Thursday, March 27, 2014

Taseko seeks to quash 'New Prosperity' decision

Update (Thurs March 27th at 8:28am) -- Brian Battison from Taseko Mines talks with CBC Daybreak Kamloops in regards to Taseko Mines plan to seek a judicial order quashing the 'New Prosperity' rejection decision - click here for the interview

In no surprise here - Taseko Mines Ltd (TML) announced yesterday that it was seeking a judicial order quashing the decision of Ottawa in regards to the rejection of TML's "New Prosperity" mine proposal.

Read the official notice from TML here while you can read an article from the Williams Lake Tribune here

Meanwhile - TNG Tribal Chair Joe Alphonse said, in response, to Taseko's latest legal move:


“The bottom line is that TML and both levels of government must end this direct threat to our culture and values once and for all. Two independent federal panel reviews have now found severe environmental problems and threats to First Nations culture and rights that simply cannot be mitigated. The project is so fundamentally flawed that even the generally pro-resource development federal Conservative government and the Prime Minister himself have concluded that the problems are so “scathing” and “damning” that it has rejected the Project twice in four years"

Read the full press release from the TNG Chiefs here

For myself - while I wasn't surprised that Taseko would proceed with this legal action, I was quite surprised at these choice of words:

Wrongdoing by government ministers, ministries, civil servants and agencies caused New Prosperity Mine's latest defeat,

In my view - that is very strong language for what occurred in regards to Ottawa rejecting New Prosperity.  Ottawa really had no choice, if for no other reason, that the pending William case at the Supreme Court of Canada could radically change the issue of Aboriginal Rights/Title across Canada and Ottawa didn't want to make any land moves until the Supreme Court of Canada rules accordingly.

~SF

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