THUNDER BAY – Local musician Rodney Brown and non-profit environmental groups Environment North and We the Nuclear Free North have collaborated to produce a video of Brown’s song “Freight Train Derailed,” available on YouTube.
The song, originally released in 1980 on Brown’s album “When the Bay Turns Blue,” protests the transport of highly dangerous goods including nuclear fuel waste. The new version of the song has been updated to include a reference to the more recent rail disaster at Lac-Megantic, Quebec. The video includes shots of accidents involving rail, water and highway transport.
Of his original song and the new video, Brown said, “When it was my turn for a question at the Atomic Energy of Canada meeting in 1979, I got out my guitar and sang “Freight Train Derailed”. Recently, Peter Lang from Environment North and We the Nuclear Free North, who was present at that 1979 meeting, approached me with his idea to do a video of the song for the new round of protests against nuclear waste transport and burial in Northwestern Ontario.
“Peter put us together with local videographer Chad Kirvan of Algoma House in Thunder Bay. Chad recommended Ryan MacDonald’s recording studio. It’s been a pleasure working on this project with Ryan and his band The Honest Heart Collective. The project also gave Chad the opportunity to film a live band in a recording studio. It’s truly been a collaborative project from conception to this amazing final product.”
Environment North and We the Nuclear Free North oppose plans proposed by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to bury all of Canada’s nuclear fuel waste at a site 40 km west of Ignace, Ontario. More information is available on their websites: environmentnorth.org and nuclearfreenorth.ca.
