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...
ACTION ALERT: Canada’s Environmental Assessment Law Is Under Attack
The Harper Government wants to gut the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
Tell the Conservatives that Canada’s environment matters – and environmental laws matter.
Tell Prime Minister Harper, Environment Minister Kent, and Natural Resources Minister Oliver we won’t accept shoddy “streamlined”...
Inmet Ignoring Court Decision Over Panama Project
News item: While Toronto-based Inmet is widely distributing news of the approval of its ESIA by Panamanian environmental authorities in order to pave the way for further investment in the project, the company is ignoring a decision made one day earlier by the country's Supreme Court of Justice to...
Co-author presents study "Searching for Gold in the Highlands of Guatemala: Economic Benefits and Environmental Risks of the Marlin Mine”.
Dr. Lyuba Zarsky, a Senior Research Fellow for the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, is the co-author of a study on the Marlin Mine, owned and operated by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. in the western highlands of Guatemala. MiningWatch accompanied Dr. Zarsky during...
Video: Co-author presents study "Searching for Gold in the Highlands of Guatemala: Economic Benefits and Environmental Risks of the Marlin Mine”.
Dr. Lyuba Zarsky, a Senior Research Fellow for the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, is the co-author of a study on the Marlin Mine, owned and operated by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. in the western highlands of Guatemala. MiningWatch accompanied Dr. Zarsky during...
Diamonds and Development: Attawapiskat and the Victor Diamond Mine
In the last two weeks there has been an intense media storm around the current housing crisis in Attawapiskat, a remote Cree community on the coast of James Bay. One element of the story that’s getting some attention and is of particular interest to MiningWatch is the fact that the community is...
Defending land and life against an impending train wreck: Canadian mining in Colombia
Presentation: In the context of Colombia's ongoing internal armed struggle, President Santos has declared mining a new economic engine for Colombia, running up against the rights of indigenous, afro-Colombian, campesino, small scale and artisanal miners, and water users. Jen Moore gave this...
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Surviving a Mine: Canada’s Uranium District and the Western Mining Action Network Conference 2011
At night, the lights at Rabbit Lake mine are visible in the west, looking across Wollaston Lake from Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation. “The mine opened up in the ’70s,” recalls Chief Bart Tsannie, “but it’s only recently that we’ve started to learn to live together. For a long time, there was...
Indigenous Rights and Mining – Recent Developments, Opportunities and Challenges
One of MiningWatch’s core areas of work is the promotion of Indigenous rights and recognition of title and the stewardship role that Indigenous people maintain across Canada and internationally. This article offers an overview of recent developments, including hopeful signs but also the considerable...
Ghana's Golden Deception
The streets are hardly paved with gold. Despite producing gold on an industrial scale since 1873 – over nine million ounces’ worth – the place is really not much better off than the rest of the country. Scattered chunks of tarmac are the only evidence that the main road from Tarkwa to Prestea had...
Whose development? Mining, local resistance and development agendas
This is a synopsis of a paper by Catherine Coumans published in: Governance Ecosystems CSR in the Latin American Mining Sector, edited by Julia Sagebien and Nicole Marie Lindsay, in the International Political Economy Series published by Palgrave Macmillan, November 2011.