A First Nation chief in northwestern Ontario says political rhetoric about running roughshod over Indigenous consultation to fast-track mining and other extraction projects is emboldening an abusive approach to resource engagement.
Onigaming Chief Jeff Copenace says his community “fundamentally opposes” a proposed gold mine and warns that the development “will be opposed at any cost necessary including peaceful protest and direct action.”
In a March 22 email, Golden Rapture Mining president Richard Rivet sent an email to Onigaming First Nation leaders, informing them that Ontario officials would soon deliver the company’s “enviro-friendly exploration plan” for its Phillips Township Gold Property.
Copenace said a number of representatives from the junior mining company had reached out over the past month regarding exploration and development on the proposed 10-000-acre mine site, located between Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls.
If approved, the eight-site project would re-ignite mines that were exploited as long ago as the 1894 Lake of the Woods gold rush.
Preliminary exploration conducted in 2024 has exposed high-grade gold near the surface, and a potential for supply chain integration with the New Gold mine, which is 40 kilometres south. The development that Golden Rapture is proposing is upriver from the spring-fed lakes that connect Onigaming, and First Nations in Whitefish Bay, to Lake of the Woods — in a part of the province where there’s more water than land.
Copenace’s return letter the following day echoed the position he’d asserted to Golden Rapture director and former Anisininew Okimawin Grand Chief Michael Birch, only weeks prior: Onigaming had directed its chief and council to protect the water supply from mining development and to focus efforts on the First Nation’s state of emergency.
“I take it as a real insult, obviously,” Copenace said. “This is a gentleman who, I don’t think has any knowledge of the Onigaming community, whatsoever.”
Onigaming’s state of emergency over suicide and mental health has been ongoing since 2014.
“We are currently experiencing another death in our community, the 43rd death in 3.5 years,” Copenace wrote. “We are devastated as it is another death that is far too young. We are waiting to hear details of the funeral. As such, we simply do not have the capacity to engage in good faith in any way during our crisis.”
Copenace went on to say Onigaming has rejected all upstream exploration, and that the community will resist Golden Rapture’s plans.
He was shocked to see Rivet’s response.
“Hi Jeff, Maybe your Reserve is in such bad shape because you’re a terrible leader,” Rivet wrote.
Rivet included a quote from former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership,” then ends by writing, “You should resign and let real leaders take over.”
Rivet is a mining industry veteran from Edmonton and has served as the president of junior mining companies throughout northwestern Ontario for 25 years. He also founded the now-defunct Dreams Come Alive Children’s Charity.
“I take it as a real insult, obviously,” Copenace said. “This is a gentleman who, I don’t think has any knowledge of the Onigaming community, whatsoever.”
Rivet declined to comment for this story.
Copenace attributed Rivet’s attitude to the urgency some political leaders are applying to the trade war climate. In the case of Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford, his impatience with Ontario’s constitutional responsibility to consult and accommodate First Nations became a flavour of his victorious election campaign in February.
“It doesn’t help when Doug Ford and other political leaders express their frustration towards First Nations that we’re holding up Canadian prosperity, that we’re holding up Canadian productivity, that we’re in the way of the Canadian economy,” Copenace said.
“It hurts. It gives a license to individuals like Mr. Rivet to make whatever comments he likes. And there is a racism that it feels is entrenched in those comments. Ontario and Canada have prospered for 150 years-plus, at the deliberate cost of First Nations, and this is another example of that.”
Northwest regional manager for mines and energy, Neal Bennett, wrote to Copenace in an email, “The views of Mr. Rivet are certainly not shared by OPS [Ontario Public Service] staff.” The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse called Rivet’s comments “totally unacceptable” and believes he should apologize.
“Bullying should never be tolerated, particularly from a company trying to get into a First Nation,” she said in a written statement. “This person should also never speak to First Nations again if that’s how he wants to speak to leadership.”
Jon Thompson is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based in Thunder Bay. Contact him with tips and story ideas at editor@ricochet.media.
