The red pine forests surrounding Wolf Lake are by best accounts the largest remaining tract of old-growth red pine ANYWHERE. Despite the obvious and long appreciated ecological significance of the forest MNDM has continued to renew a mining lease in the heart of the Wolf Lake old growth.
URGENT ACTION (Mexico): Excellon Resources, Inc. Threatens Landowners of La Sierrita with Arrest and Judicial Action
On July 11, 2012, Excellon Resources, Inc., a Canadian mining company, threatened landowners of the Ejido "La Sierrita" (Ejido) and their adviser, Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC), with criminal proceedings and judicial action in response to the landowners' peaceful...
Mining Threatens One of BC’s Largest Sockeye Salmon Runs
The Thompson River watershed already hosts Canada’s largest copper mine – Teck’s open pit Highland Valley mine. The New Afton mine is in construction, the Harper Creek and Ajax mine projects are in the environmental assessment process, and the Ruddock Creek Project is in advanced exploration. If all...
KI Achieves Protection for 23,000 Square Kilometres; Ontario Makes Another Multi-million Dollar Buy-out
One of the most important messages Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) has been trying to send to Ontario is the need to respect the treaty relationship of shared decision making and mutual respect.
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Canada’s Subsidies to the Mining Industry Don’t Stop at Aid: Political Support Betrays Government Claims of Corporate Social Responsibility
In Honduras, the Canadian government is spending taxpayer dollars to help set up a favourable legal framework for Canadian mining operations against the will of Honduran civil society, while remaining silent about rampant targeted attacks and threats against the press and social movements.
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The Debate Over Mining and Development Continues...
Efforts by the Canadian government and the mining industry to promote and support mining as a core element of international development have lately became the focus of intense and prolonged media coverage, opening the issue up to broader public scrutiny.
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Communities Shouldn’t Pay To Clean Up Goldcorp’s Mess in Central America
"Goldcorp has reaped the benefits of our communities and land while we have reaped the bitter consequences.” - Reina Gamero, teacher and member of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee in Honduras.
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Mapping Canadian Mining in Latin America: Referendums and Risks
Two new maps are now available on our website. The first illustrates a hopeful trend among mining-affected communities to use local votes to demonstrate peaceful resistance to unwanted mining activities. The second is a disturbing window onto the threats and violence that communities and community...
Plan Nord: Promises and Concerns of Quebec's Grand New Project
The way the Quebec government has presented the Plan Nord as a non-stoppable project and Premier Charest's responses to its critics make it seem that accepting the plan will be the only way for northern communities to get the government to deal with their pressing social issues.
“I Thought They Were Shareholders.” My First Look at a Hearing with the CNSC, Our Nuclear Watchdog
I spent the early part of this week in Mistissini, the largest Cree community in Eeyou Istchee, the Cree Territory of northern Quebec, particpating in a two-day licencing hearing held by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The hearing was part of the CNSC’s decision process for the...
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ACTION ALERT: Budget Omnibus Bill C-38 Will Shred Canada’s Environmental Assessment Law (Among Many Other Things)
The Harper Government has introduced an Omnibus Budget Implementation Bill, C-38, which will actually repeal the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and replace it with a crude hand-drawn facsimile of a real federal environmental assessment process. Tell the Conservatives that Canada’s environment...
Pacific Rim Mining Lawsuit Saga Prolonged; Costs Mount for Company and for People of El Salvador
Continuation of Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining's lawsuit against El Salvador will be costly for all involved: the company, the state and, most of all, the Salvadoran people.
Shining a Light on the Federal Government’s False Claims on Environmental Assessment and the Budget
Focusing just on the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act included in Bill C-38, the proposed budget implementation Act, we find that every one of the government’s proclamations is specious, disingenuous, or plain old horse exhaust.
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Plan Nord: The North challenges Charest government
The month of May may also prove to be a game-changer for the mining industry in Québec. Underreported in the mainstream media, one event should be looked at to understand why opposition to Charest’s aggressive resource extraction agenda has shifted in Québec. The Forum Plan Nord 2012 – The North...
Comments on CNSC Licensing of Matoush Project
MiningWatch Canada would like to submit these comments on the potential licencing of Strateco’s proposed Matoush Uranium Advanced Exploration Project to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Canadian Human Rights Report on Colombia a ‘Sick Joke’
The Canadian government’s human rights report tabled in Parliament Tuesday regarding implementation of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement might as well have been a comic strip of three monkeys: “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”