View from the West (October 28, 1991)

The headline of an Oregon Lands Coalition newsletter tells it all: “This Country Is Run by Those Who Show Up.” Only recently has the Canadian mining community been showing up. We must redouble our efforts to make up for the many years our chair at the Land Use Table was sometimes unoccupied. We must insist that we be included in all Land Use debates that affect our workplace, the natural areas of Canada. Being invited, we must show up. Recent events in Vancouver suggest that our struggle to use the land, at least in British Columbia, has moved to a new level of difficulty.

On Dec. 13, 1990, the Sierra Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) opened its Canadian headquarters in Vancouver. Although the SLDF has no direct relationship with the Sierra Club, it is a joint creation of environmentalists, British Columbia lawyers and the American Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (SCLDF). The latter was founded in 1971 and had a membership of 120,000 in 1990, a staff of 67 and a budget of $6.74 million. Although SCLDF maintains it receives no government grants, in 1989 it was awarded $1.2 million in fees. Startup assistance of $330,000 was reported to have been provided to the new Canadian Fund by its U.S. equivalent. This appears to be the first time a foreign fund has been sponsored by its American counterpart. In June, 1990, the Law Foundation of British Columbia approved a onetime grant of $610,000 to the Canadian SLDF to be paid over three years. The grant was made under the legal aid category — to assist in the provision of legal services, including “support of community service and non-profit organizations which address issues that benefit groups of disadvantaged persons or the public.” Apparently the money comes from interest paid on lawyers’ trust funds. Litigation apparently will be undertaken for SLDF by staff lawyers or outside counsel on a pro bono or reduced fee basis.

The formation of the Canadian SLDF appears to be a logical step in the efforts made by powerful American preservationist interests to stop development of the natural resources in Western Canada, particularly the temperate rain forests of British Columbia. It would appear that the troops in the fields will now be joined by fresh, well-equipped troops in the courts. We can expect to see more legal tactics to go along with the field tactics used by preservationists to block natural resource developments. Perhaps “showing up” today requires the formation of a similar legal defence fund — a fund to aid holders of government contracts (claims and other natural resource tenures) whose abilities to exercise their rights are being interfered with by government, preservationist associations or individuals. Some tenure holders, because of lack of financial resources, are being overwhelmed by questionable decisions made by government agencies. I can think of a number of individuals or small companies that could have benefited and one who right now could benefit from such a legal defence fund. Dave Tener, for one, had to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in order to force the British Columbia government into allowing him to explore his crown-granted mineral claims caught up in the formation of Wells Gray Park. A number of other claims and crown grants are also similarly caught up in the formation or extensions of parks in British Columbia. The most recent disaster involves a well-known Vancouver mining consultant who is currently being sued by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment for about $1 million, apparently the cost in neutralizing a cyanide leak on a property owned by a mining company of which he is a director. Tener never recovered financially from his victory and it appears that the stress also affected his health. Losing is too horrendous to contemplate. In both cases, as in many others, free, strong, legal counsel would have undoubtedly benefited both the individual and the mining community. It appears that in order to preserve our workplace we will have to become more vigorously involved in the legal process. A single group of experts, adequately funded by our industry, could send a strong message to those who see us as a sunset industry that we are here to stay.