Alaskan tribes take B.C. to court over northwest gold mine

A group of Indigenous tribes in Alaska has launched a legal challenge of a gold mine in northwest B.C., a project the group says threatens the Nass and Unuk rivers. 

Ecojustice, a Canadian environmental law charity, on behalf of a consortium of 15 Alaskan tribes called the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), has applied to B.C.'s Supreme Court for judicial review of the Environmental Assessment Office's decision that Seabridge Gold's KSM mine near Stewart, B.C., has been "substantially started."

Along with the SEITC, the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting the Skeena River, is named on the court petition.

A project's environmental assessment certificate (EAC) expires if it hasn't been substantially started before a specific deadline. KSM says its current EAC deadline is July 29, 2026, and if the certificate lapses, a new environmental assessment has to be completed using current information and laws. 

According to the tribes, Seabridge's current EAC predates the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which establishes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a framework for reconciliation.

Article 26 of UNDRIP says Indigenous people have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned.

According to Seabridge, the KSM project is the "world's largest undeveloped gold project."

The company said it has spent $444 million on the construction of components described in its EAC and submitted letters from representatives of the three largest Indigenous groups in the area supporting the substantial start determination.

The Alaskan tribes worry tailings waste would make it into the Unuk and Nass rivers. 

"The Unuk River is our lifeline," SEITC assistant executive director Lee Wagner said in a media release. "The fish and wildlife it supports are the reason our people have thrived here since time immemorial. Stewarding the Unuk is our inherent right, passed down from our grandmothers from generations and generations ago." 

The province's Environmental Assessment Office told CBC News it would not comment on the situation because the matter is before the courts.

Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha First Nation judicial review

This latest filing comes after the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha (TSKLH) Nation, a small First Nation in northwestern B.C., filed for judicial review about 10 days ago. 

TSKLH Chief Darlene Simpson told CBC News in September that both the province and the company involved, Seabridge Gold, failed to complete proper consultation with the nation before building and operating a gold mine on its territory. 

Simpson said the province and the company have been accommodating the larger Tahltan and Nisga'a nations, which both have "significant agreements" with Seabridge.

"They're not respecting the Skii km Lax Ha First Nation at all," she said. 

Simpson worries her people will have to deal with the environmental impact of the mine for generations.

She added that the First Nation isn't necessarily opposed to development, but said her people want to be considered.

Seabridge Gold told CBC News in September that TSKLH declined repeated invitations to participate in the review process. On Friday, the company said it has "prioritized meaningful engagement with Alaskan stakeholders, including regulators, tribal groups, and the public, to understand and address their concerns."

"TSKLH may not agree with the ultimate 'substantially started' determination, but Seabridge is confident that there is ample evidence that the determination was reasonable," Seabridge chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said in a media release.  

Indigenous land situations complicated in B.C.: anthropologist

What these Indigenous groups are experiencing is not unusual, University of British Columbia anthropologist Bruce Granville Miller says, and many other Indigenous groups across B.C. and Canada are facing — or will be faced with — something similar. 

"We're so early in this historic process of reestablishing the relationship of First Nations to Canada and to British Columbia and other Indigenous groups," he said.

Miller, who has worked with First Nations since the 70s, said there's an added level of complication in B.C., where treaties have, for the most part, not been established, though he couldn't speak to the issues faced by Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha and SEITC specifically.

Treaties are agreements made between Indigenous groups, the federal government and often provinces and territories that define rights — including rights around land.

"All the territories have to be case by case determining the nature of rights and titles appending to First Nations and Indigenous peoples," he said. "It's really complicated here in our province."