Presentation: Xat'sull Chief Bev Sellars discusses the struggle of indigenous peoples for their territory and wellbeing of their communities in the context of continuing colonialism and destructive mining practices in Canada. Chief Sellars made this presentation at the Fifth Gathering of the Latin...

How is it that when community leaders are wrongfully targeted in the aftermath of violence connected with Tahoe Resources’ Escobal mine they spend months in jail, while the company’s former head of security who faces criminal charges for his alleged role in the violence last April is first given...

"I spy, you spy… In the world of big mining and big oil companies, it would seem that everybody spies." In this article, activist Judith Marshall makes the disturbing observation that while "Canada spies on Brazil and shares the information with mining and oil companies in Canada, Vale spies on its...

Contents: The Giant Mine: Will Reason Prevail? The Federal CSR Counsellor Has Left the Building - Can we now have an effective ombudsman mechanism for the extractive sector? Revelations of Industrial Espionage Expose Underbelly of Canadian Support for Mining Companies The Bell Tolls for Free Entry...

In the days and weeks ahead, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake are going to be standing up to the Quebec government over the Ministry of Natural Resource's intransigent refusal to respect past commitments to cooperate with the community in the management of the forests within the community's...

In our June newsletter, we wrote about the ongoing abuse of the human rights of victims of rape by security guards at Barrick Gold’s Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea (95% owned, operated by Barrick).

Communities affected by First Quantum Minerals’ massive Sentinel copper mine project in Northwest Zambia have been resisting the project for more than three years. The company has been throwing its weight around with the community as well as the Zambian government, making liberal promises of jobs...

The Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor (CSR Counsellor) was announced with much government fanfare in October 2009 as a central “pillar” in the government’s “CSR strategy” for Canada’s extractive sector. The CSR Counsellor was to provide remedy for people who...

The 149th Session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC this Friday will hear from delegates from Colombia, Honduras, Peru, Chile and Brazil about the negative impacts of Canadian mining activities in the region, highlighting the Canadian government’s role.

Guest blog by Kevin O’Reilly, Alternatives North, Yellowknife: The Giant Mine operated at the edge of the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, from 1948 to 2004. As the gold-bearing ore was processed, the mine generated a toxic by-product, arsenic trioxide – a proven non-threshold...

Are you ready to stand up for justice for mining-affected communities in the Global South? If the approval of a mine meant you would be kicked off your land, would you expect a chance to say no this project? And if it went ahead, would you expect to be compensated? If your drinking water were...

In the Philippines, the island province of Marinduque is known as a cautionary tale about the ravages of irresponsible mining. It took Canadian mining giant Placer Dome a couple of decades to wreak environmental destruction on major coral reefs in Calancan Bay and to severely contaminate the Mogpog...

News that the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) has been spying on Brazil’s Mines Ministry starts to expose the extent to which the Canadian government is willing to go in the corporate interest. The scandal in Brazil is consistent with what Canadian authorities have been doing at...

Canadian Embassies have regularly gone to bat to protect the interests of Canadian mining companies in cases where communities don’t want them and/or where there have been egregious human rights and environmental abuses.

Late last week, the Ross River Dena First Nation learned that the Supreme Court of Canada would not hear the Yukon Government’s appeal of an earlier decision that sharply rebuked the territory’s free entry mineral staking regime. This means the earlier decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal stands.

In the final days of the federal environmental assessment hearings for the hotly contested “New Prosperity” gold-copper mine project, proponent Taseko Mines attempted to discredit the overwhelming opposition to the project by Tŝilhqot’in and Secwepemc people and by many non-First Nation people from...