Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation

Casimir on Ajax Mine Project revival: “It’s always been no.”

Sep 3, 2020 | 5:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — On Tuesday, Abacus Mining & Exploration Group said in a press release that KGHM had hired a new Ajax Superintendent in Kamloops. In the media release, the duties of the new superintendent include a “focus on First Nations.”

Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir was a councillor when the decision to reject the Ajax Mine proposal was made by members of the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation (SSN). The SSN is made up of Tk’emlups the Secwepemc and Skeetchestn Indian Bands. On March 6, 2017 they announced that they opposed the mine going in because the area around Jacko Lake, or Pipsell, was a sacred site for the Secwepemc people.

‘The proposed Ajax Mine, it’s fundamentally in absolute and total opposition to SSN’s land use, as [that area] has been deemed a sacred site,” Casimir told CFJC Today. “Of cours,e the cultural uses have been ongoing since time immemorial. There’s a lot of restorative purposes, as well, that allows for the use of those lands. And it’s shared by all — us as First Nations, and non-First Nations.”

The consultation process was robust, as KGHM met with members of SSN over an extended time. With BC adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as law, Casimir says her community has no plans to change its mind on the project.

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“It’s frustrating that they think they could change our minds. I know that in every single conversation that we’ve had it’s always been ‘No.’ It’s not going to be changed. This is something that was community-driven, through the membership throughout, and we’ve worked with many entities to preserve said lands. So it’s not only our voices but the collective voices that stood up and stood firm on that.”