Mining opponents demonstrate as Brokenhead Ojibway Nation votes on Sio Silica partnership

ManitobaAbout 50 members of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and their supporters gathered alongside Manitoba’s Highway 59 on Friday morning to demonstrate against a band referendum on a prospective partnership with sand mining company Sio Silica.1 day of in-person voting in referendum that coincides with Treaty DaysBartley Kives · CBC News · Posted: Aug 08, 2025 2:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoAbout 50 Brokenhead Ojibway Nation members and supporters demonstrated on Friday against a band referendum on a prospective partnership with the mining company Sio Silica. (Bartley Kives/CBC)About 50 members of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and their supporters gathered alongside Manitoba’s Highway 59 on Friday morning to demonstrate against a band referendum on a prospective partnership with sand mining company Sio Silica.Band members are voting at the Private Thomas Chief Memorial Centre on Friday to approve or disapprove an offer by the Alberta mining company to share five per cent of the profits from its proposal to drill thousands of wells in southeastern Manitoba — outside Brokenhead’s reserve lands — for silica sand.Sio Silica has previously said the band is being consulted because it is the closest First Nation to the wells the company intends to drill across a broad swath of land in the province.The company estimates the band eventually could receive up to $20 million a year from the deal, if the province grants Sio Silica an environmental licence.Manitoba’s NDP government denied an initial licence application in 2024, citing uncertainty about the effect of sand mining on the quality of a drinking-water aquifer as well as concerns about potential collapses underground.Band members have been able to vote online in the referendum since Aug. 1. Friday was the only day where in-person voting took place — in the same hall where band members could obtain treaty payments and attend a health exposition during Treaty Days, the community’s annual gathering.Brokenhead resident Taylor Galvin, a Sio Silica opponent who organized Friday’s demonstration, took issue with the short notice for the referendum and the fact it’s taking place during Treaty Days.”They sent out ballots on a Friday afternoon on a long weekend. They’re forcing us to vote in something so detrimental during a time of celebration,” Galvin said in an address.