Protests at the mine

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Protests at the mine

tahltan-590.jpg

© Klabona Keepers

An indigenous group in Canada has been protesting to try to stop the mining. The group, the 'Klabona Keepers', is from the Tahltan First Nation. They blocked the road to a nearly completed mine. And they stopped people working at the mine for more than two weeks in October. The elders led the group. They lit a sacred fire on the road that leads to the Red Chris Mine.

They tried to stop the mining because a dam collapsed at Imperial Metal’s Mount Polley gold and copper mine in British Columbia. This was one of the worst environmental disasters ever in Canada. 15 million cubic metres of poisoned waste water rushed through the area. It killed animals and plants and poisoned rivers and land with arsenic and mercury.

Now the same company - Imperial Metals - is trying to open a new mine near there. First Nations are afraid there will be another disaster. ‘We were angry. They told us many times that the dam was safe. After the Mount Polley dam disaster, we knew we didn’t want Red Chris Mine here’, said Rhoda Quock. ‘We need this land and water to live. It is our identity, our culture. If we lose it, we lose everything.’

Imperial Metals were angry about the Klabona Keepers blocking the road. So they went to court to stop the protests, but the court did not agree. Quock says this shows they have won. ‘We won against the Imperial Metals lawyers in court, and this means the the Red Chris Mine development will be more complicated now. Often in British Columbia, the courts support the big businesses. This did not happen here.’

For now, the protests have ended. But, says Quock, ‘we are developing our strength and our organisation. This mine will not work again.’

Jess Worth

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2014/12/01/mine-shafted/ (This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed).