Dr. Jim Harding exposes Canada’s Deadly Secret readings and more
With the recent controversy over Bruce Power’s plan to develop four nuclear power plants in Alberta Dr. Jim Harding’s visit to Calgary couldn’t be more timely. Harding is the author of Canada’s Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System a book that tracks Saskatchewan’s uranium mining industry from the Manhattan Project to the present.
Saskatchewan is the largest uranium-producing region in the world with active mines at Eagle Point McArthur River and McClean Lake. The mined uranium is shipped out of the province for conversion enrichment and the manufacture of fuel for electric generation reactors around the world. After that however Harding proposes that the depleted uranium is used for a much more sinister purpose.
“Nobody anywhere in the world admits that they have uranium mines for nuclear weapons. It’s magic!” says Harding. “I realized that if we were going to learn our own story in Saskatchewan we had to learn to tell it to others. We’ve been spinning our wheels. It’s overwhelming when you track the depleted uranium and realize that we’re breaching international laws.”
According to Harding depleted uranium originating from Saskatchewan mines is left as waste from the enrichment system. “The weapons industry takes it apparently for free bombards it with neutrons and gets their own plutonium” he says. “The non-proliferation treaty doesn’t explicitly ban the militarization of depleted uranium even though it’s under their definition of weapons of mass destruction because it kills indiscriminately.”
In his book Harding explores PR campaigns and “nuclear propaganda” that have diverted attention from his cause. “We’ve been normalizing the nuclear age” he says. “I’m a war baby born in ’41 and my generation says ‘What the fuck? You’re going to keep using these God damn weapons?’ But the next generation had peaceful atom promotions limited test bans arms control treaties and now the peace movements are relatively tempered as compared to the early ban-the-bomb movements.”
Harding visits Calgary for a discussion of nuclear power in Canada and you can bet he’ll have an opinion on Alberta’s nuclear plans. He speaks at the Memorial Park Library (616 Macleod Tr. S.E.) on April 17 7 p.m.
In June 2001 René Arseneault embarked on his first adventure race: running biking and kayaking on the Bay of Fundy. In the final section however Arseneault died in a sudden storm that swept him from his kayak. In Fatal Tide: When the Race of a Lifetime Goes Wrong investigative journalist David Leach explores the controversial event and the psychology of risk-taking. He reads from his book at McNally Robinson on April 10 7 p.m.
Kim Minkus a librarian and PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University comes to Calgary with her debut poetry collection 9 Freight described as an erotic “material quotidian intervention into the epoch of later capital.” Intrigued? She reads from the collection at Pages Books (1135 Kensington Rd. N.W.) on April 12 7:30 p.m.
After two long years of bardtastic goodness the popular Monday Night Shakespeare series comes to a close this week with a look at The Winter’s Tale II entitled “Bohemia.” Bid adieu to stalwart lecturer Dr. James Black at the Boris Roubakine Recital Hall (Craigie Hall University of Calgary) on April 14 7:30 p.m.
With all the time we spend gazing south of the border it’s easy to forget that Canada is home to some truly amazing people. Hence the need for Extraordinary Canadians a biographical celebration of our national treasures co-sponsored by Penguin Canada and WordFest. David Adams Richards Charlotte Gray and Lewis DeSoto will explore respectively the lives of Lord Beaverbrook Nellie McClung and Emily Carr. Snag a slice of history at the Glenbow Museum (130 9 Ave. S.E.) on April 15 7:30 p.m. $8.
Marian and Robin White local authors and environmentalists present Wild Alberta at the Cross Roads a slide show and lecture about the dangers facing Alberta’s wilderness. They speak at the Alexander Calhoun Library (3223 14 St. S.W.) on April 16 10:30 a.m.
Cori Ellingson discovered a wealth of insights and guides when she embarked upon a vision quest. In her new book Vision Quest she relates these experiences and invites you to take a solitary trip into the wild. She signs copies of her book at McNally Robinson (120 8 Ave. S.W.) on April 16 noon.
Or if you’d like some closer-to-home wisdom have a chat with Marilyn Geddes and Cynthia Mackenzie the authors of Ask the Very Beasts which documents 37 conversations with non-human advisors. They appear at McNally Robinson on April 17 7 p.m.
