The Mine Next Door Part 3: An Interview With Ryan Day Of Secwépemc Nation

Part 3 of the series The Mine Next Door, an in-depth look at the proposed Ajax mine near Kamloops, British Columbia. Read Part 1 of this series: KGHM Open-Pit Mine Proposal Within Kamloops City Limits and Part 2: The Price of the Ajax Mine.

Ryan Day is a marathon runner who is completing graduate studies in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. He's also from St'uxwtéws, a community of the Secwépemc Nation near Kamloops, B.C. Last year, Day won the Kamloops Marathon, which is one of many outdoor sporting events that take place in the city that, because of a newly proposed open-pit mining project, faces the threat of losing its prized title as “Canada’s Tournament Capital.”

In a recent interview with DeSmog, Day told us that, as a runner, his goal is not the competition. It’s about “modeling a healthy lifestyle and being visible to others."

"The sport of running," he says, "has given me a great deal in my lifetime and if I am able to inspire anyone, particularly youth to take up the sport for fun or competition, that is important to me. Given that placing high in a race creates somewhat of a captive audience I also used it to model taking a principled stance on a very important issue, that of the proposed Ajax mine.”

His position on the KGHM Ajax mine proposal is clear. As a runner, he believes that the construction of the mine will absolutely impact the decision of marathoners like himself to come to Kamloops to run. “If the sport is competed outside,” he told DeSmog, “and there is a possible air quality issue, athletes will not want to risk their health and will seek the next alternative. Likewise, Kamloops may be less likely to win bids to host outdoor sporting events. Perhaps the 'Tournament Capital' may cease to be an accurate title for the city."

Day won't be through with his studies until late October or November of this year, yet he is already working in his field.

“I am working on the health transfer from Health Canada to the First Nations Health Authority, where we are taking a community driven and Nation-based approach to healing and creating wellness among our citizens. In this work I am required to make few compromises to my values as a Secwépemc person and able to support an agenda of authentic healing and wellness for our people. I have been able to apply my Indigenous Governance coursework directly, although my thesis-project is related to mining, Indigenous land title and rights, and economic uncertainty.”[view:in_this_series=block_1]

As a researcher in the field, Day says the debate over the supposed benefits of the Ajax mine is misleading.

“To talk about the benefits of the mine is to be distracted from the fundamental issue at hand: that of justice."

The proposed mine overlaps with Secwépemc Territory, says Day. The land, and the minerals it contains, has more value than its pure economic worth. "There is an ongoing fight for the recognition of our (Secwépemc) title and rights to these lands and in this fight with the crown our biggest bargaining chip is the value of those minerals in the ground."

For this reason, says Day, "the value for Secwépemc peoples is in the mine not going through."

Without a mine "the living Secwépemc peoples and their children have a better hand to play in having our land title and rights recognized in a substantive way."

If the Secwépemc people were to consider the viability of a mine on their territory, says Day, "the health of the land and water will be at the forefront informing the decision on when, how and if, those minerals will leave the ground." 

"It is important to keep in mind Ajax is just one mine threatening the Thomson River watershed.”

The question of economic benefits, however, still has importance to Day's community which, he says, is poor. Sure, says Day, some people might economically benefit from the mine but such 'benefit' seems far from the real kinds of wholistic economic and environmental health his community prizes. His community shouldn't be faced with a decision between environmentally sustainable living on the one hand and economic health on the other.

"The laws and policies of Canada and B.C. have systemically impoverished our people so that we are forced to take jobs we fundamentally oppose. I say fundamentally oppose because an open-pit mine and the technology involved is the definition of short sighted, whereas a Secwépemc worldview requires taking into account many generations into the future. When you are forced into doing something in opposition to your fundamental values how does this make you feel? Is this healthy?”

Day's main concern with the mine “is that of justice." And not just for his people: "Residents of Kamloops need to widen their vision and realize there is an entire ecosystem they are a part of," he says. "The policies of the federal and provincial government are attacking it and Secwépemc land title and rights are their first best defense."

Day says his biggest personal concern is for the region's water. He says the tailings facilities needed to support the mine will "last indefinitely, an imminent threat to the watershed."

Water, he says, is "the lifeblood of these lands."

Kamloops, like many other small towns, is being forced into a restrictive framework when addressing issues of employment and economic stability. One that Day thinks is becoming increasingly out of step with today's ecological limits. 

There is not rosy answer to the question of slowing economies, says Day. "The problem with economic stability is that if we remain stable on this course the destruction of this ecosystem and planet is inevitable. What we need is for people to begin thinking, I mean really sitting down and thinking seven generations into the future and making choices today with that in mind."

That thinking doesn't necessarily dismiss the possibility of resource extraction outright, says Day, but more investment in education and innovation might mean the safer extraction of our resources, and their greatest potential use. Tax dollars and royalty regimes should reflect this smarter use of resources, says Day.

"Therefore the onus is on the policy-making bodies, the federal and provincial governments to use [these] mechanism[s]."

Yet, the failure of past and current governments to adequately address these concerns leads Day to believe the time to properly address inherent legal title and land rights for Indigenous peoples has come.

"First Nations and non-First Nations people alike need to reject the permitting process of the provincial and federal governments on the grounds that they have no legal claim to the lands and at best have an incomplete claim to the lands… This puts fear into the investment community who demands certainty. This puts decision-making power in Indigenous peoples' hands. To be clear, I do not mean the federally delegated authority of the Indian Act Chief & Council but to the People who have collective land and water, title, rights and responsibilities to this place which has never been ceded in treaty or surrendered in war.”

Video courtesy of stopajax.ca.