Empowered green groups gain upper hand in pipeline battle – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – February 12, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

WASHINGTON — Meet the people on the winning side of Canada’s oil discount — the U.S. environmental activists who have wreaked havoc in the oil sands industry by trashing its practices and shutting it out of new markets by stalling proposed pipelines such as Keystone XL.

They include Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Danielle Droitsch, Anthony Swift of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which bills itself as the United States’ most effective environmental action group backed by 350 lawyers; and Jason Kowalski and Ben Wesser, with 350.org, a grassroots organization that uses protests and social media to stop climate change.

They are uncompromising, empowered and feel good about their progress in capping the growth of fossil fuels — particularly those from Canada.

Agree with them or not, their record is astonishing: They have outmanoeuvred the powerful oil lobby and stalled the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas; they have managed to blame emissions from oil sands’ fuels for U.S. climate disasters such as Super Storm Sandy; and they believe they are on the cusp of strangling oil sands growth.

In interviews in the slick downtown Washington base of the NRDC, the activists were unapologetic about the distress their campaign is causing in Canada — and particularly in Alberta, where pipeline bottlenecks are depressing the price of oil, cutting into company revenues and forcing provincial budget cuts.

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[Attawapiskat] Leaders out of their mines – Toronto Sun Editorial (February 8, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

With little else to do in Attawapiskat, and with no leadership worth noting, it is no surprise that a bunch of residents from that frozen ghetto would bite the hand that feeds them with a blockade of the ice road to the De Beers diamond mine.

It is just one more example in a long list of why unmanageable and unsustainable reserves like Attawapiskat should be shut down.

After all, De Beers has only deposited around $300 million into the band council’s coffers over five years – that’s $60 million per annum, or $50,000 per resident per year – so there’s no sense letting that good deed go unpunished, now is there?

So block the road.And who cares if 100 of the 500 employees at that mine are actually Cree workers from Attawapiskat? Let them eat frozen cake. And, most of all, why allow them to be examples to others when the federal government, via the taxpayer, will continue pumping in the cash to all and sundry with disappointing results.

And, while we’re at it, why not give a big raise to whatever lawyer the band hired to make its deal with De Beers? Why? Because De Beers purportedly signed what amounts to a non-disclosure clause with Chief Theresa Spence’s crew to not reveal what any of that $300 million is for, or how it is spent.

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The White Stuff: Mining Giant Rio Tinto Unearths Unrest in Madagascar – by Jessica Hatcher (Time World Magazine – February 8, 2013)

http://world.time.com/

Fort Dauphin – For five days in January, a few hundred protesters armed with slingshots in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, blocked the road to one of the country’s largest economic assets, a $940 million mining operation run by the British-Australian company Rio Tinto. Their grievances were local: high unemployment, alleged political corruption and unsatisfactory reimbursement for relocating homes to make room for the mine. But the protest’s effects were global, and relate to anyone who wants to brush their teeth, put on sunscreen or whitewash their house.

Fort Dauphin could have supplied a tenth of the world’s ilmenite, a mineral used to make titanium dioxide, the white pigment commonly found in toothpaste, cosmetics and paint. The product is a staple of household goods in the west and global demand is growing, especially in India and China. But three weeks after the Fort Dauphin standoff, which ended when the Malagasy military dispersed the crowd with teargas, Rio Tinto announced a major scale-back in Madagascar. The company is shelving plans for a second – and larger –mine nearby in St. Luce, which leaves only one of three planned sites in operation.

The cuts mark a potential setback for Madagascar, where 70% of the population lives on less than $1 per day. The African nation has hydrocarbon deposits, gold, and half of the world’s sapphires, and the arrival of mining companies like Rio Tinto brought the prospect of improved economic conditions. But the protesters in Fort Dauphin say the mine exploited them, a charge the company denies.

Fort Dauphin is a small stretch of arable land bordered by mountains and sea in southeastern Madagascar. When Rio Tinto moved in to set up its mine, the only land it could offer in compensation to displaced locals had little agricultural value, so the company gave out cash.

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Mali turmoil bad for Canadian mining ambitions in West Africa: analysts – by Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press/CTV News – February 8, 2013)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

OTTAWA, Ont. — As Islamist rebels controlled a chunk of Mali the size of France late last month, Toronto-mining analyst Pawel Rajszel honed his advice to investors on a leading Canadian mining company in the country.

Rajszel had previously told investors to “take their money and run.” His note of Jan. 24 concluded with one word: “Sell.”
Even after French and African troops routed al Qaeda terrorists from major cities in Mali’s north this week — and after French President Francois Hollande basked in the euphoria of a liberated Timbuktu — Rajszel was still unmoved.

“We haven’t changed our opinion,” Rajszel, head of the precious metals team at Veritas Investment Research, told The Canadian Press.

The Mali crisis and its spillover into West Africa are a monkey wrench in the Harper government’s ambitions for Canadian firms, especially in the mining sector.

The government is actively promoting Canadian business opportunities in Africa, but has no stomach for contributing troops to the French-led military campaign to drive al Qaeda-linked extremists out of northern Mali. Industry analysts say headlines about terrorists gaining a foothold in West Africa are chilling investors, and casting a pall over future prospects.

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Yukon’s court ruling on free-entry mining could help Idle No More – by Bertrand Schepper (Rabble.ca – January 22, 2013)

http://rabble.ca/

On December 27 this past year, the appeals court of the Yukon Territory gave an important ruling regarding the rights of First Nations in relation to Yukon’s free-entry mining policy. The plaintiff in the case, the Ross River Dena Council tribe, considers that Yukon’s government cannot allow quartz production on its territory without first consulting the Council. The Kaska nation, to which the Ross River Council belongs, owns more than 63,000 square km, which represents nearly 13 per cent of the entire Yukon Territory.

Just as does Quebec’s Mining Act, based on free mining principles, Yukon’s Quartz Mining Act allows any person (physical or moral) the right to claim a given territory of up to 1,500 square feet, but to record it only afterwards. This after-the-fact procedure is a mere administrative formality. To keep one’s rights over the land, one just needs to demonstrate that more than $100 has been invested on the claimed territory.

A person, in most cases a mining company, which has claimed land may start exploration activities without giving any additional information to governments. However, since these activities entail transforming the land both environmentally and economically, the Ross River Dena Council considers that its ancestral rights take precedence over the Quartz Mining Act, voted in 2003, and that Yukon’s government must consult First Nations before it can allow anyone to claim parcels of their land.

Justice Tysoe, Justice Groberman, and Justice Hinkson have ruled that “While Class 1 exploration programs are limited, they may still seriously impede or prevent the enjoyment of some Aboriginal rights in more than a transient or trivial manner.” The appeals court goes on to conclude that “the [mining] regime must allow for an appropriate level of consultation before Aboriginal claims are adversely affected.”

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Attawapiskat and diamonds – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 8, 2013)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

SORTING out the situation confronting Attawapiskat First Nation and the nearby Victor diamond mine is difficult at best. On the surface, all should be well. Mine owner DeBeers Canada spends a considerable amount of money in the community of 1,900 people — $40 million in business contracts in 2012 alone, it says.

It contributes more through an impact development agreement it signed when the mine opened — which earned it Mining Magazine’s Mine of the Year award in 2009 — though it agreed not to divulge details and the band office won’t. The company gives Attawapiskat about $2 million a year for use of its traditional land. It also hires locally and provides various training programs. Up to 100 of the mine’s 500 employees are from Attawapiskat.

While an audit of the federal government’s $95-million transfer to the band found paperwork discrepancies, together with the money the mine pays and spends, the people of the First Nation would hardly seem to be short of money. Yet a group of residents have been blockading the road to the mine over vague allegations that the money is not getting to the community.

DeBeers developed a comprehensive policy on aboriginal involvement in its operations. On its website the company “acknowledges the status of aboriginal people of Canada and their constitutionally entrenched rights” and “will work to strike a balance between these considerations and other economic, social and environmental responsibilities.”

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Debeers road blockade ends – by Lenny Carpenter (Wawatay News – February 7, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

The blockade of the road from Attawapiskat to the Debeers Canada diamond mine site is over. A small group of Attawapiskat community members blockaded the road on Feb. 4, calling on issues with the community’s agreement with the diamond company to be addressed. The blockade ended on the evening of Feb. 6.

Attawapiskat’s Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) coordinator Danny Metatawabin said the blockaders’ issues pertained to either problems with employment at the site or the use of their traditional territory.

The circumstances behind the end of the blockade is not known at this time. Earlier that afternoon, the First Nation leadership met with community members and Debeers officials in a public meeting. Metatawabin said the blockade began with four individuals before other community members joined in support.

He said the chief and council do not support the blockade, since the IBA the community signed with Debeers allowed the company to set up the Victor Mine, the winter road, and ensure that its trucks could move without interference on the road.

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Attawapiskat diamond mine blockade continues, protesters eye De Beers airport – by Jorge Barrera (APTN National News – February 6, 2013)

http://www.aptn.ca/

An Attawapiskat blockade of a winter road leading to a diamond mine operated by De Beers could last until spring and expand to the company’s airport, says Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence.

Spence said the handful of protestors who launched the blockade on Monday said they won’t end their protest until they get some concrete changes to the impact benefit agreement (IBA) between Attawapiskat and De Beers.

“The people who are blocking have a lot of concerns,” said Spence, who is currently on sick leave and recovering from her six week-long protest fast.

Spence attended a community meeting held Tuesday evening that ran until near midnight. About 60 people attended the meeting which included De Beers officials. Another meeting began Wednesday at about 5 p.m.

Spence said during Tuesday’s meeting one community member discussed giving De Beers 48 hours to vacate the mine before facing a blockade at its airport. The mining company flies out its diamonds via charters with schedules known only to a few key people.

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Blockade a ‘symptom’ of ongoing Attawapiskat issues: Wynne – by Antonella Artuso (Toronto Sun – February 6, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

BRADFORD – A blockade set up by Attawapiskat protesters on a winter road to the De Beers mine on the coast of James Bay is a symptom of unmet social needs in First Nations communities, Ontario premier-designate Kathleen Wynne says.

“The economic development that can come from either the mine on the James Bay coast or from the Ring of Fire has to be seen in the context of the relationship between government and the First Nations communities,” Wynne said Wednesday. “There’s a whole range of social issues that are not necessarily directly related to economic development but as a government, and I would suggest the federal government as well… needs to in, my opinion, tackle that whole range of issues if we want to be able to move ahead and have those economic opportunities be fulfilled.”

Wynne said she’s unaware of the actual trigger for the blockade but knows the Attawapiskat community is concerned about a number of issues including lack of housing and the availability of clean water.

“It’s never okay in my opinion to take violent or obstructive action,” Wynne said. “We have to find resolution to those issues at the same time as … allowing economic development to go ahead because in the end, if there is no economic development, then a lot of those issues are not going to be resolved.”

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De Beers reps meet with protesters – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 6, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Local management with the De Beers Victor diamond mine have been engaged in a series of community meetings in Attawapiskat in order to bring an end to a blockade which has prevented access to the mine since Monday night.

“There were approximately 16 (protesters involved with the blockade) when we arrived yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon,” Tom Ormsby, director of external and corporate affairs for De Beers Canada told The Daily Press. “Four individuals brought forward issues mainly related to employment, re-employment and training opportunities for them or family members at the mine.

“We have local management from the mine meeting with those involved and we even participated in an open community meeting last night where approximately 60 people attended. Similar to the afternoon discussions, most items centred on employment and training opportunities.”

While the mine has been able to continue operating, the blockade has prevented new supplies from being brought to the mine. These supplies include fuel, oil, tires and other mechanical equipment. Ormsby said there could be an effect on the mine’s operations if the supplies continue to be held up.

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Attawapiskat members blockade Debeers – by Lenny Carpenter (Wawatay News – February 6, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

A small group of Attawapiskat community members have blockaded a road leading from the Debeers Canada diamond mine site to the community, citing issues with the community’s agreement with the diamond company.

Attawapiskat’s Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) coordinator Danny Metatawabin said the blockaders’ issues pertain to either employment rates among community members at the site or the use of their traditional territory. The blockade began on Feb. 4.

“It started with four individuals,” Metatawabin said, adding that more community members have since joined. “When I went there this morning, there were not even 20.” Metatawabin said the chief and council do not support the blockade, saying the IBA the community signed with Debeers is a “done deal.”

“The current IBA is a done deal, an endorsed document, which states everything is approved and ratified,” he said. “Including allowing Debeers to set up the Victor Mine, the winter road, and ensure that fuel trucks are transported to the site for fuel purposes.”

However, he said the leadership is not taking action against the members who have blockaded the road. A meeting with the leadership and community members is expected to take place in the evening on Feb. 6 while Chief Theresa Spence called for a band council meeting on Feb. 7 regarding the matter.

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Blockade halts traffic to diamond mine – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 6, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A team of De Beers executives were scrambling late Tuesday afternoon to meet with a small number of protesters in Attawapiskat who had been blockading the winter road into the Victor diamond mine since Monday night.

While the mine was able to continue operating, company officials reported the blockade was preventing supplies from being brought to the mine.

“Currently the operations of the mine are not interrupted but the work on the road is interrupted – so the resupply to the mine is standing down until it is resolved,” Ashley Brown, senior communications specialist with De Beers, told The Daily Press.

Supply trucks stopped on the road by protesters were carrying “non-perishable consumables like fuel and oil and different mechanical parts, and tires and camp items and new equipment and that sort of stuff,” Brown added. “We use the winter road for those sort of things that are too heavy to economically fly into the mine.”

He said the company was sending an “executive team” to hold talks with the protesters in an effort to resolve the conflict. Brown said the protesters had provided no indication of how long they intended to maintain the blockade.

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Document reveals experience of Canadian mine applicants – by Michael Smyth (Vancouver Province – February 3, 2013)

http://www.theprovince.com/news/index.html

Chinese-owned Tumbler Ridge operation received about 300 resumés

The Chinese company that wants to set up an underground coal mine near Tumbler Ridge said it tried – and failed – to find qualified Canadians to work in the mine. But after the company was forced in court to produce about 300 resumés submitted by “unqualified” Canadian job applicants, critics are scoffing at the claim.

“There were obviously qualified Canadians who applied for these jobs, and they were simply rejected,” Brian Cochrane of the Union of Operating Engineers told me Saturday. “Qualified Canadians are being denied jobs developing Canada’s own resources,” Cochrane said.

“It’s outrageous.” HD Mining International received approval from the federal government to bring hundreds of Chinese coal miners to B.C., after Ottawa accepted the company’s argument that no Canadians could do the work.

The Operating Engineers and another union, the Construction and Specialized Workers, challenged the company and the government in court. Last month, the company turned over to the unions hundreds of resumés from rejected Canadian job applicants.

Now, in a document filed last week in federal court, the public is getting its first glimpse at the qualifications of Canadians who applied for jobs with the Chinese company. “There were trained and certified underground miners who applied for these jobs,” said Cochrane.

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Fort Severn demands halt to [Ontario MNDM] aerial surveying – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – January 29, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

Fort Severn Cree Nation has demanded that Ontario halt ongoing aerial geologic surveying of Fort Severn’s traditional lands.

The First Nation issued a letter to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) on Jan. 25, requesting that aerial surveying stop immediately. Fort Severn said it was revoking its prior consent to the surveying.

Fort Severn cited Idle No More and the hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence in explaining the need for unity with other First Nations.

“We believe it is imperative to take this step to ensure our community stands in unity with other First Nations and our organization across Ontario and Canada as we struggle to establish meaningful nation-to-nation relationships with all governments interested in working with our traditional lands,” Fort Severn Cree Nation wrote in the letter.

The First Nation also attached a list of the demands made in the declaration signed by Spence and other leaders on Jan. 24.

Aerial surveying is done through the Ontario Geologic Survey, a branch of MNDM. The surveying around Fort Severn is a continuation of last year’s aerial surveying around Weenusk First Nation, as the OGS is attempting to survey the shore of Hudson Bay for the first time since the 1960s.

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Armed clash at Canadian-owned copper mine in Peru injures at least 4 – by Franklin Briceno (Vancouver Sun – January 25, 2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

The Associated Press – LIMA, Peru – At least four people were wounded Friday when police turned back several hundred peasants who were trying to enter a Canadian-owned copper mine where drilling began last month.

A local doctor told The Associated Press by phone that at least a dozen were wounded in the clash in the temperate Quechua-speaking highlands of Peru’s northern state of Lambayeque.

The doctor said one protester, 57, was shot in the back. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. Hermogenes Tantarico, the wounded man’s son, said his father “received a bullet in the back and a lot of shotgun pellets in the legs and elsewhere that left him unconscious.”

Regional police commander Col. Jorge Linares denied live ammunition was used. He said police only used tear gas and rubber bullets. One of the protesters, Florentino Barrios, said 27 were hurt, a lot from shotgun pellets.

International human rights groups criticized Peru’s government last year for so readily using live ammunition against protesters after five were killed in anti-mining protests in July.

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