NEWSBYSUSANNAH KNOX

What would you do if you came home from work tomorrow and found a stranger prying up your floorboards? What if you called the police, only to find that the stranger had a legal right to be in your home and, giving you only a month’s warning, could start digging up your basement?

Some First Nations in British Columbia — like the Takla Lake First Nation — say that the Canadian province’s mining laws are analogous to this disturbing hypothetical situation. Right now, any individual mining entrepreneur with an internet connection, a credit card, and $25 can register a claim to minerals underneath First Nations’ lands in British Columbia. This system is the modern face of 19th-century “free entry” mining in Canada.

According to a report issued by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, the number of mining claims on Takla’s land has skyrocketed since online “free entry” registration came into effect in 2005. Furthermore, the government gives First Nations only 30 days to respond to proposals to commence exploration on these claims. Members of Takla worry that their close relationship with the land they have inhabited and used for centuries may be imperiled if claims turn into exploration sites and then producing mines.