‘They like raping us, the security guards’
By Hilary Beaumont on Apr 26, 2017
Two women from Papua New Guinea flew half-way around the world this week to tell their stories of sexual assault at a Canadian mining giant’s shareholders’ meeting — but when they arrived at the meeting, they say they were told they couldn’t speak.
(Toronto) Today, for the first time, Barrick’s directors and shareholders heard directly from two women who have suffered sexual violence at the hands of mine security at the company’s massive Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea.
Barrick’s directors and shareholders heard first-hand about excess use of force by private and public mine security guarding the Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea when indigenous Ipili men travelled to Canada to speak out at Barrick’s AGM. In 2008, 2009, and 2010 Ipili men stood up in the shareholder’s meeting and told company directors and shareholders about killings and rapes of local men, women and children by mine security. These allegations were repeatedly met with denial by Barrick.
Statement and Questions by Everlyn Guape, Porgera, Papua New Guinea
My name is Everlyn Gaupe. I am speaking on a proxy from Rachel Small.
Directors and shareholders, I live in the shadow of Barrick’s Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea.
This mine dumps all of its tailings and waste rock directly into the river valleys all around the pit.
Our villages are surrounded by mine waste. We have to cross this waste just to get from one village to another, or to go to our vegetable gardens or schools.
Latin America is slowly winning the fight against the corporate assault of transnational Canadian mining companies
El Salvador made history in March, 2017, when it became the first country to ban metal mining outright.
After years of denying cases of sexual assault, Canadian mining company Barrick Gold compensated 119 women and girls who were victims of sexual violence by mine security to the tune of ~$10,000 each for these abuses, but had them sign an agreement that they could never sue the company. Eleven of the women refused this remedy package and threatened to sue the company, resulting in a higher out of court settlement. Since that time, the 119 women who originally accepted the money from Barrick have organized into women's groups and started to demand more dignified treatment from the company.
(Ottawa) At about 8:20pm on the night of Friday April 21, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin America Program Coordinator Jen Moore and US journalist John Dougherty were arbitrarily detained in Cusco, Peru after a successful public event screening a documentary film about Hudbay Minerals’ operations in Canada, the US, Guatemala and Peru. The two were surrounded by 15 to 20 national police officers, many in plain clothes, and a handful of migration officers, and taken into custody.
Contact: John Dougherty, 602-810-4849, john@investigativemedia.com
(La Paz, Bolivia) On Friday, April 21, the Peruvian National Police and immigration authorities detained American journalist and filmmaker John Dougherty after he finished screening his documentary film “Fraude de Flin Flon” at the Cusco Cultural Center. The documentary reports on Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals’ worldwide mining operations.
Public event
When: 6 p.m., Thursday, April 27, 2017
Where: University of Ottawa, Desmarais Building DMS 1110, 55 Laurier Ave East, Ottawa, Ontario
SPEAKERS:
