Updates

Last week (June 16-21) during the heat wave I was in Montreal, participating in three conferences as part of the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences – the big event with 70+ academic conferences together held every year at a different university in Canada. This year McGill University was the host, and given the situation on the campus with the anti-war encampment and a law faculty strike, all three of my conferences were moved elsewhere in the city.

I spent most of my time at the Society of Socialist Studies conference, moved to UQAM’s Sherbrooke Pavilion. M.V. Ramana and I co-organized a panel: “Challenging the Canadian Nuclear Establishment” with fellow panelists PhD student Laura Tanguay and Professor Mark Winfield, both from York University. We agreed to repeat the panel presentations at an open zoom event, details to follow later this year. At the panel I presented my paper in development “Challenging Hegemonic Corporate Media Discourse on Nuclear Power: The NB Media Coop” written with research assistant Emma Fackenthall who also attended the session. We’re still doing the analysis and will aim to finish drafting the paper this year. In addition to listening to many interesting presentations, I also had fun hanging out with Ramana and Laura for three days.

The Canadian Sociological Association pulled out of Congress entirely and held a parallel virtual conference. I presented my paper, “Nuclear Waste on Indigenous Homelands: A Settler Critique” using slides prepared by research assistant Abby Bartlett, in collaboration with Ramana. Abby and I are working on a report on the topic, aiming to have a draft by the end of the summer, working in collaboration with our CEDAR Indigenous research partners. I presented the slides by zoom from my non-air-conditioned residence room at the top of the McGill campus. Aside from that one session, I skipped the rest of the CSA virtual conference so I could attend the in-person sessions at other venues.

My third and final presentation was at the Canadian Communication Association conference, moved to the Université de Montréal campus. I also chaired my panel after the original chair was unable to attend. I’ve been working on my CCA paper, “The nuclear industry, the government and the public sphere” for more than a year and have revised it numerous times as new info from my access to information requests has come in. I’m still waiting for one request, from Global Affairs Canada, and as soon as it arrives I should be able to finish that paper quickly and submit it for review and publication.

On reflection, the week in Montreal was well worth it. I’ll return home with lots of good ideas for further research. I met up with some former, current and possibly future academic colleagues. I was also able to meet up with family in Montreal and Ottawa where I lived for many years. Next year, the Congress will be in Toronto at George Brown College and I’m already thinking ahead to which conferences I’ll take part in. Three conferences in one week is definitely my limit.

Hi everyone! My name is Erin (she/her) and I am in my fourth-year of undergraduate studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I am honouring in Environment & Society and majoring in Journalism. I began doing research with Dr. Susan O’Donnell and Dr. Janice Harvey in January of 2023 on the Plutonium Project. I am now currently working with them and fellow research assistant Emma Fackenthall on Study 1: Media Analysis for the CEDAR Project.

So far, I have mainly been collecting and coding news articles – along with Emma – for article type, primary and secondary voices, and energy technologies discussed. Once that stage was completed, Dr. Harvey and I conducted an analysis of the news media coverage regarding the NB Legislature hearings with the Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship this past fall. Our plan was to assess what is being said in the media versus what was said in the hearings. From there, we identified some implications of this for public discourse and public perception of the issues being brought forth to the legislature.  

Other than doing this research, I love to read, write, hike, camp, garden, swim and surf!

It’s an exciting time to be researching energy transitions. Politicians and people everywhere are thinking and talking about how we will transition off fossil fuels, and those conversations will become more frequent and intense as we get closer to Canada’s targets of massively reducing GHG emissions by 2030 and building net-zero electricity grids by 2035. The conversations we need to be having include: how all energy use contributes to biodiversity loss, the limits to economic growth, and what we can learn from Indigenous nations about caring for all our relations and making decisions with future generations in mind.

I’ve been a social science researcher for almost three decades, starting in 1995 with a three-year contract at Dublin City University in Ireland after completing my Master’s degree at Cardiff University in Wales. When that first research contract ended, I started a research consultancy in Dublin while completing my PhD and worked for five years on projects involving different European countries. I returned to Canada in 2004 to join the National Research Council (NRC) in Fredericton where I worked on projects involving a range of technologies. My current focus – analyzing the social, environmental, economic and political aspects of nuclear technologies – started in 2020, as a researcher at the University of New Brunswick. I moved to St. Thomas University (also in Fredericton) and launched the CEDAR project in 2023.

In addition to and alongside my research work, I’m an activist and writer. I started in the environmental movement at Carleton University in the late 1970s with the radio show Eco-Chamber on CKCU FM and later worked for Pollution Probe in Ottawa. Over the years I’ve been active in the feminist movement and as a leader in my NRC public sector union. I’m currently a volunteer on several boards of non-governmental organizations and a core member of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB).

Hello everyone, I am Abby Bartlett and have recently graduated from St. Thomas University with my BA. I majored in Native Studies while attending STU and in 2017 I graduated from NBCC with the title of Environmental Technologist. My educational background has prepared me for what I currently focus on as I contribute to the project. I started on the CEDAR project in April of 2024 and am currently working on Study Three, Participatory Action Research. My focus on Study Three is to amplifying Indigenous voices, and part of that started with analyzing 30 declarations made by Indigenous Nations regarding nuclear waste. I have also written an article amplifying the voice of Chief Akagi, and the Passamaquoddy Recognition Group Inc, which was posted in the NB Media Co-op. Chief Akagi has requested to have a public hearing to review any new governance arrangement for the Point Lepreau nuclear reactor on Peskotomuhkati homeland. The article was published today and can be found HERE. I am excited to see what comes next as the CEDAR project continues!

Hi. I’m am an Assistant Professor in Environment and Society at St. Thomas. This is a program unaffiliated with any particular department in which students can earn a Major (as a double major) or a Minor. The first 25 years of my working life was spent with the Conservation Council of NB, an environmental advocacy group formed in 1969 – one of the oldest in Canada. So my academic second career is informed by many years as an advocate and activist in provincial and federal environmental politics. Before working at CCNB, I began my activism as a member of the Maritime Energy Coalition, the group formed in the 1970s to oppose the construction of the Point Lepreau nuclear plant in New Brunswick. So I cut my political teeth on energy issues opposing nuclear power and advocating for a soft energy path, a term coined by Amory Lovins. Forty-five years later, energy issues remain front and centre as we strive for a liveable future in the face of climate change, widespread toxic and radiological contamination, biodiversity loss, and personal and global insecurity. The CEDAR project is one of many initiatives helping to map out that future.

We’ve been busy raising awareness and deconstructing the promotional material of the nuclear establishment, in particular the false idea that more nuclear energy should be central to climate action plans. Sharing facts and exposing industry spin about nuclear energy is important work. False nuclear ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis are intended to delay climate action and shift our focus away from the real transition work that we all need to be doing. Check out all our new articles on the publications page.

We’re now preparing to present our research at academic conferences at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Conference at McGill University in Montreal in June. More on this soon!

St. Thomas University student and CEDAR research assistant Erin Hurley created this short video about our project for the SSHRC storyteller challenge. Watch it here:

We’ve created a resource page with recordings and other materials from our main events in October. You’re welcome to use and share them, HERE.

CEDAR officially launched on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 at 10am at St. Thomas University. The media release is below. The launch archive page with a photo, short video and news article is HERE.

The CEDAR project, St. Thomas University, Fredericton

Media Advisory: Researchers, educators, Indigenous and community leaders and activists will launch and comment on new research into contrasting energy transition pathways for New Brunswick

WHEN: 10 to 11am, Thursday, October 12, 2023

WHO:

·      Miigam’agan, Elder-in-Residence, St. Thomas University

·      Dr. Nauman Farooqi, President, St. Thomas University

·      Jenica Atwin, Member of Parliament for Fredericton

·      David Coon, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Fredericton South

·      Gretchen Fitzgerald, National Programs Coordinator, Sierra Club Canada

·      Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

·      Dr. M.V. Ramana, Professor, University of British Columbia

·      Dr. Susan O’Donnell, Lead Investigator, CEDAR project, St. Thomas University

WHERE: St. Thomas University, Sir James Dunn student lounge (Dawn Russell Lounge), Sir James Dunn Hall, 67 Dineen Drive, Fredericton.

WHAT: Contesting Energy Discourses through Action Research (CEDAR) is a new five-year project funded by a $376,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

WHY: Most people agree we need to transition how we use energy if we are to mitigate climate change. There is, however, a big debate over what to transition to.

The media in New Brunswick often promote voices and institutions wanting continued use of fossil fuels combined with a switch to biomass and speculative small modular nuclear reactors in the somewhat distant future.

The alternative is to focus on energy conservation, reductions in energy use, decentralized renewable energy generation, and ending social and environmental injustices related to energy production and consumption.

CEDAR is studying the organizations promoting the dominant discourses and the alternative pathways, and how action research can contribute to a more democratic media environment.

On October 13, A Day of Dialogue about Decolonization, Degrowth and Energy Transitions will open up discussions about alternative paths: energy conservation, reductions in aggregate energy use, and ending social and environmental injustices related to colonization. More information HERE.

The evening of October 12, Professor M.V. Ramana will deliver a public talk: “Nuclear Energy and the Bomb.” When thinking about energy transitions, the issue of nuclear weapons rarely comes to mind. Yet the connections between generating nuclear energy and the ability to make nuclear weapons have been evident since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed. More information HERE.

The CEDAR Team: Investigators are Dr. Susan O’Donnell (lead), Dr. Janice Harvey, Dr. Andrew Secord, and Dr. Clive Baldwin at St. Thomas University; Dr. J.P. Sapinski at the Université de Moncton; and Professor M.V. Ramana at the University of British Columbia. Research assistants include students at all three universities. Research partners are: Chief Ron Tremblay, Wolastoq Grand Council; Chief Hugh Akagi, Peskotomukati Nation at Skutik; Gretchen Fitzgerald, Sierra Club Canada; Dr. Sophie Lavoie, NB Media Co-op; Dr. Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility; and Sabrina Bowman, Toronto Metropolitan University.