This past weekend, the Vancouver Sun reported, “Indigenous people from mining communities through-out the Americas joined the Tsilhqot’in First Nation on Friday (June 1) outside Vancouver’s Terminal City Club in a show of solidarity against the proposed New Prosperity mine west of Williams Lake. Inside the club, which was heavily protected by police, New Prosperity developer Taseko Mines was holding its annual general meeting. …The international groups were in Vancouver attending a conference hosted by the Council of Canadians called Shout Out Against Mining Injustice.” The Tyee.ca adds, “(Shout Out) kicked off with a demonstration led by members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation outside the offices of Taseko Mines Limited, where the company hoping to establish the New Prosperity mine in B.C.’s Cariboo-Chilcotin region was holding its annual general meeting.”
At the rally, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow stated, “On behalf of the 75,000 supporters of the Council of Canadians, I want to say we stand in total and absolute solidarity with the Tsilhqot’in people, with Chief Baptiste, in your struggle against Taseko Mines. …(Round two of the environmental assessment) will not be without opposition from your friends and colleagues and comrades across the country, we simply stand with you very, very strongly in the past and in the future.”
Watch the three-minute video of Barlow speaking at the protest against Taseko:
The Vancouver Sun news report noted, “A decision on the second environmental review is expected by November.” The full article is at http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/technology/story.html?id=6720035. The Tyee.ca article can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=15640.
Numerous Council of Canadians campaign blogs – dating back to August 2009 – in solidarity with the Tsilhqot’in campaign to defend Teztan Biny/ Fish Lake can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22Fish+Lake%22.
