TRIBUTE TO FRED PEDERSON (1941-2023)

[Oscar]

TRIBUTE TO FRED PEDERSON

[ https://www.facebook.com/sayno2nuclearwaste ]

(Photo credit - Jenalene Antony)

Warrior, Elder, Friend, Truth-Teller, a Man who walked the talk and cared with all his heart, Fred Pederson of Pinehouse Lake, Saskatchewan, passed away peacefully on February 18th with his loving family by his side. He was 81.
Fred “Peanuts” Pederson was one of the toughest, most hardworking and generous men in the north. For many years he ran a small private logging company that employed a good number of young men in sustainable logging practices. He and his beloved wife Bella Marie raised their children on the land in Pinehouse. He loved his family and community dearly.
No matter how difficult things got, Fred’s sense of humour kept you laughing, and if there’s one thing that rattles your enemies, it’s humour, as what they count on is intimidating whistleblowers into silence. Not Fred. He was as funny as he was brave. They say that true warriors are protectors, and that was Fred - our "Warrior in le Paulette", with a twinkle in his eye. Fred was especially proud of the cap he is wearing in this portrait, adorned with beadwork created especially for him by friend and ally, Candyce Paul, of English River First Nation.
Leaders worthy of their titles would have valued people like Fred in their community, but instead, he was challenged at every turn in his courageous attempts to seek accountability for the sake of his neighbours, his children and grandchildren.
In 2010, Fred and a couple other community members had been trying to hold Pinehouse administration accountable to disclose their financials - access to which every citizen in a municipality has the right - but with no success. Then in 2011, they became aware that the administration, without consulting their citizens, was embedded in site selection process with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), to store nuclear waste north of the village.
With the prospect of a nuclear waste dump in their back yard, on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars remaining unaccounted for, Fred and his allies decided enough was enough. They started asking questions at community meetings about dealings by administration with NWMO, but instead of concrete answers, they were bullied, intimidated and threatened in front of the crowd by council members and hired goons. Despite how traumatic this repeated abuse was, Fred and his friends persisted, but Pinehouse administration continued to deny any financial compensation from NWMO.
It was later discovered through Freedom of Information requests which Fred assisted in submitting, that council members were in fact receiving money from NWMO for undergoing site selection process, one individual to the tune of over $5000/month to act as a liaison between NWMO and the community, when in reality he was feared throughout the village due to his violent reputation.
Then Pinehouse administration went too far. They invited regional Elders to a prayer circle for the stated purpose of finding solutions to high suicide rates in the north, but the Elders instead found themselves hijacked mid-circle by NWMO-funded community liaisons, attempting to promote nuclear waste storage in the north as the answer to youth suicide. All but two Elders walked out, with the two remaining only in an attempt to gather facts about what forces were behind this fiasco. This incident on May 9, 2011 blew the lid off Pinehouse administration’s relationship with NWMO, connecting Fred with likeminded supports from across the region and province, leading to the formation of the Committee for Future Generations, of which Fred was a founding member.
The CFFG organized a northern forum that June attended by over 250 people from 12 northern communities. Keynote speaker at this Forum was Jim Harding, who spoke on the history of exploitation of Indigenous communities by uranium companies and governments, as well as the utter failure, still, of the nuclear industry to come up with a safe way to store the byproduct of nuclear reactors. In 2011 in eastern Canada, there were already over two million nuclear fuel rods accumulated, the most hazardous material on earth, so extremely radioactive that NWMO’s own documents stated it must be isolated from people and the environment virtually forever, yet the plan was to ship them all cross country to northern Saskatchewan to bury them here. Jim brought a large poster depicting the back end of a semi truck on a highway, stating that it would take six semi loads a day for 30 years to ship the volume of nuclear rods already existing, yet nuclear reactors continue to operate, churning out evermore quantities of the most hazardous byproduct on the planet.
This June 2011 Northern Forum concluded with a unanimous resolution to create a petition against the storage or transportation of nuclear waste into or through Saskatchewan. CFFG then took the remarkable step of organizing an 850 km Walk Against Nuclear Waste to carry the petition rom Pinehouse to Regina, arriving in August 2011. The petition raised over 20,000 signatures, as well as resolutions from organizations such as the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and the National Women’s Aboriginal Council.
After the walk, back home in Pinehouse, Fred helped give his fellow community members a voice by circulating a petition within the village, resulting in over 60% of residents signing to refuse a nuclear waste dump, and many more stating they would have signed but did not, out of fear of retribution. Fred then helped lead an energetic campaign for willing residents to post “Say No to Nuclear Waste” signs on their houses, as well as at key locations such as highway junctions. The highway signs required a lot of effort to paint on 4 x 8 sheets of plywood and securely mount on posts. Then things got ugly and the highway signs started getting vandalized, repeatedly, but Fred was not deterred. A “Signs Against Nuclear Waste” page was created on Facebook, which we invite you to like and explore, where Fred posted a picture every time he put up a sign, and every time one was destroyed, often accompanied with colourful text rebuking the vandals and calling on the public to expose the cowards.
Eventually a municipal election was held, with many irregularities reported including intimidation/threats towards voters and an open ballot box. Despite written pleas from Fred to appropriate authorities to intervene, the same administration returned to power.
Resistance against NWMO even brought APTN to Pinehouse to do an investigative report.
NWMO was also targeting the northern communities of English River First Nation and Creighton, so Fred along with other CFFG members held speaking engagements in those communities to ensure residents would hear the other side of the nuclear waste story and not be subjected only to biased information from NWMO. The CFFG’s mandate was to provide people with access to information from all sides, enabling them to make informed choices, and Fred was instrumental in that process, honing his skills into becoming an extremely effective public speaker. One of his favourite jokes was, “You know, I used to be afraid to open my mouth in public, but now I’m afraid whenever I get in front of a damn mic, that I won’t know how to damn quit!”
In 2013 the fantastic news was released that Creighton, English River and Pinehouse were no longer “suitable candidates” for nuclear waste site selection by NWMO. In other words, Fred’s work with the Committee for Future Generations was successful in kicking NWMO out of Saskatchewan. This was a huge victory not only for the north but the whole province, as all waterways would be at risk of radioactive contamination in the event of a spill. The success resulted in several recognition awards, including from the Council of Canadians, and although Fred was pleased to receive them, he’d be the first to tell you that your golden years are supposed to be spent in leisure, enjoying the company of family and friends - not fighting corrupt governments and corporations.
But fight he did. Fred was not a big man physically, but what he may have lacked in size, he made up for in his huge lion heart. He was a consistent role model in summoning amazing courage, determination and humour in the face of corruption and injustice.
“We always had an ear for each other in supporting the right things for the people - truth, and transparency - which is what brought us together. All the things we spoke of were not for Fred or myself, it was for the people, so they could make their own decisions, be free, not funneled into acceptance.”

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-Friend and ally, John Smerek - Pinehouse
February 19, 2023

Fred’s fight carried on long after NWMO was kicked out of Saskatchewan. In extensive efforts to expose what should be public information that the village of Pinehouse continues to this day to withhold, Fred worked diligently over the past decade together with retired archivist D’Arcy Hande, submitting several Freedom of Information requests to varying degrees of success. At one point, the Privacy and Information Commissioner had received so much damning evidence, that he recommended to then Justice Minister Don Morgan that the Village of Pinehouse administration be prosecuted; however, the Pinehouse mayor rebutted with the excuse that the lack of financial transparency was due to “inadequate training in remote northern communities”, so the Saskatchewan government instead of heeding the Commissioner’s recommendation to prosecute, responded by pledging support for training programs for administrative staff. So justice remains unserved to this day, as Pinehouse is still withholding public information and getting away with it.
Fred and D’Arcy were still getting responses to FOI requests from the Village and from the Government of Saskatchewan well into 2022.
“In summary, Fred never wavered in his desire to expose the corruption that was going on in the Pinehouse village administration. Even as I spoke to him a few days ago, he indicated that his biggest regret was that we never had the big breakthrough that he had hoped for. Nevertheless, as I said to Fred, the seeds have been planted and we can only trust that others will be willing to take up the challenge as a continuation of his legacy.“

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-D’Arcy Hande, Saskatoon
February 18, 2023
Fred spent the last few years of his life in Prince Albert. As if all the work he had already done to help others wasn’t enough, friend and ally Bryan Lee recently commented people may not be aware that while living in PA, Fred went out of his way to help many of the displaced people in that city. It seems his heart knew no bounds.
We thought it suiting to leave the last word to Fred. Those who had the pleasure of following him on Facebook know he was a daily communicator of laughs, stories, news that concerned him, and sayings that inspired him. Here is a small collection of his posts, mostly from the last few months of his life, that best reflect who he was.
"Thinking about some of my earlier days, and how we spent Xmas, nothing for a home but a tent in bush, so many different places, rivers or lakes whatever, but still miss them days, listening to the wolves howwwling in the middle of the night, sometimes the night owl hoot hooting, have a warm safe day folks, you'll never know how good life was them days."
"Just laying here thinking about my past, trying to think of what I did in my past that I regret doing, haven't came up with an answer to that yet!! Hagd folks and bundle up."
R.I.P. (Rest in Power) Fred.