Sandy Pond Alliance, with Council of Canadians organizer Angela Giles (front row, first on the left) and chapter activist Ken Kavanagh (back row, in the middle).
The St. John’s Telegram reports that, “Vale is appealing a decision that gave it limited intervener status in the federal court case to save Sandy Pond, which has been approved as a tailings pond for the nickel processing facility at Long Harbour. …’Vale doesn’t like it. They just want to delay and postpone everything,’ alliance chairman (and Council of Canadians chapter activist) Ken Kavanagh said Tuesday.”
“Sandy Pond Alliance lawyer Owen Myers said if Vale and the associations get full intervener status, it would have the effect of extensively dragging out the case, which is against the federal government. Vale’s lawyers are pushing to have the case heard in Ontario, but that’s out of the question for the volunteer, non-profit organization, Kavanagh said. ‘Their game plan is to beat us to death,’ he said.”
“The Sandy Pond Alliance to Protect Canadian Waters Inc. launched a federal court challenge in June, seeking the removal of metal mining effluent regulations from the Federal Fisheries Act. The regulations allow the government to approve the use of lakes and ponds across the country as tailings dump sites. But according to court documents Vale has filed, if the federal court ultimately agrees with the alliance, it will have to decide whether that retroactively stops Vale’s plans for Sandy Pond.”
CBC reported on Monday that, “Owen Myers, a representative for the environmental group, said the company is trying to drag out the legal process. ‘They’re abusing the process and these are just obstructionist tactics to hope they can just wear us down by attrition,’ he said. …Myers said he was notified on the weekend that Vale is appealing the latest ruling.” More on that in this campaign blog, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6630.
The St. John’s Telegram article is at http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/Natural-resources/2011-03-02/article-2293255/Vale-appealing-intervener-limits/1.
