Well, Canada has been the world’s largest producer and exporter of uranium since the world started needing it, right? (in 2009 Kazahkstan overtook Canada)
There are lots of mines in Canada, though one really big one that is the main one, responsible for 75% of Canada’s uranium.
I don’t think it would surprise you to hear that the Indigenous peoples of those places weren’t consulted. Nor do they really benefit. And the mines both take up a lot of space and are quite toxic. And mines don’t really benefit local Indigenous peoples. They usually see actually no profit, maybe a few jobs that last as long as the short-lived mine.
And when the mines are empty, like most of them are at this point, they’re just abandoned hahaha as is. No cleanup of the toxic dangers. No efforts made to rehabilitate the ecosystem. The mining company just moves on to the next one.
So, almost unanimously, Indigenous peoples have fought against uranium mines. And who could blame them. They do nothing for the community, and they devastate the land, leaving behind a toxic legacy that will last for generation after generation.
But, the canadian government doesn’t respect that, obviously, despite being legally obligated to by the treaties. Instead, mining companies are given free license to show up, exploit, and leave again, over and over, and have done so since like the 1930s.
Now I believe all the uranium mining in Canada is exclusively in Saskatchewan, and mostly in the north. Basically, my issue with it is that it’s just exploitative and harms the land and the water that people rely on, all while benefiting basically no one who lives there, just the mining corporation, and inevitably leaving behind a toxic legacy.
Indigenous communities near these mines should be rich af off of royalties, but instead they get little to nothing and remote reserves are some of the hardest places on earth to live on. Some of the worst poverty and housing crises in Canada are on reserves that are like a half-hour drove to some of the richest uranium/diamond/what have you mines. It's mind boggling, colonial, and extremely fucked up. Like, I don't know if you know of Attawapiskat First Nation, but they have tonnes of problems of poverty, there's like 20 people per house in these super ramshackle homes.
Guess what's a one-hour drive from their reserve? Literally a De Beers diamond mind, reaping extreme profits while the community owns that land lives in extreme poverty. It's possibly the most localized extreme in economic inequality I know of, frankly. That is what mining in canada means. :af-heart:
edit: the province of ontario famously receives 0 dollars in royalties from De Beers for that mine, as well. One year ontario got a couple hundred bucks, I believe :gui:
There was this really powerful case like last year, where the local Indigenous community was giving its two cents in a consultation for a site to bury nuclear waste.
The local band council Chief said, publically, something along the lines of ‘you have to imagine how having this toxic radioactive waste under our feet will effect the mythology of people in the future, how people will relate to the land and the stories we’ll tell.’
They said it a lot better than that, but it was such a based, long-term-thinking perspective that was entirely different from the other voices in the room
Anyway, this story is utterly unique because, for whatever reason, the nuclear organization decided ‘we will not do this project without the consent of the Indigenous peoples of this place’.
I suspect it’s because they knew the long-term nature of a nuclear waste burial site, and they weren’t willing to deal with backlash in 100, or 1000 years when the power dynamics here are less colonized. So they wanted consent. My theory
Regardless, the Indigenous community voted and said no, obviously, so now I guess they’re going to go ask another First Nation somewhere else hahaha it was a really positive moment in terms of Indigenous people asserting their voice, though, and actually being heard. Felt like a turning point, to me anyway
Please inform me about this, I talking about nuclear power an hour ago and one of my friends used home grown uranium as a positive point.
Well, Canada has been the world’s largest producer and exporter of uranium since the world started needing it, right? (in 2009 Kazahkstan overtook Canada)
There are lots of mines in Canada, though one really big one that is the main one, responsible for 75% of Canada’s uranium.
I don’t think it would surprise you to hear that the Indigenous peoples of those places weren’t consulted. Nor do they really benefit. And the mines both take up a lot of space and are quite toxic. And mines don’t really benefit local Indigenous peoples. They usually see actually no profit, maybe a few jobs that last as long as the short-lived mine.
And when the mines are empty, like most of them are at this point, they’re just abandoned hahaha as is. No cleanup of the toxic dangers. No efforts made to rehabilitate the ecosystem. The mining company just moves on to the next one.
So, almost unanimously, Indigenous peoples have fought against uranium mines. And who could blame them. They do nothing for the community, and they devastate the land, leaving behind a toxic legacy that will last for generation after generation.
But, the canadian government doesn’t respect that, obviously, despite being legally obligated to by the treaties. Instead, mining companies are given free license to show up, exploit, and leave again, over and over, and have done so since like the 1930s.
Now I believe all the uranium mining in Canada is exclusively in Saskatchewan, and mostly in the north. Basically, my issue with it is that it’s just exploitative and harms the land and the water that people rely on, all while benefiting basically no one who lives there, just the mining corporation, and inevitably leaving behind a toxic legacy.
Indigenous communities near these mines should be rich af off of royalties, but instead they get little to nothing and remote reserves are some of the hardest places on earth to live on. Some of the worst poverty and housing crises in Canada are on reserves that are like a half-hour drove to some of the richest uranium/diamond/what have you mines. It's mind boggling, colonial, and extremely fucked up. Like, I don't know if you know of Attawapiskat First Nation, but they have tonnes of problems of poverty, there's like 20 people per house in these super ramshackle homes.
Guess what's a one-hour drive from their reserve? Literally a De Beers diamond mind, reaping extreme profits while the community owns that land lives in extreme poverty. It's possibly the most localized extreme in economic inequality I know of, frankly. That is what mining in canada means. :af-heart:
edit: the province of ontario famously receives 0 dollars in royalties from De Beers for that mine, as well. One year ontario got a couple hundred bucks, I believe :gui:
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There was this really powerful case like last year, where the local Indigenous community was giving its two cents in a consultation for a site to bury nuclear waste.
The local band council Chief said, publically, something along the lines of ‘you have to imagine how having this toxic radioactive waste under our feet will effect the mythology of people in the future, how people will relate to the land and the stories we’ll tell.’
They said it a lot better than that, but it was such a based, long-term-thinking perspective that was entirely different from the other voices in the room
Anyway, this story is utterly unique because, for whatever reason, the nuclear organization decided ‘we will not do this project without the consent of the Indigenous peoples of this place’.
I suspect it’s because they knew the long-term nature of a nuclear waste burial site, and they weren’t willing to deal with backlash in 100, or 1000 years when the power dynamics here are less colonized. So they wanted consent. My theory
Regardless, the Indigenous community voted and said no, obviously, so now I guess they’re going to go ask another First Nation somewhere else hahaha it was a really positive moment in terms of Indigenous people asserting their voice, though, and actually being heard. Felt like a turning point, to me anyway
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100%.
This is also the Australian situation (we also have the largest Thorium supply. got piles of the stuff in the slag from our Solar Panel silicon mines.