Doctors have strange way of taking a stand on Ajax

What a strange and mysterious path leads us to the Ajax mine.

We have 60 alleged doctors who have strong opinions on the project, but not strong enough to let the public know their names.

“Kamloops citizens deserve the most rigorous investigation about the particulate emissions, and what trace minerals toxic or otherwise may be contained within them, to assess the potential effect on our air shed quality,” states an excerpt from the “letter from Kamloops physicians and surgeons.”

These concerned but unnamed medical practitioners conclude  by asking for an independent panel review of the project.

Such words from this league of extraordinarily secretive physicians and surgeons deserve to be taken about as seriously as any other anonymous blog comment but KGHM Ajax responded with not one, but two, letters to the editor.

Well, the letters were identical, but sent at separate times above different signatures.

The first came from John Froese, community relations coordinator, the man charged with looking after the project’s public-relations interests on the ground in Kamloops.

Froese rightfully questioned the cloak-and-dagger approach by the 60 covert objectors, then went on to challenge some of their information and invite them to “become engaged in the comprehensive environmental review process.”

He emailed the letter to us Saturday, Dec. 10. When it didn’t appear in the Monday edition, he phoned in the morning to check on its status. So I stopped in at the KGHM Ajax office across the street to assure him it would be in the next day, but he was out for lunch.

This was followed in the evening with receipt of another copy of the letter, this time above the name of Jim Whittaker, project manager who resides in Vancouver.

But wait, as they say in the commercials, there’s more. By the end of the week, Froese was no longer with Ajax, having resigned.

I haven’t made contact with him but a spokesperson said yesterday it’s expected he’ll be replaced sometime around the middle of January.

All this was preceded, of course, by the mission to Ottawa by our mayor and MP, both (as noted here previously) late converts to the idea of a federal panel review instead of relying on the comprehensive environmental review thing.

Meanwhile, Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake, doubling as B.C.’s environment minister, assures us of his neutrality but sees no reason for a federal panel review.

Kamloops-South MLA Kevin Krueger, no longer fettered by the subtle diplomacies of cabinetry, is less reluctant to express opinions on Ajax.

Which brings us to the embarrassment of the Kamloops and District Labour Council over which side to take. Krueger thinks the labour council should keep its nose out of it until all the studies are in, accusing them of “jumping in before doing their due diligence.”

In case you are wondering what kind of due diligence Krueger himself is doing, or which side of the fence he’s on, I harken you back to this space last July 26, in which we discussed a letter from Krueger’s assistant Joel Neustaeter, who pointed out to a constituent that “God hid them (minerals) where he put them, and once people have invested the risk capital to find and claim the needle in the haystack, they have the moral and legal right to determine whether those minerals can be safely and economically drawn from the subsurface.”

Due diligence indeed.