Vanouver, Coast Salish Territories

TSILHQOT'IN PROTEST OUTSIDE OF TASEKO MINES LTD. AGM

Call for Support

12:00pm
- 2:00pm
Vendredi Juin 1 2012

CALL FOR SUPPORT
TSILHQOT'IN PROTEST OUTSIDE OF TASEKO MINES LTD. AGM

Friday, June 1st @ 12:00 noon - 2 pm
837 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories

The struggle to stop Taseko Mines Ltd. (TML) from building a gold and copper mine on unceded Tsilhqot'in Territories continues outside of the TML annual general meeting on June 1st.  Tsilhqot'in chiefs and community members will be rallying outside of the meeting and have called for support from their allies as they take a stand to protect their territories, the Taseko watershed and Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from the proposed "New Propsperity Mine".

In the "new" proposal TML has suggested that they won’t drain Teztan Biny or Fish Lake, however the new tailings pond it is planning to build will destroy two other bodies of water that are vital to the survival Teztan Biny. "Fish Lake will still be on life support and die a slower death" says Chief Marilyn of the TNG. It is unimaginable that a company is allowed threaten Teztan Biny in pursuit of a proposal that both the CEAA and Taseko have acknowledged is more environmentally damaging that the proposal that was already rejected last year.

“The company is on record admitting this new option is worse than the one that was rejected last year, and a CEAA review panel has already agreed with that assessment,” said Chief Joe Alphonse, Chair of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which represents six First Nations. “To proceed any further will place an unjustified burden on us and on taxpayers and will demonstrate the excessive influence that this company, its lobbyists and hired guns have on government.”

Allowing this application to be heard the government is also setting a unjust precedent for companies to continually drain the time and resources of communities even when projects have been rejected.  The suggestion then is that the ecosystem and rights of indigenous communities can never be protected through the environmental assessment process. 

Meanwhile, federal and provincial governments continue to completely ignoring the right for self-determination of Tsilhqot'in communities as well as concerns from CEAA federal panel and the public. The Tsilhqot'in and their allies stood up against government and industry to stop this project over a year ago, and we need to do it again.

JOIN US JUNE 1st! BRING NOISE MAKERS, SIGNS, AND YOUR VOICE!

For more information contact hgrewal@canadians.org / 604 340 2455