"Regardless of the outcome of this case, any negotiations between Ottawa
and
Victoria must uphold BC’s standing as a nuclear weapons free province,”
said
Cadman. “In 1992 the BC legislature, including the Liberals, voted
51 to 1 to
make BC nuclear free. And in 1996 the International Court of Justice
in the
Hague ruled that nuclear weapons are illegal. British Columbians
overwhelmingly
oppose US nuclear warships testing at Nanoose.”
SPEC also wants Campbell to include a clean-up clause in any renewed
lease with
Ottawa. Thirty years of weapons testing at Nanoose has left more
than 93,000
km of copper wire, 2,200 tonnes of lead, hundreds of lithium
batteries and other
toxic materials on the sea-bed under the 225 sq. km range.
Andrew Gage, West Coast Environmental Law Association staff lawyer,
and
David Wright QC, of Lawyers for Social Responsibility, asked the Hon.
Mr.
Justice Douglas Campbell to quash the expropriation because of procedural
irregularities committed during the 1999 expropriation process that
involved over
2400 objectors.
Wright also argued that regardless of who technically controls Nanoose,
neither
Ottawa nor Victoria are authorized to bring in nuclear weapons which
is contrary
to the “will of the people” the ultimate authority underlying
the laws of all
democratic states.
-30-
Information: David Cadman 604 736-7732,
604 318-0001,
http://www.spec.bc.ca/spec/nanoose/index.htm
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SPEC
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation
2150 Maple Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3T3
phone (604) 736-SPEC, FAX (604) 736-7115
e-mail, enviro@spec.bc.ca
web, www.spec.bc.ca
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