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Minings bad act, part II

A medical student, a banker, a Christian activist and a massage therapist are crouched around a table at U of T’s Earth Sciences Centre, plotting a government takedown.

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“We have no choice,” says the banker, his eyes glittering maniacally. “We have to block the road.” At the end of the role-playing workshop, everyone’s good and pissed off.

We’re here at The Question Of Sustainability mining conference on April 26, aimed at highlighting the fact that 75 per cent of the globe’s mining operations are Canada-based.

While the day-long affair includes panels on human rights, water pollution and shareholder activism, this session has participants pretending to be native leaders strategizing to get mining firms off their land.

Weirdly, the hard-assed government officials are played by real-life Ardoch Algonquin chiefs Paula Sherman and Bob Lovelace.

Lovelace knows this game. A year ago, the ponytailed Queen’s University prof was serving his third month in a maximum security prison for violating a court order banning peaceful protest against uranium exploration on Ardoch land in eastern Ontario.

Today he tells the session, “If you don’t have the right to say no, you don’t have any rights at all.” It’s a reminder of the stakes in the extraction-fighting game, but in an amazing bit of serendipity, this conference comes amidst signs that mining activists have been doing a bang-up job.

On April 23, Bill C-300, holding Canuck mining firms accountable for human and enviro rights abuses abroad, received second reading, and the very next day, the Federal Court ruled that government can’t withhold data on mining pollution.

A mere six days later, Ontario finally offered amendments to the Mining Act – the issue at the heart of Lovelace’s travails. The proposals would force mining firms to consult First Nations before exploration, and provide a dispute ?resolution process.

While the sum total of all this isn’t clear, one has to ask: if Lovelace’s trial took place today, would things be different? Lawyer Christopher Reid doesn’t think so. “Bob probably still would’ve gone to prison,” says Reid, who represented the Ardoch and the KI First Nation north of Thunder Bay. Six of their members were jailed for protesting a platinum mine.

Referring to Mining Act changes, Reid says, “The main thing we asked for, the right to say no to mines completely, isn’t there. The core of the system remains intact. We’ve driven a few nails in it, but that’s about it.”

Not everyone sees the amendments this way. “For the most part, the government listened,” says John Beaucage, Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, speaking from North Bay. “It was the first time the province included aboriginal groups in drafting legislation.”

Still, like others, Beaucage is disappointed that the amendments did not deal specifically with uranium mining. Many First Nations and activists, citing contamination fears, hoped the province would declare a moratorium on extraction.

There are currently no operating uranium mines in Ontario, but skyrocketing prices coupled with the Libs’ $30 bil nuclear expansion, have increased pressure for exploration.

While uranium mining is governed by the feds, exploration is provincial and requires no environmental assessment. Not that there are many full mining enviro assessments anyway: Mining Watch says there hasn’t been a meaningful one since 2003. “Uranium mining was one of the most hotly raised issues during the consultations,” says the group’s Ramsey Hart. “We wanted to see environmental assessments, but there’s no recognition in the act that that’s going to happen.”

Provincial reps, though, respond that there was never an intention to discuss uranium mining in the amendments. “We were clear that this wouldn’t be on the table,” says Ministry of Northern Development and Mines’ Anne-Marie Flanagan. “We need to keep the options open.”

Back at the conference, Lovelace looks like he’s keeping his open, too. He joins hands with Jethro Tulin, who was hacked by guards at a protest in Papua New Guinea, and Sergio Campusano, a Chilean indigenous leader here to protest at Barrick Gold’s annual meeting. Together, they sing a traditional song of prayer, releasing their anger to the drumbeat and asking the spirits to give them strength “to keep fighting.”

A quick guide to the last year of anti-mining activism.

FEBRUARY 2008 Robert Lovelace gets six months for violating court order to leave uranium site.

MARCH 2008 Six KI Nation activists get six months for interfering with platinum mine on their land.

MAY 2008 Ontario Court of Appeal releases Lovelace and the KI Six.

NOVEMBER 2008 Nevada Shoshone file legal complaint to stop Barrick Gold’s Cortez Mine.

APRIL 2009 Federal Court forces feds to release pollution data Ontario proposes Mining Act changes Second reading of Bill C-300, holding firms accountable for global eco and rights abuses.

news@nowtoronto.com

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