Mining Injustice Solidarity Network

Mining Injustice Solidarity Network is pleased to invite you to the third conference on the impact of Canadian mining on local communities throughout the world, which will take place the 6th – 8th of May of 2011
at the University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall (100 St. George Street).

This conference reflects the collective effort of several organizations and grass roots groups in Toronto, in collaboration with peoples, communities and organizations facing and resisting the entrance of corporate mining mega-projects into their territories.

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Friday May 6th: Conference ‘soft-launch’ – meet and greet with affected community members and activists at Beit Zatoun (612 Markham Street)

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Saturday May 7th: keynote speaker and concurrent sessions as well as workshops and caucuses! (Sidney Smith Hall)

Official conference launch: dance party (193 Dowling Street @ Queen Street West)

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Sunday May 8th: keynote speaker and concurrent sessions as well as workshops and caucuses (cont.!) (Sidney Smith Hall)

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Particular themes that will be discussed this year include:
• Gendered violence, inequity and feminist perspectives
• Militarization and forced displacement
• Indigenous knowledge and spirituality as forms of resistance
• Labour rights and the rhetoric of development
• Criminalization of dissent and protest
• Environmental contamination effects and health
• Food security and water rights
• The cycle of supply and demand of uranium in the North
• Tar sands and the petroleum industry in the North and South

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Stay tuned for a list of speakers!

Endorsed by: Barrio Nuevo, CUPE, Environmental Justice Toronto, Guatemala Community Network – Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo Mayan Project, Tzijolaj-Ottawa,Health for All, Indigenous Environmental Network, OPIRG Toronto, Philippines Solidarity Network of Canada, Latin American and Carribean Solidarity Network, Latin American Trade Union Coalition, NooneisIllegal, Students for a Free Tibet

Thanks to all who came out to the recent anti-corporatization teach in with Linda McQuaig.

Recent corporate contracts made by the University of Toronto as exemplified by the Memorandum of Agreement between The Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation and the University of Toronto, reveal an ongoing trend towards increased corporate control of academic spaces.

Students, faculty and the wider community have expressed concern over the undue influence that corporations may be able to exert as a result of corporate ‘donations’ made behind closed doors, without faculty or campus consultation and with little oversight by necessary university regulatory bodies. Adding to concerns of threats to university governance, academic freedom and integrity are the poor reputation of many of these corporations globally.

Peter Munk’s Barrick Gold for instance, is accused of human rights abuses, environmental violations, and corrupt practices at many of their operations around the globe. In this context, attaching the name and conditions of the CEO of Barrick Gold to a school of Global Affairs, can be considered to be a glaring political conflict of interest. The same can be said for BP Amoco PLC (formerly British Petroleum)’s financial support to the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at Berkely among many others.

You can sign the petition against the Corporatization of the University of Toronto here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/munkoff/

For more information visit:

http://munkoutofuoft.wordpress.com/

protestbarrick.net

When: Wednesday February, 2nd, 5 pm
Where: Meet at OISE, 5th floor
Who: Everyone is welcome!

We stand in solidarity with mining affected communities and work with them to resist the destructive acts of Canadian mining companies that threaten:

*indigenous sovereignty
*community rights
*labour rights
*the environment
*our water
*health and wellness
*food security
*survival

and exacerbate:

*gendered violence and inequity
*militarization and forced displacement
*criminalization of community leaders
*the corporatization of education
*mass poverty

From North to South, East to West – from university campuses to the rural highlands of mining affected regions – we believe that resistance is possible. We take direction from local community leaders who experience the impact of mining companies first-hand. We work to join our struggles together and form a network of mining impacted people (directly affectected and otherwise)

Join us! We put on the annual Mining (In)Justice Conference in Toronto where we bring affected community members from around the world to tell their stories, and organize. We also do protests, petions, independent media, vigils, art projects, photography, and documentaries. We are made up of community members and also have a chapter at the University of Toronto that you can get involved with, specifically focused on taking on corporatization and the support of the university for these mining abuses.

Find us online: solidarityresponse.net
Email us: csrt@gmail.com
RSVP on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=599797469&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=125070904229050

Climate Justice Activists shut down intersection by the Toronto Stock Exchange (photo: Alex Felipe)

by Tim Groves

Over 150 climate justice activists blocked traffic at the intersection of Bay St. and King St., at the heart of Toronto’s Financial District. They were responding to a call put out by La Via Campesina for an international day of actions to protest ”the False Solutions promoted through the Copenhagen Accord” and in solidarity with those protesting outside climate talks taking place in Cancun, Mexico.

Protests took place in a dozen cities in Canada.  In Toronto a large crowd gathered at Nathan Phillip Square, despite the freezing cold weather. After a series of speeches the crowd marched down Bay St. accompanied by a samba band and a large dragon puppet.

As the sky darkened they reached the corner of Bay and King, the hub of Toronto’s financial district. Suddenly two giant bamboo tripods were taken out of the Dragon puppet, and erected in the middle of the intersection. Two demonstrators quickly mounted each tripod and a banner was strung between them reading ”Tar Sands Kill, Pipelines Spill”.  The crowd gathered around the tripods, blocking any traffic from getting by. Chanting and dancing continued around the tripods.

Later, the tripods were taken down and the march continued.

“In light of the ongoing talks in Cancun and the Canadian government’s incompetence and inaction we came together today to stand in solidarity with First Nation and respond to the call for actions” said Taylor Flook, one of the activists who perched atop a tripod.

Explaining some of the reasons to protest the talks in Cancun, Alberto Gómez Flores, representative of La Via Campesina, said: “It’s a disgrace that the United Nations space intended to tackle climate change has been converted into a platform to legitimize the commercial strategies of transnational corporations.”

Jasmine Thomas of the Carrier Nation, located 13 hours north of Vancouver, traveled to Cancun. She expressed the issues that were important to her nation, ”The Carrier Nation is opposed to Enbridge pipeline corporations bid to build the Northern Gateway pipeline which would move dirty Alberta Tar Sands to the port of Kitimatt, British Colombia.”

Community Solidarity Response Toronto, as one of the group who participated the demonstration put out the following statement:

“Community organizers unite to demand climate and social justice in solidarity with La Via Campesina

Close to 100 Migrant rights, union, anti-poverty, gender equity and climate activists gathered at Nathan Phillips Square in the Toronto financial district, to express solidarity with the La Via Campesina’s International Day of a 1000 Cancun’s and with the many grassroots organizations mobiizing in Cancun.

La Via Campesina, a north/south farmer’s coalition for food sovereignty, sustainability, gender equity, and social justice, is campaigning against false solutions such as REDD [Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation]. Alberto Gómez Flores, representative of La Via Campesina for the North America region, said: “It’s a disgrace that the United Nations space intended to tackle climate change has been converted into a platform to legitimize the commercial strategies of transnational corporations.” Local organizers emphasized that racialized/indigenous people, women and the poor are disproportionately affected by the extractive industry, which often displaces whole communities, leads to increases in sexual violence and gender inequity and sabotages local economic activities such as subsistence farming.

A dozen cities across Canada have responded to the Via Campesina’s call for climate justice. These groups point to Canada’s lax regulation and exploitative policy that further endanger the environment as well as the safety and livelihood of the earth’s people. The Latin American and Carribean Solidarity Network condemned Canada’s failure to pass Bill C-300, a bill that would regulate mining companies’ activities abroad by withholding government investments and the undemocratic defeat of Bill C-311, meant to address climate change. Other issues raised at the rally concerned Canada’s continued negligence of local food security for poor people, the harmful consequences of the Tar Sands project, the privatization of water, and the need for supportive migration policy to respond to the environmental refugee crisis created by Canadian foreign policy. Canada’s climate negotiations in Cancun, which has been described as an “excuse for inaction” by environmental think tank groups is not likely to change Canada’s reputation. It has been reported that Canada, a long with only Russia and Japan will fight to vote down an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Canada has yet to meet their previous commitments made with the Kyoto Protocol to decrease emissions and instead, their levels have increased by 24% since 1990.”

Originally published on the Toronto Media Coop. Photo byAlex Felipe

PALAWAN CHILDE FROM A VULNERABLE AND ISOLATED UPLAND COMMUNITIES FOUND IN MACROASIA MPSA AREA.

On July 30, over 20 members of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) – a local government body in charge of the protection and sustainable management of the Province meet to decide whether to issue a SEP (Strategic Environmental Plan) clearance to the mining operations of MacroAsia Corporation (MAC for brevity) with reference to a 91ha area, out of the approved Mineral Production Sharing Agreement area of over 1300 hectares.  The area for which SEP clearance is being sought consists of well-conserved forest which provides clean water to lowland communities and which is also part of the traditional territory of Palawan tribes living in Brooke’s Point Municipality. During the last PCSD meeting, thanks to the support of Atty Grizelda Mayo-Anda (representing the NGOs community within the Council) and through the effective mediation of Governor Abraham Kahlil Mitra, the ALDAW network (Ancestral Land Domain Watch) was allowed to present ‘geotagged’ findings collected in two separate field surveys carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Biocultural Diversity (CBCD) of the University of Kent (UK). (more…)

Participants in the Toxic Tour carry a Pipeline Dragon through a tour of the worst climate, mining and tar sands perpetrators in the city. (photo Christian Peña)

The Toxic Tour was a great event!

400-500 People showed up to demonstrate against the total failure of the G8/G20 to address toxic mining and tar sands, and the complicity of the Canadian government in the destruction of water, the poisoning of people, the killing of activists, and the takeover of indigenous land all of which are an integral part of the extractive industries. Speakers included Naty Atz Sunuc an indigenous Maya-Kaqchickel woman from Guatemala on mining and climate change, Sakura Saunders from ProtestBarrick.net. The event ended with a rousing performance by “test their logik”.

It featured kick-ass home made floats, protest clowns,

And of course, for the latest in G20 news go to :

2010.mediacoop.ca

These are just teasers, check out more photos of the Toxic Tour by Christian Peña and  Ben Powless

Mining (in)justice: at home and abroad is a conference on the Canadian mining industry (including Tar Sands) set to take place in Toronto on the weekend of May 7-9, 2010. It will feature leaders in movements against Canadian mining companies both within and outside of Canada and provide space for growing our own movements in alliance with communities impacted by this industry.

WHAT: Conference on the Canadian Mining Industry

WHERE: Earth Sciences Building, University of Toronto (map)

WHEN: May 7-9, 2010

WHO: Impacted communities are coming from all over the world and within Canada. Hear speakers from Honduras, Guatemala, Carrier Sekani First Nation, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Ardoch Algonquin, Northern Ontario, Fort Chipewan, Mexico and more! Clayton Thomas Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network is MCing the event!

May 7th Opening party and launch of the Dominions G20 Issue , 8:00 PM- 3:00 PM, Ryerson University , Ram in the Rye Pub, 55 Gould Street, Corner of Gould and Church

All our welcome, and the event is free!

This is a follow-up conference to last year’s mining conference, which brought over 20 front line defenders to share their stories and strategize solutions to ending corporate impunity and strengthening the struggles against destructive mining projects around the world.

This year, we are expanding the conference into a 3 day event, providing more space for participants to meet each other, form alliances, and plan actions to foster a movement in solidarity with impacted communities.

For more information and to find out how to get involved! solidarityresponse.net, e-mail:csrtoronto@gmail.com

Check out our conference agenda! Confirmed speakers for 2010 include:

CARLOS AMADOR: Carlos is a teacher and community leader in El Porvenir, 15 kilometers from Goldcorp’s open-pit, cyanide-leaching gold mine – the “San Martin” mine. Since 2000, Carlos has been educating and organizing local communities in the Siria Valley, and working to resist and demand justice for the health and environmental harms and human rights violations caused by Goldcorp’s mine.

JAIME ARDILES is a Representante Sectorial of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous and Agricultural Community is located in Chile, in the Huasco Valley, the last unpolluted valley in the north of Chile. Since time immemorial Huascoaltinos have been the guardians of the life in the Huasco Valley and they want to protect their lands for future generations. Today, their culture is being severely threatened by mining companies such as Barrick, New Gold and Goldcorp. He is going to be here with one of the technical advisors of the community to talk about their issues.

CLIFTON ARIHWAKEHTE NICHOLAS: is a Mohawk from Kanehsatake (Oka) is a community activist and was a active participant in the 1990 Oka Crisis.  Clifton is active with the traditionalist of the Mohawk Nation and is currently working against the proposed NIOCAN mining project on Kanehsatake’s territory.

ZAFFAR BALOCH: the president of Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada. BHRC is an international non-profit organization based in London, UK. BHRC was founded in August, 2008 in London by the Baloch Diaspora living in Europe, North America, and the Persian Gulf states. The purpose of this organization is to raise the profile of Balochistan on an international scale and to bring awareness in the world community about the gross human rights violations committed against the Baloch nation by the states of Pakistan and Iran. At present, BHRC has chapters in UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and the Persian Gulf States and will soon commence a functioning unit in the US as well.

THE COUNCIL OF CANADIANS: Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada’s largest citizens’ organization, with members and chapters across the country.They work to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians.They develop creative campaigns to put some of the country’s most important issues into the spotlight. They work with a network of over 70 volunteer chapters to organize speaking tours, days of action,conferences and demonstrations. We also produce research reports,create popular materials, and work with individuals and organizations across the country and around the world. We do all of this to ensure that governments know the kind of Canada we want.

MARK CALZAVARA: Regional Organizer Ontario/ Quebec,Council of Canadians

DR. CONSTANCIO ‘CHANDU’ CLAVER: a native of Bontoc, Mountain Province in the northern Philippines, is currently the Chairperson of BAYAN Canada. A surgeon by training and a physician by practice, Dr. Claver has been a doctor of the masses for decades, being the Executive Director of the former Community Health and Education Concerns for Kalinga-Apayao. Formerly the Vice-Chair of the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance, and chairperson of Bayan Muna in Kalinga, Dr. Claver is known as a staunch advocate of human rights, peace and justice. In July 2006, Dr. Claver, his wife Alyce, and their daughter were targets of a political assassination attempt, which his wife did not survive. Dr. Claver recently won his claim for political refugee status; he and his daughters now live in Canada.

JAVIER de LEON: Javier is a Mayan Mam community leader from the village of Maquivil, municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, department of San Marcos. From his small home, he looks across at Goldcorp’s ever expanding open-pit, cyanide-leaching gold mine – the “Marlin” mine. Since 2004, Javier has been educating and organizing Mayan Mam communities and working to resist and demand justice for the health and environmental harms and human rights violations caused by Goldcorp’s mine.

SUSANA DERANGER: is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. She is the co-founder of a new group called Indigenous Women Without Borders and has been an activist and involved in First Nation and human rights a great part of her life. Susana was in Copenhagen and attended the Peoples Summit on Climate Change and Respect for Mother Earth in Cochabamba Bolivia. She also works on community development projects in the Peruvian Amazon and in other countries in Latin America.Susana lives in Regina, Saskatchewan and is a mother of four children and a grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren.

PETER ERICKSON: Carrier Sekani FN Councilor Pete Erickson is a Hereditary chief within the Carrier Sekani First Nation. He goes by TsohDih and is a member of the Beaver Clan. Pete participated in the fight agains Kemess North Mine in the north of our territory, and is currently involved in a dispute with Terrane Minerals and BC over Mt. Milligan. His mother died young from severe form of cancer probably due to the fact she had one of the highest levels of mercury found in canada, and his father lost all his teeth to mercury poisoning while working at one of the two mercyry mines in the region (both closed without cleanup).  His community currently has three mining properties on our own family “keyoh” in various stages of development.

ENRICO ESGUERRA: Rick Esguerra taught International Development and Political Science at the University of the Philippines, and was involved in popular education for labour and peasant organizations before coming to Canada in 1990. Since then he has been involved in social justice, human rights and international solidarity work as a member of the Philippine Solidarity Network and the Philippine Network for Justice and Peace (PNJP). In September 2006, he made a presentation for PNJP on Canadian Mining Practices in the Philippines at the Toronto Roundtable on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Sector, hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

ULISES GARCIA: Organized the local referendum against Manhattan Resources which managed to expel a powerful global mining company. He is the founder of a grassroots organization called Tropico Seco, which focuses on the promotion of peaceful resistance and the holding of community and municipal referendums in Latin America concerning development initiatives.

TIM GROVES: is a Toronto-based investigative researcher and reporter. He has been sharing his skills with a variety of activist and community groups since 2003.

RAMSEY HART joined MiningWatch Canada as the Canada Program 
Coordinator in 2008. In this Position Ramsey works with communities 
concerned with proposed mining projects, reviews environmental 
assessments, develops proposals for policy reform and provides 
relevant and critical analysis to the media, concerned citizens and 
political decision makers. He has been an activist since he was in 
high school and has worked on a variety of issues and projects, from 
international mining, to indigenous solidarity and a community bicycle 
recycling program. When not working or volunteering his time for 
environmental and social justice causes, he can usually be found in 
his garden or on the water in a canoe.

CLEVE HIGGINS: is active with FAO-Montreal, supporting community opposition to Canadian mining projects in Mexico and Canada. He recently graduated from McGill after doing an honours thesis on the financing of the Canadian mining industry.

CLAIRE LEHAN: Lehan is a legislative Assistant to MPP John McKay. She had worked on the creation of Bill C300 since its inception.

ALLAN LISSNER: is an independent photojournalist based in Toronto, Canada. Allan’s ongoing project, “Someone Else’s Treasure”, examines the social and environmental impacts of the global mining industry on indigenous communities around the world. Allan has done work with many organizations including Amnesty International, Oxfam Canada, Make Poverty History, Norwegian Church Aid,the Ontario Council for International Cooperation, and the United Nations Development Program.

ROBERT LOVELACE: For nearly 25 years Bob has remained a steadfast and determined representative for the Algonquin communities of Ardoch, Sharbot Lake. He has stood strong with many allies and friends in defence of the wild rice stands near Ardoch Algonquin land. Lovelace is most well-known outside the Ardoch Algonquin community for his stand against uranium mining, for which he was incarcerated in 2008 with no objection from the Province of Ontario at the time.

BODIA MACHARIA: President of Friends of the Congo/Canada.

MIKE MERCREDI: Mike is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan FN (ACFN).

ENRIQUE RIVERA SIERRA: Rivera is a lawyer and activist working with FAO (Frente Amplio Opositor), a broad environmental and community coalition working to defend Cerro de San Pedro, including historically and culturally significant sites, from contamination and destruction by Canadian company New Gold. Rivera Sierra is currently in Canada claiming political asylum after being allegedly harassed and threatened by mining employees.

NELY RIVERA DE SILVA: de Silva works with CEICOM, the Centre for Research on Investment and Commerce, an organization that does research and advocacy on the impacts of mining investment in El Salvador. At this time, Nely is deeply involved community organizing to prevent the second Goldcorp mine in Guatemala, that of Cerro Blanco, which is on the Guatemala/El Salvador border and threatens access to water and the contamination of water and the eco-system on both sides of the border.

CLAYTON THOMAS MULLER: Is currently the Indigenous Environmental Network Tar Sands coordinator. He is an activist working for indigenous self-determination and environmental justice. For over 10 years he has worked across Canada – at the front lines, to stop industrial society’s assault on Indigenous Peoples lands.

FELICIANO ORELLANA: is a representative of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Franciscan Family, in the Department of Jutiapa in eastern Guatemala. Employed by Goldcorp subsidiary Entre Mares in 1998 as one of the first employee, he later got hired in 2008 and suffered an almost Fatal accident on the job, for which he received no compensation. Now Feliciano is an active leader in his community and wants to share his experience on Goldcorp Human Rights Violations and the communities’ opposition to the Cerro Blanco Mine, Goldcorp’ second large mine in Guatemala.

CHRIS REID: Lawyer of the Ardoch Algonquin and KI Nations.

MALCOM ROGGE: is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto. His debut feature documentary film, Under Rich Earth had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and has received widespread critical acclaim. Rogge has also worked for human rights and environmental organizations in Canada and Ecuador, and he is on the editorial board of a national magazine devoted to politics and social justice.

NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT is the Native Peoples Liberation Movement, fighting for People, Land, and way of Life.The Native Youth Movement is in the midst of becoming a Grand Council of Young and Old (Veteran/Battle Tested) Warriorz alike. A Warriorz Society with the Young Warriorz serving as the Physical protectors, and the O.G.s (Original Guerrillas) as the Advisor Warriorz, giving direction through lessons, age old teachings, previous battles, and from the Spirits and Ancestors.

STEVEN SCHNOOR: For several years, Schnoor has been working on the issue of Canadian mining companies operating in Central America — an interest that began in January 2005/ Film work includes “Desalojo (Eviction)” and “All That Glitters Isn’t Gold: A Story of Exploitation and Resistance.” Steven is presently working on a larger documentary looking at the broader implications of mining in the surrounding regions.

KAREN SPRING : Karen is from Ontario, Canada. With Rights Action since early 2009, she lives and works in Honduras and Guatemala.

MACDONALD STAINSBY: is a grassroots social justice activist, writer, journalist and professional hitchhiker looking for a ride to the better world. He has been the coordinator of http://oilsandstruth.org for over three years, working to shut down tar sands projects in many places around the globe. He has recently returned from Trinidad and Tobago where tar sands strip mining is being proposed and also attended the People’s summit on climate change in Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, in the Plurinational Republic of Bolivia.

JETHRO TULIN: Jethro has been organizing within and outside the Barrick’s Porgera mine since its inception (then owned by Placer Dome. In 1989, he registered Porgera’s first mine workers union and became its first secretary.Years later, Tulin returned to Porgera to find the situation worse and thus founded the Akali Tange Association (ATA), a human rights organization documenting abuses at the Porgera mine in Papa New Guinea – – a mine owned by Toronto’s Barrick Gold.

TENZIN LOBSANG WANGKHANG: Wangkhang is the National Director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) Canada, a grassroots non-profit advocacy group based out of Toronto. Students for a Free Tibet Canada is part of the SFT International network which works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence from illegal Chinese occupation. Through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action, they campaign for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political freedom. SFT’s role is to empower and train youth as leaders in the worldwide movement for social justice. One of SFT Canada’s key campaigns is targeting Canadian mining companies that have lead to recent foreign gold rush into Tibet.

DIANE WIGGINS: Post Colborne resident and community organizer for the Coalition Against Contamination. Wiggins is currently involved in a lawsuit againt INCO due to nickel contamination.

Title: Guatemala Reportback – Someone Else’ Treasure
Location: Tequilla Bookworm, 512 Queen St. West
Link out: Click here
Description: Home to sixty per cent of the world’s mining companies, Canada leads the way in the global mining industry. But people the world over are raising complaints describing the mining industry as Canada’s number one contribution to global injustice.

Please join Toronto based photographer Allan Lissner to discuss “Someone Else’s Treasure”, an on-going project shedding light on the experiences of people around the world – including Guatemala, the Philippines, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Chile, and Canada – whose lives have been impacted by the global mining industry.

Claudia Susana Caxaj, recently returned from a delegation to Guatemala with Rights Action examining the impact of mining on human rights, will also be speaking. Susana is a PhD student at University of Western Ontario, studying self-determination and health in communities affected by mining.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-12-03

by Elio Henriquez, correspondent for “La Jornada”                Saturday 28th November, 2009

(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/

Mainstream press in Canada is reporting on Canadian Mining abuses abroad

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.