One day before Mayor Linda Thompson asked residents to end the uranium dangers debate, the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee was speaking in Ottawa about why they will never be silenced.

"It's not a Port Hope battle, it's a global battle," said Faye More, chairperson of the health concerns committee.

The committee was invited by the Physicians for Global Survival to the April 21 press conference in Ottawa, to speak on issues in Port Hope.

"We were on their radar screen, as Port Hope has been on the radar screen for a number of years," Ms. More said.

The health concerns committee has maintained there are health risks from uranium in the environment in Port Hope, despite assurances by Health Canada.

"We are saying, 'Why are they telling us that the levels of uranium in our bodies, including our children's bodies, is OK? . . . Why isn't it being treated as a health danger?'" Ms. More asked.

At the Ottawa event, doctors and health organizations from across Canada spoke on uranium exposure, including a study on workers and nearby residents around uranium mines in India.

Two former uranium workers from Port Hope, who worked at Cameco and the former Eldorado operation at different times, spoke about their health conditions, attributing their ailments to their working conditions.

"It highlights the message about our concerns. What Health Canada says to Port Hope is wildly inconsistent with good science," Ms. More said.

Health Canada has released a report stating that the level of uranium in Port Hope is well below allowable limits, and safe for residents and workers.

Ms. More commented on Mayor Thompson's speech at municipal council's April 22 meeting, in which she asked that the uranium debates in Port Hope stop, and that residents accept that there is no health risk.

"This is the exact opposite of what should happen in Port Hope," Ms. More said, explaining that the anger of residents towards the health concerns committee is misdirected.

"The nice thing about going to Ottawa is talking to physicians who are not new to this (uranium), workers who have been exposed to this, who are not afraid to say so," Ms. More said.

"We will not simply lie down and give up. We are not the problem," she said.

Ms. More said t"economic forces and intimidation on people to just shut up" is the reason why more people aren't speaking up about the problems in Port Hope.

Mayor Thompson could not be reached for comment this week, but will be appearing on Municipal Matters Live on TVCOGECO tonight at 7 with Dave Glover. People are invited to call in with questions concerning the municipality.