April 9, 2015

Last week, we were in the BC Supreme Court for the three final days of Taseko Mines Ltd.’s lawsuit against us. This was the second set of hearings, after my Wilderness Committee colleagues and I spent two weeks in court facing the company earlier in January of this year.

Now that all the evidence and testimony has been heard, we await the judge’s decision – which will come down later this year.

I'm writing this blog post to bring you up to speed on this important court case, which is about defending our right to speak out on environmental matters.

Taseko Mines launched a lawsuit against the Wilderness Committee back in 2012. They claimed that we had defamed the company on our website when we wrote about the campaign to save Fish Lake from the company’s proposed open-pit gold and copper mine. Fish Lake is located on the Chilcotin Plateau, west of Williams Lake, BC, in the heart of Tsilhqot’in Nation territory.

We said that the company’s lawsuit was a SLAPP suit – which stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation” – and we did not let it slow down our fight to save Fish Lake.

The open-pit mine project was eventually turned down by the federal government in early 2014 because of its predicted impacts on the environment and the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s Aboriginal rights within their territory. But nevertheless, we have still been dragged into court by the mining company.

For two weeks this past January, and again last week for three days, both sides made their case in the Supreme Court of BC. Many people came out to support us, including First Nations leaders Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, as well as Chief Joe Alphonse of the Tsilhqot’in National Government. We were also joined last week by a delegation of Tsilhqot'in Chiefs and Councillors, including Chief Roger William, Chief Russell Myers-Ross, Chief Percy Guichon and Councillor Marilyn Baptiste.

Representatives of environmental and social justice groups also came out, including Ecojustice, Friends of Nemaiah Valley, Friends of Fish Lake, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the BC Civil Liberties Association. Many of our supporters also donated to help out with the costs we have faced while dealing with the court case and continuing to campaign to save Fish Lake. We were overjoyed and humbled by all the amazing support we received!

We are currently working with our friends from the Tsilhqot’in Nation and the Friends of Nemaiah Valley to produce a new publication about the new Dasiqox Tribal Park proposal, which covers three hundred thousand hectares around Fish Lake. We’ll be printing and distributing tens of thousands of copies. Make sure you are on our mailing list to receive your copy!

Thanks so much for standing with us as we stand our ground and defend the right to speak up for the protection of the fabulous wild country around Fish Lake!

For the wild,

Joe Foy | National Campaign Director