Highway of Fears

I am from BC, where we have the “Highway of Tears” where many women, often Indigenous, have gone missing, and been murdered, for decades. In 2021 I moved to North Bay to start a new life that I thought would be more safe, but now I feel like Highway 17 should be called the “Highway of Fears” if nuclear waste is to be driven through my new town for the next 50 years, longer than I will live. There are so many alarming vehicle crashes on HWY 17 involving large transport trucks and it is only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens involving the nuclear waste. Once that happens, it will take thousands of years for Nature to make things right again, if ever. We are still not capable of doing that with our nuclear waste. I have studied the nuclear industry on my own for years following the Fukushima disaster, and I am aware of the benefits in medicine and energy but that does not erase the damage that it has caused around the globe. It never goes away, and yet the industry continues to kick that can down the road for people in the future to deal with. I will not be alive in 50 years but I still care about what happens after I am gone- for the Indigenous People, the young families here and the old ones, children, animals, water, and ecosystems that do not deserve to carry this burden. Please do not do this in such an unstable time. It is reckless, and selfish, and unforgivable.

Thank you,

Melanie Cookson