Ontario First Nation prepared to block highway to stop mining near drinking water source

A northwestern Ontario First Nation that’s struggling through a decade-long social crisis has directed its leaders to blockade the highway if the province grants mineral extraction permits near its water source.

Onigaming First Nation Chief Jeff Copenace says Elders have instructed him to notify a partnership between First Mining Gold and New Gold that they do not consent to ore extraction or its transportation through the territory. Under pressure to respond to demands to meet by Nov. 21, and facing three funerals over the past two weeks, Copenace issued Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Mines the following statement:

“If this permit is approved without our consultation and without our free, prior, informed consent, our Elders in Onigaming have asked Onigaming leadership to consider a blockade of Highway 71 and/or to consider all other legal actions such as an injunction to stop this permit from proceeding. I am copying the National Chief Cindy Woodhouse, Regional Chief Abram Benedict and Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh to help join our blockade if we proceed. We need your help.”

As the deadline passed on Friday, Copenace said he’s been attending to the community impact of five deaths among Onigaming members this month. They’re the latest in a social state of emergency first declared in 2014, including mental health issues, addiction and suicide.

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“All of the benefits will go to people that won’t benefit us. We’re sick and tired of being third-world citizens in the province of Ontario,” Copenace said. “This isn’t coming from me, I’m not the one who’s thinking about blockading the highway. It’s coming from our Elders. I’m just trying to buy time and bring some awareness to how unfair these processes are to First Nations who don’t have the capacity to come to the table.”

“I don’t know how other First Nations are. I think the chiefs are just signing agreements without any consultation with their communities, for the money. That’s not how we govern in Onigaming — we govern by the people.”

‘Every time we schedule a meeting, we have a funeral’

The proposal would be a transportation and processing partnership between First Mining Gold and New Gold, the former having Ontario-approved permits north of Onigaming and the latter actively operating an open-pit mine and mill to its south.

First Mining would extract 30,000 tonnes of iron ore stockpiled at the Cameron Gold site and transport it by truck through Onigaming along Highway 71, for processing at New Gold’s Rainy River mill.

Ontario claims removing the ore stockpile “will completely remove this mine hazard from site once complete,” adding, “The environment following the remediation would be comparable to or better than it was before the activities took place.”

Onigaming signed an agreement with New Gold before its Rainy River project was developed in 2015, but the deal limits the First Nation’s consent of New Gold’s interests to the area south of the community.

This latest proposal has been under development for over three years, but Copenace said the company and provincial government “really hit the accelerator button” on its approval in mid-October.

“They’ve been trying to come to the table but we just haven’t been able to sit down with them, because every time we schedule a meeting, we have a funeral,” Copenace said, adding that since child psychologists recommended that Onigaming cease holding funerals at the local school, they’ve struggled to find space that can even accommodate those ceremonies.

‘What we need now is a focus on crisis response and crisis infrastructure’

The deposit belongs to a cluster of mineral sites that were first exploited in the gold rush of the 1890s. Onigaming members have instructed their leadership not to grant companies the consent for development, so as not to interfere with the quality of spring-fed rivers that flow into the lakes that surround Onigaming. Cameron Lake connects to the source of Onigaming’s drinking water on Kakagi (also known as Crow) Lake.

When other mining proponents in that area have pushed Onigaming, including one company representative who suggested Copenace’s reserve “is in such bad shape because you’re a terrible leader,” Copenace has responded that their projects “will be opposed at any cost necessary including peaceful protest and direct action.”

Until Onigaming members have access to full-time mental health counselling in the community and a replacement for the sober living facility that burned down last year, Copenace said, his leadership cannot be expected to abide by the arbitrary timelines of government and corporations.

“I’m hoping it’s not approved,” he said. “I’m hoping that Ontario will delay the permits and come to the table to find a way. We’ll find a way, too, I just don’t know when or how. What we really need now is a focus on crisis response and crisis infrastructure.”