The RAVEN community has been with the Tŝilhqot'in practically since RAVEN was founded in 2009. We’ve produced a film chronicling the struggle – Blue Gold:The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Teztan Biny – and screened it at fundraisers and online to raise funds and awareness.

We’ve organized numerous courthouse rallies, including an epic cross-country journey that brought Tŝilhqot'in chiefs and elders to Ottawa to attend court hearings. Our Foundation partners have included major donors like Donner Canadian Foundation, Fitzhenry Family Foundation, Wilburforce Foundation and Global Greengrants. More than 1200 individuals donated funds to raise over a million dollars to secure this massive victory for Indigenous rights, clean water and the protection of sacred land. 

For years, despite having the only proven Aboriginal Title in British Columbia, the Tŝilhqot'in found  themselves embroiled in ongoing court disputes to protect their sacred lands from Taseko’s proposed Prosperity and then New Prosperity mine. The mine would have had disastrous impacts on the environment and Tŝilhqot'in culture and rights. On May 14, 2020, The Tŝilhqot'in Nation was finally able to declare the mining project is dead, celebrating the Supreme Court of Canada decision to deny Taseko Mines Limited’s application to appeal the rejection of the mine proposal by the federal government in 2014. 

Meanwhile, however, Taseko has obtained provincial permits to conduct an extensive program of exploratory drilling at Teztan Biny and the surrounding area that would cause significant and irreparable damage. The Tŝilhqot'in have launched a legal action against Taseko and B.C. for infringement of Aboriginal rights. The case is expected to be heard in 2022. If successful, this legal challenge will quash (void) the permits, affirm Tŝilhqot'in Aboriginal rights in the Teztan Biny area, and become a strong deterrent to any future mining company that ventures to pursue projects in Tŝilhqot’in territory without Tŝilhqot’in consent.

Good question! The company is making use of a legal loophole caused by the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces. The federal government has the power to conduct environmental reviews and approve or reject mining projects of sufficient size and scope to trigger a federal review. However, mineral leases and mineral exploration are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces.

Taseko has mineral leases on Tŝilhqot'in territory that are valid until 2035, and the company obtained its 2017 exploration permits under  B.C.’s Mines Act and the Mineral Tenure Act. Even though Taseko’s comprehensive exploratory drilling program involves drilling 122 exploratory holes and excavating 367 test pits, provincial legislation does not require environmental assessment for mineral exploration.

Taseko previously conducted an exploratory drilling program at Teztan Biny and Nabaŝ (the surrounding area) in 2012, which left the landscape covered with the debris of timber harvesting and the imprints of industrial heavy equipment. Taseko’s new proposed drilling program, which is the subject of Tŝilhqot'in’s current legal challenge, would be much more extensive. It would involve drilling 122 exploratory holes and excavating 367 test pits. The company would build 76 kilometres of roads and trails, 20 kilometres of seismic lines and a 50-person work camp.

The New Prosperity mine was rejected in 2014 based on environmental and cultural impacts.  The independent federal panel of experts concluded in 2013 that New Prosperity would have significant and immitigable impacts on water quality, fisheries and Tŝilhqot'in cultural heritage, rights and traditional practices. The panel’s report also noted that Taseko Mines was unable to even meet “proof of concept” for its unprecedented, unproven, entire-lake recirculation proposal and that Teztan Biny would be contaminated over time, despite mitigation efforts.

Based on the review panel’s findings, the federal Cabinet rejected the New Prosperity proposal in 2014. This rejection was subsequently affirmed by various levels of the judiciary, including a Judicial Review, the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada, which declined in 2020 to hear any further appeals from Taseko Mines.

If successful, the Tŝilhqot'in action for infringement of Aboriginal rights will not only protect Teztan Biny and the surrounding area of Nabaŝ, but it will also create an important legal precedent. The Tŝilhqot'in already have court-affirmed Aboriginal rights to hunt and trap animals in that area, and are asking the court to also confirm their Aboriginal rights to fish. This should strengthen the Tŝilhqot'in’s ability to protect this area from intrusion, and become a strong deterrent to any future mining company that ventures to pursue projects in Tŝilhqot’in territory without Tŝilhqot’in consent.

The Tŝilhqot'in vision for the area is to create Dasiqox Tribal Park, a protected area that would be open for everyone to visit and enjoy. For this vision to come to fruition, all potential mining projects must be stopped in court. This is the dream which has been propelling the Tŝilhqot'in’s legal actions to protect their territory over the course of the past 12 years. 

In  a precedent-setting 2014 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that the Tŝilhqot'in Nation held Aboriginal title to almost 1,800 kilometres of land in central B.C., southwest of Williams Lake. This is the first decision in Canadian legal history that affirms the Aboriginal title of an Indigenous Nation. 

RAVEN was not involved in funding the legal work - running to several million dollars - that the Tŝilhqot'in and their legal team put in over a decade and which ultimately led to this ground-breaking decision.

All the funds raised for Tŝilhqot'in campaign go to Indigenous litigation. 85% of the funds raised go to Tŝilhqot'in to fund their legal challenge. RAVEN used to levy 15% as administrative costs to sustain our operations. However, as of 2021, the 15% levy is placed into our Discretionary Litigation Fund (see below). 

If a legal challenge is terminated, and the money raised exceeds the litigation expenses, we place the remaining funds into the Discretionary Litigation Fund. We use the money in the Discretionary Litigation Fund to add funds to any of our litigation campaigns that need extra funds for any reason (e.g. to respond to a Crown motion, or to commission additional expert reports).