I don’t know if theysee that or just see the dollar sign.”Gold mining expert Leslie E. Sponsel haswritten that for every gold mine “about nine tons ofwaste are left for every ounce of gold extracted.”Despite the fact that mines have proven over and overagain to be destructive, Taseko has tried to convincethe public that the environment will somehow menditself over time. Delia William a Xeni Gwet’in elderstated, “They say ‘twenty years or so, you’ll get yourland back,’ I don’t believe it. I know what’s going to happen and I’ve read about mines… I see how it looks.I don’t believe the country will be like this again.”

Sponsel also reveals in his article that in 1994the United Nations drafted a Declaration of Principleson Human Rights and the Environment which stated inpart:2. All persons have the right to a secure, healthy andecologically sound environment;5. All persons have the right to freedom from pollution,environmental degradation and activities thatadversely affect the environment, threaten life, health,livelihood, well-being or sustainable developmentwithin, across or outside national boundaries;14. Indigenous peoples have the right to control theirlands, territories and natural resources and to maintaintheir traditional way of life…These principles would be ideal and one might assumethey would help Indigenous groups in their casesagainst mining developments, but the basic humanrights agreement signed by nearly every country in theworld has failed to protect people from these projectsthus far.Too often we are left ill-informed and trustingthe decisions of these projects to our governments.

Even the media offers insufficient information. For example, I could find only one article written from theperspective of the Xeni Gwet’in—this was publishedin the Vancouver Sun. But this same newspaper alsopublished a guest column written by the president andCEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration inBritish Columbia promoting mining projects, describedby Chief Baptiste as painting “a rosy picture offuture great wealth and prosperity.”Why are Indigenous groups forced to be thesole defenders of the land? Frances Van Zile, a Chippewawoman, sums it up when she says, “[t]his isn’t an Indian issue, nor is it a white issue. It’s everybody’sissue. Everybody has to take care of [the] water” andthe land.

There is hope. More and more we are comingtogether, realizing that our wellbeing depends on thewelfare of our planet. Now is the time to become moreaware of what is going on in the world around us andto become active.This isn’t something happening in some far offplace, this is happening here and now and it affects all of us. You can make a dierence.

For more information check out the following sites: Sign the Petition at – http://www.protectshlake.ca/ Film: Blue Gold – http://vimeo.com/9679174 RAVEN – www.raventrust.com Landkeepers – www.landkeepers.ca Friends of the Nemaiah Valley – www.fonv.ca