By Doug Draper
Back in the 1960s, 70s and even into the early 80s, when chemical manufacturers in Niagara County, New York were burying some of the most toxic chemicals known to science in leaky dumps along the Niagara River, Ontario Hydro was using a cocktail made up of some of those same poisons to defoliate the ground below its giant hydro towers.
One of the signs Love Canal residents in Niagara Falls, N.Y. displayed in the late 1970s after they learned that dioxin, the most lethal ingredient in 'Agent Orange', was among the chemicals contaminating their neighbourhood.
One of the question is, how much of that chemical cocktail – made up of compounds like dioxin and 2.4-D that happened to be the main ingredients in an ‘Agent Orange’ defoliant the U.S. military used during the War in Vietnam – was sprayed along hydro corridors in the Niagara Falls, Ontario area? And what potential impact did that spraying have on human health and the environment?
These are questions Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and his council agreed this March 21 that they want the province to answer, and they are questions that were echoed in the provincial legislature this week by Gilles Bisson, an NDP member for the riding of Timmins-James Bay.
Some may remember that while Ontario Hydro was still using these chemicals as a defoliant on their right-of-ways up to the mid-1980s, dioxin and other chemicals bleeding through the grounds of Niagara County, New York were responsible for what is, to this day, the worst environmental disasters in North American history – the Love Canal mess that led to many hundreds of families fleeing a neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York where close to 20,000 tonnes of dioxin and other chemical poisons where buried by what was then called the Hooker Chemical Company, now a piece of Occidental Petroleum.
In Ontario, there may have been many former and present Ontario Hydro workers exposed to this Agent Orange brew while it was being applied. Many may live here in Niagara and Niagara At Large would welcome their views on this which they could send to drapers@vaxxine.com if they don’t want their views or stories going on this site without some filtering that respects their personal interests and privacy.
Below, we include a media release by Gilles Bisson, an NDP member from the Timmins-James riding. Bisson spoke to the Niagara Falls council’s call to know about Agent Orange spraying this March 24 in the provincial legislature.
Niagara Falls Wants Answers on Agent Orange
QUEENS PARK—Today in the Legislature, Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson asked Minister Jeffrey when Mayor (Jim) Diodati would know if Agent Orange was used in Niagara Falls. Earlier this week it emerged that the Mayor of Niagara Falls has serious concerns over the possible use of Agent Orange in Niagara Falls and the possible links between Agent Orange and higher cancer rates in the region.
“Minister, you will know that Mayor Diodati and his council in Niagara Falls are concerned about the possible use of Agent Orange in their community. They want something done about it. They want an investigation,” said Bisson.
A Hydro One spokesman in Niagara Falls has said that it will be referring all Agent Orange related questions to the Agent Orange fact finding panel appointed by MNR. Bisson has been calling for an independent review since the media discovered various ministries had used Agent Orange and similar chemicals in Ontario and has expressed strong doubts over the independence of the MNR appointed panel.
“The mayor of Niagara Falls and the citizens of Niagara Falls and citizens across this province need to know there will be an independent review,” said Bisson.
Niagara At Large would be interested in hearing from anyone in the region who believes they worked this Agent Orange defoliant at the time it was reportedly being sprayed on Ontario Hydro lands. They can contact by email at drapers@vaxxine.com .
(Share your views on this topic and visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
At Camp Gagetown, Fredricton, N.B. at about the time of the Vietnam war Agent Orange was tested by foreign sources either by permission of the Canada or in conjunction with the Canadian Army. Since that time there have been numerous law suits filed by ex soldiers who were used as guinea pigs during the testing but there was also civilians living in close proximity who also suffered birth defects and horrible cancers.
This was recorded in the New Brunswick as well as Canadian papers and drew avid attention.
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Agent Orange was developed as a weapon of war, to be used on the rice paddies of South Asia to harm the food supply of future enemies, developed at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland, by the Chemical Corp of the US Armyand manufactured by Monsanto and other Companies, the problem this was where could they try it out? Canada was used for LSD tests RE, mental patients in Montreal Hospitals who were used as unwilling guinea pigs, how about aerosols in Montreals subways supposedly benign I don’t think so!.these all happened during the cold war. The biggest problem Agent Orange formulated with Dioxin the most potent poison ever invented, one speck the size of a pin head can kill 10.000 people.if the real scope of what went on during the cold war, the Law firms would have a field day on reparation law suits. Doug Draper who covered” Operation Clean” for The Standard, has a whole raft of info on Dioxin.
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