During the referendum, the communities will decide if they are in agreement or not with this mining development in Quimsacocha.  The indigenous communities involved include, Tarkis, Irkis, Kachiwaiku, Escaleras and others who are part of the parish of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete.  All of these people rely on this water for domestic use, irrigation, agriculture and livestock production, in other words for their food sovereignty.

This is the first referendum to be held in Ecuador regarding a mining project. Despite many attempts to have their voices heard, the government seems to be at the very best unresponsive.  A referendum is the last hope to voice their opinions.  The right to hold a referendum is supported by Ecuador’s Constitution, and the International Labour Organization Law 169.  These communities have the right to free and prior consent.

Different experiences of voting have proved to be an important, peaceful and crucial political tool in making mining corporations accountable and socially responsible.  The first voting case in Tambogrande, Peru, in 2002 whereby 90% of the people affected voted against a mega-mining project, grabbed international media attention, and led to the eventual closure of the mining project.  This case, stimulated further referendums in other communities in Latin America including; Esquel – Argentina, Sipacapa – Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and recently here in Canada.

The presence of international observers is partly why these referendums have had such a success.  Given that the referendum in Ecuador is taking place in 2 days, it may not be viable to send volunteer observers, however it is vital that we continue to support such communities at the most important stage in their struggle.  Everyone needs to be aware of this upcoming referendum, spread this information to all of your contacts, and help where you can.

Santiago Escobar is originally from Ecuador and now lives in Canada, but it’s only partly by choice.

“I denounced corporate corruption by Chevron, so now my life is in danger,” he explains simply.

He’s one of the organizers of the third international Mining Injustice Conference, held in Toronto this past weekend. It’s organized by the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, a Toronto-based group aiming to raise awareness about the impact of Canadian mining companies abroad. What began a few years ago as a set of informal discussions has exploded in size and scope, and according to organizers it’s a reflection of the dramatic growth of international activism directed against Canadian mining companies. This year, the conference hosted over 600 delegates and speakers from 15 different countries.

“We have seen violence, a lot of drugs, a lot of sexual exploitation. It’s not a good thing for our communities…” —Santiago Escobar

Escobar attributes the growth of activism partly to the increasing activities of Canadian mining companies in countries like his own.

“There’s a concern regarding the Canadian companies because we have seen that their record is not a good record,” he explains. “And also their environmental impact is very negative. They pollute the rivers, they pollute the soil, they pollute everything. And after the exploitation of these Canadian companies, always we have seen displacement of communities. We have seen violence, a lot of drugs, a lot of sexual exploitation. It’s not a good thing for our communities…we’re trying to stop the entrance of the big Canadian companies.”

Communities have tried engaging, he says, but to no avail.

“They don’t listen to us. They only listen to the market. That’s all that they listen to, all that they follow.”

He’s quick to emphasize that they’re not out to stop mining. What the mining justice movement is about, he explains, is giving the power to communities to say yes or no to having mining operations in their backyard.

“We’re not definitively against mining. We want of course better laws for accountability, and we also want the ones who will be affected, to have the right to decide whether to have mining or not to have mining. The most important thing here is what the people want.”

From Labrador to Indonesia

Tracy Glynn has seen first-hand what Canadian mining companies do abroad. A long-time mining activist and a campaigner at the New Brunswick Conservation Council, she did her Masters in Environmental Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland. There, she studied the environmental and health impacts of the Inco smelter in Indonesia. Her own research project materialized when Indonesian community activists came to visit Labrador and met with community activists there.

“There’s a lot of sharing going on and that’s a strength that you see with a lot of mining affected communities,” she explains.

Glynn has also observed the explosive growth of mining activism in Canada.

“There’s no legal mechanism whatsoever to hold mining companies to account for their environmental crimes,” —Tracy Glynn

“Since Canada’s companies are controlling the global mining industry, it was only a matter of time till you’d see this growth of activism here in Canada. I know a lot of people who have gone to mining affected communities in Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and they’re horrified by what they see in those mining affected communities, and they’re horrified that Canadian companies are doing this, and they want to do something about it.”

“It’s not just a case of a few bad apples,” she says. “It’s widespread, and I think the fact that there’s no international court or anything to hold mining companies to account is a problem…there’s no legal mechanism whatsoever to hold mining companies to account for their environmental crimes, or the fact that women in Papua New Guinea are saying they’re being gang-raped by mining security guards. There’s nothing in place for any of those people to have any sort of justice.”

Glynn argues the problem is only partly one of corporate impunity abroad. What mining activists want, she says, is for Canadian companies to be held accountable within Canada, for their actions outside of Canada. Right now, she explains, companies can freely commit acts which are considered crimes in Canada, and not face punishment so long as they do not commit those acts within Canada’s borders.

She points out that last year’s Bill C-300, a mining accountability bill which would have cut government funding to mining companies that commit crimes and human rights abuses overseas, didn’t pass in Parliament. She says its failure speaks to the enormous lobby power of mining corporations. Last month, Amnesty International released a report that contained strong warnings about Canada’s diminishing human rights record. “In recent years there has been a decline in Canada’s international human rights leadership,” says the report Getting Back On The ‘Rights’ Track. “As leaders in the extractive industries Canadian companies have become laggards on human rights protection.”

Problems in our own backyard

It’s not just overseas that mining activists are struggling.

“Often we think that mining practices in Canada are better than they are overseas, and that’s not the case,” Glynn explained. “Actually our regulations are not that strong. Like dumping in lakes, many countries don’t allow that, but we do. Mining companies are saying it’s more favourable to do mining in a lot of Canadian provinces than in countries abroad.”

“Building the Fluvarium was actually my idea…when we got there, the executive manager said ‘we can’t have you here, it’s not politically good for us,” — John Gibson

The case of the Sandy Pond Alliance in Newfoundland and Labrador provides an example of the challenges faced by environmental groups challenging mining activities in Canada. Sandy Pond is a lake in Newfoundland that’s been designated as a “tailings impoundment area” by the federal government, meaning that Vale Inco will be able to dump toxic waste in the lake as part of its nickel processing project in Long Harbour. The Sandy Pond Alliance is taking their battle to court to prevent the destruction of the lake.

This year on Earth Day, the Sandy Pond Alliance was astounded when they were kicked out of an Earth Day event at the Fluvarium in St. John’s, where they had planned to share an information booth with the Sierra Club. According to John Gibson, a retired scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and one of the Alliance’s organizers, the managers of the Fluvarium said the group’s efforts to save the lake were considered too political for Earth Day.

“It was really quite amazing,” Gibson said. “Building the Fluvarium was actually my idea…when we got there, the executive manager said ‘we can’t have you here, it’s not politically good for us’.”

The expulsion of an environmental group from an Earth Day event, Gibson says, demonstrates the problems resulting from energy corporations trying to improve their reputations by funding environmental groups. In the process, they often wind up developing political control over those groups.

Sandy Pond Map 

“The problem is they’re [Fluvarium] now getting funded by SunCor Energy. And believe it or not, even Vale Inco was there…I think it’s absolutely disgraceful. I mean you can’t have political interference with that sort of thing…when they accept money, they have to be careful that that doesn’t interfere with their policy of saving the environment.”

Gibson is hopeful their group will be able to stop the destruction of Sandy Pond. At issue is a federal regulation which allows the federal government to reclassify freshwater lakes as tailings impoundment areas: essentially, dump sites for toxic waste. Gibson says the original intention of the regulation was to grandfather in existing lakes that had already been used as toxic waste dumps. But once it was added, mining companies and the government began to actively use it to reclassify new lakes as dump sites as well. Mining companies have already applied to destroy 12 freshwater bodies across the country (including three in Newfoundland and Labrador); five have been approved. So the Sandy Pond Alliance is taking the federal government to court. They’re optimistic about their chances.

“This regulation never went through Parliament, and it’s really a loophole. They’ve used it as a loophole to pollute more pristine lakes. Pristine lakes, worldwide, are not actually that common…DFO is supposed to protect our fisheries, not destroy them. I’m just appalled at the attitude. What we want to get is this loophole to be made illegal. You can’t put noxious substances into freshwater bodies.”

Gibson says there’s a mistaken idea that because Newfoundland and Labrador has so many lakes, it’s not a big deal to use a few of them as toxic waste sites. What’s not understood, he explains, is that each lake has its own unique ecosystem which has developed over thousands of years.

“That cannot be replicated,” he emphasizes. “There’s compensation, but really that’s just a public relations gambit. The compensation is to make a small reservoir nearby, widen a couple small ponds that already exist, and put fish in it. You can’t dig a hole, drop some fish in it and call it a natural fish habitat.”

An uphill battle

Gibson recognizes the challenges they’re up against.

“The mining industry is a David versus Goliath battle, and they have Bay Street lawyers, and they want to keep these things going forever.”

Even environmental impact assessments are inadequate, he argues.

“The problem is, consulting companies always select data that’s going to support their client. And so these environmental impact assessments are really, some of them pretty pathetic…I think mining companies will just try and get away with what they can…but that’s why we have regulations. That’s why we have the Fisheries Act. And so to corrupt it with these loopholes is disgraceful. These things are not being done democratically, so we have to go to court.”

He echoes Glynn’s assessment that Canada’s laws are much more lax than those in many countries in which he and his colleagues have worked.

“In South Africa, they never did it that way. It’s only here that they can get away with it. They wouldn’t be able to get away with it in England, or Europe…because they don’t want to lose their lakes.”

A global issue

Fighting the non-democratic nature of such decisions appears to be a common theme in the mining justice movement, from Ecuador to Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Consent is the main thing,” Glynn emphasized. “Letting communities decide whether they want a mining community in their backyard. That’s key. Right now there’s nothing there…to allow communities to have a say.”

“Do you know what it’s like for an entire town, your church, everything…it will all be gone, just so a few Canadians can get rich.”

While the Sandy Pond Alliance is trying to save Newfoundland and Labrador’s freshwater bodies, activists in other countries have even more at stake. Back at the conference launch, a question and answer period quickly turns emotional. Whispers trace the room in a dozen languages or more, and as stories are told, I hear a soft sobbing from someone behind me. A woman from Colombia raises her hand to speak, and pleads with those around her, looking for the Canadians in the audience. “Lots of you don’t know that an entire town is going to disappear, because of a Canadian mining company,” the elderly woman enunciates, carefully framing the unfamiliar English words as she fights back tears. “Do you know what it’s like for an entire town, your church, everything…it will all be gone, just so a few Canadians can get rich.”

“Now is not a good time to be discovered as a Canadian when you’re traveling abroad,” one human rights worker laments.

More eerie is the calm, matter-of-fact tone of a middle-aged Canadian in the front row, who describes his work with a human rights group in Colombia. They built a memorial this summer to honour 14 young boys who were murdered by the military (as part of the ‘false positives’ scandal whereby soldiers kidnapped and murdered civilians, dressing the bodies in guerrilla outfits in order to receive promotions, cash bonuses or weekends off). The grisly practice speaks to the dangers both activists and locals face in trying to bring about change.

It’s little wonder Colombians are silent, another member of the audience observes.

The director of a human rights theatre group that operates in Colombia stands up, waving her arms in disagreement. “People in Colombia are fighting,” she says vehemently. “They are not staying silent. But if they raise their voice, they’ll be killed. That’s why I’m here, that’s why we’re doing this in Canada. Because Canada is responsible for making this happen.”

Activists engaged in discussion with PDAC representatives and corporate social responsibility mining employees who stated that they were interested in dialogue and working together yet remained on the defensive by blocking the distribution of resources and threatening to call security. When questioned as to why the PDAC funded report that found that Canadian mining corporations were the most likely to trigger social conflict and environmental devastation was never released, program assistant Lesley Williams reiterated the official PDAC position, that the report in question has methodological flaws. Williams was questioned as to why the same approach was not taken in response to the Fraser Institute’s ‘mining report card,’ which according to critics reads more as a list of complaints by mining industry CEOs. No response was given.

Following these discussions, mining injustice activists distributed flyers throughout the exhibition area until venue security guards demand that they leave. Reflecting on the incident, Caxaj, MISN member states: “I am glad we went because I think it is important for these individuals to know that we are concerned and that we are keeping an eye on them.” She adds, “ We are being told to engage in dialogue yet there is no genuine interest by these mining personnel to listen to the concerns and respond to the wishes of mining affected community members on the ground. We are told to use more appeasing ‘positive language,’ yet communities throughout the world and throughout Canada are facing life-threatening, emergency situations. “‘Injustice’ is not a dirty word; it is a reality that we should all be ready to respond to.”

MISN_pamphlet

Approval of this FTAA application will allow the Canadian mining firm MBMI and its Philippine Partners to substantially increase exploration activities and to progress toward full-scale nickel operations in the municipalities of Rizal, Bataraza, and Narra.

In response to the news–and the ongoing incursion of mining developments in Palawan–more than 500 Indigenous Peoples have arranged to hold a ‘Karaban’ anti-mining rally on 7 June, 2010.

Sign a petition to Stop Mining in Palawan!  http://petitiononline.com/PA2010/petition.html

STATEMENT: PALAWAN ANTI-MINING PROTESTERS RETURN TO THEIR HOMES: FEW GAINS ACHIEVED AND MORE CHALLENGES AHEAD

The anti-mining “karaban rally” composed of about 600 protesters from farmers and indigenous communities had reached the capital city of Puerto Princesa on the 7^th of June (see previous IC release). The rally had been supported by various organizations and religious groups such as the Ipilan parish of “Our Lady of Lourdes”, Augustinian Missionaries, the Global Legal Action on Climate Change, The Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC), the Palawan NGO Network, Inc (PNNI), Haribon Palawan, The Federation of Tribes in Palawan (Natripal), Bangsa Palawan Philippines, Inc and ALDAW (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch). The main scope of the peaceful effort was to request the Provincial Government not to endorse the proposed plans of MacroAsia and Ipilan Nickel Corporation (INC), and to clarify matters on the Canadian-based MBMI mining company’s newly approved Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) application. Such approval has also been announced by the TORONTO, ONTARIO- GC-Global Capital Corp, a merchant bank, providing bridge loan services (asset back/collateralized financing), to companies across many industries such as oil & gas, mining, real estate, etc. Global’s Chief Executive Officer, Jason Ewart commented “The FTAA license approval represents a major milestone for MBMI Resources. MBMI can now begin to capitalize on its large nickel resource and pursue contracts for its product from its network of targeted customers within the region. We also expect that this will allow the company to pursue discussions with several major potential strategic partners for the development of large-scale production facilities in the Philippines. We look forward to following MBMI’s progress in 2010.” On the same day (7 June) in which this statement was made public: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gc-global-capital-corp-announces-that-its-client-company-mbmi-resources-inc-has-received-ftaa-application-approval-in-the-philippines-2010-06-07?reflink=MW_news_stmp -

Palawan anti-mining protestors were marching towards Palawan Capital City to deliver their complains to the Provincial Government.  In the evening they met with the anti-mining Puerto Princesa Mayor, Hon. Edward S. Hagedorn who sympathized with the motivations behind the rally. Until the afternoon of 8 June a delegation of the rally’s organizers, supported by their NGOs counterparts, engaged in intense meetings with the Provincial Regulatory Board (PMRB) and with the Committee on Environment of the Provincial Government. In one of such meetings, the rally’s delegation questioned the legitimacy of MacroAsia and Ipilan Nickel Corporations’ applications being endorsed by the local government of Brooke’s Point Municipality. Atty Mary Jean Feliciano, former Municipal vice-mayor, said  “MacroaAsia was endorsed by the local government in less than one hour without any public consultation. It is surprising that the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, the agency in charge of protecting Palawan environment, has in fact, allowed mining companies to explore in ‘core zones’ and ‘watersheds’ of maximum protection” she said. According to Atty Feliciano also “the National Council for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), rather than defending the interests of their constituents, are convincing local indigenous communities to accept mining in their territory, because it will make them rich, will give them motorcycles and cellular phones. So they are conspiring with mining companies by bribing indigenous leaders” (http://vimeo.com/11462206). Artiso Mandawa, spokesperson for ALDAW/NATRIPAL (Ancestral Land and Domain Watch-Nagkakaisang Tribo ng Palawan) added that for the indigenous peoples “mining is not Development, it creates conflict among people, and it destroys our culture by bringing foreign values to our community. Some of my people still have limited contacts with the outside and are not even registered in the national and provincial census. They are the first inhabitants to arrive on this island and yet, for the government, they appear not to exist (http://vimeo.com/11491685).

As a result of the negotiations taking place between the protesters’ delegation and policy makers in Puerto Princesa, the Provincial Government agreed that endorsement of both MacroAsia and INC should require further investigation and – until all issues are clarified – their applications will be ‘frozen’. Specifically, Hon. Vicky De Guzman, member of the Provincial board, took an open stand in favour of the protesters, encouraging them to be vigilant of all irregularities dealing with mining application processes, and to report them promptly to the Provincial Government”. However, according to Atty Dong Lorenzo of the Environmental Legal Assistance Centre (ELAC) the search for irregularities must start first in the Presidential Palace of Malacañang and in the central office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “The trend is clear that mining companies are doing everything their money and influence can buy to get permits and put their projects in place before the new government officially takes over in a few weeks” Lorenzo said. This view has been confirmed by Jaybee Garganera, National Cordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM). With reference to the recent Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) approved in favor of the Canadian MBMI Resources he said “it is unacceptable that affected communities and the rest of the Filipino people learn about this midnight mining contract from international sources and the mining company, and yet the DENR itself is mum about it”.  He dared the DENR to either deny this mining contract does has not been approved or immediately release all the documents as soon as possible”. He added that “it is the highest form of irony and hypocrisy that a destructive midnight mining deal was fast-tracked in Palawan, a province that is considered as a global biodiversity hotspot, and host to one of the wonders of the modern world – the St. Paul Subterrainean River System”. On the contrary if DENR will push for the endorsement of MBMI, three mining companies: Narra Nickel Mining and Development, Inc. (NNMDC), Tesoro Mining and Development, Inc. (TMDI), and McArthur Mining, Inc. (MMI)  will begin their operations in the Municipality of Narra, Bataraza and Rizal with severe consequences for the livelihoods of hundreds of farmers and indigenous people, not to mentioned the irreparable damage to agricultural production and fisheries on which such municipality depend. At least one of the proposed mining operations cover more than 3,200 hectares and will impact the Mt. Bulanjao range in southern Palawan, and its unique ultramafic forest. The area is considered one of the best-conserved biodiversity hot spots on the island. A total of six major rivers from the mountain range supply water to both migrant and indigenous population (http://vimeo.com/11353087 – http://vimeo.com/11386137).

Fr. Edu Gariguez, Executive Director of the National Secretariat of Social Action of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-NASSA), also expressed concern about these new developments.  He said “the granting of this latest FTAA in Palawan, if true, goes against the Catholic social teaching of stewardship of the Earth and preferential treatment of the poor”. He added that “given the fragile ecology of Palawan and the opposition of local communities, especially IPs, the mining contract should be rescinded as soon as possible”.  The influential Catholic Church in the Philippines has consistently shown its position against large-scale mining, amidst documented reports from its dioceses that mining operations are impacting the ecology, livelihoods and access to natural resources of the poor (http://vimeo.com/11359268).

While the ‘karaban’ anti-mining rally has served to channel more public attention on mining aggression on Palawan’s UNESCO-declared Man and Biosphere Reserve, it has also provided additional encouragement to local communities in consolidating their local struggles.  For instance, farmers from the village of Calategas in Narra, where the Canadian-backed nickel mining project is set to operate, said they would resort to “human barricades” to stop the project if a permit is issued by Malacañang. “We will form a barricade if they issue the permit. We will gather the entire Calategas and set up a barricade. We won’t mind getting hurt,” said a spokesperson of a group of farmers opposed to the project. Similar sentiments were also expressed by people from the Northern Municipality of Roxas, where the Fujian mining company received an initial endorsement despite the absence of Free and Prior Informed Consent Processes being carried out with the affected communities. Surprisingly, also those companies that have already been apprehended for their illegalities are still allowed to continue. This is the case of the Citinickel Mine and Development Corporation in the Municipality of Punang, Sofronio Espanola, which has been accused for the violation of Section 103 of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, and for the illegal deforestation of mangroves during the construction of their company’s pier.

Undoubtedly, the future of mining in the so called “Philippine’s Last Frontier” will depend on how the newly elected administration will implement fundamental environmental reforms and actions. 
”Now that Noynoy Aquino is set to be proclaimed as the new president, the question that comes up is whether he will fulfill his promise to bring about a government different and opposed to the previous Arroyo administration. This would mean taking concrete steps in implementing positive reforms and reversing the policies that negatively impacted our people and environment,” said Clemente Bautista Jr. of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE).

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Sign a Petition to Stop Mining in Palawan!
  http://petitiononline.com/PA2010/petition.html

And address your concerns to:

* PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF PALAWAN

piopalawan@gmail.com

rlnn419@yahoo.com palawan@pal-onl.com

Hon. Abraham Kahlil B. Mitra

district2palawan@yahoo.com.ph

*PALAWAN COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

oed@pcsd.ph

pcsdsfsd@compass.com.ph

*DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONEMNT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

osec@denr.gov.ph

hea@denr.gov.ph

MINES AND GEOSCIENCE BUREAU

mines_r4@yahoo.com

Also forwards your complaints to:

Michael T. Mason

President and Director

MBMI Resources Inc

Vancouver, B.C. Canada

mbr@mbmiresources.com

Jason Ewart

Chief Executive Officer

GC-Global Capital Corp

Toronto Ontario, Canada

jewart@gcglobalcapital.ca

For more information watch ALDAW videos
http://www.vimeo.com/aldawnetwork http://www.youtube.com/user/ALDAWpalawan

http://hub.witness.org/en/users/aldaw-network
or contact the ALDAW Network (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch) aldawnetwork@gmail.com and Alyansa Tigil Mina (nc@alyansatigilmina.net/ alyansatigilmina@gmail.com)

PRESS CONFERENCE.

April 6, Noon. Where: Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. (South of College, East of Spadina) Speakers: Chief Simon Fobister, Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse, Maude Barlow, Judy Da Silva.Content:

The latest Grassy Narrows mercury health study will be released, and discussed by the speakers who will demand action from the government of Ontario.Newly translated health study downloadable at

FreeGrassy.org on April 6.

VISUAL:

RIVER RUN CREATIVE MARCH AND RALLY. April 7, Noon.What:

Hundreds of Grassy Narrows members, and their supporters, will deploy 1,000 meters of blue fabric to create a wild river that will flow up University Ave. to Queen’s park to deliver their demands, accompanied by traditional and samba drum groups, and by activists wearing animal costumes and large colourful fish puppets.Where

: Noon. Grange Park (behind the AGO on Beverly South of Dundas).End:

Arriving at Queen’s Park around 1 p.m. for speeches and demands.Shots:

Grassy Narrows women and youth lead the march up through Queen’s Park to the Parliament accompanied by a huge river of supporters with massive blue fabric rippling in the wind. Aerial shots available from public buildings on University Avenue (UofT lounges at College, Hospitals).Speakers:

Grassy Narrows mothers, Chief Fobister, Regional Chief Angus Toulouse, Bruce Cox (Greenpeace ED), Craig Benjamin (Amnesty), Meera Karunananthan (Council of Canadians), Joanne Webb (CUPE), and more.

PUBLIC SPEAKING EVENT.

April 6, 6:30 p.m.Speakers:

Maude Barlow, Judy Rebick, Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum Group. Where: Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. (South of College, East of Spadina).For more information go to: FreeGrassy.org

Context

Dr. Harada, who played a key role in exposing mercury poisoning in Minamata Japan, first visited Grassy Narrows and White Dog in 1975. He found people with mercury levels over 3 times the Health Canada limit in Grassy Narrows, and 7 times the limit in White Dog. When he returned in 2004 he found that 43% of his original Grassy Narrows patients were dead, including all those who had mercury levels above the Health Canada guidelines in 1975. Among the people who had levels below Health Canada guidelines in 1975, 89% were diagnosed with Minamata Disease (mercury poisoning), or possible Minamata Disease in 2004, even though their mercury levels were now even lower than before.Between 1962 and 1970 the Dryden mill dumped 20,000 pounds of mercury into the Wabigoon River, with the Province’s permission. According to a report prepared for the UN, less than 1/50

th of a teaspoon of mercury per 8 hectare lake surface is enough to make fish unfit for human consumption. The people of Grassy Narrows, Wabaseemoong, and Wabauskang First Nations were downstream and hurt by the health, social, and economic impacts of this poison. Overnight unemployment in Grassy Narrows skyrocketed from 10% to 90%, and a sacred food staple was lost.Mercury is a potent neurotoxin and a persistent pollutant whose health impacts include tunnel vision, loss of coordination, numbness in the extremities, tremors, loss of balance, and speech impediments. Dr. Harada’s report states that “*t+he possibility of congenital Minamata Disease occurrence is very high in these two communities.” Many Grassy Narrows mothers who cannot afford to buy food still eat fish during pregnancy and report delayed development, cerebral palsy, seizures, and other illnesses in their children. A compensation deal in 1985, reached after 7 years of negotiations, amounted to merely $8,000 per resident in Grassy Narrows and White Dog. Under the deal residents whose mercury poisoning is acknowledged by the Mercury Disability Board receive $250 to $800 a month. However, the Mercury Disability Board acknowledged only 38% of the people Dr. Harada diagnosed with Minamata Disease, Minamata Disease with complications, and possible Minamata Disease. Residents of Wabauskang (formerly Quibell), have never been compensated at all, despite reporting many miscarriages, stillbirths, and early childhood deaths from mercury poisoning.

Health Canada has stopped testing for mercury in Grassy Narrows residents claiming that it is no longer a problem because mercury levels have fallen below the Health Canada safety guideline. Dr. Harada’s study results “indicate that even being exposed under the safety guideline, if prolonged, it could cause Minamata Disease (chronic type).”

Six weeks ago, Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced that it was “indefinitely suspending” the exploration activities of a Canadian mining company inside the sacred territory of the Awajun and Wampis Peoples.

AMAZONIA FOR SALE
Uploaded by ORE-MEDIA. – News videos from around the world.
The announcement was curiously timed just a few days before a new mobilization was supposed to be launched in the Amazon. In part, the mobilization was going to be aimed at the Canadian company, Minera Afrodita (Dorato Resources) , who is believed to be contaminating the Cenepa and Maranon rivers with mercury and cyanide waste. As many as 13 thousand indigenous people depend on these two rivers.

Nevertheless, the Awajun and Wampis couldn’t take the chance of ignoring the Ministry’s words. But as the days went by, it became clear to the Awajun and Wampis–along with the international community–that Peru had no intention of actually halting the company’s work.

Looking back now, February 17 was just another day in Peru’s legacy of betraying Indigenous Peoples.

A new report by ODECOFROC (the Organization for the Development of the Border Communities of El Cenepa), a group that represents 56 Awajun and Wampis communities reveals a number of other government betrayals central to the Indigenous Peoples’ territory. This is also the subject of a new film by ODECOFROC and the IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) titled, Amazonia for Sale.

While the film provides viewers with an introduction to the Awajun and Wampis struggles, their 68-page report, A Chronicle of Deception, provides the details.

Most importantly, it demonstrates how “the Peruvian government acted in bad faith” by modifying the original proposal to create the Ichigkat Muja National Reserve and ultimately secure the Indigenous Peoples lands.

The proposal was supposed to include the area Minera Afrodita claims to own; that is what the Awajun and Wampis understood when they agreed to the proposal. However, the government unilaterally cut down the proposed protection area, specifically, but not exclusively, for Afrodita.

The betrayal was “in open violation of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American Convention on Human Rights,” says ODECOFROC.

Overall, ODECOFROC continues, “This situation serves as a basis for the claims made by the indigenous movement that led to massive demonstrations in 2008 and 2009, in addition to a prolonged strike, which culminated in the bloody events of Bagua (June 5, 2009), when the government violently intervened to evacuate the Awajun and Wampis contingents that had blocked a highway.”

Sadly, with the government’s continued push to gut the Amazon of it’s precious resources–and remove any communities in its way–there will be more protests and maybe even more bloodshed before the government finally agrees to act in good faith for all of Peru, South America and the world.

• Download “A Chronicle of Deception” at http://www.iwgia.org/sw40930.asp

Taseko Mines Ltd. is seeking to prevent a federal panel reviewing its proposal for a gold and copper mine in northern British Columbia from showing a public hearing a documentary it says is biased in favour of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, who are opposed to the project.

The Tsilhqot’in National Government had requested the film, Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), be shown during a public hearing on Taseko’s proposal, according to a message sent today to review panel participants by the panel’s chair Robert Connelly.

watch film here:

Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from Susan Smitten on Vimeo.

A lawyer acting for Taseko, Keith Clark with the Vancouver firm Lang Michener, outlined the company’s concerns in an e-mail to the review panel yesterday. “It is not evidence,” he wrote. “It is a propaganda film, produced to influence the opinions or behaviour of people, by providing deliberately biased content in an emotional context. By its nature, there is no opportunity for Taseko or anyone else to challenge it. When it is finished it is done. There is no one to answer questions or clarify any of the assertions.”

An e-mail distributed through the Friends of the Nemaiah Valley, one of the groups that funded the documentary directed by Susan Smitten, says Blue Gold is an important film. “It documents the voices of the Tsilhqot’in people themselves,” it said. “These voices are not filtered . . . They are the honest and deeply sincere voices of people who are defending their traditional territory.

“Taseko continues to trivialize these voices by labeling the film ‘propaganda.’”

The panel intends to consider Taseko’s objection during its first day of hearings in Williams Lake on March 22, Connelly wrote.

(translated by Megan Kinch)

On Friday night, 27^th , Mariano Abarca Roblero was assassinated by gunshot. Mariano was one of the strongest opposition leaders against mining exploitation by the Canadian mining company Blackfire in the hills of Chiapas, Mexico.

Gustavo Castro, of the Network of Mexicans Affected by Mining (REMA for its initials in Spanish), said that according to those close to Mariano he was assassinated around  8:30 PM in the main part of Chicomuselo, close to the border with Guatemala, by a motorcyclist carrying a high-caliber weapon.

They explained that Abarca Roblero was talking outside of his house with Orlando Velásquez, also a member of REMA-Chipaas, when an unidentified person shot Abarca in the head and the chest. Velásquez was also was wounded and was transported immediately to a hospital en the city of Comitán.

Last August 17^th, Mariano Abarca was arraigned by the Prosecutor General of State Justice after he was accused by Blackfire of various charges including organized crime.  Due to a national and international outcry against this injustice, he was freed on the 24^th of the same month, where he immediately joined the sit-in with his fellows in the municipal seat of Chicomuselo to press for the immediate removal of the company. At the end of August, the participants in a second meeting of Chiapas members of REMA in Chicomuselo, celebrated his release.

Castro said that the opposition leader in the exploitation of mines had filed a criminal complaint against a man (whose name was not provided) who was supposedly used by Blackfire to incarcerate Mariano in August.  He said that this person had been summoned to appear before the proper authorities yesterday, but the case was postponed until next Thursday.

Gustavo Casrtro put forth his theory that the murder of Mariano Abarca is related to his years of campaigning against mining exploitation.

According to data from REMA, the federal authorities have authorized 54 permissions for mining exploitation to Canadian Companies in their municipalities: to Blackfire extract barite, gold and antimony en more than 10 concessions; Linear Gold Corp, with 24 concessions, mostly gold and some of them granted for 50 years; Frontier Dev. Group with 12 projects, and also with New Gold Inc. with three concessions and Radius Gold with 7, although apparently these last ones have been withdrawn.

PRESS RELEASE

AMAP CONDEMS THE ASSISTATION OF MARIANO ABARCA

28^th November 2009

The Mexican Alliance for the People’s Self-determination (AMAP for its initials in Spanish) expresses its condemnation for the assassination of Mariano Abarca Roblero, which occurred the night of the 27^th of November in Chicomuselo, Chiapas.  The same attack also resulted in the grave wounding of his companion Orlando Velazquez.

Mariano led a citizen’s resistance in the municipality of Chicomuselo against the Canadian mining company Blackfire and participated actively in REMA (the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining).  Given his intense activity he was harassed on many occasions ans arbitrarily detained last August, where he was kept for 10 days before being released.

However, the hostility against his person has recently increased.  Only a few days ago he filed formal charges against the Directors of the Blackfire, who had delivered death threats in a public manner and appear to have followed through on them.

AMAP demands that this crime not go unpunished and beseeches to the government of Chiapas led by Juan Sabines that the material and intellectual perpetrators of this crime be prosecuted to the full extent of the law , and that the Attorney General’s office immediately follow the investigations already begun on the denunciation made by Mariano against LUIS ANTONIO FLORES VILLATORO and CIRO ROBLERO PEREZ, the first of these head of public relations for the Blackfire mine, who had publicly threatened to kill Mariano Abarca.

No more crimes against defenders of social justice!  End the criminalization of citizen protest!

For the National Coordinator of AMAP

Carlos Beas Torres

En Espanol:

http://kolektivoazul.blogspot.com/

This week’s reporting in the Toronto Star included a series of important reports on Canadian mining companies operating abroad. The first report detailed allegations (backed with video evidence) that companies have used paramilitaries to violently trample their opposition to mines that threaten rainforests and their way of life in Ecuador. It also gives some context into Canada’s track record of ignoring a long history of similar allegations. The second article focused on Barrick’s Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea and particularly on Sarah Knuckey’s (Lawyer, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University School of Law) testimony before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE). There, she repeated personal accounts of gang rape and other mine security violence told to her during her time in Papua New Guinea. Finally, the third article told the story of Romina Picolotti, a former Argentine environment minister who testified to receiving threats against her and her family following a mining intervention.

John McKay, Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, has introduced a private member’s bill designed to put controls on mining companies overseas. Conservatives have vowed to kill the bill, which is opposed by Canada’s mining industry. MPs are debating it in a House of Commons committee this week.

One of Africa’s Poorest and Most Embattled Countries is Prey to Canadian Mining Companies Searching for the Last Great Gold mine

In the heart of Africa, did a Canadian mining company cut a deal with an infamous and violent African militia that played a major role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994? According to one expert of the militia, known as the “FDLR,” or the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, the mining company has no other choice if it wants to safely dig up billions-of-dollars worth of gold for themselves and their investors.

The mining company with the fever for African gold is the Banro corporation of Toronto. It owns four mines relatively close to each other in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Specifically, the mines are located in the eastern DRC province of South Kivu, a rugged landscape of jungles, volcanoes, and millions of poor Congolese. Still in an exploratory stage, Banro believes that 10 million ounces could be extracted, and if gold stays around US$950 oz., that’s roughly $10 billion.

Now Banro is trying to raise hundreds of millions of dollars via the Toronto Stock Exchange so they can begin mining this bonanza, calling it Africa’s last great gold deposit. Banro also boasts about the tax-breaks they’ve been given by a country the UN states is ranked 177th out of 179 on its Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, annual GDP (in the case of the Congolese, $300 a year), literacy rate, and number of school-aged children being educated.

Banro’s Third World adventure is a familiar quest Canadian mining companies have undertaken during the last 20 years. Increasingly restricted by newly enacted environmental legislation in its own home¬land, a Canadian mining company leaves for a nation where the environmental laws are weak and the politician’s cheap. Funding for Banro’s African dig flows easily from the Toronto Stock Exchange. And like a lot of foreign labour, it is also dirt cheap in the eastern DRC—- where artisanal miners gladly work for just a few dollars a day.

According to CorpWatch.org, 60 percent of all the world’s mining companies are based in Canada, generating $50 billion a year for Canadians. “The Toronto Stock Exchange is the number one (generator) for mining capital in the world,” says Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch Canada, an Ottawa-based mining industry watch-dog group. Taking your operation overseas also saves your country from dealing with the mess: 20 tonnes of waste rock comes from the creation of one gold wedding ring.

But the story of Banro in the Congo has a twist. A risk actually, that some believe could turn into another African nightmare for all involved. The eastern regions of the DRC have been stricken by a decade-long “resource war” — a moniker that former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the UN has used to describe the conflict that has laid siege to the eastern DRC. This resource war has cooled of late, but the threads of peace and stability in the eastern DRC have always proven to be fragile. Thus the possibility of another western-based mining company taking billions of dollars right out from under the feet of the Congolese could create a spark that re-ignites this war.

In the late 1990s, so strong was the lure of eastern DRC gold, casserite, and coltan, that neighbouring countries of Uganda and Rwanda invaded with proxy militias and their own armies. In 2000, the Rwandan military and connected politicians, for instance, made $250 million moving coltan out of eastern DRC to Western-based mining companies and metal traders who then sold the resources to companies that manufactured parts for the likes of Sony and Motorola. Coltan, when processed becomes the powder tantalum, which is used in the making of capacitors — capacitors needed to make cell phones, video game consoles, and computers so valuable to western personal technology.

This conflict, waged in part so the West can have its personal electronics, cost the lives of three to five million Congolese and other Africans, according to many NGOs.

In the Neighbourhood

While Banro’s mines are not directly in the heart of where this resource war was waged the fiercest, their mines are awfully close. Indeed, one of the biggest players in the resource war was the FDLR, which owes its existence to illegal mining. According to FDLR-expert Hans Romkema, director of Conflict and Transition Consultancies of the Netherlands, each of Banro’s four mines are just a few miles from territory control¬led by the militia, which is an estimated 6,000 strong. Romkema has monitored the militia in-country on several expeditions. He says the FDLR, for the most part, is the only military and political force near Banro’s mines — a force that exploits natural resources, controls trade, collects taxes, and dominates the local population. The FDLR is composed of Rwandan Hutus who escaped into the neighbouring eastern forests of the DRC after the 1994 Rwandan genocide and alleged to have played a major role in murdering 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The FDLR aims to overthrow the current Rwandan government, but several FDLR leaders use the movement to protect themselves because they are wanted by the U.S. government and the International Criminal Tribune for crimes committed in 1994.

Romkema reported in 2007 that some Congolese civilians are undergoing military training so the FDLR can indoctrinate them as “Interahamwe” — those who committed genocide. Romkema believes Banro’s mines are too big and no militia “will have the guts to take control over one of those mines.” Thus no Canadian troops or any western-based private army will ever have to be flown into central Africa — hopefully. Over the past 12 months, Congolese and Rwandan government troops, along with UN Peace-keeping forces (there to enforce a peace treaty), have conducted numerous operations to oust the FDLR once and for all. The FDLR are clearly agitated, some fleeing toward Banro’s mines, reported the UN.

“There are widespread reports … of atrocities including accusations of murder, rape, and torture, on the part of the FDLR rebels,” said UN spokesperson Ron Redmond to the newswire Agence France-Press late last summer. Last May, the FDLR struck back, attacking a village in South Kivu killing 60 civilians and 30 government troops, according to the UN. On its website, the FDLR has denied any involvement.

The risk seems too great for any mining company to take the chance, but to hedge their bets, Banro may have no choice but to play “by the rules” of the eastern DRC, Romkema says. Meaning they will have to bribe or make some type of off-the-books agreement with both the Congolese government and whatever militia controls the territory their mine is located in, he says.

“In my view, Banro cannot work, neither in their (mines) without having had some contacts with the FDLR,” says Romkema. “Those contacts can have occurred through an intermediary. But somebody must have passed the message to leave the miners alone.”

Banro’s Martin Jones, a spokesperson from Toronto, refutes Romkema’s claim. “He’s not going to find any FDLR in the neighbourhood,” he said referring to the forests 20 to 40 miles south west of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, where one of Banro’s mines are. Three years ago an FDLR column passed nearby without incident, which prompts Jones to say the militia is not the concern the NGOs make them out to be.

Exposing the Mine

Nevertheless, the presence of another Canadian mining company near the killing fields of a past conflict waged so the West can have its technological toys raises a potent question: Can Banro reverse the deadly trend of resource-driven wars in Africa by putting millions back into a community which is also heavily employed by Banro?

Jones says Banro is not just interested in Congolese gold. They’ve invested into the area by building several schools, roads, and a potable water system for a region in desperate need of such infrastructure. They also said they will spend $13 million to relocate a small village of 750 Congolese, while also finding work for 800 Congolese miners who are digging “illegally,” as Banro says, near the same mine.

Romkema says if Banro operates in the same way other Western mining companies have in the past in the Congo — illegally and secretly moving resources out of the country and bribing corrupt DRC officials — “They’ll help to maintain the illegal networks that have characterized the DRC for so long and that entirely destroyed the Congolese State.” The FDLR has been part of illegal networks for many years, networks that usually end at Western-based metal brokers, such as Britain’s Afrimex, Bangkok’s Thaisacro, and Belgium’s Trademet, as uncovered earlier this year by Global Witness, a British-based NGO.

Calling out the Companies

When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this summer, she railed against the sexual violence that has victimized Congolese women. She also lambasted corrupt DRC officials, calling for more government transparency and accountability. But something was inexplicably missing in her Congo roundtables, even though Congolese journalists tried to prod her about the issue. There was hardly any atonement for the Western-based mining companies and metal brokers who have helped fuel the DRC resource war of the last ten years.

“The future of Africa is up to the Africans. The future, ultimately, of the Congolese people is up to the Congolese people,” she said to journalists.

Someday that may hold to be true. But without question, the recent past of the Congolese was partially dictated by Western-based mining companies and metal brokers. A significant number of them are Canadian, as revealed by a 2001 UN investigation titled “The illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC.” One of the Canadian companies named in the report was Banro while others included First Quantum Minerals and Tenke Mining Corporation, both based in Vancouver. Simply put, these Canadian mining companies and metal brokers are accused of stealing resources from a nation, its people and government, which were overwhelmed by war.

Plundering resources from a nation in the grip of war is in violation of OECD guidelines for multi-national corporations, a voluntary set of moral standards for working in another country established by the think-tank the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, based in France. But the Canadian government — like many Western governments — are not bound to enforce OECD guidelines.

“The U.S. government was one of the most determined to quash the UN Panel’s reports but this is also true of Canada, the UK and Belgium,” says Tricia Feeney, executive director of the London-based Rights and Accountability in Development or RAID. “All (companies) were exonerated. The UN Panel said the cases had been resolved.”

Just because the UN laid down, says Feeney, doesn’t mean the companies are innocent. “Essentially the UN was forced to drop the case but as they explained (in their reports), ‘resolved’ didn’t mean that the initial allegations were unsubstantiated,” she says. “The (U.S. and Canadian) companies have tried to hide behind the technicality of ‘resolved’ but the UN itself made clear that this classification didn’t mean that the companies had not behaved in the way described in the UN reports.”

Which way will the Canadian government look?

In Ottawa, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada keeps watch on homeland mining companies working overseas. Spokesperson Laura Dalby stated in an email they are closely monitoring Banro’s four mines using trade commissioners based in the DRC capital of Kinshasa. “Canada encourages and expects Banro Corporation to respect all laws and international standards, to operate responsibly, transparently, in full consultation with the DRC government and the local community in which they are conducting their operations,” she wrote.

What’s more, Banro continues to receive “full cooperation and support” from the DRC’s central and provincial governments, she stated. The department is hoping Banro finds a way to boost the eastern DRC out of its war-torn malaise.

“We hope to see positive outcomes as a result of Banro Corporation’s investments and Corporate Social Responsibility activities in the DRC. This is meant to drive forward the country’s industrialization and create new and income-earning opportunities for the fast-growing population,” she wrote.

Just four years ago, however, MiningWatch’s Jamie Kneen said the Canadian government essentially looked the other way following a massacre in which a Canadian mining company played a role. In October of 2004, Anvil Mining, the leading copper producer in the DRC, had to shut down production at their Dikulushi Mine when a so-called “rebellion” took place in a nearby village a rebellion of “10 to 12” villagers that had nothing to do with mining, said Kneen. Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), of the DRC government, proceeded to seize the town, says Kneen, then went door-to-door “raping and pillaging.” Between 70 to 100 civilians were killed including women and children. Kneen said the DRC forces had Anvil’s “full cooperation.” Anvil claimed the DRC forces basically put a gun to their chest. Anvil nevertheless offered up trucks and logistics, says Kneen; trucks that transported troops and dead civilians.

In the aftermath, the Canadian government “refused to investigate because there’s no legal mechanism in place,” says Kneen.

In 2002, Toronto’s Barrick Gold, Canada’s biggest gold miner, was accused by NGOs of making mining agreements with two eastern DRC militias, which at the time were in the midst of murdering hundreds of civilians. In return for the mines, the militias were given housing and trucks, among other appeasements. When some of the rebels were apprehended by government forces, Barrick paid for their lawyers. In December of 2008, a Barrick Gold mine in Tanzania was overrun by hundreds of angry locals, ceasing production. Millions of dollars of damages was reported.

“If the people are not improving their lives as a result of the gold exploitation, it will be easy for rebel groups to recruit amongst the region’s youngsters,” Romkema says of Banro. “I never had the impression that the population (near Banro’s mines) is benefiting anything from the exploitation (or mining) of minerals.”