More than ten years have passed since Canada’s worst environmental disaster. In August 2014, a mining company’s tailings dam failed, spilling toxic sludge into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, Experts commissioned by the BC government said the 40-metre dam was poorly designed. Unstable ground underneath the dam caused it to shift and shear, a result BC Hydro hopes will not occur at its precarious Site C.
BC taxpayers paid $40 million in cleanup costs. Amnesty International said the Mount Polley disaster raised serious questions about the province`s ability to protect British Columbians’ economic, social, cultural, Indigenous and universal human rights.
In 2017, the organization recommended:
- Appropriate charges where there is evidence of wrongdoing.
- A public inquiry into BC’s mining regulatory regime.
- Release of the findings of several impact studies that were conducted at public expense, as well as the findings of the Conservation Officer Service’s investigation into possible breaches of the law.
- Protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples with respect to resource development;
- Examination of regulatory capture and over-reliance on company testing to avoid conflicts of interest
- Implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendation for the creation of an independent compliance and enforcement office..
Finally, as 2024 draws to a close:
In the wake of the disaster, the B.C. government pledged to enhance oversight of the mining industry, including launching a robust inspection and audit process for the sector. But critics and community members say B.C. has yet to deliver the world-leading standards the government promised to implement.
Dozens of tailings dams like the one that failed at Mount Polley still dot the province, and little has been done to change the way the companies that own them store their mine waste, according to MiningWatch Canada co-founder Jamie Kneen.
More than six years ago, I wrote about unequal treatment before the law. It suggested the close connection between bagman Murray Edwards and Christy Clark’s Liberal Government kept charges from being laid.
What was stern treatment of billionaire Murray Edwards’ company Imperial Metals? Remember, the controlling shareholder of Mount Polley was also a BC Liberal bagman of epic proportions.
Three years after the tailings dam breach, BC Conservation service announced it would lay no charges against Imperial Metals.
Bev Sellars, acting chief of the Xat’sull First Nation, laid a private information on the last day permitted by provincial law. Months later, BC Attorney General David Eby’s officials dismissed the charge before it could go to court.
Federal charges against Imperial Metals remain possible but, given that we’re now in the fifth year since the disaster, they would be quickly thrown out under the Supreme Court of Canada rule that trials must occur within a reasonable time. The high court had expressed concern about “culture of delay and complacency” in bringing cases to trial
In the end, one of Canada’s worst environmental disaster will be associated with zero penalties imposed by courts.
The federal and provincial governments have finally allowed charges to go forward. However, Section 11 of Canada’s Constitution Act says “Any person charged with an offence has the right… to be tried within a reasonable time...”
Even if the charges are not dismissed, expect any punishment to be no more than a slap on a billionaire’s wrist,.
Categories: Mount Polley
in-sights.ca 
Even if the charges are not dismissed, expect any punishment to be no more than a slap on a billionaire’s wrist.
We all hope those wrists don’t get slapped too hard.
Might leave a bruise.
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I’m not sure that in this case it is the courts that are slow. Difficult to rule on something that has not been put before them.
It is difficult at best to get the bureaucracy in a single government department organized and motivated toward the timely and efficient execution of a task. To get multiple departments from different levels of government all working in unison, especially when there is no clear direction and sense of priority established by leadership, could take…TEN YEARS?
The Ministers of Environment on supposed duty throughout this shameful saga (provincially and federally), all who should have been raising hell over the foot-dragging, should hang their heads in shame.
I note that the date this mess was submitted to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the British Columbia Prosecution Service for charge assessment is obscured through the use of the term “previously”. The butt protecting never ceases.
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