Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout
Sierra Club of Canada
Energy Probe
Thursday, November 27, 1997 - For Immediate Release
Ottawa - In the wake of the APEC summit, the Canadian government continues
to marginalize human and environmental rights issues when dealing with
China, environment groups said today. "I hope that Prime Minister
Chrétien pays more than lip service to human and environment rights
when he meets with President Jiang Zemin in Ottawa on Friday," said
Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club of Canada. "However, I think this
is unlikely, given the government's lack of resolve on these issues at
APEC and its continued support of projects like the Three Gorges dam and
the sale of CANDU reactors to China."
May noted that the government's efforts to expedite CANDU reactor sales
not only ignore China's poor environmental and human rights record, but
also compromises democratic processes and the rule of law in Canada. In
January 1997, the Sierra Club of Canada filed an application for judicial
review with the Federal Court of Canada in connection with the CANDU sale
to China.
A decision on the Sierra Club's court case is still pending, but the government
has acknowledged that "its case is not strong and that the Federal
Court may well rule in favour of the Sierra Club." The statement was
made in a secret federal Cabinet document, made public earlier this month.
Kristen Ostling of the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout stated that "the
continuation of the CANDU sale to China, in spite of the ongoing safety
scandal at Ontario Hydro and after the federal government's own lawyers
have stated that there is a strong possibility that the government will
lose the court case is disgraceful. It is symptomatic of a total lack of
concern about the environmental and societal impact of Canada's trade with
China. We need to ask ourselves what Canada is losing as a country by trading
with China at any cost."
Ostling noted the government's response to protest during the APEC summit.
"The massive security measures in Vancouver and the response to protesters
at UBC shows that trading with repressive regimes like China is making
Canada more repressive. Chrétien's willingness to compromise Canadian
democracy in order to protect CANDU exports is one indicator of this trend."
Norman Rubin of Energy Probe added, "The fact that President Jiang
is still willing to buy CANDU reactors while the same reactors are literally
bankrupting Ontario Hydro says a great deal about him, and his colleagues.
They are apparently as oblivious to information as they are to human rights.
The question remains, what kind of a regime would sell these reactors?"
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