support it has provided to Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia.

In late August, Zelensky posted an image on social media, featuring a Ukrainian soldier sporting the patch of the 1st Galician Division. Kiev’s troops have also been spotted wearing patches of the notorious 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, one of the worst Nazi penal units, the 3rd SS Panzer Division ‘Totenkopf’, and assorted swastikas and other far-right symbols.

Ukraine is the only country in the world that has integrated openly neo-Nazi militias into its national military. These units were once described by Western media outlets as “neo-Nazi,” but are being referred to as “far-right groups” amid the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

September 26, 2023 Posted by | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Crooked Canadian company Lavalin trying to sell ?zombie nuclear technology to China and UK

flag-canadaCanada now dominates World Bank corruption list, thanks to SNC-Lavalin, Financial Post Armina Ligaya | September 18, 2013 Canada’s corporate image isn’t looking so squeaky-clean in the World Bank’s books — all thanks to SNC-Lavalin.Corruption’s double standard: It’s time to punish countries whose officials accept bribes

 Out of the more than 250 companies year to date on the World Bank’s running list of firms blacklisted from bidding on its global projects under its fraud and corruption policy, 117 are from Canada — with SNC-Lavalin and its affiliates representing 115 of those entries, the World Bank said.

“As it stands today, the World Bank debarment list includes a high number of Canadian companies, the majority of which are affiliates to SNC Lavalin Inc.,” said the bank’s manager of investigations, James David Fielder.

“This is the outcome of a World Bank investigation relating the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh where World Bank investigators closely cooperated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in an effort to promote collective action against corruption.”

As a result of the misconduct found during the probe, the Montreal-based engineering and construction firm, and its affiliates as per World Bank policy, were debarred in April 2013 for 10 years, as part of a settlement with SNC-Lavalin. And in one fell swoop, 115 Canadian firms were blacklisted by the World Bank, making Canada seemingly look like the worst offending country.

It’s quite the jump from 2012, when no Canadian companies were barred……..http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/18/canada-now-dominates-world-bank-corruption-list-thanks-to-snc-lavalin/

corruption

Lavalin looks to expand nuclear enterprise in China  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/lavalin-looks-to-grow-in-china/article17950935/ SHAWN MCCARTHY – GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail, Apr. 13 2014,  SNC-Lavalin Inc. is hoping to revitalize its international nuclear business through an effort with its Chinese partners to burn reprocessed fuel in a Candu reactor as a way to reduce radioactive waste.

Officials from Candu Energy Inc. are leading a Canadian nuclear industry mission to China this week, which will include a visit Monday to the Qinshan nuclear power station south of Shanghai where two heavy-water Candu 6 reactors are in operation. Candu Energy is the former Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and is now wholly owned by SNC-Lavalin

The Mississauga-based nuclear vendor has been working with the Chinese operator of the Qinshan plants to fashion reprocessed fuel from the waste products of competing light-water reactors. The Candu could, in effect, become the blue box of the nuclear industry, company executives said in an interview.

“We’re very excited that this advances the discussion we can have about introducing more Candus into China,” Jerry Hopwood, the company’s vice-president of marketing and product development, said.

Candu reactors use heavy water, which includes a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, both for coolant and to moderate atomic reactions. Light-water reactors use ordinary water for both purposes.

Each approach offers different benefits, but the world market is dominated by light-water reactors, which require enriched uranium as fuel. In contrast, the heavy-water Candus can burn natural uranium as well as reprocessed fuel.

Mr. Hopwood said China now has 21 light-water reactors that produce two streams of energy-rich waste: spent fuel from the reactor itself and depleted uranium from the enrichment process. China plans to more than double its number of light-water reactors to meet the demands of its growing economy.

“Those reactors are going to produce a lot of waste fuel and China has a plan to recycle all the waste fuel from its reactor,” Mr. Hopwood said. “We believe there is a very strong opportunity to sell a significant number of Candu units in China.”

He said the partners have completed all the development and licensing work, and the Chinese operators expect to begin running reprocessed fuel in the two Candu reactors at an industrial level by the end of the year.

The company is also working with Chinese partners to modify the existing Enhanced Candu model so it will more efficiently burn the recycled fuel but also run on thorium, an abundant alternative to uranium that produces less highly radioactive waste. China has vast reserves of thorium but must import uranium, and develop a thorium-fired reactor.

As well, Candu Energy is one of two finalists in the United Kingdom’s competition to select a reactor design that will eliminate a stockpile of plutonium. “We think this work in China is paving the way for other options where Candu’s fuel-cycle ability is a benefit, notably in the U.K.,” Mr. Hopwood said.

The trade delegation will include Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, Reza Moridi, who is a nuclear physicist, and several business leaders from the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries, an Ontario-based suppliers’ group that is eager to land export and service business in the world’s fast growing reactor market.

Critics contend the Candu 6 is an outdated design that lacks safety features included in newer reactors, and that it is a technology that the international marketplace has largely rejected since the 1990s.

“So yeah, the industry is trying to say Candu isn’t dead. Never say die,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace Canada. “If Candu isn’t dead, it’s a zombie.”

September 14, 2023 Posted by | Canada, politics international, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Don’t underestimate ravages of climate crisis when storing nuclear waste:

Meg Sears, 11 Sept 23, https://preventcancernow.ca/dont-underestimate-ravages-of-climate-crisis-when-storing-nuclear-waste/

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission should heed Mother Nature’s warning and deny the present proposal. In today’s weather, much less the future, the commission is unlikely to meet its goal to keep nuclear waste secure for hundreds of years.

What happens when a federal Environmental Impact Assessment is fundamentally flawed? Will authorities pause for a rethink when a key assumption and design limitation of the assessment is wrong, risking catastrophic failure? 

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is facing this late-day reality test as it is poised to rule whether the Chalk River can go ahead as planned.

The 2021 Environmental Impact Statement for near-surface nuclear waste disposal lists severe rainfall as the top risk for stability of the hillside site. Excessive rain could result in the nuclear waste being swept down the hill and into Perch Lake, Perch Creek, and the Ottawa River a kilometre away. Chemicals would pollute the ecosystem and food sources, as well as drinking water for millions of people in smaller towns, as well as in Ottawa and cities downstream. 

On Aug. 10, 2023, where the Rideau, Ottawa and Gatineau rivers tumble together, chiefs of Kebaowek, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and Mitchibikonik Inik First Nations, elders and other experts, made final submissions to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. As they spoke against the nuclear waste disposal site at Chalk River, attendees heard the roar of rain drumming on the roof. 

During this event, Ottawa streets and basements flooded, traffic stopped, power failed, sewers backed up, and more than 300 million litres of untreated water flowed into the Ottawa River. At least, unlike nuclear waste, untreated sewer water degrades within weeks—not years or generations. 

The Environmental Impact Statement weather severity estimates are out of date. It defines “heavy rainfall” to be more than 0.7 cm per hour—one seventh of what fell during the hearing. The statement also cites a 2013 estimate of low tornado risks—an insult to fresh memories of catastrophic tornadoes and derechos in Eastern Ontario.

The acceleration of climate disasters is boggling Canada’s long-term predictions of the scale of extreme weather. The nuclear waste disposal facility was designed to withstand end-of-the century estimates of less than five cm of precipitation in a day for Deep River, and over five cm in a day—not an hour—for Ottawa. 

Ottawa’s not alone in breaking rainfall records. July 2023 brought rainfall disasters to Nova Scotia, with rainfall up to 50 cm per hour measured in one location. Much of the province experienced 20 cm in a day, causing widespread damage. The climate predictions from the federal government call for much less—up to 9 cm in a day by the end of the century.  

If an Environmental Impact Assessment for a bridge was discovered to be flawed—that the bridge would not withstand a storm as severe as what occurred just last month—it would be pause for thought and a good reason to reconsider the plans. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission should heed the warning from Mother Nature and deny the present proposal. In today’s weather, much less the coming years’, the Commission is unlikely to meet its objective to keep nuclear waste secure for hundreds of years.

September 13, 2023 Posted by | Canada, climate change, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear Waste Dump Threatens Kichi Sìbì (Ottawa River)

Indigenous Climate Action, August 23

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is pushing forward construction of a Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF), otherwise known as a nuclear waste dump, less than 1 kilometre away from the Kichi Sìbì (the Ottawa River) without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the Algonquin Nations whose territory they are on.

On June 20, impacted nations spoke out against the project during a news conference where they also made public an Indigenous-led Assessment of the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Near Surface Disposal Facility And Legacy Contamination Of Algonquin Aki Sibi.

The chiefs made it clear that this project is a direct threat to the rights of Indigenous peoples and the project would pose serious threats to culture, land, water and wildlife. It is important to understand that this is not just a risk to Indigenous communities; it is a risk to everyone who lives along the Ottawa River, including residents in Ottawa who rely on the river for their water and livelihood.

Nuclearization of Indigenous Land

Beginning nearly eighty years ago with the establishment of the Chalk River Laboratories along the Kichi Sìbì, sitting on unceded Algonquin territory, Indigenous nations have been facing the expansion of so-called Canada’s nuclear industry. The Chalk River Laboratories sits across the river from a noted community spiritual site, Oiseau Rock, near the lumbering town of Chalk River.

The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is a branch of the federal crown corporation, the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). Chalk River Laboratories are owned by CNL, and operated by the Canadian National Energy Alliance, a private-sector holding company—that is not under direct control of the government—overseen by SNC-Lavalin.

“This nuclear site is already leeching radioactive pollution into the Ottawa River in the form of Tritium, which is radioactive hydrogen, and it’s only going to get progressively worse. And there’s no treatment for Tritium. So CNL and CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) will tell you that they are going to build a treatment plant, but you know in our world we know that you never build your treatment plant above where you collect your drinking water—and this is precisely what CNSC is going to do.” — Chief Lance Haymond (Kebaowek First Nation)

While CNSC claims that it had signed an agreement and received consent from the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn, in truth, they consulted only one voice of the Algonquin nation, the remaining ten communities oppose the project and have not given their consent.

“The Canadian government has failed its duty to consult with us. We also point out that approving this dump would violate UNDRIP… we do not consent with the construction of the NSDF in our territory. We believe that consultation has been inadequate, and our Indigenous rights are threatened by this proposal.”

— Chief Dylan Whiteduck (Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/entries/nuclear-dump-threatens-kichi-sibi

September 7, 2023 Posted by | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment

Focus on renewables, not nuclear, to fuel Canada’s electric needs

Relying on nuclear power goes against the evidence. The smart money is on renewables. Solar and wind energy make much more sense.

Policy Options, by Martin Bush, September 1, 2023

The demand for electricity continues to rise as countries transition to an electrified economy. To ensure an adequate and reliable supply during peak hours, governments must decide which energy technologies should be prioritized and developed to help with this transition.

Nuclear power is certainly in the running for providing this essential service, but it’s not the best option. Refurbishing aging CANDU reactors and investing in unproven nuclear technology, such as small nuclear reactors (SMRs), will waste money that could otherwise be invested in renewable energy solutions.

That’s where the smart money is – renewables – and all the evidence points to why.  Electricity from nuclear energy is too expensive.

According to the World Nuclear Industry 2022 Status Report, nuclear energy’s share of global electricity generation in 2021 was 9.8 per cent – its lowest level in four decades – and substantially below its peak of 17.5 per cent in 1996.

Nuclear energy is being outpaced by non-hydro renewables, which in 2021 increased their share of global power generation to 12.8 per cent.

Between 2009 and 2021, utility-scale solar energy costs plummeted by 90 per cent, while similar wind energy costs dropped by 72 per cent. In contrast, nuclear costs increased by 36 per cent.

The cost of electricity generated by solar and onshore wind is in the range of 2.4 to 9.6 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, (¢/kWh) while the cost of electricity from nuclear is estimated as anywhere between 14 and 22 ¢/kWh. It’s not even close.

In 2021, total investment in non-hydro renewable electricity capacity reached a record US$366 billion, 15 times the reported global investment in nuclear power plants of US$24 billion. Investments in solar energy were 8.5 times and wind six times the investments in nuclear energy.

Globally, the cost of renewable-produced electricity is now significantly below not only nuclear power but also gas. According to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wind and solar power are now the cheapest form of new electricity in most countries, including Canada. Bloomberg anticipates it will be more expensive to operate existing coal or fossil gas power plants within five years than to build new solar or wind farms.

Unsurprisingly, it is wind farms and large solar installations that are being built in record numbers……………………………………………………………………………………… more https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/september-2023/renewables-not-nuclear-electric-canada/

September 3, 2023 Posted by | Canada, renewable | 1 Comment

New Brunswick Power has its head stuck in uranium

 Tom McLean and Susan O’Donnell,, September 1, 2023  https://nbmediacoop.org/2023/09/01/commentary-nb-power-has-its-head-stuck-in-uranium/

NB Power seems to want to be a nuclear utility no matter how much it costs or whether or not the nuclear technology works because… well, just because. The utility’s 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) released in July states that small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are critical to developing a clean and cost-effective power grid in New Brunswick, although NB Power does not know when, or if, SMRs will become available or the cost.

Oh, and if the experimental SMRs are not available, the plan instead is to use wind and solar power, complemented by storage and biomass.

Why are renewables not the first choice for NB Power, given that wind and solar power costs are well known and very inexpensive, and storage cost is in free fall? The answer is not in the IRP.

In fact, the IRP suggests that SMRs are not critical since alternative pathways to a clean grid already exist without them. But NB Power wants to ignore that. The IRP states that integrating wind and solar instead, as an alternative to SMRs “… has not been studied in New Brunswick before.” Why has NB Power not undertaken this study?

Maybe because they won’t like the answer many researchers have already uncovered.

Wind, solar and storage are proven technologies with shrinking costs, and they outperform nuclear power on cost and reliability. Wind and solar are even predictable – meteorologists predict them every day with ample accuracy for power production.

With distributed generation, storage and inter-jurisdiction connections, New Brunswick can produce all its own power less expensively with renewables and without nuclear risk. The IRP’s poor assumptions about installed capacity, curtailment, storage, and use of interconnections are astounding. Properly deployed storage and interconnections significantly limit the amount of curtailment and required capacity.  The IRP failed to note that interconnections provide both a source of capacity and a market for excess wind and solar production and, according to the previous 2020 IRP, the cheapest option for capacity is using interconnections.

Three years ago, the 2020 IRP showed the cost of the existing (non-experimental) NB Power nuclear plant at Point Lepreau as $117/MWh or 11.7¢ per kWh. NB Power currently sells power to residents at 12.27¢ per kWh. The cost of nuclear power has likely risen since 2020, meaning NB Power has either negligible returns or more likely, loses money on every nuclear kWh sold to New Brunswick households, and that cost does not even include the cost of transmission, distribution and administration. Is increasing the NB Power debt with every nuclear transaction the reasonable power cost Minister Holland has in mind when he talks about the expected costs of SMNR power?

Why is NB Power’s head stuck in uranium? Many jurisdictions have moved or are moving to a clean electrical grid with renewable power. For example, these countries are already managing higher penetrations of wind power than NB Power: Demark 55%; Ireland 33%; UK 25%; Germany 22%. The same for some US states: Maine 27%, South Dakota, 55%, Idaho 17%. The South Australia power grid broke records when it recently ran for over 10 days on 100% wind and solar power.

The 2023 IRP describes SMRs, a non-existing technology, as a critical piece of the future grid but ignores both existing storage technologies such as thermal storage for district heating and closed loop pumped storage hydro. If novel technology is desired, consider those coming to market in the next two years, such as 100-hour iron-air batteries at less than half the cost of lithium-ion batteries, and Canadian closed-loop geothermal technology currently in pilot.

The Point Lepreau nuclear generating station has matured into a big white elephant. Unplanned and intermittent shutdowns are a main reason NB Power loses money every year, and the original reactor build and refurbishment are responsible for three-quarters of the utility’s massive debt. Last year, NB Power applied for a 25-year licence renewal for the Lepreau reactor; the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission instead gave it 10 years, citing the huge public interest (mostly negative), and mandated another licence review in 2027.

By then, the exorbitant costs of the speculative nuclear SMRs will be clear but New Brunswick needs to start now on a prudent pathway to a clean grid using renewable power. Will we continue to support blind faith in a speculative uranium-fuelled future, or will we go with renewable wind and sunshine? Minister Holland and NB Power would do well to start a re-think now about which way the wind is blowing.

Tom McLean is a retired software developer living in New Maryland. Dr. Susan O’Donnell is the lead researcher of the CEDAR project at St. Thomas University.

September 2, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Proposed radioactive waste dump in Deep River met with opposition at final hearing.

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission heard final arguments Thursday

Guy Quenneville · CBC News · Aug 10, 2023

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) held its final hearings in Ottawa on Thursday into a proposed radioactive waste disposal site further north in the Ottawa Valley that is fiercely opposed by Algonquin First Nation groups. 

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) wants to build an engineered mound near the ground’s surface on the Chalk River Laboratories site, located in Deep River, Ont., and on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinābe people. It’s about 190 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. ……………………….

Should be asking our permission’ 

The disposal site was proposed years ago, with the commission launching an environmental assessment back in 2016.

Opposition to the project, from Indigenous groups and municipalities, has intensified in the years since. 

In 2017, the Assembly of First Nations accused the commission and the federal government of failing to meet their constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations.

“They should be asking for our permission … and right now we have the Algonquin people saying no,” Chief Casey Ratt of Algonquins of Barriere Lake said during a pause in Thursday’s hearing.

The project is also of concern because of its proximity to Kichi Zibi (the Algonquin name for the Ottawa River) and because the site is near Algonquin sacred sites at Oiseau Rock and Pointe au Baptême, according to Kebaowek First Nation, another Algonquin group calling on the commission to reject the project.

CNL’s plan includes releasing effluent from a wastewater treatment plant into Perch Lake, a point of concern for the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation.

“There is no public access to the Perch Creek and Perch Lake watershed where … effluent discharges will occur,” the company has argued in a written submission to the commission. 

Justin Roy of Kebaowek First Nation told the commission there are risks that can’t be ignored. 

“When building a camp and you need potable drinking water and you build a well, you don’t go and build your outhouse beside that well,” Roy said. 

What happens next 

The commission describes itself as an independent administrative tribunal set up at arm’s length from government, without ties to the nuclear industry.

The group’s hearings into the proposed facility began in person in February and May of 2022, were supposed to pick up in June 2023, but were adjourned to Thursday, taking place over Zoom. 

“[That’s] not our ways,” Chief Dylan Whiteduck of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation said of the online format. 

“We were only provided an hour to give our final statement, which to us is obviously disrespectful,” he added. 

The commission has yet to issue its final report on whether CNL’s site licence can be amended, which would allow the company to build the disposal facility. ……………………………………………..

The commission said it may be “several months” for a decision to be made and published.

https://tinyurl.com/ms3ujcu4

August 13, 2023 Posted by | Canada, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Background to  Proposed radioactive waste dump in Deep River -opposition from indigenous and non-indigenous groups

Gordon Edwards 11 Aug 23
A consortium of multinational corporations, headed by SNC-Lavalin, was hired by the government of Canada in 2015 to “reduce the liability” associated with federally owned radioactive wastes. The dollar value of that liability has been estimated to exceed $7 billion.For the last 5 1/2 years, the consortium has been proposing to store the most voluminous waste in a “megadump” intended to hold about one million cubic metres of radioactive and nonradioactive toxic wastes in perpetuity. The proposed dump is essentially a landfill operation one kilometre from the Ottawa River, a heritage river that courses through the nation’s capital and feeds into the St Lawrence River at Montreal. 

A consortium of multinational corporations, headed by SNC-Lavalin, was hired by the government of Canada in 2015 to “reduce the liability” associated with federally owned radioactive wastes. The dollar value of that liability has been estimated to exceed $7 billion.

For the last 5 1/2 years, the consortium has been proposing to store the most voluminous waste in a “megadump” intended to hold about one million cubic metres of radioactive and nonradioactive toxic wastes in perpetuity. The proposed dump is essentially a landfill operation one kilometre from the Ottawa River, a heritage river that courses through the nation’s capital and feeds into the St Lawrence River at Montreal. 

The project is opposed by all but one of the 11 Algonquin communities on whose unsurrendered territory the megadump is to be sited. It is part of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories site – land that was stolen from the Algonquin Nation in 1944. The federal government expropriated the site on national security grounds, required for the World War II Atomic Bomb Project, without asking or notifying or compensating the Algonquins for whom the site had cultural and religious significance for thousands of years.

On Thursday August 10, 2023, three Algonquin communities gave their final arguments to two members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Both of these Commissioners had previously worked for many years for the nuclear industry. The Algonquins were not allowed to present in person before the Commissioners, so they rented a hall for $8000 and had their own live audience to witness the proceedings as they made their presentations to the Commissioners by zoom.

In addition to Chiefs, elders, councillors, researchers and lawyers from three Algonquin communities – Kebaowek First Nation, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, and Barriere Lake First Nation – there were in attendance members of several Algoquin communities, as well as many non-Indigenous people. The latter included representatives from federal parliamentarians, mayors of local communities, Ottawa city councillors, and representatives of the following Non-Governmental Organizations:

Ottawa Riverkeeper, Grennspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital, Ecology Ottawa, Ottawa River Institute, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Canadian Environmental Law Association, The Atomic Photographers’ Guild, First United Church Water Care Allies, Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association, Ottawa Charter of the Council of Canadians, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, Pontiac Environmental Protection, Friends of the Earth, Ottawa Raging Grannies, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Ottawa Valley), Biodiversity Conservancy International, Bonnechere River Watershed Project, Council of Canadians Regional, Coalition Against Nuclear Dumps on the Ottawa River, National Capital Peace Council.

Mony of the non-Indigenous representatives who came to hear the Algonquin Nations final arguments before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) signed their names to the following statement:

“NO CONSENT, NO DUMP.      August 10, 2023″Today, CNSC conducts its final hearings on the planned ‘megadump’ at Chalk River – a gigantic mound of radioactive and non-radioactive toxic wastes, seven stories high, one kilometre from the Ottawa River. Most of the radionuclides to be dumped have half-lives of more than 5000 years. 99 percent of the initial radioactivity is from profit-making companies – waste that is imported for permanent disposal at public expense.

“Chalk River is sited on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation. The Kebaowek and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Algonquin communities do not consent to this radioactive and toxic dump, which is euphemistically called a Near Surface Disposal

Facility (NSDF).“We are non-Indigenous citizens. We do not presume to speak on behalf of Indigenous peoples, but as proud Canadians we wish to state clearly that if CNSC grants permission for the NSDF despite the lack of free, prior and informed consent from the Kebaowek and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, it will be an act that dishonours all Canadians.

“We – and many others across Canada – regard such a decision as a blow to the process of reconciliation. It will set a dire precedent by suggesting that Indigenous consent is not a priority. Such a development could set back the cause of reconciliation for  generations.”[56 signatures by attendees]

August 13, 2023 Posted by | Canada, indigenous issues, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Sombre ceremony outside Manitoba Legislature illuminates push to eradicate nuclear weapons

Lanterns of Peace ceremony marks 78th anniversary of atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki

CBC, Nathan Liewicki · Aug 10, 2023

More than 100 lanterns, each painted with unique patterns and messages of symbolism, floated on the fountain on the south side of the Manitoba Legislative Building on Wednesday evening.

As the sunset shortly after 9 p.m., a candle in the middle of each lantern was lit, commemorating Winnipeg’s annual Lanterns for Peace ceremony.

The event, which started in Winnipeg in the mid-1990s, marked the 78th anniversary of the Allies dropping an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Three days earlier, Hiroshima was hit with a nuclear bomb.

The number of casualties stemming from the two atomic bombs is unknown, but it’s estimated that between 130,000 and 230,000 civilians and soldiers lost their lives.

Less than a week after the second bomb was dropped, Japan surrendered, ending the Second World War on Aug. 15, 1945.

Terumi Kuwada is a third-generation Japanese-Canadian. She was previously a member of the committee which organized the ceremony.

Kuwada called the ceremony both serious and spiritual.

“It’s a very sombre and serene kind of moment when all the lanterns are lit up and floating … almost like a spiritual awakening,” she said. “It is really a time to remembers innocent citizens of the atomic bomb, as well as advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

unko Bailey grew up in Nagasaki. The detonation of the second atomic bomb is especially significant to her.

A member of the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba, Bailey learned about how the atomic bomb in her hometown affected her father and so many others. Bailey’s father was 82 years old when he died last February.

“Luckily, his family was evacuated to a different part of Japan so he was not directly affected by the bomb, but most of our relatives were still in Nagasaki city and were exposed to the radiation in the area,” Bailey said. “A lot of my uncles and aunts passed away, if not immediately, seven days after, or a year later from leukemia, the radiation disease.”……………………………………………………………………………… more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/lanterns-peace-nagasaki-commemoration-manitoba-1.6932149

August 11, 2023 Posted by | Canada, PERSONAL STORIES, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

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