During the week of June 25, 2007, MiningWatch Canada received letters from two Ecuadorian Indigenous men, Rubén Naichap and José Aviles, accusing us of “Support for Economic, Cultural and Social Genocide of the Shuar people” and “Keeping the Indigenous People of the Amazon in Poverty”, respectively...
Government to Sacrifice More Canadian Lakes to the Mining Industry
MiningWatch has learned from Environment Canada (EC) that together with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) they now maintain a list of some twenty lakes that are slated for destruction by mine waste over the next few years. This amounts to a massive public subsidy to the global mining...
The Intolerable "No" and the "Must-Win" Mine
Department of San Marcos, Guatemala
June 18, 2007
Text: Saqrik / Photography, Translation and Captions: MiMundo.org
Peoples’ right to be consulted about industrial mega-projects is legally established by international agreements, built into national legislation and constitutions, and thrown...
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug: Our Home and Native Land
[The following is a speech made by John Cutfeet on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007, as part of a Roundtable on “the Duty to consult aboriginal peoples and Ontario's Mining Act” at the Canadian Law and Society Association meetings at the Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social...
The New El Dorado by Tibor Kocis
An independent documentary which shows the truth about Rosia Montana, a magnificent Romanian village with a two thousand year history, threatened with destruction by Canadian company Gabriel Resources in order to make way for Europe's largest open cast gold mine. Film maker Tibor Kocis has spent...
Our Story: Uranium Prospecting in our Backyard
By Gloria Morrison. This past January, I was interviewed on CBC’s national radio program As It Happens. Journalist Carol Off asked what I had learned since I discovered that our land had been staked for uranium mining exploration. I want to share the heart-wrenching questions that my husband and I...
Dirty Business, Dirty Practices: How the Federal Government Supports Canadian Mining, Oil and Gas Companies Abroad
Report by the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA): Large-scale mining, oil and gas extraction is dirty business. Extractive projects often pit investors, extractive companies and national governments against communities and indigenous groups who seek to protect land and resources...
Canadian Mining in Mexico: Made in Canada Violence
Written by Mandeep Dhillon in Vancouver, with help from Antoine Libert Amico
The history of mining in Mexico is a long one. The riches of the Mexican sub-soil were a major motivation for Spanish colonizers and the mining industry is often accorded an important place in events leading to the...
Declarations of Oruro Gathering on Environmental Justice and Mining in Latin America
Oruro, Bolivia, March 9-11, 2007
This past March 9-11, representatives from civil society organizations and churches throughout Latin America met to share and discuss the situation of environmental injustice which communities and organizations are confronting as a result of the activities of...
Mining Is Inherently Unsustainable
Notes for Jamie Kneen's response to Pierre Gratton, Vice President for Sustainable Development and Public Affairs of the Mining Association of Canada in a debate entitled "Earth: What is Mining All About? The Up and Down Sides", presented as part of the Ottawa University Institute of Environment...
Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala Accused of Misinformation - Open Letter to the Canadian Government
To Whom It May Concern:
We, the undersigned, write with deep concern over the recent conduct of Canadian ambassador to Guatemala, Kenneth Cook. Ambassador Cook has been misinforming people about the work of Canadian doctoral student Steven Schnoor, who has been in Central America for several...
Halifax Initiative Publishes Canadian Mining Map
The Canadian mining map was produced by the Halifax Initiative during the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries. The Roundtables, which took place between June and November of 2006, fulfilled one of the recommendations...
Mining Association Responds to Critique of Mining Information Kit for Aboriginal Communities
The Mining Association of Canada has posted a response to our critique of the Mining Information Kit for Aboriginal Communities. Unfortunately, while it claims that the Kit was designed to identify both opportunities and risks, the response fails to address the substance of the issues we identified...
Billions, Millions, and the Peasant
by Albert Koehl
What do poor farmers (campesinos) in Guatemala’s western highlands have in common with the former CEO of a multi-billion dollar Canadian gold mining company? Quite a bit, actually, when the former CEO is Rob McEwen and the issue is a battle against cavalier corporate decision...
Canadian Mining Company Set to Destroy Mexican Heritage Village
Mike Boylan visited the community of Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí, Mexico on November 7 and 8, 2006, where the unlicensed activities of Minera San Xavier, a subsidiary of Metallica Resources, threaten to destroy the community. He witnessed and documented rapid activity of heavy machinery in...
Uranium Mining in Canada – Past and Present
Background notes for a presentation by Jamie Kneen to the Indigenous World Uranium Summit, November 30-December 1, 2006, in Window Rock, Arizona, Navajo Nation Territory.