I'm passing on the following note regarding the Police campaign for permanent "choppers-in-the-sky". Contact information is below.

John

The Toronto police helicopter pilot project ends shortly: December 31st, 2000. Toronto Police are already lobbying the new City Council to try to make the helicopters a permanent fixture in Toronto. This is an urgent call to activists to join a campaign to ensure the choppers don't become permanent. If they are approved by Council, we will be subjected to up to 24 hours a day of surveillance throughout the city by five noisy helicopters. Residents thoughout Toronto are already complaining about noisy police choppers keeping them awake at night. We must show Council that citizens are opposed to this expensive and damaging form of social control.

There is strong evidence against police helicopters, coming from the U.S. based National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They conclude that helicopters hovering over residential areas pose a health hazard. "Limited but growing research and the experience of populations in heavily helicopter-impacted localities strongly indicate that helicopter noise ... can affect human health, well-being and learning ability," it said.

With a sound level measured at around 96 decibels, according to the NRDC, choppers are louder than many other urban annoyances, such as traffic (80 decibels), the subway (90 decibels), lawnmowers (85 to 90 decibels) and diesel trucks (84 decibels).

Crime is at a 20 year low in Toronto. How can we justify the $5 million plus the choppers will cost? There is no evidence that police helicopters are effective in confronting crime. To prevent crime, we must eliminate recreation user fees and invest in low-cost housing and other social programs.

Now is the time to get involved in this campaign. Please email helena@web.ca for more information.

Contact the City Auditor, who will write a report about the helicopters for City Council. Tony Venezia can be reached at tvenezia@city.toronto.on.ca or 392-3712. Contact your City Councillor (#s in Blue Pages p. 21-22 in the phone book). Please copy any emails opposed to the choppers to helena@web.ca

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The torture of children -- the world's secret shame - 8 Dec 2000
From: Amnesty International

"He had a pair of pliers in his hand. He kept asking where the mobile [phone] was. I told him I had not seen it....He got hold of my thumb and placed it between the pliers. He pressed it hard and crushed my thumb. I do not remember what happened next." Nine-year-old Firoz, victim of torture by police in Bangladesh.

Throughout the world, children are being subjected to horrific violence and abuse, according to a new Amnesty International report published ahead of Human Rights Day (December 10).

A part of Amnesty International's recently launched Campaign Against Torture, the report reveals that: children are tortured because they are caught up in wars and political conflict; children suspected of criminal activity are most at risk of torture at the hands of the state; children are often detained in conditions that pose a threat to their health and safety, and many children face being beaten or sexually abused by the very adults who are supposed to protect them.

"This abuse continues to be the world's secret shame, a daily reality ignored by governments everywhere. Most children suffer in silence, their stories never told, their tormentors never called to account," Amnesty International said.

Entitled Hidden scandal, secret shame, the report says that torture can have a profound impact on the body and mind of a developing child. Those who are tortured repeatedly, or over long periods of time, are likely to suffer permanent personality changes. Serious physical trauma may disrupt or distort normal growth patterns, and cause permanent weakness or disability.

"Around the world we see the same patterns of abuse: there is little difference between how police treat children in China and how they treat them in Brazil; there is little difference between conditions of detention in Paraguay and Russia; and violence against children in armed conflict is equally devastating in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan."

Police Custody In some countries beatings are considered a normal consequence of arrest and some police officers rely on torture as a method of interrogation. Children have been struck with fists, sticks, chair legs, gun-butts, whips, iron pipes and electrical cords. They have suffered concussion, internal bleeding, broken bones, lost teeth and ruptured organs. Children detained by police have also been sexually assaulted; burned with cigarettes or electricity; exposed to extremes of heat and cold; deprived of food, drink or sleep; or made to stand, sit or hang for long hours.

Children are entangled in the web of the current conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories. So far at least 90 Palestinian children have been killed. Hundreds of Palestinian children, as well as some Israeli children, have been injured. Palestinian children have often been arrested late at night or early in the morning and interrogated soon after they reached the police station. Some were handcuffed following arrest and during interrogation, reportedly beaten by police officers, intimidated and subjected to extreme psychological pressure.

At about 2am on 24 October, a dozen Israeli police, armed with machine guns, came to arrest Bakr Sa'id, a 15 year old boy, at his home in Kufar Kana. Four armed police officers went to where Bakr Sa'id was sleeping and arrested the boy. Bakr Sa'id was reportedly interrogated for several hours in the early morning by three interrogators in civilian clothes who shouted and threatened him. Later in the day he was brought to court, but his father was not allowed to speak to him. Another detainee in court said he saw a police officer slap Bakr Sa'id in the face.

Sexual Abuse in Custody Boys and girls in custody are vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse, both from state agents and other inmates. Many children try to hide the fact that they have been raped, others are simply too embarrassed or ashamed to talk about it and many cases go unreported and unpunished.

N.C.S., a 16-year-old Kurdish girl was detained with her friend at police headquarters in Iskenderun, Turkey, in March 1999. She was forced to stand continuously for two days, prevented from using the toilet and only given sour milk to drink. During the interrogation she was beaten on the head, genitals, buttocks and breasts, forced to roll naked in water, suspended by the arms and hosed with pressurized cold water. She was also subjected to a "virginity test". N.C.S. was sentenced to a long prison term after being charged with being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but typically none of the police officers have so far been brought to justice.

Street Children An estimated 100 million children live and work on the streets where they are particularly vulnerable. Amnesty International has documented torture and ill-treatment against street children in many countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Nepal and Uganda.

Juvenile Detention Centres Conditions in juvenile detention centres, orphanages and other institutions can also amount to torture. A class action filed in February in South Dakota, USA, alleged that children held in the State Training School in Plankington were forced to lie on their backs, spread-eagled, on a concrete bed in an isolation cell for hours at a time, including overnight. Girls held in this position had been stripped naked by male staff, sometimes having their clothes cut off with scissors.

Physical abuse is a fact of life for many young detainees. A former inmate of the Panchito López juvenile detention centre in Paraguay said: "Life in Panchito is hard. For punishments there were beatings on the soles of the feet or on the palms of the hands, or kicks in the stomach. Boys were stripped naked and hung upside down on the patio and beaten with sticks, or else they made you stand on your hands up against the wall. You had to stay still like that for as long as they wanted, if you fell down they beat you. They'd hang you from a pillar or from the doorway. They hung me up for three hours, and all the guards that passed by hit me. If someone does something and they don't discover who, everyone in the block is beaten with sticks."

Armed Conflict Children are particularly vulnerable in situations of armed conflict -- as child soldiers, refugees, innocent bystanders. Many children are tortured simply because they live in an "enemy zone", or because of the politics, religion or ethnic origin of their family. Children have suffered on an unprecedented scale during the nine years of civil war in Sierra Leone -- thousands have been killed, mutilated, abducted and forced to fight, or raped and forced into sexual slavery.

Many children in Sierra Leone, themselves victims, have been forced to kill, mutilate or rape, often under the influence of drugs or alcohol or through fear. "Komba", now aged 15, was captured by rebel forces in 1997. He told AI in June 2000 that he was among rebel forces who attacked Freetown in January 1999: "My legs were cut with blades and cocaine was rubbed in the wounds. Afterwards, I felt like a big person. I saw the other people like chickens and rats. I wanted to kill them."

Amnesty International is calling on governments around the world to publicly condemn the torture of children whenever it occurs, investigate all allegations of torture, ensure it is expressly prohibited in law and that torturers are brought to justice. The leaders of armed opposition groups should also make clear to their forces that torture is unacceptable.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, but governments continue to fail to live up to the principles and commitments it contains. By allowing the violence against children to continue, we put at risk our future," the organization said.

Members of the public can join Amnesty International's Campaign Against Torture by registering online at www.stoptorture.org
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Pickering Nuke Station Restart
Mon, 11 Dec 2000
by way of Brian Burch <burch@tao.ca>
 

IF YOU ARE IN THE GREATER TORONTO AREA,PLEASE ATTEND THIS MEETING!

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DURHAM NUCLEAR AWARENESS
MEDIA RELEASE -- Monday, December 11, 2000

REACTOR RESTART WHITEWASH

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (formerly the Atomic Energy Control
Board - AECB) is meeting in Pickering on Thursday December 14th, starting
at 2:00 p.m., to consider the environmental assessment report on the
restart of the 30-year-old Pickering "A" nuclear station. The four reactor
station is the oldest commercial nuclear plant in Canada and was closed
three years ago due to management and safety issues. Durham Nuclear
Awareness (DNA), a citizens environment group, is scheduled to address the
Nuclear Commission meeting.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Date: Thursday December 14, 2000

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Place: Pickering Civic Complex Council Chambers.

Directions:
>From Hwy #401, take the Brock Road exit in Pickering,
go north on Brock Rd to Kingston Road (Hwy #2)
and west on Kingston to Glenanna Rd,
then south to the Civic Complex (east side with clock tower).

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

The basic level ‘screening' report has been criticized for its failure to
address key public safety and economic issues and for its lack of
independence. One vital topic excluded by the Nuclear Commission is the
risk of severe nuclear accidents, including the effects on human health,
the environment and the economy of accidents involving widespread
radioactive fallout. Ontario's Nuclear Emergency Plan states that severe
reactor accidents could make a large surrounding area uninhabitable,
requiring relocation of residents, as well as recovery from widespread
economic disruption and environmental contamination. All exposure to
radiation increases the risk of cancer and birth defects. A recent report
prepared for the Canadian Senate concludes that the risk assessments done
to date by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are incomplete, and underestimate
the potential for severe nuclear accidents with large releases of
radiation. Another key topic specifically excluded is the cost and need to
restart Pickering "A", and the energy  alternatives to restart.

Durham Nuclear Awareness (DNA) has demanded rejection of the screening
report and a bump- up of the environmental assessment process to a full
public review by an impartial panel (known as a "Panel Review" under the
Canadian Environmental Assessment Act). This would provide independence
from both Ontario Power Generation and the regulator, and could expand the
range of issues covered in the environmental assessment.

DNA spokesperson Irene Kock stated:  "The screening report on Pickering "A"
restart is a blatant whitewash. Pickering "A" should not be reopened
without a full environmental assessment by an impartial Panel. The four old
reactors at Pickering are an accident waiting to happen. The regulator is
refusing to look at the real accident risk or alternatives to restarting
the reactors in this assessment."

"Ontario Power Generation is Canada's worst environmental polluter, with
air pollution from coal plants, as well as the radioactive pollution and
accident risk from nuclear plants. The federal and provincial governments
are condoning this irresponsible corporate behaviour."

- 30 -

A one page backgrounder is attached.
For further information: Irene Kock (DNA) 905-852-0571

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Backgrounder -- December 11, 2000

PICKERING "A" NUCLEAR STATION RESTART ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is facing a regulatory decision on its plan
to re-open the four reactors at Pickering "A". The basic level  'screening'
environmental assessment has been carried out under the authority of the
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC, formerly the Atomic Energy
Control Board, AECB). Approval of the environmental assessment report by
the Nuclear Commission will give a green light to allow restart of
Pickering "A" through a licence amendment in spring 2001.

The current process lacks independence since it is controlled by the CNSC
(historically friendly to the nuclear industry). The assessment has
excluded fundamental issues such as the cost and need to restart Pickering
"A" and the risk of severe nuclear accidents. Durham Nuclear Awareness and
Pickering citizen groups have been joined by the City of Pickering, the
Township of Uxbridge, the Municipal Region of Durham, and the City of
Toronto in asking federal Environment Minister David Anderson to upgrade
the assessment to an independent Panel Review. Anderson has so far refused
to act, even though he has full authority to do so.

The environmental assessment should include a public review of the
environmental, human health and economic effects of a severe nuclear
accident where the containment system fails to work. This limited
screening, which excludes these severe accidents, prevents a fair
assessment of the risks of Pickering "A" restart. Safety systems, including
containment, are not 'fail safe' and have a past record of problems which
show that they may not operate properly during an accident. The single
emergency shutdown system at Pickering "A" is sub-standard, even with the
planned upgrades, compared to other nuclear plants in Ontario, which have
two separate systems.

A recent report prepared by independent U.S. nuclear hazards expert Gordon
Thompson for the Standing Committee on Energy, Environment and Natural
Resources of the Canadian Senate, concludes that OPG's risk assessments
done to date are incomplete, and that compared to U.S. practice, the
Pickering A Risk Assessment (PARA) underestimates the potential for severe
nuclear accidents with large releases of radiation. The Thompson report
recommends that the risk assessment should be redone and independently
reviewed before a decision on the restart of Pickering NGS-A.

The report is available on-line at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/2/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ENRG-E/REP-E/special-stu
dy-e.htm

In 1994, all levels of elected politicians in Pickering asked the AECB for
an independent review of the risks at the nuclear station. The request was
supported by the cities of Oshawa and Toronto. The AECB turned down these
requests, but appeared to be asleep at the switch after a serious loss of
coolant accident (LOCA) at Pickering A reactor #2 on December 10, 1994,
which required the use of the emergency coolant injection system for the
first time ever to avoid a disaster.

In a 1997 municipal referendum in Pickering, 87% of voters (over 17,000
people) said they supported a full environmental assessment by the province
on the future of the Pickering "A" station. The request was supported by
all surrounding municipalities, but the Ontario government turned it down.
In 1998 Ontario Hydro specifically excluded serious nuclear accidents from
an environmental review of the Pickering reactors.

FOR MORE INFORMATION,
CONTACT DURHAM NUCLEAR AWARENESS (DNA)
TEL: 905-852-0571

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nuclear Awareness Project
P.O. Box 104
Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada  L9P 1M6

Tel/Fax 905-852-0571
E-mail: nucaware@web.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~