from The Crier October 21,1999 page7
WHY DON'T MORE OF US SPEAK OUT?
When Pat McMillan spoke out at the Atomic Energy Control Board hearing on Cameco two weeks ago, she was terrified. It was the first time she had ever done such a thing. But as soon as she started, the fear disappeared, and what she said was compelling. We need more Pat McMillans if democracy is to work. Where are they?

For anyone without training, to speak out in public, or even to write a letter to the editor, is usually too daunting. Even if it's just a matter of reading something aloud, one's passionate concern is easily smothered by fear. Will I say something stupid by mistake? Will I be seen as a troublemaker? Can 'they' hurt me in some way? Don't the experts know better?

In our ongoing hospital battle, a small group of volunteers has worked tirelessly for a sane, just, economical solution. We let them down rather badly when only 30 per cent of us answered the town's questionnaire. It was badly timed, right at the end of the summer. But it enabled those who favour the tax to argue that perhaps 70 per cent of us want a new lakefront hospital. What nonsense! Nonetheless, we were guilty of apathy.

Now we face a crucial issue affecting every one of us. For 60 years this town has lived under the shadow of the nuclear industry. Pat McMillan, Dorothy Hosking and Chris Hibbard gave the AECB ample evidence two weeks ago of the tragic consequences of the operation. They appear to be the tip of an iceberg.

Eldorado, of course, didn't know what effects its operation would have on neighbours. Nor does Cameco. What we don't know about the dangers of low-level radioactive and toxic contamination far outweighs what we do know.

But one thing is clear. The kind of hearing we just went through would never have happened if we knew Cameco was a safe industry. Everyone does know it should never have been built in an urban setting. Why, then, has there been so little outcry?

Why have two mayors disbanded their own Environmental Advisory Committee? Why, when two doctors raised concerns about the number of cancer patients turning up at their offices, did our town council ask the College of Physicians and Surgeons to consider revoking their licenses? Wasn't it simply short-sighted fear of hurting the town's image? Was its image really more valuable than its health? Shades of Ibsen's Enemy of the People!

Why have Cameco workers not spoken out? Would you if your job were at stake?

Why doesn't Cameco support an independent study of the health of Port Hopers? Would you expect your shareholders to do so? It's easy to forget that Cameco's raison d'etre is profit.

Our Community Health Concerns Committee has worked for years to clear the air, to implement a real health study of the people of Port Hope, to find out once and for all whether the health of our citizens has been affected by Eldorado and Cameco. To date, studies have focused on levels of contamination measured against arbitrary (and changing) levels of acceptability. They are inconclusive by design.

Surely a study of the people themselves will remove the debilitating stigma we continue to live under by establishing one of two things: that there is really no undue danger, or that there is, in which case it will trigger a full-scale cleanup. In either case, we have to demand it.

And that's the crux of it. Democracy can't work unless ordinary people make it their business to become informed, to trust their own common sense over the reassurances of the experts, to summon up their courage and make their voices heard. Grassroots democracy can work. But not without you or me, whether or not we agree.

Tom Lawson
Port Hope