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Drumming and singing from outside the courthouse could be heard from inside the courtroom on the fifth floor where the parties battled over the matter.

Taseko holds a permit from the Ministry of Energy and Mines that allows a program of geotechnical drilling in the area in question, some 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake. The Tsilhqot’in recently lost a challenge to that permit in B.C. Supreme Court and the decision was upheld in the Court of Appeal. After the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case, Taseko planned to start work in the area.

In the early morning of July 2, Taseko crew members were stopped by a group of people on Highway 20 and asked to turn around, said Mark Oulton, a lawyer for Taseko.

“To everyone’s credit, all of the instances were very peaceful and respectful, but the long and short of it is, Taseko’s crews were not able to pass,” Oulton said.

A day before Taseko’s crews were turned away, Tsilhqot’in had stated it planned to assemble for peaceful action and protect the area, according to Taseko.

Francis Laceese, the chief of the Tl’esqox First Nation, was in Vancouver for the hearing. He said the Tsilhqot’in members were fighting the company to preserve their territory and pristine waters.

“We still hunt, we still gather and we still fish. That’s our lifestyle. Always has been for hundreds of years. So that’s what we want to maintain for our future generations,” Laceese said.

Taseko is seeking an injunction that would restrain the named defendants, who include the Tsilhqot’in National Government, chiefs Joe Alphonse and Russell Myers Ross and “persons unknown,” among others, “from physically preventing, impeding, restricting or in any way physically interfering with … ” the workers, according to court documents. In the alternative, it’s seeking damages and costs.