Sierra Club Canada Foundation Executive Director Gretchen Fitzgerald and conservation committee chair Ole Hendrickson attended an October 8th rally in downtown Ottawa in support of the legal fight by Kebaowek First Nation to block construction of a giant nuclear waste landfill at the federally owned Chalk River Laboratories on the Ottawa River. Kebaowek chief Lance Haymond and councillor Justin Roy spoke outside the Federal Court of Appeals during lunch break. They thanked supporters, noting that chants of “Water is Life” could be heard in the courtroom. They said their struggle to protect the river from radioactive pollution is on behalf of all Canadians.
Chief Haymond, supported by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and others, has vowed to take the fight to the Supreme Court if necessary. Justice Julie Blackhawk ruled in February 2025 that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had failed to consider the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples before approving the radioactive landfill. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) — a private company that is owned by two US multinationals and Atkins-Realis (the former SNC-Lavalin) and that operates Chalk River under contract — appealed her decision.
Sierra Club Canada Foundation was a co-applicant with Kebaowek First Nation on a second successful legal challenge of the radioactive landfill. Justice Russel Zinn ruled in March 2025 that CNL did not consider sites with less impact on endangered bat and turtle species, as required by the Species at Risk Act. CNL also appealed that decision, supported by the Attorney General of Canada. Their appeal will be heard November 12th.
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