Tribute to Pinehouse Lake activist Fred Pederson

Warrior, Elder, friend, Truth Teller, and man who walked the talk and cared with all his heart, Fred Pederson of Pinehouse Lake, Saskatchewan, passed away peacefully on February 18, 2023, with his loving family by his side. He was 81 years of age.

Fred “Peanuts” Pederson was one of the toughest, most hard-working, and generous men in the North. For many years, he ran a small private logging company that employed a good number of young men in sustainable logging practices. He and his beloved wife, Bella Marie, raised their children on the land in Pinehouse. He loved his family and community dearly.

No matter how difficult things got, Fred’s sense of humour kept you laughing. If there’s one thing that rattles the enemy, it’s humour, since what they count on is intimidating whistleblowers into silence. Not Fred. He was as funny as he was brave. They say that true warriors are protectors, and that was Fred. 

Pushing back against corporate money and local politics

In 2010, when Fred and a couple of other community members noticed that there were unaccounted for funds in the Northern Village of Pinehouse’s budget, they pushed Pinehouse’s administration to disclose their financials (which every citizen in any municipality has the right to access). Then in 2011, they became aware that the administration, without consulting its citizens, was participating in a site selection process with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to store nuclear waste near the village.

If there’s one thing that rattles the enemy, it’s humour, since what they count on is intimidating whistleblowers into silence.

With the prospect of a nuclear waste dump in their backyard, on top of the unaccounted for budget money, Fred and his allies decided enough was enough. They started asking questions at community meetings about dealings between the administration and NWMO, but received no concrete answers from the administration. Despite the frustration of repeatedly having questions go unanswered, Fred and his friends persisted.

It was later discovered, through freedom of information requests, which Fred assisted in submitting, that council members were receiving money from NWMO for taking part in site selection processes. One individual in particular received funds to the tune of over $5,000/month to act as a liaison between NWMO and the community.

The Pinehouse administration kept pushing for the waste site. They invited regional Elders to a prayer circle for the stated purpose of finding solutions to high suicide rates in the North, but instead the Elders found themselves hijacked mid-circle by NWMO-funded community liaisons attempting to promote nuclear waste storage in the North as the answer to youth suicide. Several Elders walked out, while those remaining stayed in an attempt to gather facts about what forces were behind this fiasco. This incident, on May 9, 2011, blew the lid off the Pinehouse administration’s relationship with NWMO, connecting Fred with like-minded people from across the region and province and leading them to found the Committee for Future Generations (CFFG).

It was later discovered, through freedom of information requests [...] that council members were receiving money from NWMO for taking part in site selection processes.

In June, the CFFG organized a forum that was attended by at least 200 people from 12 northern communities. At the forum, keynote speaker Jim Harding spoke of uranium companies and both federal and provincial governments’ history of exploiting Indigenous communities, as well as the nuclear industry’s failure to come up with a safe way to store nuclear spent fuel, a by-product of nuclear energy. In 2015, there were already over 2.5 million used nuclear fuel bundles across Canada, and NWMO’s financial involvement in the area tacitly indicated they had plans to ship them across the country to northern Saskatchewan to bury them here. These are the most hazardous material on Earth – the rods are so radioactive that the NWMO’s own documents stated that they must be isolated from people and the environment virtually forever. Jim brought a large poster to the forum depicting the back end of a semi-trailer on a highway, stating that it would take two semi loads a day for 30 years to ship the volume of already existing nuclear rods to Saskatchewan, let alone the ones that nuclear reactors continue to produce. 

Uniting the community

The June 2011 Northern Forum concluded with a unanimous resolution to create a petition against the storage and transportation of nuclear waste into or through Saskatchewan. CFFG then organized an 800-kilometre walk against nuclear waste to carry the petition from Pinehouse to Regina, arriving in August 2011. The petition raised over 12,000 signatures, as well as resolutions from organizations such as the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Resistance against the NWMO even brought APTN to Pinehouse to do an investigative report. 

Back home in Pinehouse after the walk, Fred circulated a petition within the village, and I remember many residents signed, refusing a nuclear waste dump. Many more shared that they would have signed but did not out of fear of retribution from the Pinehouse administration. Fred then helped lead an energetic campaign for willing residents to post “Say No to Nuclear Waste” signs on their houses as well as at key community locations such as highway junctions. The highway signs, made of sheets of plywood mounted on posts, were repeatedly vandalized, but Fred was not deterred. He created a “Signs Against Nuclear Waste” page on Facebook, where he posted a picture every time he put up a sign and every time one was destroyed, often accompanying the post with colourful text rebuking the vandals and calling on the public to expose the cowards.
 

One of his favourite jokes was, “You know, I used to be afraid to open my mouth in public, but now I’m afraid whenever I get in front of a damn mic that I won’t know how to damn quit!” 

The 2012 municipal election had many irregularities reported, including intimidation/threats toward voters and an open ballot box. Despite written pleas from Fred to appropriate authorities to intervene, most of the same administration returned to power.

The NWMO was also targeting the northern communities of English River First Nation and Creighton, so Fred and other CFFG members held speaking engagements in those communities to ensure residents would hear the other side of the nuclear waste story. The CFFG’s mandate was to provide people with access to information from all sides, enabling them to make informed choices, and Fred was instrumental in that process, honing his skills into becoming an extremely effective public speaker. One of his favourite jokes was, “You know, I used to be afraid to open my mouth in public, but now I’m afraid whenever I get in front of a damn mic that I won’t know how to damn quit!” 

Perseverence paid off

Following the conclusion of NWMO’s studies of the area in 2013, the company announced the fantastic news that Creighton, English River, and Pinehouse were no longer “suitable candidates” for nuclear waste site selection. In other words, Fred’s work with the CFFG was successful in kicking the NWMO out of Saskatchewan. This was a huge victory not only for the North, but for the whole province, as all of its waterways were no longer at risk of radioactive contamination in the event of a spill. The victory resulted in Fred and the CFFG receiving the 2012-13 Saskatchewan Eco-Network Environmental Activist Award, and in 2013 the group received the Council of Canadians Activists of the Year award. Although Fred was pleased to receive them, he’d be the first to tell you that your golden years are supposed to be spent in leisure, enjoying the company of family and friends, not fighting corrupt governments and corporations.

This was a huge victory not only for the North, but for the whole province, as all of its waterways were no longer at risk of radioactive contamination in the event of a spill.

Fred’s fight carried on long after the NWMO was kicked out of Saskatchewan. In extensive efforts to expose what should be public information, Fred worked diligently over the past decade with retired archivist D’Arcy Hande, submitting several freedom of information requests to the village of Pinehouse, with varying degrees of success. At one point, the Information and Privacy Commissioner recommended that the village administration be investigated due to the FOI requests being regularly obstructed; however, the Pinehouse mayor rebutted with the excuse that the lack of financial transparency was due to inadequate training in remote northern communities. Instead of heeding the Commissioner’s recommendation to prosecute, the Saskatchewan government pledged support for training programs for administrative staff.

Dedicated to the end 

Fred never wavered in his desire to expose the corruption that was going on in the Pinehouse administration. Even as I spoke to him in February 2023, he indicated that his biggest regret was that we never had the big breakthrough that he had hoped for. Nevertheless, as I said to Fred, the seeds have been planted and we can only trust that others will be willing to take up the challenge as a continuation of his legacy. Fred spent the last few years of his life in Prince Albert, where he continued to serve his community.

We thought it suitable to leave the last word to Fred. Those who had the pleasure of following him on Facebook know he was a daily communicator of laughs, stories, news that concerned him, and sayings that inspired him. Here is a small collection of his posts, mostly from the last few months of his life, that best reflect who he was.
 

“Never worry about who will be offended if you speak the truth. Worry about who will be misled, deceived and destroyed if you don’t.”

 – December 7, 2022
 

“Our Creator does not look at our titles and possessions but instead our hearts and our actions.” 

 – December 31, 2022

Rest in Power, Fred.