José Tendetza should have been in Lima, Peru last week at the climate change talks as one of the powerful Indigenous voices speaking about the destruction that the mining and energy agenda of countries like Canada is bringing upon his and many other communities in the Global South.

José Tendetza...

In August, I was invited to travel to Marinduque Island in the Philippines to meet with civil society organizations, municipal elected officials, and the elected Provincial Board. The topic on people’s minds was a long-running lawsuit pitting the Provincial Board against Canadian mining giant...

[This review was originally published in Political and Legal Anthropology Review: Volume 37, Issue 2: November 2014]

Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea, by Alex Golub (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014)

Alex Golub’s ethnography is...

The following letter has been sent to authorities to demand a response from the Mexican and Canadian authorities to ensure justice for his death. This video is from a vigil in front of the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City mere days after the Mariano's November 27, 2009 murder, held by the Mexican...

(Ottawa) New evidence is emerging that Barrick Gold’s dealings with victims of violence by mine security and police at mine sites in Papua New Guinea and in Tanzania is primarily designed to protect the company from legal action, rather than to provide fair remedy for women who have been raped and...

Blog: The Inter American Human Rights Commission – an independent office of the Organization of American States – has added its voice to a growing list of human rights bodies calling on Canada to prevent mining abuses and hold Canadian companies and state agencies responsible to account.

“Despite Canada’s assurances that there is good policy, we continue at the commission to see a number of very, very serious human rights violations occurring in the region,” said Commissioner Rose-Marie Antoine for the Inter American Human Rights Commission (IACHR) in Washington this week.

Alluding...

Presentation: Through its acts and omissions, the Canadian government plays a central role in enabling Canadian mining companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as tolerating and contributing to the systematic rights violations taking place.

[Update: As of November 6, 2014, the Government of the Northwest Territories accepted Dominion Diamonds' financial assurance for the Ekati mine. However, it came in the form of surety bonds - not, as is required in many jurisdictions, an irrevocable letter of credit - and therefore may not provide...

As we wait for the conclusion of the technical review and criminal investigations, information revealed by various media investigations and disclosures by the BC government show that there were a number of warnings and red flags raised about the Mount Polley mine's tailings impoundment in recent...

Mr. Kevin McArthur, the CEO of Tahoe Resources who came out of retirement after leaving Goldcorp in 2008 to develop the Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala, has been summoned by a District Attorney’s office in Guatemala. He has been called to testify about the company’s tactics to put down...

It has been two months since the massive tailings spill occurred at the Mount Polley mine in the interior of British Columbia and we are all still trying to understand what its impact will be and how the mess will get cleaned up. This post provides an update on the spill, what is known about the...

On August 4, approximately 10 billion litres of wastewater and 5 billion litres of solid tailings waste escaped the impoundment at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine in the interior of British Columbia. The creek that received the brunt of the flow was completely obliterated, some of the waste...

On July 17 MiningWatch received a response from mining company HudBay to our July 10, 2014, news release and brief: Canadian Mining Watchdog Warns Arizonans of HudBay Minerals’ Poor Track Record on Pollution and Human Rights.

In its letter (available here) HudBay provides additional contextual...

Last week the Minister of the Environment, Leona Aglukkaq bent to the desire of BC to go it alone on the environmental assessment of another major resource development project – in this case, the proposed Ruddock Creek Lead and Zinc Mine.

Late last week the Supreme Court of Canada released another important Aboriginal rights decision regarding the Grassy Narrows case. Like the Tsilhqot'in decision a few weeks back the Grassy case was prompted by the threats and impacts of extensive commercial logging on traditional indigenous...