by PATRICK LEJTENYI

It’s been a long fight, but there’s still no clear winner. On one side, a large and vocal number of the residents of Oka village and the Kanesetake native reserve, some 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal. On the other, Niocan, a Montreal-based mining company looking to exploit rich deposits of niobium, a rare metal used as a steel alloy.

Since the project was announced in 1997, critics of the Niocan mine, which is still in the planning and approval stages, have feared that any digging will unleash high amounts of radon, a radioactive gas, into the soil and water, including the nearby Lake of Two Mountains. For a community based on agriculture, they say, this would be disastrous. Niocan, however, has repeatedly stated their project is safe and will benefit the community though jobs, infrastructure improvements and additional commerce.

Niocan seems to have gained the upper hand, at least temporarily. Last week, the provincial Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) presented a 130-page report to say that the effects of radiation released through mining the deposits would be negligible—to humans. There was no discussion as to the effects on wildlife, agriculture or the water-table.

“I think the BAPE ruling doesn’t do justice to the people of this region,” says Kanesetake band council member Chief Steve Bonspille. “It’s based on Niocan data that’s not too reliable.” Bonspille, responsible for the health and environment portfolios, acknowledges that the findings by no means gives the company the go-ahead to start digging, but fears that the report is a harbinger of rubber-stamping to come.

“I didn’t expect the BAPE to come out with anything damaging toward Niocan,” Bonspille says. “We never even had a chance to cross-examine Niocan’s information.”

Another Niocan foe is André Chaput, who leads the local No committee. He feels that while the report does initially favour Niocan’s assertions, its narrow scope means the battle is far from over. “Lots more studies need to be done,” he says. “Even [BAPE commission president Joseph] Zayed, who presented it, said it is only a partial report.”

A BAPE communications agent directed the Mirror to the body’s Web site, where the report is available in PDF format. In the report’s covering letter to provincial environment minister André Boisclair, BAPE president André Harvey writes that while Oka residents already have to deal with naturally high radiation levels from uranium and thorium in the ground, their worries about additional danger from radon are unfounded. The report does say that streams receiving the mine’s run-off will have higher radioactive levels, but would be within provincial norms—which are far higher than acceptable levels in the United States. He recommends the creation of a “vigilance committee” to monitor radiation levels and allay residents’ fears.

“No one is living up to their responsibilities,” Bonspille says. “Zayed made radon gas sound like some kind of fairy tale.”

He hints that if the government doesn’t stop the mine, residents won’t roll over. “The only thing the government seems to understand is resistance and civil disobedience,” he says. “The residents here will stop the plan physically if they have to.” :