Miners Ignore Authority ~ Injunction Sought
Last Friday this picture would have shown a thicket of mature trees obscuring the hills in the background. Today, despite a stop work order issued by the city last week, Slinky Mines saw fit to ignore Dawson’s authority and have proceeded with their plans to cut down the remaining forest anyway.
Consequently, Town Council held a special meeting at noon hour today where a motion was passed allowing the Chief Administrative Officer to pursue an injunction on behalf of the citizens of Dawson to put a stop to this nonsense.
Here’s the message sent out by the owners of Slinky Mines – “We can drive up from Whitehorse where we live, set up our equipment within Dawson’s boundaries and lay waste to the surroundings within our claim, despite legitimate concerns raised by neighbouring homeowners, despite advice from other placer miners to stop and desist and despite a stop work order issued by the Town.”
For me, this underscores the apparent arrogance and sense of entitlement that some people in the Yukon placer mining industry have. The notion that placer miners can trump anything in their path, even the law, must stop and will stop.
It should be noted that if this happened ten years ago there would have been no appetite to challenge this particular case. My how times have changed. Most Yukoners support the placer mining industry, including myself but not this bullying and blatant disregard for those that are hurt by it.
Let us hope that common sense will prevail, at long last.
