Brief prepared for the country visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo.

Since 1999, MiningWatch has provided technical expertise and advocacy support to hundreds of communities across the globe as they assert their rights to safe drinking water and sanitation in the face of imminent and past harm by industrial mining.

Yellow Giant mine released excess waste water into wetland and waterways on Gitxaała territory in 2015

Kate Partridge · CBC News

The former executive of a now-bankrupt mining company has been fined nearly $30,000 for environmental violations dating back to 2015 — an amount that has led to competing appeals from both sides.

MiningWatch Canada joins a host of international solidarity and human rights organizations in expressing deep concern over recent attacks against democracy in Guatemala. While the current Attorney General seeks to delegitimize election results and prevent the peaceful transfer of power, thousands of Guatemalans are participating in a national strike and taking to the streets in a powerful defense of democracy. Read more below and stay tuned for further updates.

Toronto – The federal government must immediately take steps to introduce amendments to the Impact Assessment Act in order to avoid a critical vacuum in environmental assessment of key projects in Canada, stated Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), Environmental Defence Canada (EDC), and MiningWatch Canada.

A provincial decision is imminent on a massive industrial gold mine complex proposed for Wells, BC, (population 250) that would dominate the scenic entrance to the small mountain town, loom over half the community and funnel heavy industrial traffic through it, say concerned citizens. The worried residents are asking for design changes to minimize the significant impacts of the Cariboo Gold Project where a three-year environmental assessment process has just concluded.

[Smithers, Osoyoos, Kimberley] - The BC Supreme Court released its decision Tuesday holding that the Province needs to change its free entry mineral claim system within the next 18 months to align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The ruling is a result of the Gitxaała and Ehattesaht Nations’ joint legal challenge of one of British Columbia’s oldest colonial laws.

OTTAWA – This month, Indonesians from the Island of Sangihe are celebrating yet another victory in their long struggle to stop Canada’s Baru Gold from starting an industrial gold mine on their small island. With its operating permit revoked this month and the youth of Sangihe adding their voices to the opposition to Baru’s project, it remains to be seen whether Baru Gold will accept that it has neither a legal, nor a social, license to operate in Sangihe.  

səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Territories (Vancouver, B.C.) – Today twenty-two organizations sent a letter to Environment and Climate Change Minister George Heyman, calling on him to require an environmental assessment for the Copper Mountain Mine expansion. Copper Mountain Mine, located south of Princeton, B.C.

By John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus