OTTAWA – Elizabeth May, Green Party of Canada Leader and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, wishes to congratulate Lorraine Rekmans on receiving a Rosalie Bertell Award this week.
“This award is a well-deserved recognition for Lorraine’s distinguished career of more than twenty-five years as an advocate for environmental health and social justice both in the media and in non-governmental organizations,” said May.
Lorraine Rekmans is the Green Party Critic for aboriginal affairs and was the Greens’ candidate in the riding of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing in 2008 and 2011.
“Her influence and extensive experience in forestry and uranium mining issues is known internationally, as is her work as an advocate for Indigenous rights,” added May.
The Rosalie Bertell Award is given for outstanding service in the field of environmental health by the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.
“We are doubly honoured that one of our leading Green party candidates has been honoured in the name of the late Rosalie Bertell. I worked and was inspired by Rosalie Bertell over decades on issues from nuclear power to the Sydney Tar Ponds to militarism. She is missed, ” concluded Elisabeth May.
Ms. Rekmans co-edited This is My Homeland, which is a testimony of the impacts of uranium mining on the lives of the indigenous people at Serpent River First Nation. Ms. Rekmans was part of a women’s group that intervened in the first environmental assessment of a uranium mine in Canada when the uranium mines at Elliot Lake, Ontario, were decommissioned in the mid-1990s.
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Media Contact:
Stéphane Vigneault
Communications Coordinator, Green Party of Canada
cell: 613.614.4916