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| A full house in the auditorium at the Prince George Civic Centre for the B.C. First Nations Mining Conference |
PHOTO Credit: Mack McColl
A multipartisan group of First Nation organizations held a three-day conference called the B.C. First Nations Mining Summit October 7-9, 2008 at the Prince George Civic Centre. Hundreds of delegates attended from around the province.
The mining conference occupied the main auditorium and several meeting rooms in the downtown civic plaza. The first day session was open to delegates, media, and registered public; the next two days went in-camera, during which delegates from six organizations that sponsored the conference discussed a call to action.
The microphone was open to the floor on the first day of the conference and delegates lined up by the dozens to make statements regarding mining in traditional territories.
One such speaker said, "Right now they have it says in the paper 27 Tlingit members working in the mine up there. I'm one of the 27 but I hardly ever work. These (mining exploration companies) come in here and put a mark on the territory, start exploring."
"The mining proponents are all for it," he said, "but they never come and talk to us." And they use loopholes in an Environmental Assessment process that lacks regulatory power.
In some cases, he said, "you have some of the (mining ) proponents here in B.C. that are killing people in South America" and taking unwelcome mining into territories, meanwhile, "we sit here and negotiate with them on exactly what it is they want done on our territory."
He added "The government has it all, the ministers can sign anything they want, to let the mining proponents do whatever they want in our territories."
And when the First Nation objections rise the mining proponents approach the First Nations and say, "Well we spent millions and millions of dollars doing what we need to do there so why are you stopping us?"
He suggested the mining proponents ought to think twice about how they are proceeding in the the traditional territory of the Tlingit.
"Back in 1855 when the first non-Native came into our territory, our ancestors were kind because these guys were starving, beaten up, some had broken legs and so forth. We weren't like the cowboys, you know, somebody has a broken leg they shoot them and bury them," (laughter).
"Our ancestors were too kind and nursed them back to health, not even thinking about them coming in here to rob us.
"When you talk about the governments' laws they talk about the law of the land, it's the government that is breaking them, the law of the land. The only reason they are breaking them is they don't have the land. We have it, we're looking after it.
"When we talk about the law of the land we are the ones looking after the best interests of our people seven generations down from now. And when you talk about legal acts it falls under that place where the law of the land is going to take over." He said before he gets to that he'll stop talkng.
The next speaker spoke in opposition to Highland Valley Copper mine in his community, "I am very interested in this conference mainly because this mine has impacted my community severely with impacts from which we've benefitted virtually zero."
"The environmental assessment process has not served us one bit. We were given $5000 to react to an application by Highland Valley Copper to situate a huge mega-dump in the Highland Valley.
"Yesterday the minister, that minister that is here," he pointed to the dias, "the minister of the environment, signed the permit giving Highland valley Copper permission to establish this huge megadump.
"I want to state that we were not adequately consulted and we do not have an accommodation agreement. Someday that mine is going to pollute the water system that my community depends on and we resent that very much."
"My office told me this morning we cannot afford to go to court, I'll tell you that. We are going to start planning a direct action process against Highland Valley Copper that they have never encountered before. We cannot sit back allow anything else to happen, we can't afford to go to court."
"That man up there," pointing to dias at a Highland Copper mining company officer, "gave my community five thousand dollars to do an evaluation of the impact this mega-dump is going to have in my community.
"You know what? A white consultant took all that money in one meeting. That is just not acceptable."
"This is what is happening to First Nations, to all of them. We do too much talking, all morning we listened to our leaders and the panelists and so on, tell us what isn't going right. The government tells us one thing. The minister says okay we'll sit down and talk to you about revenue sharing. We have a five or six point plan in our packages. I think that's a good start.
"But you know what? That leads us nowhere. We need direct action. I would recommend and I would support direct action. We've got to put a stop to this process that does not address our concerns that does not protect our lands that does not accommodate us considering that we are probably the poorest sector in this entire country."
He said, "One day very soon no more timber moves no mining takes place, and other resources, we need to stop it and we need to start developing the plans that are going to advance our cause because obviously discussions and negotiations doesn't do it for us."
Next to the microphone, "My name is Nelson Neesum and I am the President of Nisga'a Lisiims Government and what I noticed Mr. Chairperson is a lot of us are on different streams when it comes dialoguing and talking about different aspects such as environmental assessment.
"We have a treaty now that is eight years old and in this treaty we have secured many things, many valuable things, that can assist us and help us work our way toward self-sufficiency. I have witnessed and watched other treaties evolving and being developed and being arrived at, and I am still quite content with our treaty.
"We have come forward with the Nass Area Strategy, Mr. Chairperson. There are about 30 different proponents or groups that want to develop different types of resources in our area. We have about 26,100 sq. km of land that is federally constitutionally (and provincially) protected.
"I couldn't help but think there are two different trains that are moving here. One is the group that has secured a treaty and is moving forward, and the other is the group that (the previous speaker) so eloquently depicted," the 'group' of First Nations that have no treaties."
