Following the recent decision by a Canadian Joint Panel that rejected Northgate Minerals’ Kemess North Project, the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC) has discovered several racist and highly offensive comments made towards First Nations people from three different sources: on a Northgate investor website, from a recent editorial in the Northern Miner magazine, and in comments by Northgate Minerals CEO Ken Stowe at a Mining forum in Denver, Colorado.
The CSTC sent out a Press Release (pdf) today, providing the details:
1) On a forum within the Business Section of Yahoo, Northgate investors are quoted using hateful comments, some of them threatening the lives of First Nations. The first set of comments were made on November 29, 2006; and the second set at the beginning of September, 2007.
2) An editorial called ‘Northgate in Limbo’ published on October 1, 2007 in the Toronto-based Northern Miner, uses extremely offensive language. Here is an example from the editorial: Why exactly a government-funded environmental panel comprised of university educated professionals should blithely accept that stone-age-inducing, shamanistic values such as “water is sacred” should automatically trump the values of Western civilization and modern science, is unstated. Pity.” The full article can be found here
3) Finally Northgate CEO, Ken Stowe gave an offensive presentation at a mining conference in Denver, Colorado on September 25th, 2007. This presentation was after the joint panel announcement on the Kemess North proposal. Among a number of slanderous comments about First Nations Chiefs he is further quoted as saying sarcastically that “First Nations were quoted by the joint review panel that they speak to bears, so it’s pretty hard to talk science.” The presentation can be found here (skip registration)
Surprised by the inappropriate comments, CSTC Tribal Chief David Luggi is quoted in the Press Release, “I expect more from a CEO who claimed to respect and want to understand First Nations. These views need to be exposed for what they are, comments from an emotionally disturbed man. We want to inform the Canadian authorities, investors in this company, and other First Nations that may come into contact with this company in the future- such as those in Ontario that are being impacted by the Young-Davidson proposal that Northgate recently purchased.”
The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council further states that they will bring an official complaint “as we believe these comments are a hate crime under the Criminal Code of Canada.”
They are also seeking formal clarification from both the Mining Association of BC and the Association for Mineral Exploration, as Northgate is a member to both organizations.
Contact:
Tribal Chief David Luggi
Cell: 250 640 6622
Email: dluggi@cstc.bc.ca