First Nations leaders in southeastern Yukon know all too well what new mines can do to their people. They’ve been down this path before. Companies push into communities, prying open the land and taking what’s beneath. Then they bail, leaving behind “nothing but sorrow and suffering,” according to the executive director of a women’s organization.

This could happen again. And not only could the environment be harmed. So, too, could First Nations women — both physically and emotionally, says Anne Maje Raider, executive director of Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society.

Maje Raider and George Morgan, Chief of the Liard First Nation, are calling for more scrutiny of the Kudz Ze Kayah project, a proposed open-pit and underground mine roughly 115 kilometres south of Ross River. To ensure that happens, they asked the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board to extend the public comment period for the project, which the board agreed to earlier this year. Now, the public has until May 31 to have its say on the project.

“This mine is in the heart of Kaska territory.”

BMC Minerals, the company behind the project, wants to build a zinc, copper and lead mine. It’s eyeing a site that falls within the traditional territories of the Liard First Nation and the Ross River Dena Council. The plan is to operate it for 10 years, after which a 26-year closure and reclamation project will occur, according to the assessment board’s draft screening report. The mine’s workforce will number roughly 350 during the 10 years it’s active.

BMC president Scott Donaldson said the company has been working closely with the Ross River Dena Council, the lead Kaska community for the project, to address outstanding issues. He didn’t say, however, what those issues are.

Jack Caesar, Chief of the council, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The Ross River Dena Council and BMC “have maintained a close relationship since we purchased the project in January 2015 and have jointly developed a number of programs to ensure that when the mine is finally approved, that there is a meaningful involvement by Kaska at all levels,” Donaldson said in an email.

Morgan told The Narwhal the proposed mine is slated to go in the vicinity of traditional villages, campsites and drying racks, noting that a new mine would bring in waves of workers, disrupting traditional ways of life. 

Caribou frequent this area. He’s worried about them. 

“This mine is in the heart of Kaska territory,” he said. “We’re talking about a breadbasket here for hunting, for our people harvesting in the fall. In fact, the name of the mine, Kudz Ze Kayah, is actually Kaska for land of the caribou.”

The Finlayson caribou herd, which has seen a steady decline over the past 20 years, is in the area, and many Kaska hunters rely on it, he said, noting there are rutting and calving areas next to the proposed site.

He also wants assurance that the mine, once closed, is adequately cleaned up and not foisted on taxpayers. There are already four abandoned mines in the surrounding area — Faro, Ketza, Wolverine and Cantung.

Yukon seeks $25 million in outstanding cleanup fees from owners of shuttered, contaminated Wolverine mine

“We are committed to making sure that our traditional territory is clean,” Morgan said. “Big projects like this are only going to be acceptable to the Kaska if we can avoid significant harmful impacts.”

“Of course, economic development is important for our members,” he continued. “Our communities need jobs desperately, so we’re just really concerned about doing our due diligence when it comes to the environment. We’re also concerned about capturing traditional knowledge in these areas of activity before that knowledge is lost.”

BMC has agreed to bankroll an independent environmental and traditional knowledge review led by the First Nation, Morgan said. The review is underway, but COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in the process and a completion date hasn’t been set, he added.

The assessment board’s executive committee, responsible for screening large projects like this one, determined the mine, as currently proposed, “will result in significant adverse effects to water resources, traditional land use and human health and safety.”

It outlines several mitigation measures for the company to make good on as a result, including sustained water quality monitoring, caribou and moose monitoring and ongoing geochemical studies.

The Faro Mine in south-central Yukon was abandoned in 1998, leaving behind 320 million tonnes of waste rock and 70 million tonnes of tailings. Photo: Matt Jacques / The Narwhal

‘Women have been targeted, women have been harassed’

First Nations women could be placed in an even more vulnerable position. 

Part of the project includes building permanent camp facilities. The majority of the workforce is likely to be male.

The draft screening report says the project is likely to result in “significant adverse effects to personal safety” of women and LGBTQ and two-spirited people.

“Violence against women is persistently a major issue with large-scale natural resource development activities, with First Nations women being particularly vulnerable,” it says. “The potential effects are wide-ranging as this violence affects not only the individuals themselves, but also children and communities, sometimes resulting in intergenerational trauma.”

There could be an increase in sexual assault and domestic violence, the report says.

Maje Raider, who wrote a letter to the assessment board in December calling for an extension to the public comment period, told The Narwhal First Nations women could be in danger if issues aren’t addressed.

Her organization conducted a series of meetings with women in Watson Lake and Ross River in February. Their concerns will be encapsulated in a report and sent to the assessment board.

Canada’s northern ‘zombie mines’ are a lingering multi-billion dollar problem

It was during these meetings that a picture of the dangers posed to women started to develop. Concerns centre around women who work at mine sites and miners funnelling into surrounding communities, Maje Raider said.

“They have every right to work there,” she said, referring to First Nations women, “and they have every human right to be safe, to have an environment that’s safe, but that’s not always the case, because as we heard through our meetings, women have been targeted, women have been treated badly, women have been harassed, and so women end up quitting.”

The organization and others made a submission to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the final report of which was released last June. A section of it says extraction projects can exacerbate violence against Indigenous women and girls.

“We expressed concerns that the violence that happens, the racism that happens, the attacks that happen against Indigenous women who work in the mining industry,” Maje Raider said of the submission to the inquiry. “Really, the impacts that these mines have had on our communities dates back years, decades.”

The draft screening report says Kudz Ze Kayah doesn’t have “notable provisions to prevent the pattern of violence against women and sexual minorities, which occurs consistently as a result of other resource extraction projects in Canada’s North.”

BMC proposes no drug or alcohol use onsite, random drug testing and counselling services, among other things, according to the draft screening report.

The assessment board takes it a step further, recommending mitigation measures such as mandatory harassment prevention training, developing policies that promote a safe environment for women and LGBTQ and two-spirited people and clear procedures for assisting victims of domestic violence. 

One measure is aimed at the Yukon government. The executive committee recommends it earmark more funding for childcare, detox and counselling services and shelters for victims of abuse in Watson Lake and Ross River.

Work on a final screening report will begin when the public comment period ends next month.

Maje Raider has been here before. She’s seen projects just like this one make their way through assessment processes. She’s seen mines come and go, and, once they do, all that’s left is a gaping hole in the ground and toxins in the environment, she said.

“I’ve not seen a mine yet that’s come into our homeland that’s provided everything it’s promised to our people. There’s no wealth that comes into the community. It’s been nothing but sorrow and suffering, because it brings more addictions, more drugs. I’m sad to say, but that’s the reality of it.”

B.C. failed to consider links between ‘man camps,’ violence against Indigenous women, Wet’suwet’en argue

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Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are requesting a judicial review of a decision made by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office to extend the environmental certificate for the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The request, filed Feb. 3, argues an extension should not have been granted in light of more than 50 instances of non-compliance with the conditions of Coastal GasLink permits and in light of the findings of Canada’s National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

The inquiry found there is “substantial evidence” that natural resource projects increase violence against Indigenous women and children and two-spirit individuals.

A final report released from the National Inquiry Committee in June found “work camps, or ‘man camps,’ associated with the resource extraction industry are implicated in higher rates of violence against Indigenous women at the camps and in the neighbouring communities.”

“Increased crime levels, including drug- and alcohol-related offences, sexual offences, and domestic and ‘gang’ violence, have been linked to ‘boom town’ and other resource development contexts. … There is an urgent need to consider the safety of Indigenous women consistently in all stages of project planning,” the report states.

Concerns about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are on visible display at the Unist’ot’en camp, located along the intended route of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, where for the past months red dresses — symbols of the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls — hang on signposts or dangle in the air from lines of suspended wire.

Karla Tait, psychologist and director of clinical services at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre, said the idea came about when the Wet’suwet’en learned of a proposed 400-person worker camp planned for just 13 kilometres from the healing centre. 

“We put a call out for red dresses to be sent here, inviting anyone to send red dresses in honour of any missing and murdered Indigenous women in their lives and to help us raise awareness and visibility as Coastal GasLink workers were traveling into our territory and doing pre-construction work,” Tait, who is a Unist’ot’en house member, told The Narwhal.

Red dresses, signifying missing and murdered Indigenous women, hang near Unist’ot’en camp in Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The RCMP are currently enforcing a court injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en and supporters occupying cultural camps in areas of Wet’suwet’en traditional territory that prevent work along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, representing all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en nation, argue the pipeline was permitted without their consent as legal custodians of the nation’s territory under Wet’suwet’en law and as recognized by Canada’s Supreme Court in a 1997 ruling known as the Delgamuukw decision.

Chiefs issued an eviction notice to Coastal GasLink workers in early January and after weeks of tense waiting, RCMP began arresting individuals within a designated exclusion zone, which extends from an RCMP checkpoint to beyond the Unist’ot’en camp, on Feb. 6.

Freda Huson, left, her sister Brenda Michell, centre, and her niece Karla Tait, right, head inside after offering songs and prayer outside the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre on Thursday Feb. 6. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

A helicopter takes off after Freda Huson refused to talk to police at the Unist’ot’en camp on Saturday Feb. 8. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

RCMP officers arrived at the Unist’ot’en camp, located at the 66-kilometre mark along the Morice River Forest Road, on Saturday morning following two days of arrests while dismantling Wet’suwet’en camps along the pipeline route. 

Wet’suwet’en at the camp have refused to comply with an RCMP request to surrender.

Unist’ot’en camp founder and spokesperson, Tsake’ze Howilhkat, who also goes by Freda Huson, said the camp is located 66 kilometres from the infamous Highway of Tears, notorious for its connection to the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women in B.C., many of whom she knew personally.

“Some of them are family, extended family, cousins and children. The latest one was our cousin’s daughter-in-law, left a one-year-old baby behind,” Huson told The Narwhal.

She recounted the experience of being on a search party for Frances Brown, who went missing while mushroom picking with her partner. The RCMP called off their search after five days. 

“I, with many others, was out there for 35 to 37 days, every day from seven in the morning until seven at night we searched,” Huson said. “We were popping Tylenol because our bodies hurt so bad but we kept going out every day searching and we didn’t find any clues.”

Huson said she is angry the RCMP will deploy enormous resources to enforce an injunction against Indigenous people defending their territory but not to investigate the murder of Indigenous women or locate missing women or their remains. 

“Maybe some of them are out here, somewhere,” Huson said of the area surrounding the Unist’ot’en camp. “Because of lot of them went missing and they could have easily went on these back roads. A lot of this territory was hardly used, so they could have been brought out here somewhere.”

There are 14 work camps planned to support the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Nine are already in operation, with additional camps expected to be built in 2020, according to a spokesperson with TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, which owns the pipeline.

Chief Howilhkat, Freda Huson, and her sister Brenda Michell stand in ceremony while she waits for police to enforce Coastal GasLink’s injunction at Unist’ot’en Healing Centre near Houston, B.C. on Saturday Feb. 8. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Coastal GasLink permit extended without due process: lawyer

Dinï ze’ Smogelgem, Hereditary Chief of the Laksamshu (Fireweed and Owl) clan said the Wet’suwet’en’s application for judicial review of Coastal GasLink certificate extension also points out the connection between the project and threats to women. 

“My cousins are listed among the murdered and missing women and girls,” he said in a statement announcing the case. “B.C. must not be allowed to bend the rules to facilitate operations that are a threat to the safety of Wet’suwet’en women.”

Caily DiPuma, legal counsel for the Wet’suwet’en with Woodward and Co., said the request for judicial review is about questioning the integrity of the environmental assessment process. 

Coastal GasLink has not substantially started construction within the five years of its environmental certificate, granted in 2014, as is mandated in the permit. The company requested the Environmental Assessment Office grant a permit extension. 

When considering a permit extension, the office is required to consider new significant and adverse impacts of the project and consider a proponent’s compliance in the five years in which they’ve been operating, DiPuma told The Narwhal. 

“The EAO didn’t do either of those things properly,” she said. 

“We know there is a correlation between camps of workers, what are called ‘man camps,’ and violence against Indigenous girls and women and queer people,” DiPuma said, adding that the Calls to Action from the National Inquiry direct decision-makers “like the EAO to undertake an assessment of gender-based harms for these kinds of projects.” Similar calls to action are directed at industry. 

A canvas tent near the Coastal GasLink work camp 9A on Jan. 5. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Despite this, the Environmental Assessment Office did not properly conduct an assessment of risks to Indigenous women from the Coastal GasLink project when extending its permits, DiPuma said. 

“The EAO said Coastal GasLink would be prepared to consider doing so in the future. So, instead of creating a legally binding requirement for them to consider these harms, they took industry at its word that it would voluntarily do so at some point in the future.”

Coastal GasLink has also been found out of compliance with the conditions of its environmental certificate in more than 50 instances, according to the Environmental Assessment Office’s compliance program, including by restricting access to traplines and failing to adequately dispose of camp garbage.

Despite these many instances of non-compliance, the Environmental Assessment Office decided the company’s permit should be extended, DiPuma said.

“They haven’t explained to the public or my client why that should be.”

Coastal GasLink pipeline still lacks key environmental authorization in contested Wet’suwet’en territory

Red dresses sentinel as RCMP raid looms

The Unist’ot’en healing centre currently houses the remaining Wet’suwet’en members and supporters facing arrest by the RCMP.

The $2 million Unist’ot’en healing centre, which has received $400,000 from B.C.’s First Nations Health Authority to run land-based trauma and addictions treatment programs, is designed to provide services to vulnerable individuals, including youth in trauma treatment programs. 

Tait said the red dresses hanging around the centre — some of which bear the initials of women people in the camp have lost — will act as a confrontation to the RCMP officers performing arrests. 

“It’s a chance for the RCMP to confront those women, in a way, and be held to account on their failure to protect their safety,” Tait said.

But, she added, it’s also an opportunity for these lost and voiceless women to stand in solidarity with their community and family.

A red dress, signifying missing and murdered Indigenous women, hangs on the bridge to Unist’ot’en camp. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

“We have a line of red dresses across the bridge because we think it’s a very powerful statement and it’s an invitation to the spirits of those women to come and stand and face the RCMP who are failing to seek justice on their behalf, who failed to protect their safety by being complicit in this epidemic that our communities are facing.”

Tait, who faces imminent arrest herself, said she believes women have a particular responsibility to protect Wet’suwet’en territory. 

“We are a matrilineal culture, so our women are our strength. The women make the decisions about the land, because we know our children depend on the land, they inherit our territory after we’re gone and that’s all through the mother’s line. So it really feels like it’s a deep responsibility for us as women to make sure there’s territory intact, there’s a safer future for our children that are coming and that these lands will remain here and remain a sanctuary for our people.”

Freda Huson, right, looks at pictures of the early morning arrests at the 39-kilometre camp, with her sister Brenda Michell, left, and niece, Karla Tait, centre, at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre on Thursday Feb. 6. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The Wet’suwet’en application for a judicial review was served to Kevin Jardine, associate deputy minister of the environment and the executive director of the Environmental Assessment Office, as well as Coastal GasLink. 

DiPuma said her office has yet to hear back from the substantive parties. 

“They’ve got some time to consider their position on this. It’s up to them to determine if they reconsider the permit or if they want to go to court.”

With files from Amber Bracken.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.