People participate in a rally against the Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) project at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Chalk River site, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 14.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
A First Nations chief says a Federal Court challenge to a planned nuclear waste dump could prove a test of whether Canada takes Indigenous peoples’ rights to be consulted seriously.
Kebaowek First Nation, a member of the Anishinabeg Algonquin Nation, was in court Wednesday arguing for a judicial review of the decision by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to give the green light for a nuclear waste dump to be built at Chalk River on a forested site northwest of Ottawa in January.
Lance Haymond, chief of Kebaowek First Nation in Quebec, said at a press conference in Ottawa attended by several chiefs, the Bloc Québécois and environmentalists that the court action challenged the notion that the government could “push us aside and move forward” without properly seeking Indigenous peoples’ views on such projects. He said that kind of practice needs to end in Canada.
He alleged that the nuclear safety commission did not properly consult with his community over the decision to approve the Chalk River Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF), and this violated the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People Act (UNDRIP) and his community’s constitutionally protected rights.
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Canadian Nuclear Laboratories wants to establish a storage facility for around one million cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste at its Chalk River site in Ontario, just over one kilometre from the Ottawa River.
Although CNL has said the new storage site would not pose a risk to drinking water in any location downriver, a coalition of First Nations communities from Ontario and Quebec have argued that the planned nuclear waste dump is too near the Ottawa River, which supplies drinking water to them, as well as the country’s capital.
The federal government has a duty to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate Indigenous groups when it considers conduct that might adversely affect their potential or established treaty rights.
Mr. Haymond said UNDRIP requires that Indigenous peoples give their free, prior and informed consent before any project that affects their land and resources can proceed, and this had been violated.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said in a statement that because the matter was before the Federal Court it would not be commenting.
“The CNSC welcomes the Federal Court’s review of the Commission decision and any direction the Court may have,” said Braeson Holland, a spokesperson of the commission.