Yes, it's not specifically mining-related, but MiningWatch is deeply concerned about corruption and illegal activity in the mining sector, and that means we are deeply concerned about Canada's role in facilitating corruption, including its apparent inability – or unwillingness – to investigate and...
Speaking Tour: Canada’s Deadly Diplomacy and Mining Justice in Mexico
More than eight years since the murder of Mariano Abarca, an outspoken community leader in Chiapas, Mexico, his son and a group of Mexican human rights defenders will visit Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto from February 5 to 9. Mariano led his community's struggle against the social and environmental...
Complete and Permanent Closure of Pascua Lama: The Power of Conviction and Persistence
On Wednesday, January 17, the Chilean Environmental Superintendence (SMA) ordered the permanent closure of Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama open pit gold mine project and imposed a fine of approximately $12 million on the company. The agency’s decision follows five years of investigation and a series of...
Take Action: National Security Bill Puts Land and Environment Protectors in Jeopardy
Join MiningWatch and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) to sign and share this online action to alert Members of Parliament to problems with the Liberal government’s National Security Act 2017, Bill C-59. Far beyond a threat to the privacy of Canadians, it puts land and...
Canada Must Stop Support to Honduras Regime following Botched Election
In the chaos following national elections in Honduras on November 26, Canadian authorities must take a strong public stand and forcibly denounce evidence of electoral fraud and violent repression of public protests. Across Honduras, tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating their...
Protect Jacko Lake and the Pípsell Cultural Area from Mining – Take Action Now!
The Stk’emlupsemc te Secwépemc Nation (SSN) in British Columbia is ramping up its #Me7ePipsellTa7aAjax (Yes Pípsell, No Ajax) campaign and is calling on the public, friends and allies to press the federal and provincial governments to respect SSN’s decision not to give its free, prior, informed...
Launch of OECD Watch ‘Remedy is the Reason’ Campaign
As a member of OECD Watch, MiningWatch and other member organisations have launched a campaign calling for the improved effectiveness of OECD National Contact Points (NCPs) so that NCPs can provide access to remedy for victims of business related human rights abuses.
NCPs were established as a...
Mining “Development and Progress” Spills Blood Once Again in Guerrero, Mexico: Two more deaths on the conscience of Prime Minister Trudeau
This is a statement by REMA, the Mexican Network of those Affected by Mining.
Victor and Marcelino Sahuanitla Peña were assassinated for fighting for the few, tattered labour rights that still exist in Mexico, rights that powerful and corrupt Canadian transnational corporations - among many...
Does the Canadian Government Have a Message for Mining-Affected Communities in Mexico?
Guest blog by Daniela Pastrana, Periodistas de a PIe Journalists Network, @danielapastrana
Translated from the original in Spanish by Christian Filip
This month, during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Mexico, multiple videos circulated showing Mexican women legislators acting like...
Response to Barrick Gold Subsidiary Acacia Mining on Alleged Excess Use of Force by Mine Security at the North Mara Gold Mine
MiningWatch Canada responds to a letter of September 21, 2017, from Barrick Gold’s subsidiary Acacia Mining, in regard to ongoing alleged excess use of force by mine security at the North Mara Gold Mine Ltd. in Tanzania, including another death of a villager allegedly shot by mine security on...
House Subcommittee Hearings on Mining in Latin America a Public Disservice
The committee hasn’t heard from people most directly affected by Canadian mining operations in the region.
The federal Liberals came into office promising to take action on human rights abuses associated with one of Canada’s largest and most controversial areas of foreign investment abroad...
Guatemalans Denounce Tahoe Resources’ Plan to “Pick Them Apart”
On October 11th, representatives from the departments of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa who have been participating the protest camp against Tahoe Resources’ Escobal silver mine since June held a press conference to denounce attempts to discredit and criminalize their movement, specifically recent...
This Week in Ottawa: Breaking the Silence - Mexican human rights defenders to testify about worsening crisis
From October 16 to 18, a delegation of nine Mexican human rights experts will be in Ottawa to shine a light on the acute human rights crisis in Mexico. The visit is taking place just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit to Mexico.
During their visit, the Mexican human rights...
Mexican Network of Mining Affected People Tries to Extract a Response from Trudeau
On the eve of Prime Minister Trudeau’s first official visit to Mexico, the Mexican Network of Mining Affected People (REMA by its initials in Spanish) has issued a communiqué to call on Prime Minister Trudeau to live up to his commitments and stop the devastation of Indigenous and campesino...
Tahoe Resources’ Social Licence in Guatemala Non-Existent, as Uncertainty Plagues Escobal Permits
On the heels of two months of lobbying in Washington D.C. and Ottawa seeking government intervention on its behalf, Tahoe Resources announced on September 10th that the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice had reinstated the operating licence for its Escobal project in southeastern Guatemala...
DNI Metals Digs Itself in Deeper in Madagascar
As we wrote in our September 12, 2017 news release, we have received a series of worrying allegations regarding DNI Metals Inc.’s Vohitsara graphite project in Madagascar, which are backed up by solid documentation. We had previously written to the company and got messages denying all the...