Quebec: North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration

Quebec: North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration
from the Eagle Watch #21
December 6, 2009

This is another forward from Gordon Edwards which contains important information. If you could forward it on to the Dine and the Dene, that would be great. There's a new enviro group in Nunavut and they need all the help they can get before they are bamboozled by corporate shit now being flung at them in large shovelfuls.

It's time overdue for EVERYONE to speak out against the atrocities of the nuclear fuel cycle which begins with the genocide of mining. Indigenous sellouts and assorted greedy bastards need to be severely rebuked for their role in this destruction that will affect generations to come for thousands of years.

Maybe we need a list just for nuclear topic?! If you want to get onto Gordon Edwards list, send him an email at

Kittoh

We welcome your feedback! Forward, post and consider printing for your cyberphobic friends and relatives.
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From: Gordon Edwards
Subject: Quebec: North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 16:37:24 -0500


North Shore doctors threaten to
resign en masse over uranium
exploration

Montreal Gazette, December 4, 2009

MONTREAL -- Quebec’s Liberal government must stop uranium
exploration near Sept Îles and declare a moratorium on uranium
mining activities across the province to avoid the mass resignation
of 20 doctors in the North Shore town, a Sept Îles doctor said
Friday.

“I want to work in a place where the government listens to citizens
and where medical opinions are respected,” said Bruno Imbeault, a
pulmonologist at the Centre Hospitalier et des Services Sociaux de
Sept Îles.

Imbeault is one of 20 doctors at the Sept Îles hospital who signed an
open letter to Health Minister Yves Bolduc pledging to resign unless
uranium exploration activities in the area are stopped. The hospital
employs 60 doctors in total.

The doctors oppose a proposed uranium mine at Kachiwiss Lake,
about 13 kilometres from Sept Îles, because they believe it will harm
the environment and the health of area residents.

Imbeault said the impact on health care in the region if one-third of
the doctors leave would be “catastrophic”, but the doctors believe
they must protect themselves and their families, and could not do
so without publicly warning residents.

“Fearing for the health of the population and our own personal
health as well as that of our families (particularly our children), we,
the signatories, have decided to leave the region, and many of us,
the province...” said the letter, sent to Bolduc on Thursday.

The doctors are concerned about radon and other so-called “decay
products” of uranium, which can contaminate air and water around
a mine and cause lung cancer in humans. The letter adds that even
residents of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke should be
concerned about exposure to radiation because of widespread
uranium mining across Quebec.

Imbeault said he and his colleagues began discussing mass
resignation last month when they learned the Quebec government
had authorized access routes to the mine site.

On Wednesday, the Liberal government tabled a new law on mining
that did not call for a moratorium on uranium mining, despite protests
and demands for a moratorium from the city council of Sept Iles, the
Innus of Uashat-Maliotenam, dozens of environment and social groups,
the Parti Québécois, Québec Solidaire and several members of the
Bloc Québécois. British Columbia and Nova Scotia have declared
moratoriums on uranium mining activities .

In the National Assembly, yesterday, Serge Simard, junior natural
resources minister responsible for mining noted that no uranium
mining is being done yet.