We end up with no simple answer --- but that should be no surprise

The Common Sense Canadian website, which I think most would agree has opinions leaning more to the left, has added a new feature called “Your Voice”.  It’s an opinion / editorial (op-ed) blog for the environment and public interest.

“Why Culture Matters: Prosperity Mine's Impacts on the People and Land of the Nemaiah Valley” by David Williams (a member of Friends of Nemaiah Valley) is the first op-ed piece to be shared in it.  After reading it, there were a couple of comments which I added.  First though, here are the words of David Williams about the Prosperity Mine, which is proposed for the Chilcotin region of British Columbia.

Earlier this week, we at Friends of the Nemaiah Valley (FONV) heard that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) has agreed to conduct an environmental assessment of Taseko Mines Ltd. (TML) proposed “New Prosperity” mine application in Tsilhqot'in territory.

This unfortunate decision is misguided for many reasons. This is the third try by TML to develop this mine, one of the largest gold/copper deposits in British Columbia. It was turned down twice in the recent past because the environmental consequences would be too great. Even by Taseko's own admission during hearings last year, this “tweaked” proposal, then known as Option II, would have even worse environmental consequences than the one rejected by the federal government.

While there are environmental reasons to reject this mine – it is in prime grizzly habitat, will destroy a large rainbow trout population, and threatens large salmon runs that are part of the Fraser River fishery – it is the impact it will have on the local Xeni Gwet'in community in the Nemaiah Valley that I want to focus on.

Picture a “camp” of up to 600 miners placed into a remote First Nations Community that is still largely dependent upon the land for sustenance and identity. This camp will be in place for up to 35 years.  250 Xeni Gwet'in, the People of the Rivers, live in the Nemaiah Valley alongside a small settler community of about fifty people. The latter operate small ranches, run wilderness lodges, fish, hunt and trap, and just like the way of life that prevails here.

Xeni Gwet'in, like indigenous people everywhere, identify with their land. They see themselves as part of it and view any action that destroys any part of it as an assault upon their very being. These days Tsihqot'in culture is recovering from the onslaughts of the colonial era; displacement from places they have relied upon for survival for virtually forever, the reserve system, and residential schools that were designed to destroy their language and culture. That recovery is well advanced in the Nemaiah Valley.  Fully 50% of the food consumed comes directly from the land and includes salmon and trout from Nabas.

Consequently they have the lowest diabetes rate in British Columbia. The Tsihlqot'in language, almost lost a few years ago, is now taught in the local school. Peter Brand, Director of the brilliant First Voices programme, says that of all the places he visits across the province the Nemaiah Valley Xeni Gwet'in live closest to their traditional way of life. An ethic of caring for their land lies deep within the culture.

Speaking of the panel hearings into Prosperity Mine specifically Chief Marilyn says:

“Our community here, Xeni Gwet’in...we went into the CEAA Panel hearings thinking that we weren’t going to have enough speakers. That was always the fear in all the communities. Because that is a very threatening, intimidating process! Even to us, as leaders! But...our people did just tremendously.  It would blow your socks off! Our Elders, our people...just being there, filling the room all those days, and being here those long hours. You couldn’t chase them away if you wanted to. They’d probably chase you away!  And our youth, the school, all of the kids... The senior class decided to do some submissions. They did a beautiful job. And the intermediate class, they did a play. That was so amazing! They did such a tremendous job. The strength and the voices of everybody in the Tsilhqot’in communities...”

Xeni Gwet'in Wild Horse Ranger David Setah:

“I think in order to give, to find that strength...your kids should also know their past, your past histories… all that about being caretakers, Chilcotin War, all the legends. All that will lead them to who they are. And all that will strengthen them, because they know that they are actually Tsilhqot’ins, and they know their history. And they can go out there being proud because they know they’re connected to that area.

That’s one of my biggest goals is that we’re being caretakers. We’ve done it in the past, and with European contact and things like that, we can still do it. We must still keep in mind that we need to protect our rights. If we keep on in that fashion we’re just building ourselves a stronger nation, and it would be pretty hard for something to come in to affect us. The land is... to remain as a nation and to be recognized as a nation you need the land. We need to take care of the land. That’s what we did a long time ago. And that’s why we’re situated in the areas that we are: to take care of the land.”

Culture matters. These voices bring an important message. Indigenous cultures and languages are vital repositories of knowledge and custom that show a thousand ways to be human. Indigenous cultures, and a way of life still strong in the Nemaiah Valley, can teach us all how better to live in this land. Until we learn to show respect for the land, and for them, we will continue an ethic of endless growth that is having cumulative environmental impacts that threaten the very ecosystems that make life on this planet possible.

The people of Xeni are not unsophisticated. They and their settler neighbours and friends were opposed to Prosperity Mine last year. The new model is no better or even worse. They know what 600 miners running loose in their community will do to their way of life, to their land, and to their children. Drugs, alcohol and abuse will be an inevitable component. Mechanized recreation on a vast scale will destroy budding attempts by the community to build a local economy centred around wilderness and cultural tourism. There is plenty of precedent for similar disasters throughout Canada and in third world countries.

It is time to put an end to this colonialist venture if Canada is to maintain even the pretence of being a just nation.

Some interesting thoughts were put forward by Mr. Williams, as well as by a few other people who commented on the article.  While not in totally agreement with them, I do believe they have made some strong and valid points worthy of our consideration.

The following, are comments that I made in response to this article, and what others had to say as well:

I lived in the Cariboo for 30 years and so have some knowledgeable about the area and all who call it home.

• a “camp” of up to 600 miners placed into a remote First Nations Community (exactly how close will the camp be to any nearby First Nations community)

• recovering from the onslaughts of the colonial era (talk about inflammatory)

• fully 50% of the food consumed comes directly from the land and includes salmon and trout from Nabas. Consequently they have the lowest diabetes rate in British Columbia. (I doubt if doctors & nurses at Cariboo Memorial Hospital would agree with that statement)

• until we learn to show respect for the land, and for them, we will continue an ethic of endless growth that is having cumulative environmental impacts that threaten the very ecosystems that make life on this planet possible (to enjoy the conveniences of modern day requires we make use of the gifts God (of our own understanding) has created for us. Let’s use them carefully & then return the land back to a natural state. Or should we instead bring in even MORE of the things ALL of us use from high polluting countries like China, India, etc)

Let's learn to live & work together

In a second response I stated:

I could not care less if people are purple, pink, polka dot, black, white, or red. Inside we are all the same and re-hashing things that happened decades and decades ago regrettably reminds me of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.

There were things in my life that I had to work through, and that did not happen until I made a conscious choice to put the past behind me ... to see today as the day I was living in ... and the future as something to be explored and looked forward to.

YES I am in favour of the mine going ahead --- however NOT if the reviews do indeed say it should not. Some on the other hand, yourself included, appear to be opposed no matter what.

So I ask who has the open mind?  Who is prepared to see all sides and options available? Who wants to see benefits of good jobs and good wages shared by all who live in the region and area?

I know that First Nations People had to endure some pretty horrific things. That said -- how do you move forward by staying in the past (I ask this from personal experience)?

Also ... this is a modern word with modern conveniences. Even the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the vehicles we drive, the computer you used to write your post, require the metals this mine (or others) produce.

Without them, how do you propose we live in today’s modern society??

We must seek a balance that we can all be in harmony with. Simply saying "NO" without an alternative is no solution

One of the responses to the editorial opinion piece by David Williams covered a number of things – the one that interested me the most however was that they were not opposed to all mines – just this one.  Here was my response to that:

You covered many things in your response to me, however for now I will focus on just one; opposition to "... not all mines - this mine"

I apologize if this is a generalization but I am not aware of one major development being proposed in this province, over the past several years, which has not run into opposition from one or more protest groups.

I do not want to see are landscape scared like it was decades ago --- or as it is now in places like China, India, Africa and elsewhere. We need to have careful planning to bring projects online with the "least amount of disruption" possible ... AND we need plans for when their lifespan is completed so that remediation work can be done.

Projects such as this mine, but not necessarily this particular one, can have a long and lasting positive affect for all.

I only ask that you, and others, consider this with an open mind to the possibility. 

I really do think we want the same thing over-all.  For the main part, to be able to enjoy the gifts we have been blessed with by modern technology --- AND --- to be able to enjoy the beauty of creation we also have been blessed with.  YES they are, and will be, hard to have come together, but I beleive it can be done.

David Williams did write the following as a response to my comment:

I'd like to take this opportunity to answer your question regarding the location of a mining camp to any First Nation community. The camp is in the Caretaker Area and declared Aboriginal Wilderness Preserve of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation, shared with the Yunesit'in (Stone) Tsilhqot'in community. It is in a proven Tsilhqot'in "rights" area as determined by the Supreme Court of B.C. This is Nabas, a place where archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation going back at least 6500 years. Present day Xeni Gwet'in are almost certainly the descendants of those early people. Xeni Gwet'in people occupy this space today, as hunters and fishers, trappers, and gatherers of food plants and medicines. They live here seasonally. It is a sacred place to them, equivalent to a church, where they conduct ceremonies and Gatherings. Xeni Gwet'in people live throughout their territory rather than in a small, centralized community, though there is a band office, health office, school and small subdivision 35 kms west from Nabas.

As I stated when I first started this today, I am not necessarily in disagreement with what David Williams, and the others who commented on this story, had to say.  This is the question I have however; how are we are to move forward on this, and any other potential developments, when there will always be some who are opposed?

The area around Fish Lake

I believe we are going to require not only environmental reviews to determine if a project can or should proceed ... we are also going to have to come up with some way of dealing with issues, that are inevitably going come up, when people do not wish to have development in their area.  One where people will not only feel they have been heard, but one that shows conclusively TO ALL that their concerns have been dealt in the best way possible.

So we end up with no simple answer; but that should be no surprise because this is something that has needed to be resolved for some time.  And ... without give and take by all, it will continue to be unresolved for just as long.

In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth with the thoughts of one conservative.

Since my initial blog post (which was written last night) I decided to respond to the follow-up David Williams made.  This is what I posted on his article in the Common Sense Canadian website:

Thank you for your follow up comments David -- as well as for your initial story. It causes all of us to examine what kind of a world we want to live in -- and I say this with no sarcasm.

I am reminded of, and appreciate, the beauty our Creator has blessed us with every day. I am also blessed blessed by and appreciate the resources that our Creator has also provided us with.

My church is at times inside four walls ... at other times it is in the sparkle of the eyes, and the smile I see, on the faces of my grandchildren ... and at a time in the past of inner turmoil and depression, it was in the beauty of a golden Cariboo sunrise blazing through the trees.

I mean no disrespect, and ask only how will we solve the conflicts we inevitably have occurring when project such as this mine come up.

The people of Nabas do not wish to have the mine, but in all corners of the province we see ongoing calls to end development, and each new one is just as passionate as those before it.

If not this mine, then which, and where, and who will be left feeling unheard and not respected. We must find a better way to meet the needs of each other.