Amax Corporation to Face Canadian Challenge
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/official3187
- Date
- 1981 May 5
- Source
- Anglican News Service
- Type
- Press Release
- Text of motion
- Toronto, May 05, 1981 -- For immediate release
- Canadian church representatives and Native People will bring to New York, on Thursday, their struggle for a public inquiry into the actions of the Canadian subsidiary of a Connecticut-based multinational corporation.
- Amax of Canada has proposed to dump 100 million metric tonnes of tailings from its molybdenum mine, into coastal waters of British Columbia over 26 years. The amount of the tailings, and their toxicity, exceed by thousands of times the amount allowed by federal regulations in Canada. Permission to exceed Government standards was granted by a special Order-in-Council of the Federal Cabinet, without discussion on the floor of Parliament, or in any public inquiry. In addition, there was no prior consultation with the Nishga Tribal Council about the ecological or sociological impact of the action. The Nishga are the Native People of the area who depend on the waters for food and their livelihood.
- Several prominent environmental scientists have condemned the dumpings, and a political storm has resulted. In the face of this, the Federal Government has refused to rescind its Order, or to call a public inquiry.
- In response to this situation the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, its highest governing body, at its meetings in June last year, passed a strong resolution, ordering that "...the Primate, urge the Federal Government to withdraw its special order-in-council; that is, the 'Alice Arm Tailings Deposit Regulations, SOR 79-345,' permitting the Amax Corporation to dump its effluent into Alice Arm, and to declare a moratorium upon development of the resource until technology is developed to safely dispose of the tailings."
- This has resulted in public meetings, media coverage, a petition to the Federal Government, meetings between the Nishga, Church officials and Amax management, but no public inquiry.
- The Church at various levels has purchased 1,004 shares in Amax, and will appear at the Annual Meeting in New York on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to make intervention on behalf of its concerns and those of the Native People of the area, most of whom are Anglicans (Episcopalians).
- PLEASE NOTE
- The Nishga Tribal Council will hold a Media Conference on:
- Wednesday, May 6 at 10:00am
- at
- The New York Hilton Hotel Room 548
- 1335 Ave. of the Americas, at 53rd St.
- - 30 -
- For further information, please contact:
- Peter Hamel
- Edison Hotel
- New York, N.Y.
- (212) 246-5000
- or
- Richard J. Berryman
- Media Officer
- The Anglican Church of Canada
- 600 Jarvis St.
- Toronto, Ont. M4Y 2J6
- (416) 924-9192
- Subjects
- AMAX, Inc.
- Tailings (Metallurgy)
- Mines and mineral resources - Canada
- Mines and mineral resources - British Columbia
- Mines and mineral resources - Environmental aspects - Canada
- Ecology - British Columbia
- Ecology - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Pollution - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Corporate social responsibility - Canada
- Corporate social responsibility - Anglican Church of Canada
- Nisga'a
- Indigenous peoples - Canada - Anglican Church of Canada
- Indigenous peoples - Canada
- Indigenous peoples in conservation of natural resources - Canada