Obstacles challenge Daishowa opponents

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A coalition of Native and environment groups are running into legal roadblocks in their battle against the provincial government which they are accusing of pushing through construction of the Daishowa pulp mill without a green light from the public.

It's feared the $500 million bleached kraft mill, which will spew cancer-causing chemicals into the Peace River, will be operational before the public has a chance to consider its environmental impacts.

Indians band from northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories have teamed with the Friends of the North (FON) in a campaign of legal actions designed to halt construction until tests are done on the river.

But Little Red River Chief Johnsen Sewepagaham says his efforts to stop construction of the near-completed mill may be in vain because of hearing postphonements.

He accuses the Alberta government of attempting to influence the outcome of his lawsuit by having the mill up and running before the September hearing date.

"It's always been their strategy to get the mill going. Now it may be too hard (to stop it)," he says.

The band is calling on the Federal Environment Assessment Review Panel (EARP) to conduct studies of the Peace River which is already being effected by toxic effluent from other pulp mills downstream. Sewepagaham is going to court to get it done.

He hoped to have the case heard in early July, but a heavy court load pushed the hearing to the later date.

In May the province issued Daishowa operating licences despite pending federal lawsuits by Native and environmental groups.

Alberta Environment Minister Ralph Klein insisted he had no legal grounds to withhold the licences because mill developers have met all their requirements to begin production.

Pulp mill adversaries are demanding river tests be done similar to the ones that halted construction of the proposed Alberta-Pacific pulp mill.

FON, in conjunction with Dene Nation and the Metis Association of the Northwest Territories, have also filed lawsuits in federal court demanding environmental impact studies of the Peace River.

FON spokesman Randy Lawrence says their hearings have been postponed until October.

"We wanted to prove the operating license was invalid," he says.

"It's going to be more difficult once it gets going."