NEWS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JAN 14, 1992
PANEL STILL CRITICAL OF FLAWED DND STUDY
YET OVERFLIGHTS TO INCREASE
The revised deficiency statement just released by the Environmental
Assessment Panel shows that the Canadian Department of National Defense
(DND) study on the social and environmental impacts of military flight
training is still badly flawed. "We are pleased to see that the panel
agreed with most of the problems identified by the Innu and independent
technical experts. Even though the NATO training base is cancelled, the
panel says the study still has 29 serious deficiencies," said Daniel
Ashini, Director of the Environment and Innu Rights. Yet, even though
the environmental review is far from complete, DND will allow allies to
increase flights over Innu territory.
The panel was formed in 1986 under the federal environmental review
process to examine the impacts of military flight training conducted out
of Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay. DND issued its original Environmental
Impact Statement in October 1989, and virtually all technical reviewers
agreed it was unacceptable. When the NATO base planned for Goose Bay was
cancelled, DND requested that the list of 38 deficiencies identified by
the panel should be altered. "We are glad to see that the panel
concluded that the impact study is still so faulty that public hearings
cannot proceed," Ashini said.
The Innu Nation questions whether DND is serious about the environmental
review process. The process began five and a half years ago, and DND has
so far wasted $6 million of taxpayers money on the Environmental Impact
Statement. "Now DND will probably waste another couple of years revising
their report. Meanwhile, the allies are invited to bring 33% more planes
to fly over our land, and to increase night flights while our people and
the wildlife feel the effects of militarization," Ashini said.
DNDUs plans to allow increased levels of flight training violate the
Minister of Defence's commitment that flight training, "will not
increase significantly ... while the environmental review process is
underway." The Innu Nation has charged that DND has undermined the whole
review process by continuing to allow the military training even though
the environmental impacts are not sufficiently known and the mitigative
measures that DND claims to use are based on a seriously flawed study.
"Our people know that mitigation is not working. They see the planes
flying right over their camps and disturbing the animals that DND claims
to avoid," explained Ashini.
"Canadians should look at the changes that have happened in the world in
the five and a half years since the review started. The Berlin Wall has
come down, the Soviet Union no longer exists, and the United Nations is
now an effective body in the search for peace. Canadians should ask
themselves when Canada will stop the Cold War against the Innu," said
Ashini.
For more information, contact Daniel Ashini at 709-497-8396
or 709-497-8561 (home)
BACKGROUND: The Innu are the native peoples of Nitassinan, an area
in Labrador and northeastern Quebec (Canada). They still live, for
the most part, a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. However, for
the last ten years, the Department of National Defense has allowed
Britain, Germany and the Netherlands to conduct low-level flight
tests over Innu territory. Currently, there are about 8,000 flights
over Innu land every year, and the number is increasing steadily.