Letter

Dear Honorable George Haymen, MLA 

We’re Alysa and Christy and we go to Riverside Secondary School in Port Coquitlam. Thank you for trying to consider the environment while improving BC’s economy through the metals we obtain from mining. However, as we write our letter to you, we feel like there are some amendable flaws in our current systems and attitude towards mining safety. In BC, we have rich minerals that can be mined from the ground, and we understand that it is an industry that generates a lot of revenue for the province, but we also wanted to remind you that we have many respected communities of Indigenous peoples too who have been using the land long before us. We wonder if you’re putting enough thought into their needs and if you know the answer to some questions regarding Indigenous communities. How does mining affect indigenous people’s cultures? How does mining affect Indigenous people’s health? We should acknowledge the bond Indigenous people have with the environment and ask why we put that connection at risk for the sake of money? There’s also health issues Indigenous people face that should be fixed regarding mining. We’ve been able to grow up without having to boil our tap water and without having to breathe polluted air or be threatened by any health issues as a result of government projects. If we don’t have to go through that, why are many Indigenous children put through it? Nobody, much less people who have been here first and have suffered enough, should live in lesser conditions compared to everyone else. That leads us to our last question, what are we doing to protect indigenous communities from mine contamination and how can we improve on it to ensure Indigenous people are put on the same standard as every other Canadian? 

Thank you for taking the time to consider this very important issue and we hope we will see your answer to our questions in new policies and regulations protecting Indigenous communities. 

Sincerely, 

Alysa and Christy 

Riverside Secondary School 

1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?

I started with a main question of ‘how does mine contamination in BC affect Indigenous communities?’ and delved into sub questions about the effect mining has on Indigenous people’s health and culture, as well as why BC still continues with mining projects and what they can do about it. These guiding questions helped me create an informing sway about mine contamination in BC.

2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

I used multiple digital tools like Google, Gale Engage, Citation Machine, and Google Images. Gale Engage and Citation Machines were new to me and I was interested in trying them out to help make my project better. I found that Gale Engage had a lot of information that was useful and I didn’t have to comb through so many sites to find the information I needed. Despite this, I found that I couldn’t get as specific in my subtopics like how mining affects Indigenous people’s health in BC with Gale Engage so I decided to use a combination of Gale and Google learn as much about my issue as I could. Citation Machines made citing my sources much quicker than I thought it would be, making it a site I definitely will use in the future, and it was good to use Google Images again and not having to worry about copyright.

3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?

I researched my questions by entering key words into Gale and Google to find articles about the effect mines have on Indigenous people. I verified the information that appeared by checking the date and author as well as reading through the article and checking the website itself to see if it was trustworthy. One article I found had information that would help support my ideas but it stated that the work hadn’t been peer edited yet and I knew it likely wasn’t trustworthy enough to use in my project. After paraphrasing the information, I copied the link into a citation machine and added it to my sources slide.

4) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

I think that the process of completing this challenge went well as I was able to divide up the work with my partner and work successfully with her. I collected a lot of information about mine contamination and learned much about how dangerous mining can be for Indigenous people and how they’re often treated second class. I think that we could have used a more variety of sites to gather information since it would have given us more information and made our project stronger. Using more websites like Curio would also help me get used to them in case I have to use them for another project in the future.