More than eight years since the murder of Mariano Abarca, an outspoken community leader in Chiapas, Mexico, his son and a group of Mexican human rights defenders will visit Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto from February 5 to 9. Mariano led his community's struggle against the social and environmental impacts of Blackfire Exploration’s barite mine.

On Wednesday, January 17, the Chilean Environmental Superintendence (SMA) ordered the permanent closure of Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama open pit gold mine project and imposed a fine of approximately $12 million on the company. The agency’s decision follows five years of investigation and a series of community complaints about environmental infractions at the project site. The authority imposed penalties and laid more than 30 charges for a series of offences, six of which were classified as very serious, including two that concern irreparable damage to the environment.

(Ottawa) Today, Canada’s International Trade Minister announced the creation of a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise to investigate human rights complaints about the overseas operations of Canadian companies and recommend remedy for harm done.

OTTAWA – The Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) is greatly encouraged by the Minister of International Trade’s announcement today of the creation of a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise. The human rights ombudsperson will investigate complaints concerning the overseas operations of Canadian companies and will issue public findings on allegations of harm.

(Ottawa) The OECD’s 2017 Environmental Performance Review of Canada, released today, finds Canada ill-prepared to shift its economy towards greater environmental sustainability. A continuing emphasis on a “rip it and ship it” economy that pushes extraction ahead of value-added processing and manufacturing has left Canada lagging badly in innovation, in materials efficiency and recycling.

While celebrating B.C.’s December 14 decision to reject the risky and ill-considered Ajax open pit mine proposal on the outskirts of Kamloops and on Stk’emlupsemc te Secwépemc Nation (SSN) ancestral lands, MiningWatch Canada joins local, provincial, and national groups in urging both B.C.

BC Government Rejects KGHM Ajax Open Pit Mine on Sacred Lands, Honouring Commitment to UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(Kamloops) Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation (SSN) leadership is exuberant that the British Columbia Government, through the Ministries of Environment and Climate Action and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, has chosen to not issue the environmental assessment certificate for the KGHM Ajax Mine proposed copper and gold mine- effectively rejecting the project.   

Join MiningWatch and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) to sign and share this online action to alert Members of Parliament to problems with the Liberal government’s National Security Act 2017, Bill C-59. Far beyond a threat to the privacy of Canadians, it puts land and environment protectors in danger of continuing to be targeted as security threats.

In the chaos following national elections in Honduras on November 26, Canadian authorities must take a strong public stand and forcibly denounce evidence of electoral fraud and violent repression of public protests. Across Honduras, tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating their discontent over evidence of electoral fraud by the government-controlled electoral tribunal.

(Vancouver/Ottawa) The Federal Court dismissed a Taseko Mines Ltd. lawsuit in a ruling issued earlier this week, closing the door on the company’s most recent bid to build a copper-gold mine in Tŝilhqot’in territory in central British Columbia.