CAMPAIGNS
BILL C-323
The International Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Act
Bill C-323 is an Act to Amend the Federal Courts Act (international promotion and protection of human rights) sponsored by NDP MP Peter Julian of Burnaby-New Westminster. This is an innovative bill similar to the U.S. Alien Torts Claims Act. The bill calls for extending the authority of the Federal Court system to compensate all persons including foreign citizens for a broad range of human rights violations committed by Canadian and non-Canadian corporations and persons operating outside Canada. It would allow lawsuits in Canada for a host of universal human rights violations, such as genocide and torture, as well as activities that significantly destroy the environment or violate key international labour rights.
Health is a Human Right
Health Tribunal in Guatemala in the case of Gold Corp vs. affected communities
The Health Tribunal project is an event initiated by community members of San Miguel Ixtahuacán following participation in a community-based health project. Preliminary findings of this research indicate that community members’ health has been threatened by the local Marlin Mine, a subsidiary operation of Canadian company Gold Corp. Community members want an opportunity to voice their concerns and to share their knowledge about how Gold Corp has impacted their community. At both the national and international level, they ask that their concerns be taken seriously and that policy leaders, health advocates and political authorities take action to put an end to corporate recklessness and impunity.
Mining and Austerity
Government support for the Extractive Industry
People’s needs not corporate greed has become a mantra of people’s movements in the “Age of Austerity”. Government priorities should be challenged when the Canadian government cuts social services and funding for education while redirecting massive public funds towards supporting mining, oil and gas developments.
Mining and Indigenous Sovereignty
Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately targeted by large-scale extractive projects, in particular mining. For example, over 50% of gold mining and 70% of uranium mining is carried out on Indigenous lands. This exploitation is linked to Colonization because these industries rely on power relationships left over from Colonial times to engage central or provincial governments to sell-out their Indigenous peoples, often without consultation much less consent.
Within Canada, Colonial times have remained with us in the form of Ontario’s Mining Act which permits a holder of prospector’s licence to stake mining claims on almost any piece of land, including land subject to Aboriginal land claims.
Mining and Migration
According to the World Bank Group, more than 10 million people are involuntarily displaced every year to make room for development projects (Sustainable Development Sourcebook). Canadian companies benefit from a global economic system that forces people out of rural areas subsequently used by large industry to extract resources, be they cash crops, minerals, lumber, oil and gas, or the industrial infrastructure needed to produce and export these goods (such as dams, highways, and pipelines).
Mining Injustice Resistance 2012 conference
May 4 -6, 2012, University of Toronto, Earth Sciences Building
Check out our conference page fore more details.
Protest Corporate Impunity
Mining Injustice Solidarity Networks stands in solidarity with mining affected communities. As Toronto is a key meeting point for the mining industry, we organize peaceful demonstrations and events to show solidarity with community members, who often are speaking inside at annual corporate shareholder meetings, or protesting a long with us to put an end to corporate mining injustices.