Critical minerals mining affects us all, both as water users and consumers of new technology. Shifting away from oil and coal is creating huge demand to extract more and more “critical minerals” from unspoiled ecosystems. Lax regulations allow companies to abandon toxic sites. Until last year, all of BC – including private property – was open to mining claims. But after a long battle, change is coming.
Jamie Kneen, Communications and Strategy coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.
In addition to communications and social media work, his responsibilities also include MiningWatch’s research and advocacy in Africa, as well as uranium mining and environmental assessment policy and practice in Canada. Jamie is co-chair of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Caucus of the Canadian Environmental Network and has served on the federal environment and climate change minister’s Multi-Interest Advisory Committee on Environmental Assessment and previously on the minister’s Regulatory Advisory Committee on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
View Jamie’s slides here (pdf).
Nikki Scuse, Northern Confluence and BC Mining Law Reform
Nikki is the Director of the Northern Confluence Initiative based in Wet’suwet’en territory in Smithers, BC, where she works to improve salmon watershed conservation through better land-use decisions. She advocates for mining reforms that respect Indigenous laws, rights, and sustainability principles. She is also a founder of the BC Mining Law Reform network, which promotes changes to mineral development laws and mining practices to ensure they are environmentally sound, do not pollute waters, respect community decisions, and account for the costs to clean up toxic mine waste sites.
View Nikki’s slides here (pdf).
James Herbert, Senior Advisor with the Gitxaała Territorial Management Agency.
James works with the First Nation as they deal with environmental damage caused by the Yellow Giant gold mine on Banks Island. He was closely involved with their successful court challenge to BC’s “free entry” mining system. That decision requires the province to abide by its own Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
Read more about the Gitxaala court case that’s changing BC’s mining future.
Acid mine drainage, Wikimedia
