Amy Hamm: Leonardo DiCaprio is meddling in B.C. environmental politics again

Leonardo DiCaprio is meddling in B.C. politics again.

Hollywood actor and self-described environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio is elated that a B.C. mining project — one that could inject billions of dollars into the province’s economy — has been delayed by an Indigenous land title claim.

Only July 13, the actor posted a video on Instagram referencing a June 8 Supreme Court of B.C. decision which quashed the substantial start designation (SSD) for Seabridge Gold’s KSM project, as a “victory for Indigenous rights, lands and waters in British Columbia.”

In 2024, the mining project was designated as “substantially started,” a regulatory term that ultimately grants an environmental assessment certificate with no expiry date. Now, by order of the court, the province must consult with Tsetsaut Skii Km Lax Ha Nation over the project and reconsider the SSD entirely. It could set the KSM project — which has already been in the works since 2014 — back untold years.

It’s quite possible that DiCaprio (worth hundreds of millions of dollars) crafted his pompous message aboard some 25-million-dollar superyacht, which he is known to charter for his lavish annual summer vacations. Superyachts, in addition to their greenhouse gas emissions, degrade marine ecosystems and create noise pollution that disrupts the echolocation navigation of ocean wildlife, including dolphins and whales. (But hey, a 51-year-old man must keep those 25-year-old ladies impressed somehow!) A fascinating fact: in 2024, Oxfam estimated that enjoying a private jet and superyacht emits more pollution in a single week than one of the world’s poorest persons emit in their entire lifetime. That’s a bit awkward, for DiCaprio.

Nevertheless, the actor says he is concerned about mining waste in our beautiful province.

DiCaprio wrote in his Instagram post: “For years, the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha (TSKLH) Nation has been fighting to protect its territory from a proposed gold mine that would be among the largest in the world. On one side: a small Indigenous Nation. On the other: the government of British Columbia and billion-dollar mining company Seabridge Gold.

“Despite extensive historical evidence confirming that the area designated for the mine’s waste facilities lies within TSKLH territory, the province moved forward without properly consulting the Nation.

“So TSKLH took British Columbia to court. Now, after months of waiting, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled: the province breached its constitutional duty to appropriately consult the TSKLH Nation… The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation may be small, but it refused to be ignored. It stood up for its territory, culture, wildlife and future.

“Now, British Columbia must return to the consultation process and listen. The world will be watching.”

DiCaprio is almost certainly unaware that Premier Eby’s NDP government is perceived by many in this province as overly invested in Indigenous land claims, to the detriment of our private property rights and economic prosperity. Has he any clue that the NDP government oversaw the disastrous passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA)? Or that the NDP government talks out both sides of its mouth — claiming to promote energy, mineral and gas projects while behaving, in the courts and legislature, as though stagnation and delay are their real aims? Doubtful.

For their part, Eby’s government has been largely mum on the ruling, likely because it had placed the KSM mine on its “major projects list,” and referred to the mine as a “responsible” project that will “support thousands of high-paying jobs, while protecting our lands and waters.” Meanwhile, the Fraser Institute recently compellingly argued that “the NDP government’s own decision-making contradicts its stated aspiration to leverage the province’s abundant critical minerals opportunity and spur natural resource development…”

The KSM story is no David versus Goliath tale, as DiCaprio seems to think. His environmentalist virtue signalling about our province is both hypocritical and grossly clueless.

This is not the first time DiCaprio has found himself in the unenviable position of having to remove his entire foot from his mouth. Two years back, he was lambasted by Indigenous groups in B.C. for his flippant and erroneous commentary on the alleged environmental harms of the province’s salmon farms. At the time, the Kitasoo Xai’Xais First Nation issued a statement to say that DiCaprio’s uninformed and uninvited commentary could “directly threaten the rights, livelihood, and very fabric of First Nations communities” in B.C.

When not clumsily meddling in foreign affairs, DiCaprio is both an investor and brand ambassador for a Swiss watch company that uses lab-grown diamonds and recycled (versus newly mined) metals. That’s a nice little vanity project for a man of his calibre and wealth — he should stick to that and stay out of B.C. politics.

National Post