(Guest blog by Dawn Hoogeveen) A crowd gathered in front of B.C.’s law court in Vancouver on Monday morning in support of the Wilderness Committee. It was the first day of a lawsuit instigated by Taseko Mines Limited, which is suing the environmental organization for defamation.
Last week, MiningWatch Canada and the Council of Canadians joined Amazon Watch and a dozen other environmental and human rights organizations to urge the Ecuadorian government to ensure a just, transparent, and expeditious investigation into the murder of indigenous leader and anti-mining activist José Tendetza. We also condemned the SWAT team raid on José Tendetza’s house and urge the investigators to refrain from intimidation tactics.
On Wednesday, a Guatemalan judge decided that Tahoe’s former security manager, Alberto Rotondo, should stand trial for his role in a shooting attack on peaceful protesters in April of last year.
José Tendetza should have been in Lima, Peru last week at the climate change talks as one of the powerful Indigenous voices speaking about the destruction that the mining and energy agenda of countries like Canada is bringing upon his and many other communities in the Global South.
In August, I was invited to travel to Marinduque Island in the Philippines to meet with civil society organizations, municipal elected officials, and the elected Provincial Board. The topic on people’s minds was a long-running lawsuit pitting the Provincial Board against Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold. The case, filed in the state of Nevada in 2005, is at a crossroads and it may be re-filed in Canada. Marinduqueños sought my assistance in considering their options.
[This review was originally published in Political and Legal Anthropology Review: Volume 37, Issue 2: November 2014]
Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea, by Alex Golub (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014)
The following letter has been sent to authorities to demand a response from the Mexican and Canadian authorities to ensure justice for his death. This video is from a vigil in front of the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City mere days after the Mariano's November 27, 2009 murder, held by the Mexican Network of Communities Affected by Mining (REMA). Activist Bety Cariño speaks of Mariano, and the larger Indigenous struggle for land, for water, and for life, forcefully and eloquently.
