Mr. Speaker, on March 20 the story broke in the Calgary Herald about the government's responsibility for radiation death and sickness in the Dene community of Deline. Sixty-eight days later and the community still waits for written confirmation of a meeting with this government.
On March 30, I called on the ministers of health, Indian affairs and natural resources to meet with the community to immediately address this crisis. Fifty-six days later continuing silence. Speaking with the community representatives, as of noon today this meeting had not been arranged.
A gentleman diagnosed with bone and lung cancer last week has just died. The community has already laid out its plan. This government should immediately respond with actions, not words, to the plan for essential response and necessary redress outlined by Chief Raymond Tutcho of the Dene First Nation. This plan calls for immediate crisis assistance, comprehensive environment and social assistance, full public disclosure, clean-up and monitoring, acknowledgement of government responsibility, community healing and cultural regeneration. Immediate crisis assistance, yet 68 days of government silence on this request.
Since 1939 what has this community received from the government? Nothing. Yet a federal crown company profited from this obscenity while it served to fuel the atomic arms race.
The Dene had a community meeting arranged on this issue for tomorrow and Thursday. That meeting was cancelled and replaced by a funeral for the community member who died of bone and lung cancer. The minister knows bone cancer is linked to exposure to radioactive dust and particles. What is even more sickening is the government has known about this since the early 1930s, over 65 years.
The Sahtugot'ine, the Bear Lake people, made this clear in a statement showing a government official in 1932 claimed: “The ingestion of radioactive dust will cause a build-up of radioactive material in the body. Lung cancer, bone necrosis, and rapid anaemia are possible”.
While the community buries its dead the government tries to bury the tragedy. How can this government state it must examine more history? Why are the ministers of health, Indian affairs and natural resources not there right now dealing with this catastrophe? There are literally millions of tonnes of this poison buried in the region. It is in the water and the food chain. Is this government through its inaction willing to consciously condemn yet another generation of children, women and men to radiation death? While whites were told to shower, the Dene children played with radioactive dust. This community is now losing its elders to this tragedy.
The minister stated in her interview with CBC on May 17 that she is under the impression that the clean-up at Sawmill Bay employed current radiation standards and implementation measures. This suggests the minister is disregarding out of hand the testimony of the Dene record and the oral history of the clean-up crew.
Does the minister consider the provision of federal dollars for radioactive clean-ups, where even dust masks are not provided, as meeting radiation standards? The minister responded to my questions with comments like “it behooves us to understand the circumstances and we will act to include the Dene people in our review”.
While the government may be content looking at the history, the death and illness toll from this obscenity continues to mount. Where is the Minister of Health while people are dying? Immediate crisis assistance? Will this government commit right now that all three ministers will meet this community and lay out an action plan before this House recesses for the summer, yes or no?