On December 16, 2000, conflict over the development of a bauxite mine and alumina plant in the Kashipur region of Orissa in India turned violent with the killing of three innocent tribal people (Adivasis). During a meeting of villagers opposed to the mine, armed police entered Maikanch village and...

On November 4th to 14th, 2000, representatives of the Subanen — indigenous people of the Philippine island of Mindanao — will be touring in Canada. They are seeking support in their efforts to assert their ancestral land rights in the face of aggressive mining exploration activities by Calgary...

The MiningWatch Canada small grants fund paid for sampling expenses for the Yukon Conservation Society and Carmacks community members to conduct field investigations and analyse samples at the closed Mt. Nansen mine in the Yukon. The company is now bankrupt and the federal government is...

In mid-October two Kenyan human rights lawyers, Willy Matunga and Haron Ndubi, toured Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa to raise awareness about plans for a disastrous mine in southern Kenya. They visited NGOs and community groups, as well as representatives of the proponent, Tiomin Resources Inc., the C...

The revisions to the Metal Mining Liquid Effluent Regulations (MMLER) will be published this fall, probably in November. There will be a 60 day comment period before they become law.

The regulations provide exemptions for the mining industry from Section 36 of the Fisheries Act. That section of the...

We successfully launched the video and report from this April's "On the Ground Research" workshop at a public event on September 14. Over seventy people attended the event, which was held at the International Development Research Centre. Roger Moody, in town to present his research report on...

Scabs and management are keeping the nickel mines and smelter operating at Falconbridge Nickel Mines in Sudbury, Ontario. The Union (MineMill Local 598 of the Canadian Auto Workers) has been out on strike since August 1, protesting contracting out, wage rollbacks and other measures that will "gut...

With First Nations, angry residents of north Eastern Ontario, and environmentally conscious people around the world, Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch (our co-chair) is claiming victory in the struggle to stop the plans to ship Toronto's garbage 600 kilometres north by rail and dump it in an abandoned...

The urgency of abandoned mines clean-up is becoming increasingly obvious to federal decision-makers. This summer, MiningWatch Canada has been working with the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and officials at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to come up with a plan that will:

• Create a database...

In 1995, the federal government issued a "Guide to Green Government" and the Auditor General Act was amended to made sustainable development an integral part of federal policy. All 28 federal departments were asked to develop and table sustainable development strategies in accordance with the Act. T...

Gaining Ground: Women, Mining and the Environment was a two-day gathering held at Lake LaBerge, Yukon, September 15-17, 2000. It brought together women from Yukon communities affected by mining and women from elsewhere with experience in the health, science, and social science sectors. The gathering...

MiningWatch Canada Backgrounder

1. Sanctions do not include investment. Investment is not included in the sanctions imposed by Canada on Burma in 1997. The sanctions were restricted to imports and exports. According both the First Dynasty and Ivanhoe Mines Annual Information Returns 2000, "the...

Tiomin Resources has responded to some of the information presented by Action Aid and the Kenyatta University researchers. Matthew Edler, Vice President of Tiomin Resources, faxed us a letter on August 8, 2000, which you can view here.

On April 14-16, 2000, MiningWatch Canada hosted thirty participants from eleven different countries at a participatory workshop to look at the research needs of communities affected by mining. We had local community representatives and on-the-ground NGOs from Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New...

Indonesian mining activists Arianto (Anto) Sangaji of the Free Earth Foundation and Andi Baso Am of KWAS, the indigenous peoples' organisation of Soroako on the island of Sulawesi, spent the last two weeks of April visiting communities in Canada that also have to deal with Inco.

The tour...

A submission by Entraide Missionaire, a Montréal-based human rights group, to the annual Foreign Affairs human rights consultation, got a lot more attention than such presentations usually receive when it was written up in the Globe and Mail. The report documents the way that the privatisation of...