Update:
Protestors blocking the access road to Mount Polley Mine have left the area, Imperial Metals vice-president of corporate affairs Steve Robertson told the Tribune Thursday evening.
"The might shift made it to work Ok and the activists have left the site," Robertson said. "There was no interruption to the work at the mine."
Earlier update
A group of First Nations protestors are blocking vehicles from going in at the mine access road to Mount Polley Mine, confirmed Imperial Metals vice-president of corporate affairs Steve Robertson Thursday afternoon.
"I have received information vehicles are allowed to go out of the mine access road, but vehicles are being blocked from going in," Robertson said just after 4:30 p.m
Original story:
A group of Secwepemc land defenders and allies have set up a camp at the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine on the two-year anniversary of the tailings spill.
Kanahus Freedom Manuel, a member of the Secwepemc Women's Warrior Society, said in a press release that the community is exercising its sovereignty and taking direct action as the government of British Columbia recently issued a new operating permit to the mine.
“The province has no jurisdiction to be issuing permits to companies illegally operating on our Sovereign Territories without the free, prior, informed consent of the Secwepemc Tribal Peoples.”
United Steelworkers Local 1-425 president Paul French said the camp has not interrupted workers going in and out of the mine site.
"One of my workers phoned me at 8 a.m. to say he was just leaving from his shift," French said.
Manuel said the Mount Polley blockade is part of a resistance gathering, a series of events taking place at the site that are commemorating the anniversary of the spill.
The protestors arrived by bus from Vancouver and by vehicles from various other locations Wednesday evening and plan to leave Friday morning.