Mine protesters take their case to Columbia Street, with promise of more actions to come

By MICHELE YOUNG

Another day, another anti-Ajax protest.

Thursday afternoon drivers headed up Columbia Street hill this afternoon were met by a line of more than two dozen people from a variety of groups and ages holding up signs against the proposed gold and copper mine.

Most of the response was friendly waves and supportive honks.

Organizer Anne Neave said participants included Kamloops Area Preservation Association, the Network of Concerned Citizens, Kamloops Moms For Clean Air and Stop Ajax Mine.

Several members of those groups did a similar action on the Overlanders Bridge last week.

“We’re targeting the undecided and the uninformed,” said Neave.

“We’re not targeting people who are for it or against it.”

Gina Morris with Kamloops Moms For Clean Air was accompanied by her eight-year-old daughter, Georgia, who is afraid her family will have to move away if the proposed mine goes ahead.

Morris said she thinks those who are undecided are overwhelmed with the information and how to sift through it. That might be why some people are sitting on the fence, she added.

Ted Embury leaned on his Stop Ajax sign and waved as a steady stream of cars passed by.
His wife is originally from Flin Flon, Man., where a gold and copper mine has wiped out vegetation and cancer rates are high, he said.

Embury hoped the protest will change people’s minds against the Ajax.

Down the hill, Tricia Steenson was encouraged by the response from drivers.

“We hope to get attention, get them interested in the issues and get them reading,” she said.

Her advice to anyone seeking information about the mine is to check out KGHM’s tour, which she took, as well as the one offered by Kamloops environmentalist Tony Brumell. Steenson has been on both, and she also attended KGHM’s last public information sessions.

But she also went online and read what the Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment have to say on their web page.

Her husband initially dismissed concerns about the mine’s impact, telling her it used to operate as the old Afton mine and it wasn’t an issue.

His view changed after she took him on the tours.

“He got dragged around and now he’s more concerned than I am,” said Steenson, who has lived in her downtown Kamloops home for 33 years after growing up in the Lower Mainland and also working in the Kootenays.

“I picked this town to live in.”

The province’s environmental review process is looking at Ajax as though it was a remotely located mine, not one on the doorstep of a city the size of Kamloops, she said.

“And the huge hole is there is not a health-risk assessment. That’s a huge hole,” she said.
“I’m outraged we don’t have a City council that’s taking this on.”
Neave said more protests will be organized in the weeks and months to come.