A group of 80 university professors have collectively signed a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to stick with his election promise of creating a human rights ombudsman for the international extractive sector in Canada. Shin Imai, associate professor at Osgoode Law School, says that an independent ombudsman is key and will help hold companies accountable for human rights and environmental violations.

See the interview with Prof. Imai here.

Provincial mining regulation is a dysfunctional mess that exposes taxpayers to billions of dollars in liabilities and puts ecosystems, 33 First Nations communities and 208 other B.C. cities and settlements at risk, says the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre.

It has petitioned Premier Christy Clark for a full judicial inquiry into how the province regulates mining.

MiningWatch joins a growing coalition of communities, organizations, and First Nations calling for a public inquiry and broad reforms of British Columbia’s regulatory system.

On Monday, together with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, we helped deliver the below statement during 'Ecuador Day' at the 2017 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's annual convention at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

(Ottawa) MiningWatch Canada supports the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation’s (SSN) decision, released Saturday, March 4, to reject KGHM’s Ajax mine project near Kamloops, in British Columbia (see also decision background).

This week, while an anticipated 20,000+ people wine and dine, discussing multi-million dollar deals and dreams during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada mining convention (PDAC 2017) at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, affected communities continue to pay a high price with their lives and lands around the world.

Even most residents don’t know Toronto is the global headquarters of the mining industry – but scratch the surface and some uncomfortable truths are revealed

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Like it or not, Canadian mining companies have a growing reputation in the developing world as bad actors who commit and condone environmental and human rights abuse. Would the appointment of an independent federal ombudsman help us clean up our act?

By Kerry Banks

Excerpt:

On March 2, 2016, Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, an organizer with the Lenca people’s resistance in Honduras, was murdered despite security measures that she had been granted given constant threats against her.

(Cuenca, Ecuador/Ottawa, Canada) Local governments in the area affected by the Loma Larga mining project owned by Canadian company INV Metals have declared that they will prohibit mining in order to protect water sources, related ecosystems, and the affected population.