LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Time to start fighting back

Your remarks in the editorial “Hug a miner”(T.N.M., Apr. 5/93) pertaining to the Whitehorse Initiative struck me as being a direct quote from my comment to the president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) at that group’s recent convention in Toronto.

I was somewhat less tactful and referred to it as a pile of garbage but went on to explain that a brief glance at the fluffy language and objectives gave me the shivers.

We are starting to sound just like them, a sure sign our leaders are getting too cozy with the opposition. More talk and no action — little wonder, considering industry is vastly outnumbered by native and environmental groups directing the Initiative.

The time has come for our leaders (PDAC, Ontario Mining Association, Mining Association of Canada, etc.) to stop co-operating with the opposition in time-wasting, ineffectual exercises and start taking them on in court. Environmentalists, governments and native groups are constantly taking their concerns to court with little or no response from resource-industry groups. We are losing battles left and right and will continue to lose unless we start fighting fire with fire.

Two worthy cases of national significance are the Cream Silver expropriation in British Columbia and the Temagami Land Caution in Ontario. If present trends persist, these cases could be settled in a way that would seriously erode the freedom of access and security of title that the mining industry needs to survive in Canada.

I urge those who share this opinion to contact their industry representatives and make their views known. Politeness is getting us nowhere and we must take a harder line or be trampled.

Michael Leahy

President

Northern Prospectors

Association

Kirkland Lake, Ont.