Stop the Hogs!

How We Kicked Nuclear Out Of Alberta - Pat McNamara

[ http://www.patmcnamara.ca/ ]

All Pressure, All Places, All The Time

Albertans learned a very important lesson when Bruce Power cancelled its plans to build nuclear reactors in Alberta in December 2011: we can stop projects we don’t want in our community.

This book is not about the merits of nuclear power in Alberta. The Fukushima disaster, the unwillingness of the community to host the project, soaring reactor costs and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL) repeated failures and eventual fragmentation put an end to that debate.

This is about the corrupt and self-serving practices of industry, governments and academia we encountered in Alberta while scrutinizing Bruce Power’s nuclear proposal. It is also a “how-to” book for communities who have to deal with major issues or threats.

In our case, a dozen groups of Albertans from Manning to Lethbridge spent four years exposing the toxic and costly legacy of the nuclear industry. These weren’t tree-huggers. The majority were “mama bear housewives” protecting their cubs and farmers driving full-sized pickup trucks husbanding the land. As our opponents found out, this is not a good demographic to mess with. There were nurses, teachers, truck drivers, a lot of anonymous provincial employees, many youth, a couple of full time activists and a few tree-huggers.

The opposition by grass-roots groups began in a conventional manner; we brought in speakers, wrote letters to newspapers, contacted our elected officials and spread information to educate our friends and families. Within two years, it became apparent our three levels of government were conducting illegal activities and lying to us in order to silence our opposition to the project. Once this occurred, we completely changed our tactics.

Residents living closest to the proposed reactor site formed two new groups and quit being ‘polite Canadians’. We resorted to ambushing officials, public shaming, erecting massive signs and other aggressive actions. It wasn’t long before the politicians, bureaucrats and other sycophants started bailing out on Bruce Power. As with most bullies, they didn’t know how to deal with people who fight back.

I make no apologies for aggressively harassing the individuals and institutions supporting the nuclear project as Albertans had to give up thousands of hours of their family-time and hundreds of thousands of dollars to stop this unnecessary and insidious project.

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Book: How We Kicked Nuclear Out Of Alberta,
Author: Pat McNamara
http://www.patmcnamara.ca/buy-now.php
PRICE: $20.00 Including GST and SHIPPING To Canada and USA

Cheques may be mailed to:

Pat McNamara, Box 92, Lund, British Columbia, V0N 2G0

NOTE: 5$ from every book sold in Saskatchewan will be donated to an anti-nuclear group in Saskatchewan

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Some Background/Photos:

http://www.stopthehogs.com/pdf/weberville.pdf

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The Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan

http://www.cleangreensask.ca/

Go to URL above for all Links in text below.....

As citizens we face a momentous public decision regarding our province's future. Use this website to become more informed about the nuclear issue and renewable energy alternatives in Saskatchewan.

The "Learn More" section has detailed information and links on the key issues we are facing. Click on the links in the sidebar to your left to find pages on upcoming events, local communities, downloadable materials, and contact information. Take Action! has suggestions for what you can do. For regular updates, subscribe to our email information list. Send us an email or visit us on Facebook.

Read more about us:

The Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan

http://www.cleangreensask.ca/Home/about-us-1

(CCGS) is a growing network of diverse, grass-roots organizations across rural, northern and urban Saskatchewan that supports us quickly moving
towards a sustainable society.

We oppose Bruce Power building nuclear plants in Saskatchewan because:

1.Nuclear power obstructs an effective climate change strategy

2.The nuclear fuel chain endangers environmental health

3.The nuclear industry is involved in the proliferation of nuclear weapons

4.Full costing of nuclear power rules it out as an economically viable energy option

Changing our energy system through a combination of conservation, energy efficiency, co-generation, wind, solar photovoltaic, biomass and small-scale hydro is vital to a Nuclear Free Future.

Rather than moving towards sustainable energy, our provincial government established the Saskatchewan Uranium Development Partnership (SUDP) giving the nuclear industry the inside track for setting provincial energy policy. In the name of adding economic value to the uranium industry, serious consideration is being given to expanding the nuclear fuel chain in our province.

The above stated four major points clearly demonstrate why nuclear power is not in the public interest for present or future citizens of Saskatchewan

If your organization agrees with the Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan position, please sign on to this statement.

To find out how to get in touch, see contact us.
Visit us on Facebook!

FORWORD: BOOK: "How We Kicked Nuclear Out Of Alberta" by Pat McNamara

Foreword by Brent Reese July, 2012

When Pat asked me to write this foreword, I told him that I would be honoured to do it. I think this is a story that should be read by all Canadians. It concerns every one of us who value democracy and freedom.

As I look back on these events it all seems somewhat surreal that of all the places in Canada that could host a nuclear facility, industry would initially choose to come here to a shallow lake that barely has enough water to float a sailboat. Surreal that virtually all of our elected officials would jump on the bandwagon without any independent research or due diligence despite the obviously inappropriate location of the first proposed nuclear site.

Events chronicled in this book provide an X-ray of our entire political system . The reader can make the prognosis. These events drove a wedge between neighbours and friends and sometimes even family members. It also united people who had been on opposite sides of the political fence and got people working together who hadn’t spoken to each other for years.

Over a couple of years I had the opportunity to work closely with the author. Along with a few other volunteers, we rented halls in small communities for information sessions. We travelled to Edmonton to rallies at the legislature and to the University of Alberta to counter disinformation, participated in debates, met with other groups, wrote letters, published ads in the local paper, went door to door surveying resident’s opinions. All of it on a shoestring budget.

We didn’t always agree on tactics and there were arguments. Pat generally favoured the “sledgehammer” approach as opposed to due process and diplomacy (which he referred to as blowing kisses). However his level of commitment to the ultimate goal was unmatched by anything I’ve seen before or since and results speak for themselves.

I remember when we travelled to the Treaty 8 meeting in High Level. As usual we were operating on very limited funds and I couldn’t stay, so I dropped Pat off at the meeting on the Bushe River Reserve and returned a couple of days later. All he had with him was a sleeping bag, a box of printed material, a banner that read “ Keep Alberta Nuclear Free” and a feeling that something good would come of his time spent there. I asked him where he would sleep and he assured me that he would “Find some place.” As you’ll read here, this resulted in us later receiving information which embarrassed the federal government, exposed three federal regulatory agencies to public scrutiny and cast doubt on their credibility.

I feel privileged to have worked with the author of this book and we owe him a debt of gratitude for the role he played here while making a personal and financial sacrifice. Nobody else would or could have done what he did. I have great memories of those nights when we sat in the greenhouse, having a couple of beers and plotting our next move.

These events should provide encouragement to those who think there is little the average person can do to influence events on a large scale. I urge everyone to read this book about how a few people with very little money, but a lot of guts and determination, took on a giant industry with millions of dollars to spend, confronted all three levels of government and eventually won. It’s all true and like the cliché, it really is stranger than fiction. Enjoy.

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Brent Reese, a local farmer in the Manning, AB area, was the Chair of Earth Alternatives, a grass-roots organization formed to stop the proposal to build nuclear reactors in Alberta. He now serves as a councillor for the County of Northern Lights.

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This is the link to the website to purchase the book

http://www.patmcnamara.ca/


This is the facebook page for the book.

http://www.facebook.com/HowWeKickedNuclearOutOfAlberta