Wendy O'Connor

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Wendy O'Connor is a Canadian, known for voicing an opinion over measures to counter the Covid 19 virus, and suggested measures to store the waste from Nuclear reactors.[1][2]

Like her parents and brother O'Connor became a farmer in southern Ontario.[3] Most of the people living in Ontario live in triangular area that lies south a line between Barrie, Ontario and Peterborough, Ontario. Glaciers scraped good soil from the areas north of that line, leaving the area south of that line ideal for farming. Most of the area north of that line is either marshy, or has outcroppings of bedrock. However, one of the small pockets of land suitable for farming lies near Thunder Bay, Ontario, and O'Connor and her husband started farming there, around 2005.

O'Connor is also a prominent organizer among citizens concerned over the responsible use of nuclear energy.[4] In June of 2022 she helped organize a letter writing campaign run by an organization called We the Nuclear Free North, who opposed plans to construct a nuclear waste disposal site near Ignace, Ontario.

In April of 2020 the CBC News quoted O'Connor asserting that one positive consequence over the concern over the Covid 19 virus is that it increased interest among the general public in growing their own food, in their own gardens.[1]

In September of 2022 the Chronicle Journal published an opinion by O'Connor on the disposal of nuclear waste.[2] She asserted that the waste from proposed small reactors would be more dangerous than the waste from Canada's existing CANDU reactors.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Gardener says pandemic has increased interest in backyard gardening in northwestern Ontario, CBC News, 2020-04-20. Retrieved on 2022-09-04. “O'Connor said initially, she was not optimistic about what the pandemic was going to do to local agriculture gardening. However, O'Connor now believes it has many people looking at their backyards as a potential source of both comfort and sustainable food.”
  2. 2.0 2.1 Nuclear is beyond ability to manage, Chronicle Journal. Retrieved on 2022-09-04.
  3. How did I find myself in the Thunder Bay area growing vegetables?, Bear Haven. Retrieved on 2022-09-04.
  4. "Northern Ontario Alliance Alerts Residents in 30,000 Households to Risks of Radioactive Waste Shipments", News Net Ledger, 2022-06-02. Retrieved on 2022-09-04. “'Not only is Ignace a long way away from the site – there are several small communities that are much closer – but Ignace’s council has decided that the Council itself will make the decision on whether to proceed, on whether Ignace is ‘willing’. There will not be a vote or plebiscite, even for residents of Ignace,' explained Wendy O’Connor, a volunteer with We the Nuclear Free North.”