Chemical Valley and Beloved Community: A panel discussion

Experiences from around Sarnia-Lambton and Aamjiwnaang

Before and after a screening of the film Beloved Community, four panelists spoke about their relationships with the Sarnia-Lambton petro-chemical industries addressed in the film.  This event took place at the University of Western Ontario, in London.

The chemical and fossil fuel industries in Sarnia and surrounding townships surround the Aamjiwnaang native reserve.  There are many different health and psychological impacts in the area.

The panelists who addressed those issues at our event were (in order of their first appearances in this recording):

• Sarah Wiebe - PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Ottawa
• Zak Nicholls - S.H.A.M.E. and the Responsible Community Network for South End Sarnia
• Kathy Jo Berry - Responsible Community Network for South End Sarnia
• Wilson Plain - Past Chair, Aamjiwnaang Health & Environment Committee

David McColl, of Climate Justice London, also spoke about how fossil fuels flow between Sarnia and London, Ontario.  We have made some efforts to scrutinize regional oil infrastructure.

Cortney Dakin and I facilitated the panel.  We are both in Climate Justice London, but we lined up this event through the Environmental Science Association instead -- because that was easier to do, with a campus event.

This audio file doesn't include the Q&A part of the event.

Here are a few more photos.

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Earlier that same day there were local rallies about missing and murdered indigenous women.

The panel and film event took place shortly after a Community Forum on Pollution and Action had been held in Sarnia.  This Observer coverage gives some sense of what happened at that event.  Here are a small set of some photos from that environmental Forum.

A few of the same people involved in the London panel event later were part of an arts and environmental justice event out in Sarnia.

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