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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A social justice coalition is pleased with one Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board member's decision to remove himself from the Giant Mine portion of the board's work after employing a "very aggressive line of questioning" at the mine's public hearings last month.

Kevin O'Reilly, of Alternatives North - an environmental and social advocacy group that has been critical of the federal government's plan to freeze and store arsenic trioxide at the mine site indefinitely - was on the receiving end of questioning from board member John Curran on the final day of the hearings.

Curran asked what designating Yellowknife as "Dumpee McDump Park" or "arsenic land" would do to property values in the capital as well as questioning, for the second time during the hearings, about the membership and structure of Alternatives North.

"I'm just trying to understand what sort of clandestine organization this is, and whose interest it represents," said Curran on Sept. 14.

Earlier in the week, Curran, who was appointed to the board by John Duncan, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, last July and was Conservative hopeful Sandy Lee's NWT campaign director during last year's federal election, requested a list of members of the group, which O'Reilly prepared including details of the group's history in the Giant Mine environmental assessment.

Curran also questioned the Yellowknives Dene and the North Slave Metis Alliance on whether they "respect the wisdom and authority of this board."

"I think it would be fair enough to characterize it as a very aggressive line of questioning and we attempted to respond in a respective and helpful manner as best we could, but that didn't seem to satisfy Mr. Curran at the time," O'Reilly told Yellowknifer yesterday.

After a break in hearing proceedings on Sept. 14, Curran apologized for his "aggressive tone" and that it was not his intent to offend the parties present with his approach to the questions.

"The compressed agenda affected my ability to take my time with these questions and may have conveyed a certain aggressive tone; that was certainly not my intent ... On a personal level, I would like to apologize to Mr. O'Reilly if I offended him," said Curran.

Alternatives North accepted Curran's apology, said O'Reilly.

"I think at the end of the day, he did the right thing," he said.

Vern Christensen, executive director of the board, confirmed Curran removed himself from any further participation in the environmental assessment of the Giant Mine remediation project.

"I think he just reflected on the hearing and some of the discussion that occurred at the hearing and he thought perhaps he may have appeared, may have created an apprehension of bias. But it's something that he reflected on and decided to be excused from that particular file," said Christensen.

"It doesn't affect his other work with the board in any way."

Duncan appointed Curran to the board for a three-year term. Curran declined to comment when reached by phone last week.

The board will now deliberate over the next few months on the information provided during the Giant Mine Remediation Project public hearings before releasing its final report.

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