Some two weeks ago, The StarPhoenix published an article mentioning that the future of the province relies on the development of Nuclear Energy. Then, few days later, I came to know that Don Ching resigned from SaskTel to become the President and CEO of Cogema Resources, a French subsidiary of Areva, the nuclear company owned by the French government.[2] As I learned of these two news I commented to my wife Sharon "We are going to have the StarPhoenix teaming up with Don Ching to peddle the development of uranium mining and nuclear energy in Saskatchewan."

On Monday I have the confirmation of this commercial teaming up as I read the article "Politics hamper Crowns: Ching."[3]

We have to understand that the Saskatchewan government has promised to provide Saskatchewan people with the lowest bundle of telephone, power, energy and auto insurance rates in Canada. And in fact the Saskatchewan government has recently announced a utility rebate of $137 to every Saskatchewan household.[4]

I consider Don Ching to be a hypocritical mouth piece of the global corporative agenda to further privatize Saskatchewan. Now try to understand the hypocrisy emanating from Don Ching as he states "There is no commercial basis for keeping the utility rates the lowest of anyplace in Canada. That is strictly a social objective."

Don Ching was a former labour lawyer and law partner of former premier Roy Romanow. So, Don Ching give us the impression that it is fine for him to regress from a labour lawyer to a nuclear marketeer but it is not fine for Saskatchewan to have commercial enterprises to evolve and satisfy social objectives as well. Don Ching also states that "The fact of the matter is you go and do business where you do sensible and wise business and make a good profit." And in this respect Don Ching suggests that his old company SaskTel should broaden its geographical boundaries and be successful in the same way as his new French owned company operates in Northern Saskatchewan.

I want to remind our readers that the uranium industry has destroyed the town of Uranium City in Saskatchewan,[5] and that one of Cogema’s inglorious legacies has been left in Gabon.[6]

In the last article I mentioned how higher education is becoming more and more a benefit of our corporative businesses.[7] Today, Cogema provides donations and scholarships to Aboriginal people[8] as Don Ching prepares the corporative destruction of their land. And don’t get me wrong, the Government of Saskatchewan loves Uranium mining![9]

References

[1] Caldicott, Helen Nuclear Power Still a Deadly Proposition, August 17, 2004 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/00_caldicott_nuclear-power-proposition.htm

[2] COGEMA Resources COGEMA Resources Announces New President November 25, 2004 News Release, http://www.cri.ca/news/2004nov25.html

[3] Johnstone, Bruce Politics hamper Crowns: Ching December 6, 2004 The StarPhoenix, Page A1

[4] CBC Saskatchewan Province announces utility rebates November 17, 2004 http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/PrintStory?filename=utility_rebates041117&regionfiltered=Sask

[5] Common, David Uranium City - Toxic Town CBC Saskatchewan, http://sask.cbc.ca/archives/uranium

[6] WISE Uranium Project The inglorious legacy of COGEMA in Gabon - Decommissioning of the Mounana uranium mine and mill site (last updated 8 Sep 2004) http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/udmoun.html

[7] deSantis, Mario A perception of the disorder in the New World Order: Canadian health care, the falling American dollar, universities’ independence November 26, 2004 Ensign, http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2004_900/desantis923/think.html

[8] COGEMA Resources Working with our Communities http://www.cri.ca/communities/

[9] Government of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan's Uranium Resources Promoted in London September 10, 2004 News Release, Industry and Resources – 537, http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/releases/2004/09/10-537.html