Canada’s atomic veterans fight for recognition
Originally published in FFWD, November 8, 2007 by Drew Anderson in Television
The federal government has ignored the plight of Canadian veterans dying from exposure to radiation caused by nuclear tests in Nevada in 1957, according to Time Bombs, a new documentary to be aired on Global television November 10.
According to Eric Ruelle, who directed and produced the documentary with Guylaine Maroist, the initial seed for the film was a small article written by two journalists in Montreal in 1957. That article, small on details, spoke of a top-secret mission in the States. It took the duo 10 years to track down the necessary sources and find a television network interested in the project.
That mission was named Operation Plumbbob, the largest nuclear testing project ever undertaken, involving thousands of American soldiers and a handful of unknowing Canadian volunteers. The soldiers were exposed to six nuclear blasts and then ordered to participate in war games amongst the fallout, to test their reactions to orders after the explosion.
Jim Huntley lived through those blasts and helped organize the Canadian Atomic Veterans Association in 1995 to help fight for recognition of the veterans. “We were sent there and they knew we were guinea pigs,” says Huntley, who bristles with anger at the treatment the veterans have received from the government. “We flew in helicopters through that cloud.”
Huntley is leading the charge in the association’s fight against the government, a task bestowed on him thanks in part to his good health. Of 40 soldiers sent to Nevada in the summer of 1957, 22 or more are dead, and the survivors are riddled with cancer and arthritis. Jim is the healthiest surviving member of the unit.
The task has proven difficult. The group has been denied, ignored and shuffled through the storied Canadian bureaucracy, stymied at every turn and lied to by political officials. After years of trying to get information and compensation, the association was finally promised a package by former defence minister Gordon O’Connor, according to Huntley, but the deadline for that package has come and gone without a word.
“There’s no going back. They lied to us. The minister of defence lied to us. He came here in July and told us we were getting a package on the 15th of September. We have nothing, not even a phone call,” says Huntley after a screening of the documentary in Calgary. He says the government is now trying to send the group back to square one. “They told us they’ve never heard of us. I said to the secretary, ‘We’ve talked to you for a year and a half. You don’t know who we are?’” says Huntley.
Anger is pervasive amongst those still alive. The flashes of light, the shockwaves and the dust from the explosions remain seared in their memories. “I get angry and I get more angry… I’m ashamed,” says Bob Henderson, a veteran of the tests, clutching an oxygen tank that resembles a violin case. Most of the participants that he was acquainted with, he says, served in the military long-term. “They served their country with pride, with dignity and most of all with honour. What the hell has the government done for us? Nothing. They’ve tried to sweep us away.”
Henderson echoes a disturbing conclusion shared amongst the survivors: that the government is waiting for all of them to succumb to the radiation they ingested 50 years ago. “They’re holding back because they know we’re falling,” he says wearily.
In 1992, the American government finally admitted its culpability for exposing soldiers to nuclear blasts and awarded compensation. “They finally admitted that it was a human experiment, it’s written in black-and-white — a human experiment. They really wanted to see how they would react in a nuclear war. So they would say to the soldiers, ‘don’t worry about radiation, it’s OK, Mother Nature will take care of you,’” says Ruelle. “I’m now very ashamed of my government, I’m now very ashamed of my country.”
Ruelle and Maroist are not letting go of the story, or the veterans they have befriended while filming Time Bombs, and have pledged to continue fighting for them after the release of the film. “We’ve made a commitment to ourselves… we have a moral commitment to ourselves and to the guys, we cannot let them go,” says Ruelle. “We need to take this to the end, because if we don’t, we don’t succeed. Success is not having everybody clap at the show and everybody say ‘hey, great show.’ No, the success is having the government acknowledge and compensate those guys.”
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Hoping for healthy debate
Alberta’s upcoming legislative session will be lively
Originally published in FFWD November 1, 2007 by Drew Anderson in Viewpoint
The new provincial political season is definitely under way with the recent announcement of the government position on oil and gas royalties. At the opening of the new session of the legislature at the beginning of November, the royalty debate will be the primary source of conflict in what will likely be a lively, if not short, legislature sitting.
The opposition parties surely smell blood and will be doing everything in their power to draw more of it as the still-fresh premier attempts to gain control over his image and garner support from unusually cranky Albertans. So far, his performance has been lukewarm, and his polling numbers remain low. With the Liberals still far behind and the New Democrats further away, each will try to convince the electorate of their worth during this legislative session.
Premier Ed Stelmach, who is decidedly more open to discussion than the tyrant who formerly inhabited the premier’s chair, marks a slight shift to the centre for the Conservatives in Alberta. He could be more willing to compromise on legislation, which might be seen as caving in to the opposition, or as a genuine attempt at conciliation. It will all be an attempt to distance himself from Ralph Klein, despite the fact that Stelmach and all of his MLAs were in government by Klein’s side.
The ongoing rhetoric around government accountability, introduced as a major plank in Stelmach’s policy platform, will be intricately tied to the royalty debate and the move towards a more inclusive legislature. This is especially important after the long, dark rule by Klein, who preferred to govern by decree and without much in the way of public consultation. Actually, even the fact that there will be meaningful debate in the legislature is a hopeful, if not limited, return to democracy in this province.
One fundamental difference in governing style is the adoption of all-party committees, announced in April of this year. As shocking as it seems, government policy was debated mostly behind closed doors and only amongst Conservatives under the Klein regime. Now we have some semblance of a functioning democratic institution that will hopefully strengthen in the upcoming sitting, as opposition members acclimatize to their new roles as participants in the government process.
Klein preferred to make announcements on the go, sometimes catching everyone off guard — even, it appeared, his cabinet ministers. This reckless style rarely included any meaningful debate, and was mostly done outside of the legislature, bypassing the opposition completely. A classic example of his disregard for dialogue was when he threw a Liberal-drafted health policy at a 17-year-old page in the legislature after telling the Liberals if they had any ideas on health care to send them over. The page was delivering the material to Klein.
One thing sure to be debated hotly in the legislature is the government’s response to the royalty review, which discarded a large swath of the panel’s recommendations. One panel member reacted by accusing the premier of “blatant deceit” in an interview with the Edmonton Journal.
Stelmach has said repeatedly that the discussion is over and that he will stay the course on his proposal, which doesn’t inspire much faith in his new accountable approach, or in his respect for expert opinion.
Another sign that government may just be doing a window dressing job on accountability is the contentious Bill 46, which would prevent public input into proposed utilities projects. A government that purports to champion accountability, but stifles public input into projects that could directly affect citizens, reeks of a continuation of old, paternalistic Alberta conservatism.
The fact there is the potential for healthy debate in the upcoming sitting of the legislature is cause for celebration, but also concern that it takes so little to make us happy in this one-party province. It is unclear whether this shift reflects an acknowledgement of new strength in the opposition parties, particularly the Liberals who recently won a by-election in Klein’s old Calgary riding, or whether it is just Stelmach trying to be the consummate nice guy and at least pretending to value everyone’s input. He certainly does like his expert panels, though he often ignores their findings.
The true political debate in this province will happen when the premier finally goes to the people of Alberta to seek a mandate to govern. There are pre-Christmas election rumours swirling on the airwaves and in the papers, but with Stelmach trying to inch his poll numbers up and wanting to push through some more pet policies, we might just have to settle for increased debate in the legislature for a little while longer.
Originally published in FFWD November 1, 2007 by Drew Anderson in Viewpoint
The new provincial political season is definitely under way with the recent announcement of the government position on oil and gas royalties. At the opening of the new session of the legislature at the beginning of November, the royalty debate will be the primary source of conflict in what will likely be a lively, if not short, legislature sitting.
The opposition parties surely smell blood and will be doing everything in their power to draw more of it as the still-fresh premier attempts to gain control over his image and garner support from unusually cranky Albertans. So far, his performance has been lukewarm, and his polling numbers remain low. With the Liberals still far behind and the New Democrats further away, each will try to convince the electorate of their worth during this legislative session.
Premier Ed Stelmach, who is decidedly more open to discussion than the tyrant who formerly inhabited the premier’s chair, marks a slight shift to the centre for the Conservatives in Alberta. He could be more willing to compromise on legislation, which might be seen as caving in to the opposition, or as a genuine attempt at conciliation. It will all be an attempt to distance himself from Ralph Klein, despite the fact that Stelmach and all of his MLAs were in government by Klein’s side.
The ongoing rhetoric around government accountability, introduced as a major plank in Stelmach’s policy platform, will be intricately tied to the royalty debate and the move towards a more inclusive legislature. This is especially important after the long, dark rule by Klein, who preferred to govern by decree and without much in the way of public consultation. Actually, even the fact that there will be meaningful debate in the legislature is a hopeful, if not limited, return to democracy in this province.
One fundamental difference in governing style is the adoption of all-party committees, announced in April of this year. As shocking as it seems, government policy was debated mostly behind closed doors and only amongst Conservatives under the Klein regime. Now we have some semblance of a functioning democratic institution that will hopefully strengthen in the upcoming sitting, as opposition members acclimatize to their new roles as participants in the government process.
Klein preferred to make announcements on the go, sometimes catching everyone off guard — even, it appeared, his cabinet ministers. This reckless style rarely included any meaningful debate, and was mostly done outside of the legislature, bypassing the opposition completely. A classic example of his disregard for dialogue was when he threw a Liberal-drafted health policy at a 17-year-old page in the legislature after telling the Liberals if they had any ideas on health care to send them over. The page was delivering the material to Klein.
One thing sure to be debated hotly in the legislature is the government’s response to the royalty review, which discarded a large swath of the panel’s recommendations. One panel member reacted by accusing the premier of “blatant deceit” in an interview with the Edmonton Journal.
Stelmach has said repeatedly that the discussion is over and that he will stay the course on his proposal, which doesn’t inspire much faith in his new accountable approach, or in his respect for expert opinion.
Another sign that government may just be doing a window dressing job on accountability is the contentious Bill 46, which would prevent public input into proposed utilities projects. A government that purports to champion accountability, but stifles public input into projects that could directly affect citizens, reeks of a continuation of old, paternalistic Alberta conservatism.
The fact there is the potential for healthy debate in the upcoming sitting of the legislature is cause for celebration, but also concern that it takes so little to make us happy in this one-party province. It is unclear whether this shift reflects an acknowledgement of new strength in the opposition parties, particularly the Liberals who recently won a by-election in Klein’s old Calgary riding, or whether it is just Stelmach trying to be the consummate nice guy and at least pretending to value everyone’s input. He certainly does like his expert panels, though he often ignores their findings.
The true political debate in this province will happen when the premier finally goes to the people of Alberta to seek a mandate to govern. There are pre-Christmas election rumours swirling on the airwaves and in the papers, but with Stelmach trying to inch his poll numbers up and wanting to push through some more pet policies, we might just have to settle for increased debate in the legislature for a little while longer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)