Editor:
Local government and SHARE continue to back Taseko Mines in the proposed destruction of Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in the Chilcotin.
Your editorials also are consistent, even strident, in promoting the so-called Prosperity Mine as the panacea for continued economic survival of the local economy.
There are much larger issues at play here for Fish Lake is just one of 16 lakes across Canada that have been designated as tailings ponds for mines. Six of these are in B.C. Indeed, virtually no lake is safe from becoming a toxic tailings dump under changed federal legislation.
Aboriginal people who live near these lakes, and have used them for generations as food fisheries, are having their rights and heritage stripped away.
In the Chilcotin, Tsilhqot’in leaders and people have been unanimous in their rejection of any mine option that required the destruction of Fish Lake.
The Supreme Court of B.C. found that Fish Lake is in an area where the rights of First Nations take precedence over any other use. Fish Lake is a traditional food fishery of the Tsilhqot’in people.
Fish Lake is in someone else’s backyard and the negative consequences — environmental and social — of Prosperity Mine will be borne by those who live near there.
Earlier this year, the province withdrew from its promise of “government to government” negotiations that would have resulted in a joint review panel, and instead opted for a government controlled environmental assessment process. This indicates a systemic lack of respect for the First Nations governments and makes a mockery of the idea of meaningful “consultation.”
It’s likely that the decision as to whether this mine will go ahead will be made neither in Williams Lake nor by the province of B.C. We suspect it will be made in the courts.
Taseko Mines has lately proposed creating a new, bigger and better Fish Lake about six kilometers south of the present lake.
Then they will turn Fish Lake into a toxic dump. This new “lake” will just destroy a beautiful valley with considerable ecological value, and Fish Lake, too.
Aboriginal rights are site specific. They cannot be moved willy nilly. They apply to the places where they have been practiced. The province or Canada cannot shift them to another location nor have they the power to extinguish them.
Williams Lake has a university and an educated and hard-working work force.
We would like to see the city undertake long-term planning that will provide direction for a future that does not require the destruction of someone else’s resource and further environmental degradation.
Those who repeatedly call for the mine despite this opposition display a colonial mindset that should properly be part of history, not an enlightened present.
For quite a while now, we have been in a post-colonial era where we do not permit powerful interests to run roughshod over aboriginal rights.
David Williams, president
Friends of the Nemaiah Valley