By Elizabeth McSheffrey in News, Energy | April 25th 2017

(Toronto) Today, for the first time, Barrick’s directors and shareholders heard directly from two women who have suffered sexual violence at the hands of mine security at the company’s massive Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea.

Barrick’s directors and shareholders heard first-hand about excess use of force by private and public mine security guarding the Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea when indigenous Ipili men travelled to Canada to speak out at Barrick’s AGM. In 2008, 2009, and 2010 Ipili men stood up in the shareholder’s meeting and told company directors and shareholders about killings and rapes of local men, women and children by mine security. These allegations were repeatedly met with denial by Barrick.

Statement and Questions by Everlyn Guape, Porgera, Papua New Guinea

My name is Everlyn Gaupe. I am speaking on a proxy from Rachel Small.

Directors and shareholders, I live in the shadow of Barrick’s Porgera Joint Venture mine in Papua New Guinea.

This mine dumps all of its tailings and waste rock directly into the river valleys all around the pit.

Our villages are surrounded by mine waste. We have to cross this waste just to get from one village to another, or to go to our vegetable gardens or schools.

Latin America is slowly winning the fight against the corporate assault of transnational Canadian mining companies

El Salvador made history in March, 2017, when it became the first country to ban metal mining outright.

After years of denying cases of sexual assault, Canadian mining company Barrick Gold compensated 119 women and girls who were victims of sexual violence by mine security to the tune of ~$10,000 each for these abuses, but had them sign an agreement that they could never sue the company. Eleven of the women refused this remedy package and threatened to sue the company, resulting in a higher out of court settlement. Since that time, the 119 women who originally accepted the money from Barrick have organized into women's groups and started to demand more dignified treatment from the company.

(Ottawa) At about 8:20pm on the night of Friday April 21, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin America Program Coordinator Jen Moore and US journalist John Dougherty were arbitrarily detained in Cusco, Peru after a successful public event screening a documentary film about Hudbay Minerals’ operations in Canada, the US, Guatemala and Peru. The two were surrounded by 15 to 20 national police officers, many in plain clothes, and a handful of migration officers, and taken into custody.

Contact: John Dougherty, 602-810-4849, john@investigativemedia.com

(La Paz, Bolivia) On Friday, April 21, the Peruvian National Police and immigration authorities detained American journalist and filmmaker John Dougherty after he finished screening his documentary film “Fraude de Flin Flon” at the Cusco Cultural Center. The documentary reports on Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals’ worldwide mining operations.

Public event

When: 6 p.m., Thursday, April 27, 2017

Where: University of Ottawa, Desmarais Building DMS 1110, 55 Laurier Ave East, Ottawa, Ontario

SPEAKERS: 

(Malartic, Quebec) Members of the Citizens' Committee in Malartic are outraged and deeply concerned about a government decree released yesterday which authorizes the expansion of the biggest open pit mine in Canada without stricter conditions for noise, dust, and blasting.