CASC was fortunate to be able co-sponsor & to participate in presenting three excellent speakers on the important issue of the involvement of Canadian mining companies in Latin America.

VIDALINA MORALES on March 13, 2013

Along with the Mining Justice Action Committee and many local & national sponsors we were privileged to meet & hear Vidalina Morales on her cross-Canada tour. A representative of MESA, the roundtable on mining in El Salvador, Vidalina is a member of the Association for Social Development in Santa Ana, a small community trying to practice self -sufficiency and sustainability. Unfortunately Santa Ana is located in the ‘gold belt’ an area of El Salvador with known gold deposits.

Vidalina spoke about the efforts of Pacific Rim, a Vancouver based company to try to develop a mine in San Isidro. A group of CASC members visited there in 2012, taking solidarity and financial support to MUFRAS-32, the local group opposing the mine, and met with activists who had been beaten and threatened for trying to create more sustainable development. We remembered the three activists who were murdered in the community. At that time Pacific Rim had launched a suit against the government of El Salvador for $80 million for deemed loss of profit due to the moratorium on mining that the President declared in 2009; the company has upped its demands to $315 million in its lawsuit in El Salvador. The government has had to pay $5.5 million in legal expenses so far – money desperately needed for development and social programmes.

Vidalina told us that El Salvador is small densely populated country where most of its fresh water is already polluted. Mining creates high levels of contamination; RioTitiguapa, inSan Isidro, is one of only 3% of clean rivers in El Salvador. It is vital for domestic and agricultural use in the region. As Vidalina said, “You can live without gold, but you can’t live without a glass of water every day.”

She also said while they face “water stress in our country,” mining companies admit that in 1 day it will use 30 years of a family’s water use.

MESA is also concerned about the downstream effects of  trans-boundary mining. Vidalina named Cerro Blanco, in Guatemala; this mine is only 18km over the border. This is an area where Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have been recognized by UNESCO for biodiversity.

Finally Vidalina told us that MESA has proposed a new mining law which they presented to the government in 2006. The proposed law would prohibit metal mining in the country. So far there is only the president’s verbal commitment; but Vidalina said that as they area country governed by law, they want it signed into law.

SHARLENE PATTERSON on March 29, 3013

Café Simpatico hosted a full house to hear Sharlene speak about her participation in February I with trade unionists and community activists on a delegation to Mexico to see the impact of Canadian mining companies in Mexico. Sharlene is a Victoria library worker, active in CUPE and a mining justice activist.  She went to Oaxaca to meet with community workers in San Jose del Progreso, about 30 km from the city of Oaxaca. Fortuna Silver Mines, a Vancouver-based company has operated a mine there since 2011.

Sharlene showed slides of the local community, we saw the widow of Bernardo Mendez, murdered in January, 2012. She said, “I hope you can get the mining company out of here.”  One of the people Sharlene also met was Rosalind Sanchez who walks with difficulty since she was injured in March, 2012, when her cousin Bernardo was murdered. The local priest who called for public participation was threatened, beaten, arrested and moved away by the church.

Sharlene told us how the mine which has employed local workers since it opened has divided the community. Some appreciate the work & income. Others are concerned that there was and is no public consultation with citizens about the concerns expressed including, noise, toxic dust, dry wells, damage to land fertility, contamination of ground and surface water and death of livestock. Sharlene spoke movingly of the lives of the people, particularly those who are brave enough to question and oppose the mine. Her photographs showed the materially poor living conditions of people in an Jose del Progreso, but many are determined to continue their struggle for human rights and environmental security. Fortuna declined to meet with the delegation. The Canada Pension Plan invests out mandatory contributions in Fortuna.

The delegation did meet with PRDESC (Project of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) who work to support the rights of Mexican, including mine workers.

ALEJANDRA ANCHEITA, April 19, 2013

Speaking on the topic of “The Accountability Gap: Canadian Mining in Mexico” Alejandra Ancheita, the executive director of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC), based in Mexico City explained how yet another Canadian mining company behaves in Mexico.  Her group has been involved in investigating and revealing human and labour rights abuses at mines sites of Canadian mining companies, most recently, Toronto-based Excellon Resources mine, Platosa in Durango, Mexico. The Canada Pension Plan has invested $5 million of our money in this company.

When Excellon came to Ejido La Sierrita in 2004 it made certain promises to the community leaders they met with. People in the community thought the mine would provide jobs for some and a better life for all in this poor farming community. The company fired and abused workers who tried to form an independent union. Land use was not respected and rents for leased lands were not paid, a promised water treatment plant was not built, scholarships and training commitments were not fulfilled.

After efforts to get Excellon to honour its agreement failed, local citizens constructed a camp at the mine gate, but on property belonging to local people. In October, 2012, the company forcibly entered the camp and bulldozed and set fire to it.

With the support of ProDESC, the Ejido filed a lawsuit in the Agrarian Tribunal in Gomez Palacio against Excellon to get their lands back.

Alejandra was able to announce at our meeting that La Sierrita has won its case! Excellon was ordered on April 18 to return lands to the community; there will be another hearing on May 9. 2013.  Funds returned to the community will be used for local economic projects, Alejandra said, including commercial farming and selective logging for furniture making – providing jobs for workers who were fired for their union activity by Excellon.

ProDESC will continue to support the united workers and citizens of La Sierrita while it seeks to remedy the human rights violations of Excellon against the community.

CONCLUSION

These were all successful awareness-raising events, with excellent presentations, good information and action suggestions. None of these events would be possible without dedicated local activists who organized the events, prepared and distributed publicity, provided refreshments and those who performed music and theatre for us all to enjoy.

Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, was brutally occupied by Morocco when Spain abandoned its colony of 90 years. There are parallels with the history of occupation of Latin America. CASC was one of the local sponsors when Ray Burhi, spoke in Victoria in March, 2013. He is the representative of the government-in-exile of Western Sahara; the ambassador to Canada for Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) if Canada recognized it as a nation as more than 50 other countries do.

Since it was occupied by the Spanish in 1884 and by Morocco in 1975, Western Saharans have been fighting for the independence of their resource-rich nation. An armed struggle with Morocco after its occupation of most of Western Sahara ended in 1991. Almost half the civilian population fled from the Moroccan military to refugee camps in Algeria. Promises for referendums have been broken and the world either ignores the illegal and unjust situation or collaborates with Morocco, a well-supported ally of the USA. Burhi was a samll child when nis family fled across the desert pursued by the Moroccan airforce dropping napalm and phospohorus bombs on the unarmed refugees. Burhi still lives in a camp near Tindouf, Algeria.

Canadian companies have interests in Western Sahara’s phosphate deposits. These deposits and the potential for other minerals and the rich off-shore fishery are reasons for Morocco’s occupation. Saskatchewan Potash Corporation buys phosphates from Morocco mined in Western Sahara mined by a company wholly owned by the Morocco government.

In spite of UN recommendations and promises of referendums, Morocco still rules Western Sahara. The occupied land along the Atlantic coast has received so many Moroccan migrants that they now outnumber the Saharawis who are constantly subjected to surveillance, harassment and detention which may result in torture and lengthy jail sentences.

Resolutions #242 & #338 ofthe UN Security Council include statements that prohibit permanent settlement of occupied lands for domestic or commercial purposes; resolutions that Canada professes to respect.

A narrow strip of liberated territory and the camps are separated from Morocco and the occupied region by a 2400 km long Moroccan wall planted with 5 million landmines. Burhi said that anyone can visit the liberated zone and camps to see the situation of Western Sahara but the Moroccan government bans journalists or human rights workers from occupied Western Sahara.

A Moroccan Court sentenced twenty-four Saharawi recently to life to 20 years in prison after their peaceful protest camp at Gdeim Izik was destroyed. The military trial of these civilian prisoners, Amnesty International says, did not meet recognized international standards. All the imprisoned Saharawi say they were tortured and sexually abused to give forced confessions.

The governments of Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland have policies about Western Sahara; some refuse to buy products from the occupied countries, several opposed a European fishing agreement with Morocco, others have divested their pension funds from companies, including Potash Corp, implicated in the occupation.

When we Canadians buy mineral fertilizer for our gardens we are supporting this illegal occupation, fertilizers contain phosphate from Western Sahara. The Canada Pension Plan invests in Potash Corp and shows no inclination to divest.

Burhi hopes that Canadian will pressure our government to exclude Western Sahara from its Morocco-Canada Free Trade Agreement, as the USA has. Burhi met with MPs Randall Garrison and Murray Rankin who promisedto raise this issue with Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, and to arrange meetings in Ottawa for Burhi with Paul Dewar, MP foreign affairs critic.

Individuals and groups can help; a Victoria Western Sahara solidarity group is being organized.

Resources: http://www.wsrw.org &  http://www.arso.org

ACTIONS:

WRITE: William J. Doyle, President and CEO, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. # 500, 122 - 1st Avenue South, Saskatoon, S7K 7G3, SK. Ask Potash Corp. to stop buying phosphates from Western Sahara and that Potash Corp. to support independence for Western Sahara so it may buy phosphates from their legitimate owners.

WRITE: His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, Room S-3800, Secretariat Building, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, USA, on behalf of justice for the twenty-four Saharawi Prisoners mentioned above. Ask the UN to monitor and report on human rights in occupied Western Sahara, as do other UN peacekeeping missions worldwide that monitor and report on human rights violations.

WRITE: Chad Ulansky, President & CEO, Metalex Ventures Ltd., 203 - 1634 Harvey Avenue Kelowna, BC,  V1Y 6G2 and ask that his company relinquishes exploration permits in  Western Sahara, granted by Morocco, until the legitimate government of the SADR is re-instated.

WRITE: PRIME MINISTER Stephen Harper and Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade to ask that the illegally occupied region of Western Sahara and its products be excluded from yhe trade agreement with Morocco. Copy other politicians.

Phot of Burhi in Victoria by author. Map: www.sandblast-arts.org

Martinez, Carlos & Michael Fox, & Jojo Farrell. VENEZUELA SPEAKS! Voices from the Grassroots. 2010. PM Press, Oakland, CA, USA. ISBN 978-1-60486-108-2

“...the failure of neoliberalism combined with the political failure of representative democracy...contributed significantly to the rise of the New Left.”

“...in Venezuela, as a consequence...new urban community associations and political parties emerges that provided an important impetus for the emergence of Hugo Chávez in 1998.”

At a time when Venezuela and its friends are still mourning the loss of President Hugo Chavez, this collection of interviews and insights into the social movements of Venezuela gives us many reasons for a hope-filled future in Venezuela.

Venezuela is a country rich with creative community that supports a progressive, equitable and just society for its citizens. They also know how to organize. As they organized in the last decades, they continue to do so in the present, ensuring a a better future from the grassroots.

Arranged in sections on different groups and interests this book covers concerns from land & housing reform, women & sexual diversity, workers & labour, community media, arts & culture, indigenous & Afro-Venezuelan, the student movement and community organizing- in other words the total spectrum of social activism in the words of the activists themselves.

In a slaughter house where health and Labour standards were ignored by the company, the workers organized – hiding in bathrooms to get signatures and donations, the organizer was offered bribes, even blank cheques by the company, but Candido stayed the course until the company threatened to fire him and other organizers, then all the workers decided to occupy the factory and form a cooperative to run it. They also knew the community and ranchers needed their work. The cooperative has been so successful that, “Our operations have not stopped for a single day!”

Community radio thrives in Venezuela; Valentina says there is complete freedom of expression in Venezuela, “because a community radio station is like having access to a window that shows you how the world is- the world that we want and which we are constructing...”

And the mantra of the western Caracas community television is, “Don’t watch it, make it!”

Read this book and be moved to action by so many dedicated people, their courage and creativity as they work towards the world they want. Venezuela is a country of many leaders, where every citizen can participate in leadership; it will survive and continue to inspire for many years.

Maria says, “What is participatory democracy? ...giving power to the people...for the people to administer their own resources...when you can speak of your rights and your duties, where the freedom to protest exists, where there is no marginality, where there is no poverty.”  Words that resonate everywhere.

FRIDAY, April 19 at James Bay New Horizons: 234 Menzies St.  7pm

Ms Ancheita is the executive Director of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC) based in Mexico City. She has worked for over a decade as a human rights advocate on many issues in Mexico. Her group has been involved in human and labour rights abuses at mines sites of Canadian mining companies, most recently, Toronto-based Excellon Resources mine, Platosa in Durango, Mexico. There will also be live music, skits & refreshments. No admission charge

CASC is co-sponsoring with the Mining Justice Action Committee, CUPE-VIDC, CUPE National, United

Steelworkers, and KAIROS.

Alain Deneault and William Sacher.  Imperial Canada Inc. Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries 2012. Talonbooks, Van couver, Canada

“This book is intended to provide Canadians and international public opinion with tools to help it ask critical questions about Canadian activities in the south and in Eastern Europe, as well as about the role of the Canadian government in relation to these activities.”

This meticulously documented analysis- really an exposé - provides the background and historical context for Canada’s role in supporting the exploitation by mining industries around the world.  What Liberia is to shipping companies, Canada is for mining companies. We offer the flag of convenience to mining companies which flock here to enjoy our lax and generous mining regulations. The mining industry within Canada and those operating outside our borders – with little scrutiny or monitoring- have consistently had and continue to have the political and economic support of our governments. 75% of mining companies in the world are registered in Canada.

As the authors note these companies have created an ugly picture of Canada to many farmers, indigenous peoples and workers as these companies, “are said to have contributed in one way or another to conflicts that have placed millions of people in jeopardy and have led to deaths, systemic rape, the forced recruitment of child soldiers and legions of refugees.”
Indeed the Canadian flag is burned in many places in anger over the social and environmental degradation resulting from ‘our’ mines. In Guatemala, I am told, never admit you are a Canadian – hide that maple leaf.

Deneault and Talonbooks’ publisher spoke recently in Victoria, not only about the subject matter of this book but also about the ‘libel chill’ that strikes anyone who writes critically about our mining industry. Corporations have vast financial and legal resources to sue anyone with courage to give them bad press and they willingly use these(tax-free) resources.
The book goes into Canada’s past colonial history, as a colony and a colonizer, as Canada became a place to exploit and export resources for European powers. In the present neo-colonial era, we continue to be an economic colony ruled by NAFTA as we act like a colonizer around the world.

Along with Yves Engler’s books, including his latest, The Ugly Canadian, Imperial Canada Inc. provides us with information and analysis to challenge our foreign and economic policies and actions. In the conclusions, the authors call on us to face the truth about what is really done in our name worldwide and at home and to create, support, and sustain a public independent network that lobbies politicians as it investigates the actions of protected corporations and raises public awareness about mining companies and friendly governments, including our own. As citizens we have a grave responsibility to challenge and change policies and actions that cause injustice, conflict, death, injury, fear and social and environmental destruction at home and abroad.