PIRGSPECTIVESontario public interest research group (OPIRG) mcmaster

fall-winter 2013-2014

INSIDE: Welcome | The Plight of the Bees | Wrong Wait: The Different Ways of Being In Waiting: Immigration In Ontario. | Fukushima: Lessons Learnt | Volunteer

Profiles: Sabeen Kazmi | Kojo Damptey | ThreadWork’s Meg Peters

PEOPLEThank you to Mei-Ting Hwang for volunteering to lay out this issue with me; to Jamie Mudrick, a communications student who interned with OPIRG in first term and who penned two volunteer profiles of current OPIRG Board members. As always we appreciate the contributions of our volunteer working group members for their insightful articles and profiles: Christina Vietinghoff from Threadwork and Alicia Ridge from Hamiltonians for Migrant and Refugee Health. And of course we are always happy to meet new volunteers, like Engineering Grad student Ouajih Hamouda who shares his insights from a trip to post Fukushima Japan. And finaally, thanks to Priyanka Raimugia, Rebekah Roy and Margot Rosenberg for volunteering editing and proofreading services.

OPIRG.CAOPIRG has a new website where users can create a free account, then one-click register for events, choose to follow some or all of our working groups, participate in online polls, and organize content to suit your needs.

You will also be able to receive a weekly e-mail with upcoming events listed.

Built by Paul Rooney of f5 site design after his

successful bid was chosen by OPIRG’s Board of Directors, the site gives users much more control and a deeper connection to content. Of course it is the go-to spot for finding our events calendar, a complete listing of all our 16 working groups and contact information so you can find more ways to get active with OPIRG McMaster.

MORE PEOPLESome amazing contributions behind the scenes from students Tyler Rubini who is working on our online OPIRG history archive, ever helpful Jessica Benjak, video editor Michelle Usdenski, and the unbelievably talented Communication and Multi-Media student Bonnie Chao whose impact has only begun to resonate to the core of this wonderful organization known as OPIRG McMaster.

EXCUSESWe expect the spring/summer issue of PIRGspectives to follow hard on the heels of this (late) issue with the next issue shedding some light on why this Fall/Winter was delayed.(Nothing to do with our volunteers!)

Big shout out to our Board of Directors whose members have had a more than usually busy year and have contributed so much so far. Thanks for all you do!

Randy Kay

COORDINATEDBy Randy Kay, Coordinator of Volunteers

contributors: Mei-Ting Hwang says “Hi, I am Mei. I occasionally do things that are productive and I enjoy bees.” | Alicia Ridge has a decade of nursing under her belt. This makes her feel a bit old, but then she remembers that she doesn’t even own a belt-- and so it’s all okay. Her passions for social justice and reproductive justice have landed her in the Midwifery program at McMaster. She also works as a nurse at the volunteer-led Refuge Clinic for Newcomer Health in Hamilton. She enjoys singing on her bicycle rides, sometimes feels too busy, and generally subsists on burritos, chocolate peanut butter banana smoothies and coffee. | Ouajih Hamouda is a Mechanical Engineering, Graduate student who has been contributing to OPIRG as a very helpful and talented volunteer | Jamie Mudrick is a 4th year Communications Honours undergraduate who interned with OPIRG in first term |Christina Vietinghoff enjoys biking, cross-country skiing and organizing Clothing Swaps to avoid having to shop. She can teach you how to fix a flat, lick your elbow or call in black-capped chickadees. She hopes to see copious amounts of people out at the next Swap on March 7th, 2014

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WRONG WAITby Alicia Ridge, Hamiltonians For Migrant Health And Justice (HMRH) Working Group

Registered Nurse at Refuge Clinic for Newcomer Health and McMaster Midwifery StudentAn exciting new initiative from the HMHR group is the new work-shop, The Different Ways of Being In Waiting: Immigration In On-tario. It is a one hour workshop developed to share information on the changes to immigration processes stemming from Bill C-31.

Working closely with a local network of people involved in heath and social services for newcomers, as well as the Toronto group Health For All, HMRH has developed an accessible guide to how these different statuses are changed by the recent changes to health care access.

In the interactive workshop we introduce four main categories of assigned statuses: Citizen, permanent resident, temporary status migrants and non-status or undocumented people. The workshop points out key recent changes, such as an increase in temporary migrant workers and a decrease or freeze on certain family class migrants. We discuss the difference between Designated Country of Origin asylum seeking refugees and Non-Designated Country of Origin refugees.

We then discuss how different assigned statuses are affected by the changes to the Interim Federal Healthcare (IFH) coverage for newly arrived refugees. We link how changes to IFH cuts are also a part of broader health care cuts, including cuts to OHIP, and broader policy changes affecting migrants.

We update the workshop based on ongoing changes to the ‘rules’ around access to health care. For example there are new changes be-ginning January 2014 that mean some people will now potentially have a bit more ease of access to health care. (Good news!)

Since many of the members of HMRH are involved in advocacy or clinical work that provides health care to those being denied access, the workshop is grounded in current realities. Through case scenarios and group discussion, we discuss other barriers to accessing social service and health care for migrants, including the newer designa-tions of ‘Designated Foreign National’, and how the ‘Excessive Burden’ clause may pose a threat to people who have received a diagnoses of a chronic nature when it comes to staying in Canada.

At the end of the one-hour workshop, the group has received feedback that suggests progress: these different statuses and categories, and their corresponding struggles faced by people assigned to them, are more

“members of HMRH are involved in

advocacy or clinical work that provides health care to those being

denied access”

understood. This leaves us feeling excited, because from this a better understanding of how to refuse the cuts and promote access to human rights such as health care can grow in our communities!

Does this peak your interest? Do you want to learn more? Are you a part of a group or service that would like to host us? Contact us to schedule your group workshop with HMRH.

Contact migranthealthhamilton@gmail.com.

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NOT A FULL-TIME McMASTER UNDERGRADUATE BUT WANT TO BE A MEMBER OF OPIRG?It’s easy to get involved! Consider becoming a community member:

• Free admission to workshops and events • Get a copy of our twice a year PIRGSPECTIVES newsletter mailed to your home• Vote at our Annual General Meeting • Eligible to join our Board of Directors• Sign Out Library material from our Resource Centre

NEW! Sliding Scale $10-$20/yearNAME____________________________________________________________________________________ADDRESS__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________E-MAIL____________________________________________________PHONE____________________________________________________AMOUNT: (choose an option)(Option 1)Membership only: cheque made out to OPIRG McMaster: ___________________(Option 2) Membership + Tax Free Donation made to ONTARIO PIRG: ___________________MAIL TO: OPIRG McMaster MUSC 229, McMaster University 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4S4 or use the online form: http://form.jotform.ca/form/30834036244246 (you still have to send a cheque)

Introduction

In May 2013, I travelled to Japan with a group of McMaster University students to study the long-term physical and societal impact of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident of March 2011 on the surrounding community. We visited the Fukushima prefecture, where the damaged Nuclear Power Plant is located, as well as other relevant regions in the country.During our visit, we witnessed widespread damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, learned about the remediation efforts underway, interacted with researchers and technical staff, and communicated directly and openly with residents whose lives were greatly affected by the unfortunate events.

Accident background

The 2011 Tohoku magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the 4th largest in world recorded history [2]. The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant had been designed to withstand a magnitude 8.2 earthquake, which means that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake was several times more powerful that the design basis of the plant (the Richter earthquake measurement scale works logarithmically).In the coastal towns of Namie, Okuma, and Tomioka, it was still possible to see scenes of tsunami and earthquake damage. Buildings close to shore were completely washed away by the tsunami. Further inland, many buildings were reduced to rubble by the earthquake. As a result of the release of nuclear radioactive materials, activity in these regions within a 20km radius of the NPP had come to a halt, and towns such as Tomioka, previously home to a community of 16,000, became deserted ghost towns littered with rubble and debris.

Lessons Learnt: Fukushima Nuclear Accident

by Ouajih Hamouda

Panic and chaos

A social worker at the Otagaisama Center for temporary evacuee support described leaving her home carrying only bare necessities, thinking that she would be returning within the next 24 hours. She explained how the annual emergency evacuation training proved completely useless in reality. There was very little emergency preparedness, and no effective disaster planning and emergency evacuation training to deal with a catastrophe of such magnitude.For instance, residents were trained to meet at defined locations during an evacuation to be transported by designated emergency busses. However, given that much of the infrastructure was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami, all evacuation transportation had to be improvised. Public anxiety was fuelled by poor communication from officials regarding the risk and consequences of the environmental radiological activity. Public concern was escalated further by contradictory, in some cases over-cautious, guidance provided by some local authorities.

Disaster mitigation

Despite the emergency response problems, critical measures were carried out that effectively mitigated the impact of the nuclear disaster. The Japanese authorities acted quickly to limit the implications of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident. Immediately following the declaration of a nuclear emergency, people in the vicinity of the plant were evacuated in anticipation of a release of radioactive materials.In addition to the rapid evacuation of residents, the risk of consumption of contaminated products was also effectively limited. By issuing iodine tablets and stopping people from eating significantly contaminated foods, the Japanese authorities seem to have eliminated the risk of increased cancers [4].

Nuclear accident impact

Today, many remain affected by the NPP accident, and addressing its long-term impact is shaping up to be a considerable challenge. As nuclear workers proceed with decommissioning of the nuclear reactors, dealing with vast amounts of contaminated water and relatively high ambient radioactivity levels, residents of Fukushima

Above: Tsunami wave washed away most of the coastal regions in its pathLeft Tsunami & earthquake damage still visible many kilometres from the shoreNext page: Displaced residents stage dance rehearsal at temporary community centre

Photos by Ouajih Hamouda

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prefecture find themselves having to cope with issues of a different nature. By visiting some of the affected areas in Japan, I had a unique opportunity to derive meaning from these events and learn from mistakes that were made.

Disaster Recovery Aid

Fukushima University, specialising in human resources development, has been actively involved in disaster recovery aid over the past couple of years. Volunteer activities include disaster site visits, the development of local restoration plans, volunteering at temporary housing areas, and food safety fieldwork. Voluntary activities that boost recovery and revitalisation were incorporated into academic curriculums, allowing students to provide volunteer services as part of their degree requirements.There was also a great amount of external support from international organisations towards post-tsunami and earthquake clean-up assistance. Tourist packages were offered in Tokyo, giving tourists the opportunity to volunteer at affected areas and have their pictures taken with the locals. Unfortunately, much of this work was restricted to zones that were not contaminated by radiation. The establishment of radioactive exclusion zones, as well as radiation fears, meant that in addition to facing extraordinary challenges, those affected by the nuclear incident received less support.

Long-term resident evacuation

The Otagaisama Center for temporary evacuee support in Koriyama houses displaced residents from Tomioka and Futaba. The refugees had to abandon their homes, even though these may have withstood the earthquake and tsunami, because they lie within the radiation exclusion zone. They are allowed brief occasional visits to their homes. On their first visits, many were hoping to find pets, treasured belongings, or vital medical records that were left behind during the emergency evacuation pandemonium, only to discover evidence of damage and theft.At the temporary housing site, living space is limited, and the conditions are miserable. The refugees speak of feeling isolated and discriminated against. Most of them thought that they would only be away from their homes for a short amount of time. Slowly, they begin to realise that they may not be able to return to their contaminated neighbourhoods for quite some time, if ever.

Eventual Return of refugees to their homes

Most of the evacuees did not seem to have any practical incentive to return to their homes. The younger generations appear determined to look to restart their lives elsewhere. A social worker indicated that the government was ignoring peoples’ aspirations for permanent relocation by pushing through decontamination efforts and trying to convince refugees of an eventual return home.The Otagaisama Center coordinator believes that the government has an agenda, which involves demonstrating that the radioactive fallout can be completely cleaned, and that the consequences of the nuclear accident are reversible. This would perhaps ease public concern and allow other nuclear plants in Japan to be restarted.

Research opportunities

The situation in Fukushima has opened the doors for several unique research opportunities. The Nagasaki University Satellite Branch in Kawauchi is exploring psychological and emotional aspects of the disaster, and promotes research and assistance related to radiation medicine. Research activities are developed corresponding to social needs, including radiation emergency systems, internal exposure risk evaluation, soil contamination and decontamination effectiveness, and children thyroid ultrasound checks.A Ph.D. student in public health care studies described some of the community engagement work being carried out. Some of the residents’ fears had resulted from a misunderstanding of the science of radiation, in which the consequences of long term low dose radiation were being compared to the short term high radiation dose effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki events. The University is making gradual gains towards explaining radiation effects to residents and persuading people to lead regular lives.

Lessons learnt

The Fukushima nuclear disaster offers valuable lessons, and the broad consequences of the accident are such that the economic, social, material, psychological, ethical, and technological lessons are applicable across many spectrums of professional society.Global nuclear safety has been the subject of much debate in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and there are many lessons to learn from the unfortunate events that have occurred. From a nuclear engineering point of view, it must be recognised that a biased interest in endorsing a technology or promoting its safety may inadvertently generate oversight.Many nuclear professionals today argue that despite the poor reactor design and the triple core meltdown accompanied by hydrogen explosions, the implications of the disaster are not as bad as initially feared, especially from a public safety perspective. In the process, there seems to be an involuntary disregard to the large amount of psychological and emotional suffering that has resulted from the accident, the tremendous economic impact, the complicated social bearing on Japanese communities, and the damage to the reputation of nuclear energy.

Future risk reduction

The kind of oversight and lack of imagination at the root of this disaster is not limited to the Fukushima plant, but is rather representative of the nuclear safety analysis culture in the industry as a whole. It is my opinion that the Fukushima accident warrants a shift in the culture of safety analysis and design of nuclear plant components. While it is important to develop theoretical and conceptual skills that can provide improved predictive modelling capability and a more fundamental understanding of the underlying physics, it is just as essential to maintain a rounded perspective, so as not to get immersed in the details and lose sight of the overall objective of assuring public safety.

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Sabeen Kazmi is currently a 3rd year Social Psychology student at McMaster University. Sabeen is very passionate about social justice issues and enjoys being on the Board at OPIRG McMaster. Sabeen is a very committed individual and was a part of the McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice last year, a group that did a lot of work with OPIRG, allowing her a first-hand look at how OPIRG does not limit themselves to the confines of the 15 working groups that they have, but are open to all of those in need.“It is much more useful for somebody who wants to help in so many ways to be a part of the board because it allows us to deal with multiple issues that we are passionate about rather than being limited to one,” she explains.Her involvement goes beyond OPIRG, as she is in her second year on an ad hoc violence against women committee. which came about through concerns that Mac students had about how unsafe campus can be sometimes. Sabeen along with the rest of the commit-tee hopes to make this campus a much safer environ-ment. In addition to this work in reducing violence, she is

one of several students and professors involved in a research project entitled Understanding Students’ Experiences of Inclusion and Exclusion: Improving the Classroom Learning Environment. This McMaster project is currently being conducted as University-wide research with several different faculties involved included HR and equity. Other OPIRG board members are active members of a community which she is a part of, and it was after speaking to some of them about what OPIRG does that she felt compelled to contribute. After she graduates, Sabeen hopes to either get her Master’s degree or become a lawyer, but will likely do something politically oriented as she believes so strongly in social justice. For now, she feels it is important to focus on the working groups and try to be there to provide support to the working group members and let them know that the Board is there for the groups.“OPIRG gives me the opportunity to do all the things I want to do, but don’t necessarily have the time for,” she says.“I don’t just want to be a face of OPIRG, but I try to interact with as many working groups as possible.”

volunteersby Jamie Mudrick

Kojo Damptey is a 2007 graduate of the McMaster Chemical Engineering program. Kojo is Originally from Ghana and moved to Canada in 2001. He is the longest serving volunteer member on the current OPIRG McMaster Board of Directors.

During his time as a student Kojo was indirectly involved with OPIRG through events related to Black History Month which he organized and ran on campus due to an insufficient programming in this area at the time.

With continuous aid and support of OPIRG, Kojo hosted some very successful events. It was through this experience that Kojo realized the benefits of OPIRG to the University and community, so he decided to join the board to get a deeper understanding into anti-oppressive behaviour, as well as the social justice issues occurring here at McMaster. 

Over his years here, Kojo has served different roles on the Board. He started off by running events and creating publicity, but later moved to his current role as Treasurer of the group. 

Kojo was nervous at first to approach OPIRG, but soon realized that in order to make a difference, he would

need support, and that was when OPIRG came in with a helping hand.

“Sometimes it can be overwhelming to go up to another organization and ask for support and finance, but OPIRG is one of the places you can do that”.  

Currently, Kojo works with the NGO Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. Each year, this group takes on a different issue; this year the group is campaigning to raise awareness of the effects of mining in Latin America, Africa and Asia. He is the Regional Animator for the organization and helps to educate Canadian Catholics in Hamilton schools, as well as the general public about this issue. 

“I was always socially conscious, but it helps to get involved and learn more.” Kojo sees OPIRG is the epitome of what a univer-sity should look like, where people from different faculties learning about their discipline have the opportunity to interact with all the other faculties. “I think that’s what OPIRG does. It gives an alternative to students on campus; it gives a different voice to people on campus.” “Our focus is for the students, especially with social justice, environmental issues, and human rights issues, and we are going to support you in any way shape or form.”

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“I was always socially conscious, but it helps to get

involved and learn more.”

Threadwork is an entirely volunteer driven working group. With no hierarchy and organizers who meet as friends rather than co-workers, the regular dedicated volunteers are key to successful swaps. Meg has consistently been an integral part of Threadwork clothing swaps over the years. She has helped out with clothing collection, during swap and has always been one of the most generous clothing contributors. What is so great about Meg’s contribution is that fact that she does it with completely intrinsic motivations; she receives no title or honour but has simply given hours of her time quietly and unassumingly. This is especially notable in a university filled with students committing time in exchange for recognition and another line on their resume. The way Meg has contributed has been integral to Threadwork’s success as she has always been willing to sign up for empty shifts during collection or to stay after to help out. Sadly for Threadwork, Meg will be off on new adventures next year but wherever she goes, we know she will continue to be a positive influence.

THREADWORK extraordinary Volunteer Profile: Meg Peters

by Christina Vietinghoff