Amid push for ‘nation-building projects,’ critics warn of ecological devastation [video]

Every four days, a mining company in Quebec declares an accident, according to Université de Moncton philosophy professor Alain Deneault.

Here in New Brunswick, Deneault warned that major projects like the Sisson mine — a proposed open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine that would be located on the upper Nashwaak River watershed north of Fredericton — could also be marred by mishaps.

“We could start to see this many accidents in New Brunswick if the Sisson mine is approved,” he told a crowd of several dozen people at St. Thomas University last week. “This could very potentially injure or kill people.”

He was speaking alongside Rodrigue Turgeon, a lawyer who works for the Ottawa-based industry watchdog group MiningWatch Canada, at an event titled “‘Mine, baby, mine.’ But, can we mine our way out of our crises?”

That title referenced a comment by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew earlier this year, when the NDP leader said that “mine, baby, mine” should be the provincial motto, as he signalled that his NDP government would weaken its regulations on the industry.

Deneault and Turgeon offered a critical take on the sector at a time when federal and provincial governments are pushing ahead with major resource extraction projects as a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

That includes the Sisson mine, which Ottawa has referred to its Major Projects Office, an agency created by the federal government last year to advance “nation-building projects.” The Sisson project was also featured at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto last month.

The company behind the Sisson mine has received more than $20 million in financial backing from the Pentagon for a recently completed feasibility study.

Andrew Ing, CEO of Northcliff Resources, has said “there will be no shortcuts” on meeting the 40 environmental conditions attached to the project by the provincial government in 2015, according to a CBC report.

But that kind of assurance has provided little comfort to opponents of the project, who fear that a breach of its massive tailings dam will destroy the Nashwaak River, a tributary of the Wolastoq (Saint John) River.

At the event in Fredericton on Sept. 24, the Stop Sisson Mine Coalition distributed literature and gathered signatures for a petition against the open-pit mine.

The discussion, which was live streamed by the NB Media Co-op, highlighted concerns about environmental destruction associated with industry practices more generally.

Turgeon stressed that once mining has occurred, it’s “impossible to get [the land and water] back to the initial state,” and that substances such as heavy metals introduced into the environment through mining harm people through the consumption of contaminated fish and water, for example.

In particular, he pointed to the gold mining industry, which he said produces one million tonnes of waste for every tonne of the precious metal.

“But the waste is not just like plastic bags, it’s rocks,” he said. “You have to put that in a truck…, treat it and crush it, so you’re gonna need tonnes of energy, most of it is fossil fuels, regardless how many electric cars they are telling you they use to take their workers from one location to another.”

Themes of the talk also included the historical development of the Canadian mining sector, which Deneault described as a “legal haven” for mining companies internationally.

Deneault’s writing has attracted lawsuits that critics have described as SLAPP suits meant to intimidate or censor him.

For example, he co-authored the 2008 book Canada Noir: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, which was withdrawn from publication as part of a settlement with the Toronto-based Barrick Mining Corporation — then known as Barrick Gold — which sued the authors and publisher Écosociété for libel.

At the time, the authors said the book deserved to be published but that they settled with the company to end a process which they described as an “unbearable straightjacket.”

The event was hosted by Contesting Energy Discourses through Action Research (CEDAR), the Sustainability Learning Lab and partners at St. Thomas University, the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development (CRED NB), the Wolastoq Grand Council, the Stop Sisson Mine Coalition, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Socialist Project Fredericton, le Conseil de la paix/NB Peace Council, the NB Media Co-op and MiningWatch Canada.

Emma Benjamin contributed to this report. Chris Thompson and Emma Bowser assisted with camera work. Editing and production by David Gordon Koch, staff reporter for the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.