Civil society groups are demanding that the government of Madagascar force Sherritt International's Ambatovy project to deliver on its promises of environmental safeguards, local jobs, and social responsibility by revising Malagsy mining and investment laws and regulations.
Ontario Government Misses Opportunity to Increase Revenues from Mining
With an overwhelming emphasis on reducing expenditures, this week's Ontario Budget misses an important opportunity to increase provincial revenues from the mining sector. When compared with other Canadian jurisdictions, Ontario has the lowest corporate tax rate for mining and recoups the lowest...
Federal Government Hides Behind Budget with Changes to Environmental Assessment
The Harper Government™ has made no secret of its plan for environmental protection, planning, and assessment; it’s a necessary complement to its economic strategy, which essentially consists of extracting as much wealth from the ground as quickly as possible, unencumbered by niceties like public...
Where Do the NDP Leadership Candidates Stand on Corporate Accountability?
In the latest edition of Embassy Magazine, NDP leadership candidates were asked to articulate their top foreign policy priorities. The positions were pretty similar; most included elements of climate change, fairer trade, and a less militarized approach to diplomacy. None included corporate...
Statement Regarding Quebec Court of Appeal Decision in Canadian Association Against Impunity v. Anvil Mining Limited
Our concern centres on the apparent denial of the possibility that the victims of the violence in Kilwa could seek redress from a Canadian company in Canadian courts, with the ancillary concern that transnational corporations, mining companies in particular, and Anvil Mining in specific, may be able...
Eroding Democracy: FTAs, Corporate Rights and Resource Extraction in the Americas
Manuel Pérez Rocha is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. He is also the Coordinator of Networking for Justice in Global Investment, and is a member of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC).
In February 2012, he spoke at Ottawa University on the...
No Habitat - No Fish / No Protection - No Habitat
Blog post: An internal government memo leaked to fisheries biologist Otto Langer suggests that the Federal government plans on removing a crucial provision of the Fisheries Act – one of Canada’s most important environmental laws.
Mexico and Canada uphold impunity in Blackfire case
Communiqué: The Mexican Network of Mine Affected Communities – Chiapas echoes calls for an end to impunity in the case of Blackfire Exploration and for greater responsiveness from both Canadian and Chiapas authorities to requests for further information.
Peruvians Oppose CIDA’s Joint CSR Initiative with Barrick Gold and World Vision
Opinion: Rick Arnold, former coordinator of Common Frontiers Canada, argues that the CIDA-funded CSR project with World Vision and Barrick Gold is aimed at the pacification of local dissent over a new Barrick project in La Libertad, Perú, rather than local economic development.
Canadian Mining Overseas: Counter to Development Goals and Discrediting Canada
Presentation: Dr. Anthony Bebbington, Higgins Professor of Environment and Society, Director of the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, testified to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International...
Indigenous Rights and Mining: Submissions to the UN Committe on Elimination of Racial Discrimination
In February 2012 during the CERD's 80th session the Committee reviewed Canada's 19th and 20th reports. Prior to the review interested parties submitted comments to CERD on Canada's progress, or lack there of, in implementing the Convention and responding to the Committee's earlier recommendations. A...
Over two hundred organizations from thirty countries raise concerns with Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Letter: Two hundred and thirty three civil society groups from thirty countries, all organizations working for the protection of human rights and the environment in the Americas and Europe, jointly wrote the Inter-American Commission on Human Right (IACHR) to raise concern over recent decisions that...
Superficial Review of Canadian Environmental Assessment Act Cannot Sustain Public Confidence or Produce Real Results
Much has been made of federal pronouncements about limiting public participation in environmental reviews, limiting their duration, and ‘streamlining’ them, just as the public hearings on Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline began. Little notice has been paid to the statutory review of the...
Indigenous leader asks CIDA, World Vision and Barrick not to pursue joint CSR project in Peru
Open Letter: The General Coordinator of the Andean Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Organizations has written to Minister Bev Oda, Barrick Gold and World Vision asking them not to pursue a joint Corporate Social Responsibility project in La Libertad, Peru and instead to promote respect for...
CIDA Subsidizes the Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Mining Companies
In late 2011 the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development started to study the “Role of the Private Sector in Achieving Canada’s International Development Interests.” Among others, the Committee heard from the Executive Director of the Prospectors and...
Raging Grannies Sing the CEAA Blues
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act has been under attack for many years by industry and provincial and federal governments who claim that rigorous environmental assessment and meaningful public involvement hamper economic growth and drive away investment by causing delay and uncertainty...