Search: 2011

In the last two weeks there has been an intense media storm around the current housing crisis in Attawapiskat, a remote Cree community on the coast of James Bay. One element of the story that’s getting some attention and is of particular interest to MiningWatch is the fact that the community is ‘host’ to DeBeers’ Victor diamond mine, located 90 km west of the community, upstream on the Attawapiskat River, within the traditional territory of the Omushkego Cree. The juxtaposition is stark: a diamond mine producing millions of dollars of a sparkling luxury item, next to the poverty and infrastructure deficits in Attawapiskat. It has led people to ask us: if there are millions of dollars of diamonds being taken from their traditional territory, why aren’t the conditions in the community improving?

Presentation: In the context of Colombia's ongoing internal armed struggle, President Santos has declared mining a new economic engine for Colombia, running up against the rights of indigenous, afro-Colombian, campesino, small scale and artisanal miners, and water users. Jen Moore gave this presentation at a teach-in organized in Toronto by the Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance (CASA) and the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN) on December 4, 2011.

Contents:

• Surviving a Mine: Canada’s Uranium District and the Western Mining Action Network Conference 2011
• New Brunswickers Persevere Through Gruelling Hearings
• BC’s Zombie Mine – “New Prosperity”
• Kamloops Residents, Town, and Regional Council Seek Review Panel for Ajax Mine
• Indigenous Rights and Mining – Recent Developments, Opportunities and Challenges
• Ghana’s Golden Deception
• Argentine Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez on the Prosecution of Environmental Crimes
• Whose Development? Mining, local resistance, and development agendas

If a mining company was likely to have caused numerous family wells to go dry, changed the discharge of groundwater into local streams, caused sink holes in fields and yards, and horizontal and vertical shifts in the land surface – one would hope that the government responsible for regulating the industry would step up and support the citizens who were being affected.