With deep concern, we share the following statement from the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission of Ecuador (CEDHU its initials in Spanish) denouncing the arrest of a Shuar Indigenous leader in southeastern Ecuador.

Today, 280 organisations based in five continents sent a statement to the CEO and Board of Canadian-Australian company OceanaGold ordering that it leave El Salvador and pay US$8 million to that government, as demanded by an investor-state tribunal in October.  OceanaGold persisted with an outrageous suit against El Salvador, launched by its predecessor Pacific Rim Mining in 2009.

(Ottawa) While MiningWatch continues to battle in court, online advocacy group SumOfUs has launched a petition campaign urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Justice Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Hon. Dominic Leblanc, to enforce the Fisheries Act and hold Imperial Metals to account for the Mt. Polley Mining Disaster.

(Ottawa) More than 2000 people have signed a petition in support of Barriere Lake Algonquin First Nation. The petition was officially filed this morning in the Quebec National Assembly by Manon Masse, MNA. It calls on the Government of Quebec to suspend all mining activities on the Nation’s ancestral territory and to implement their co-management agreement for all resources on the territory.

(Montreal/Ottawa/Reno/Guatemala) Tahoe Resources is one of fourteen companies featured as a dangerous investment in the fifth edition of ‘Dirty Profits’ launched today in Hamburg, Germany and edited by the organization Facing Finance.

Ecojustice and MiningWatch Canada head to court this week to defend Fish Lake ("Teztan Biny" in Tŝilhqot’in) from a risky mining project.

Mining projects often put communities and the environment in great peril – we only need to look to the Mount Polley tailings spill to see an example of the long-lasting devastation they can cause.

(Guatemala/Montreal/Ottawa/Reno/Tatamagouche/Toronto/Washington, DC) Canadian and US civil society organizations wholeheartedly welcome a British Columbia Court of Appeals’ decision that Vancouver is the preferred forum for a civil suit to be heard against Tahoe Resources concerning violence against peaceful opposition to its silver mine in Guatemala.

(Val d'Or, Québec) Meeting this morning at a press conference at Val d'Or, the Algonquin Nations are uniting their voices to denounce the Quebec Mining Act and the impacts that it causes on their territorial and Aboriginal rights. The Algonquins are asking the Government of Quebec to review the foundations of the law, which they believe are unconstitutional.

Vancouver (Coast Salish Territory) In a twist on the ages-old story of First Nations’ lands being staked against their will and without their knowledge under pro-mining provincial laws and regulations, a group of First Nations women has now staked a claim on land owned by the minister responsible for overseeing this unfair and archaic system.

Human rights abuses at Canadian-owned mining sites around the world are widespread and well-documented. Victims of such abuse have nowhere to turn to seek justice.

MiningWatch has joined with the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) to urge Canada to create an effective, independent Ombudsman for the Extractive Sector to hold Canadian mining companies to account.