Letters to the editor: Kudos for the balance

Thank you very much for running Chief Baptiste’s article. It was informative and as a subscriber, I appreciate your publication presenting both sides of the story. Your decision to be inclusive helped me decide to renew our subscription.

Thank you for having the courage to publish the article by Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government.

You have highlighted a very important issue with national, and even global, implications. The plight of indigenous people everywhere is being exacerbated by governments and mining concerns that show insufficient respect for their rights and their ways of life.

Unfortunately, we know from the Prosperity mine issue that this is true even within our own country.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Governments and mining companies need to work with First Nations and respect their constitutional rights.

It especially pains us that this is so here in B.C., where mining reform and attitudinal adjustment by the provincial government is badly needed.

As for Prosperity, this is a very bad mine in the wrong place. As has been said by others, it’s a “poster child” for all that is wrong with the mining industry in Canada.

I’m writing to thank you on behalf of the Tsilhqot’in for your willingness to include both sides of a contentious story. We are all very pleased that this important information is being shared with the mining industry and investors.

As indicated by the chiefs, they are looking for a new way forward that doesn’t involve the promotion of this harmful project, and instead allows us to focus on building more positive relationships with others.

As put by Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs at a press conference with the Tsilhqot’in chiefs in October: this is the wrong mine in the wrong place, being promoted by the wrong company.