Ed Burt honoured by Great Lakes United

by Michael Erskine
KAGAWONG---The indomitable spirit of environmental activist Ed Burt,
of Kagawong, received a boost when he received the Great Lakes United
John Manty Memorial Award for his years of dedication to
environmental protection.
"I'm wondering if they made a mistake," he said, still shocked by the
honour. "I think there are a lot of people in Great Lakes United who
deserve this award more than me."
"We are pleased to honour Ed Burt for the many years he has
volunteered his time as a grassroots activist to fight for a
healthier environment for all of us," said Great Lakes United
Executive Director Margaret Wooster. "Great Lakes United established
the John Manty Memorial Award in 1996 in honour of the passing of
Great Lakes resident John Manty and his long and dedicated work in
grassroots activism. The award is presented each year to an
individual who has followed the spirit of John Manty."
"Ed Burt embodies all of the qualities the John Manty Memorial Award
seeks to honour: hard work, years of commitment and steadfast
dedication to grassroots work for the environment at the local and
regional level," said John Jackson, as he presented the award on
behalf of Great Lakes United.
A lifetime of passionate defence of the environment and battling the
nuclear industry have left Mr. Burt undaunted, but cynical of
politicians of all ilk, concerned about the apathy of some of his
fellow citizens and deeply suspicious of the competence and
motivation of the nuclear industry. He spoke of the challenge of
sustaining the fight when most others would have packed up and gone
home.
"You never really know what you have accomplished," he said. "You
spend a lot of time thinking about this, talking to people over the
years, and sometimes you get the feeling they just don't want to hear
about it any more."
Mr. Burt's volubility on things environmental are an Island legend,
as is his ongoing commitment to shining a light on maneuverings of
the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.
"I have no respect for that company at all," he said angrily.
Many years of dealing with the machinations of the industry have left
him with a deep distrust of the crown corporation, and a
less-than-optimistic view of politicians of any ilk.
"I tend toward the socialist side of things," he said. "Tommy Douglas
was a hero of mine."
Despite his feelings for the founder of the progenitor of the NDP
Party, however, Mr. Burt viewed the party's nuclear behavior in
Saskatchewan as deeply disturbing.
"Some of the things they did out there were criminal," he said,
referring to the working conditions for uranium miners.
Mr. Burt said he believed in a spiritual evolution of the human race,
much like the Darwinian evolutionary model, but leading eventually
(and hopefully) to a more conscious human being generally. But he
noted that spiritually challenged people could be found in any
political party.
In challenges facing us locally, Mr. Burt cautioned that quiet plans
to establish a high level nuclear waste facility in the Pluton rock
formations found near Massey should have everyone living in the area
alarmed.
"It is the hardest rock in the world," he said. "But when you blast
into that rock, it creates fissures and cracks they then must somehow
fill. They want us to believe that is a safe place to store material
for thousands of years."
Mr. Burt likened the earth to a human body.
"If you cut a slit in your backside, put some toxic material in there
and sew it back up, that poison will be through your whole body in no
time he said.
The earth, with its rivers, oceans and atmosphere, is a living
organism. There are no 'safe' places to store the massive poisons we
are creating he said.
Recent public presentations on the plan he likened to a black cat in
a black room.
"They want you to sign a paper saying there is a black cat in that
room, but you can't see it," he said. "You just have to take their
word for it."
Mr. Burt is unwilling to blindly accept assurances from what he terms
'slick' public relations people who are sent to public meetings in
order to spin the facts into a palatable, albeit fictional pap for
public consumption.
Local environmental activists said they were please to learn of Mr.
Burt's honour.
"He has done a lot," said Chris Tilson, of Honora Bay, a person who
together with Lyle and Sharon Dewar, Harold Simon, Lloyd and Mikhail
Greenspoon and Mr. Burt, made up the main proponents in the Algoma
Manitoulin Nuclear Awareness group, fought the nuclear storage
facility being built in Port Hope. "We almost caused a riot in Gore
Bay," chuckled Mr. Tilson. "We mounted a really strong opposition
everywhere they went."
In the end, the facility was built by Eldorado, and a few years later
it was sold to Japanese interests.
"A few years later they had a release which was hundreds of times
above the acceptable amount," he said. "Probably a lot of that blew
right over us."
When it comes to matters closer to home, Mr. Burt expressed some
concerns about the truth behind the Mad Cow issue.
"Dehydrating and grinding up a cow and putting it in feed may not
sound very palatable," he said. But, there is some evidence that the
disease is actually caused by environmental conditions."
A scientist working in Great Britain, noted Mr. Burt, had found a
correlation between power line grids and the disbursement of mad cow
cases, as well as copper deficiencies in the soil.
The result of the copper deficiency is that mangenese replaces the
metal in animal's bodies, and high levels of manganese has been found
to result in the creation of radical prions which lie at the route of
mad cow and its associated ailments.
Mr. Burt was a founder, and is still an active member, of the
Manitoulin Environmental Awareness, Algoma Manitoulin Nuclear
Awareness and he has been a leader in struggles against local
landfills, the intrusion of the nuclear industry into the Great Lakes
and is a long-time organic farmer.
"It was not easy," admitted Mr. Burt, who raised his family as an
organic farmer long before such products began to have a more
lucrative market price. Farming is a difficult enough trade during
the best of time, but made even more so by eschewing pesticides and
artificial fertilizers. "But you do what you have to do," he said.
Mr. Burt readily admits he is not environmentally perfect.
"I still cringe when I get in the car to go somewhere," he said. But
every year he tries to find some small way to pay back the earth for
its largesse, to do a small thing to help with the ever burgeoning
weight of humanity.
His dedication to the environment is distinct from those who protest
against potential environmentally disastrous industries or storage
facilities in their backyards, he doesn't want them in anybody's
backyard.
 

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