Guest blog by Daniela Pastrana, Periodistas de a PIe Journalists Network, @danielapastrana

Translated from the original in Spanish by Christian Filip

This month, during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Mexico, multiple videos circulated showing Mexican women legislators acting like teenagers, pushing one another aside in order to take a selfie with the leader who has been promoting his government to the world as feminist.

(London-Washington-Ottawa). An international coalition of non-governmental organizations welcomes the new Assessment Report Summary released last week in Geneva by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which urges States and the industry to end deadly and damaging mining waste spills by enforcing a “zero-failure objective.”

The joint UNEP-GRID Arendal assessment, “Mine Tailings Storage: Safety Is No Accident,” highlights over 40 mining waste failures over the last decade, including eight ‘significant’ spills since 2014 alone. These failures have killed some 341 people since 2008, damaged hundreds of kilometres of waterways, affected drinking water sources, and jeopardized the livelihoods of many communities.

MiningWatch Canada responds to a letter of September 21, 2017, from Barrick Gold’s subsidiary Acacia Mining, in regard to ongoing alleged excess use of force by mine security at the North Mara Gold Mine Ltd. in Tanzania, including another death of a villager allegedly shot by mine security on August 4, 2017. We also raise ongoing concern about the equitability of the mine’s grievance mechanism used to address such violence. Our concern is echoed in recent public statements made by retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie, who visited the mine in August.

(Papua New Guinea) Sir Arnold Amet, former Papua New Guinean Attorney General and Minister for Justice has joined the growing opposition against Nautilus Minerals Solwara 1 deep sea mining project.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – October 18, 2017

(Ottawa) - Leading environmental organizations, Indigenous nations and prominent people in Canada are calling on Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal government to restore protection for 99% of all lakes and rivers in Canada. Five years ago today, the former government removed protections from all but 97 lakes, 62 rivers and three oceans under the Navigable Waters Protection Act, now named the Navigation Protection Act (NPA).

The committee hasn’t heard from people most directly affected by Canadian mining operations in the region.

The federal Liberals came into office promising to take action on human rights abuses associated with one of Canada’s largest and most controversial areas of foreign investment abroad: mining. But a rare study on the issue in the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights seems designed to justify the do-nothing status quo, since the process precludes any critical examination of Canada’s current policy.

Days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit to Mexico, nine leading Mexican human rights experts are in Ottawa to seek strengthened Canadian support for their efforts to address an acute and worsening human rights crisis in Mexico.

While Canada has been vocal in its support for the victims of two severe earthquakes that hit Mexico in September, the visiting Mexican human rights experts want Canada to respond with even greater attention to the hundreds of thousands of victims of an acute human rights emergency that worsens with each day.

On October 11^th, representatives from the departments of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa who have been participating the protest camp against Tahoe Resources’ Escobal silver mine since June held a press conference to denounce attempts to discredit and criminalize their movement, specifically recent damage to a helicopter.

From October 16 to 18, a delegation of nine Mexican human rights experts will be in Ottawa to shine a light on the acute human rights crisis in Mexico. The visit is taking place just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit to Mexico.