LETTER

Ottawa Riverkeeper, “keeping” who and where? 

The Ottawa Riverkeeper organization has a well-groomed image. All the smiling people, in their appeals for donations! They do good work, don’t they?  Eels are important, and we certainly do not want micro-plastics in our water supply. But the Bulletin d’Aylmer, for one, has made it clear that there are much larger issues at stake – the Chalk River massive radioactive-materials dump, set where it can drain into the Ottawa River above Ottawa, Gatineau, Montreal? Now there is a request for an asbestos landfill – across the road from the Ottawa River in the Pontiac MRC. The Riverkeeper did participate in a study of the radioactive landfill – and then the subject disappeared!  

Could it be that the Riverkeeper organization is funded in part by the governments which have approved the Chalk River dump? Riverkeeper donation ads show various members of the federal government participating in swims and fund-raisers. It makes me wonder if the Riverkeeper, far from protecting the river, is in actuality protecting the governments which have approved projects that threaten our river. This is all a little too close and chummy for my comfort! The public might feel more assured if the Riverkeeper moved the big issues closer to the top of their attention lists.

Andy Black, 

Aylmer Nord