Ajax is busy buying its way into Kamloops

Share this story

Tweet

others also read...

Kamloops This Week

• Ajax mine + Kamloops + 30 years
• Ajax is busy buying its way into Kamloops
• Ajax may scare away businesses from Kamloops

Editor:

Shortly after I started to attend this year’s Kamloops Film Festival — and I’ve never missed one in its 17 years — a friend pointed out to me KGHM is a sponsor of the festival.

That ended my attendance at this year’s festival and it’s also going to lead me to not see Western Canada Theatre’s Fiddler on the Roof — because Europe’s premier polluter is, apparently, sponsoring the play.

KGHM has further managed to buy its way, literally, into the ice at Interior Savings Centre.

How can the directors and creators of these cultural/athletic events accept these sponsorships from a company that cares only about buying its way into acceptance before it even has permission to spew earth-, air- and water-borne toxins into and onto the people of Kamloops?

Any company or organization accepting sponsorship from KGHM/Ajax has lost my support and is also risking the loss of business from thousands of other concerned Kamloops citizens — residents who rightly worry about their health if the copper and gold mine proposed for south of Aberdeen is approved.

This sponsorship spending spree is an attempt by KGHM to look like a caring, corporate community citizen by using “silencing money” to try to muffle and muzzle those who might oppose its proposed project.

Would somebody from an organization funded by KGHM feel free to speak out against the proposed mine?

I doubt it.

The doling out of, apparently, more than $100,000 to community organizations is also designed to give the impression KGHM is already here.

If it was an established company in Kamloops, I wouldn’t be saying any of this. But, KGHM is not an established company and we shouldn’t give the company the feeling it is accepted.

We will not be silenced.

Does anyone want a ticket to Fiddler on the Roof?

Bruce Stevens

Kamloops