Maude Barlow investigates the Sydney Tar Ponds

There are many women who are active in the environmental movements in Canada. They are dedicated, outspoken, hardworking, energetic, and passionate about their causes. They do not all encompass the same causes, (which run the full gamut of social, economic and environmental issues) but they are unwavering in their views. Maude Barlow and Elizabeth May are two of the most dedicated, and two that I highly respect. (Ms. May was my topic of a previous column.)

Maude Barlow is the national volunteer chairperson for the Council of Canadians. This organization is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization and has over 100,000 members. She is author or co-author of 10 highly acclaimed books - at least one of them co-authored with Ms. May. These books are on the effects of globalization, education, the media, and (a subject dear to my heart) the environment. She, along with many others, played a role in peacefully demonstrating against the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.

Ms. Barlow is in demand as a domestic and international speaker. When reviewing her bio, I found the following statement regarding her speaking talents. "An articulate and unusually intimate speaker, Ms. Barlow has received outstanding reviews for her insightful, evocative and inspiring addresses to both national and international audiences." I have corresponded with her but have yet to hear her speak.

One of her most recent books - published this year - is called Frederick Street- Living and Dying on Canada's Love Canal. Frederick Street is an actual street in Sydney, Nova Scotia. It is next to the steel mills, the coke ovens and the waste products of the operations. It tells a story of ordinary people attempting to make a living in a labour depressed area. It tells of the diseases, of the lives cut short, the fight for justice. It tells of Canada's "Love Canal"-- unfortunately Canada's Love Canal problem is 35 times as extensive as the New York State problem.

There are few environmental problems on the planet worse than the one investigated here in Canada's front yard, and reported between the pages of this book. How the lives of the residences of the neighbourhood were effected by the pollution and toxic gases is the focus of this compelling story.

The operators of the Sydney steel mills violated every legal, moral, and ethical code in their efforts to make money. An endless line of executives, over many decades, allowed the dumping of waste into a natural waterway. The accumulated 1/2 million tons of crud was then further corrupted with tons of PCB contaminated oil waste-mostly dumped into the estuary at night.

The infamous Sydney 'tar ponds' is the common name coined for this waste site. A sink hole of black ooze - It is a death hole in what was a pristine area -- once teeming with life. It became a sink hole for taxpayer dollars. The government spent 60 million dollars on an incinerator to burn the semi-liquid waste even though they were told that PCB's cannot be destroyed in this type of system. A system to destroy PCB's requires a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius. They plodded on. They ignored the evidence and eye witness testimony that the PCB's were there. They did limited test sampling. The contractors had never built an incinerator as large or complicated as that specified. It was plagued with cost overruns and stupid errors. The system didn't work but the government paid the contractors anyway.

The corruption was not, and is not, contained in the waterway. It continues on into the estuary and the harbour and into the sea. The once teaming ecosystem is devoid of life in many areas. The resident mussels and lobsters are contaminated 26 times the values of the infamous, and polluted, Boston Harbour of our US neighbour.

There is no happy ending to the story and there never will be. It does however send out a message to all those who have the heart to hear.

Barb Dickie, of Cambridge, is a strong advocate of Ms. Barlow. She wishes to start a Cambridge Chapter of her organization. She would like to have Maude come to Cambridge to speak her views on preserving Medicare, commercializing of the world's water supply, genetically engineered food, trade and investment agreements, the globalization of poverty and the privatization of everything. She has arranged a preliminary meeting at Wesley Church for the 18th of this month. Call her at [...] if any of these subjects interest you.

Have a nice day.