World Uranium Symposium ends in Quebec City: Film Fest begins

The World Uranium Symposium brought together over 200 experts and delegates from around the world, including indegenous people from Mongolia, India, South Africa and representatives from the Navajo and the Cree from North America, to talk over the biggest threat to human life.

Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, was one of the speakers at the symposium.  When asked about the Canadian government’s announcement, made during the symposium, that Canada will sell uranium to India for the next five years, Edwards said, ‘It’s scary.”

Full of hope and optimism

“India’s nuclear weapons program is very active, as demonstrated by a series of nuclear test explosions. Moreover tensions between India and Pakistan, a country with its own nuclear arsenal, are running very high. The attitude of Canada is irresponsible and alarming,” according to Shri Prakash, one of several participants from India at the World Uranium Symposium.

Edwards said despite the news of Canada’s uranium sales, the symposium was “full of hope and optimism”.  The use of nuclear power has been in decline for several years, from a peak of 17 per cent in 1995, of the world’s electricity, down now to 11 per cent, as re-newable energy becomes more widely available.

Dr. Helen Caldicott was a featured speaker as well.  While Edwards described her as ‘dwelling on the negative’ he was quick to qualify this observation;  ‘somebody has got to talk about the horror of nuclear war and she does that but she does it with such a style of humour that you’re kind of laughing and shrieking at the same time.”

What we’re really talking about is a mutual suicide pact.

Edwards says “It is difficult for ordinary people to fathom that we have created a weapon so powerful that it can actually reverse 4 billion years of evolution of life on this planet.  If there was a war between two countries both of whom had nuclear weapons, then there would be no victors at all.”  But he is hopeful, trusting in the power of people to organize and demand change as they have concerning other issues.

Now the 5th annual Uranium Film Festival continues in Quebec City until April 25th.