Disintegrator inventor says he won't leave 'empty handed' in Six Nations deal
John Kearns is presenting the contract he has with Six Nations in Brantford Thursday night
A Cape Breton, Nova Scotia inventor says he won't walk away from a deal that has gone sour with Six Nations "empty handed," and also alleges that the controversy over his incinerator on the reserve led to the cancellation of a $147-million garbage incinerator project in Brazil.
I will not walk away empty handed- John Kearns, inventor of the Disintegrator
John Kearns will be at the Wilfrid Laurier University Odeon Theatre Thursday night for a "no holds barred" conversation about what deal he has with Six Nations, the "Disintegrator" technology, and what he called a "gag order" by Six Nations that he says is damaging his reputation.
"I will not walk away empty handed," Kearns told CBC News Sunday. "I gave them a year — they kept me on a year waiting, just waiting, one stall after another. So I need to be paid for that."
A Six Nations communications officer did not immediately return calls seeking comment from Chief Ava Hill about Kearns' claims, or what the future will hold for the Disintegrator at Six Nations.
Six Nations turned to Kearns and his Disintegrator to help with a waste crisis. A 40-year landfill was filled up in half the time in 2006, and garbage has been piling up ever since. A state of emergency was declared at the beginning of May after an explosion and fire broke out on the landfill, with worries that the hazardous chemicals would seep into the water table.
The Disintegrator had been previously billed as zero emissions, but Kearns said Sunday that "of course" it makes some emissions, and that "you get the best quality of gas possible with the Disintegrator." That exhaust is supposed to be cleaned by half a million dollars of air pollution scrubbing equipment, which was not hooked up to the demonstration unit for what Kearns said was 68 day burn at the reserve.
"This machine was never intended to be tested. It's not even a complete machine. It's a piece of a machine," Kearns said of the demonstration model.
Disputed numbers
Six Nations previously said they have sunk more than $805,000 into the project, a number Kearns disputes. The Disintegrator was sold to the band with a $4.8-million price tag.
Kearns says he's not allowed back on the reserve, and that he was threatened by Six Nations residents.
He said that was the reason he did not attend a community meeting in March about the technology, where an engineering firm delivered a presentation that showed the Disintegrator spewed more than 200 times Ontario limits of pollutants of carcinogens such as dioxins and furans, as well as 25 times the limit of lead and cadmium and above-standard levels of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide.
"So I took the blame for not being there and that's not acceptable," Kearns said.
All of that "should have never come to the surface" according to Kearns. He said the demonstration unit was only intended to show that it could burn garbage, and that it was not to be tested.
It's one of the breaches of contract that Kearns has claimed. Reports of that pollution report caused the cancellation of six Disintegrator units in Brazil valued at $147-million, according to Kearns.
"I'll be quite happy to walk away with a settlement," Kearns said. "I now have to try and recover my reputation and that also of my technology. The way to justify their dismal behaviour they said some dreadfully negative things about the technology."
The public meeting is expected to start at 7 p.m.