Genocide and murder of Indigenous people and environmentalists by government-backed Canadian mining firms

The title of the following article in Jacobin summarizes the Trudeau government's deep involvement in the human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies: Canada’s Mining Industry Is Spreading Havoc Around the World — With Justin Trudeau’s Support. It spefically looks at Canadian mining company abuses in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina, as well as the overall pattern of abuses globally.

Canada is home to 75 percent of the world’s mining companies. Firms based or listed in Canada operate approximately four thousand mineral projects abroad. And, as you might expect, many of those projects involve shady corporate practices and violations of human rights.

There have been an astounding number of conflicts at Canadian-run mines. Pick almost any country in the Global South, from Papua New Guinea to Ghana, Ecuador to the Philippines, and you will find a Canadian-run mine that has caused environmental devastation or been the scene of violent confrontations.

Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister from 2006 to 2015, faced frequent criticism for his unapologetic promotion of Canadian mining interests. His successor, Justin Trudeau, was supposed to be a breath of fresh air. But there has been far more continuity than change since Trudeau replaced Harper. While Trudeau and his party might pay lip service to environmental and labor rights, in practice, they have served to prop up Canada’s predatory, globe-trotting mining industry.

Crimes and Misconduct

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has recently criticized Americas Gold and Silver Corporation for their disregard of Mexican labor laws. Mexican activists accuse the Toronto-based company of preventing its workers from unionizing at the company mine in northern Mexico. AMLO has also condemned the failure of Canadian mining companies to pay outstanding taxes.

All over the world, Canadian-run mines habitually destroy farmland, harm endangered species, and contaminate drinking water. The mining firms are also responsible for beatings, kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, and killings in local communities. They frequently undermine indigenous self-determination, as national and regional governments give them permission to operate in spite of overwhelming local opposition.

Over the past two decades, thousands of articles, reports, documentaries, and books have detailed Canadian mining abuses abroad. At least four UN bodies have urged Ottawa to hold its companies accountable for their international operations. ...

Before Trudeau became prime minister, the Liberals promised to establish an independent ombudsperson on mining. But Trudeau’s government waited nearly four years before creating the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). After a delay of two more years, CORE has finally started taking cases. But it is unable to compel firms to hand over information, putting its effectiveness into question. ...

As Emily Dwyer of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability observes, Trudeau and the Liberals have created a watchdog that can only function if companies agree “to voluntarily provide information that it requires in order to do an investigation.” CORE is certainly not the kind of robust, independent regulator that was promised. There’s an obvious explanation for this failure. As a report by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project has revealed, the country’s two main mining industry associations played a significant part in shaping the development of CORE. Between January 2018 and April 2019, representatives from the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and Prospector & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) met government officials on no fewer than 530 separate occasions. Lobbyists met officials in the prime minister’s office alone thirty-three times. ...

Justin Trudeau has lined up Canadian foreign policy behind the mining industry. Canadian diplomats regularly accompany mining company representatives to meetings with government officials and lobby on their behalf. Mineral sector companies are major beneficiaries of Export Development Canada’s (EDC) services. The crown corporation has provided tens of billions of dollars — $28 billion in 2014 alone — in financing and insurance to the extractive sector, including many controversial international projects. The Liberals have shown little interest in laying down human rights and environmental standards for EDC.

The Liberals also seem happy to rubber-stamp Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (FIPAs), which are designed to protect Canadian mining investments. ...

These “investors’ rights” accords limit the ability of governments to regulate corporations operating on their soil. If the rules interfere with the profits of Canadian mining interests, they can sue the local administration and have their suits heard before private, investor-friendly international tribunals.

The Trudeau government has channeled more than $100 million in assistance for international projects whose real purpose is to support mining. Those projects often come with sanitizing, euphemistic titles such as “West Africa Governance and Economic Sustainability in Extractive Areas,” “Enhanced Oversight of the Extractive Industries in Francophone Africa,” and “Enhancing Resource Management through Institutional Transformation in Mongolia.”

It all adds up to a damning picture. While Trudeau and the Liberals may have put forward some nice rhetoric on the campaign trail to burnish their progressive image and deflect international criticism, their practice in government has been largely the same as Stephen Harper’s, putting the profits of mining companies above human rights and protection of the environment.

https://jacobin.com/2021/05/canada-mining-industry-justin-trudeau/

Canada's mining companies record of human rights abuses and even genocide is so bad that in April 2023 "Corporate accountability experts sent a 30-page submission to the UN Human Rights Council ahead of its April 2023 Universal Periodic Review of Canada, denouncing Canada for its continued diplomatic support of mining companies over the safety of human rights and environment defenders (HRDs). 

The submission draws on five well-documented case studies from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Ecuador to illustrate key themes that define Canada’s diplomatic approach to mining conflicts abroad. The submission, authored by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) with support from MiningWatch Canada, is endorsed by 27 Canadian civil society organizations and 39 professors, lawyers, and legal scholars. The Universal Periodic Review Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council will review Canada’s compliance with its human rights commitments, and make specific recommendations with the onus on Canada to implement changes. 

The submission explores ongoing problems with Canada’s Voices at Risk Guidelines on supporting human rights defenders, a set of guidelines that specify how Canadian embassies and other officials should support HRDs, including Canadian HRDs, and promote responsible conduct on the part of Canadian companies operating abroad. The submission identifies specific policy failures, including a lack of clarity regarding the concrete obligations of Canadian officials, lack of reporting and transparency on how the guidelines are implemented, and lack of independent oversight to ensure compliance. 

JCAP makes the following recommendations to the Working Group in its submission: 

• Recommend that Canada reform its policy and legal approach to economic diplomacy and HRDs abroad to an approach that can ensure that the actions of Canadian officials comply with Canada’s international human and environmental rights obligations.
• Recommend that such reforms be developed only after a fulsome and meaningful process of civil society engagement. This should include HRDs, Indigenous peoples, communities, and groups who are directly affected by industrial resource extraction abroad, with the support of the Canadian government and diplomatic missions.
• Recommend that Canada conduct a comprehensive review of the failures of Canadian officials to uphold Canada’s international human and environmental rights obligations in the four case studies cited in this report. This review should identify the appropriate remedies owed to any individuals who were harmed directly or indirectly by Canada’s actions.

https://miningwatch.ca/publications/2023/4/4/canada-s-systematic-failure...

Amazon Watch has released a report this month entitled " No more violence: Unmasking Canada at the UN Periodic Review". The report "specifically documents abuses and rights violations linked to 7 mining and 4 oil extractive projects in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, controlled by 16 Canadian companies and supported by Canadian banks, and causing severe damage to biodiversity, forests, and waterways. In addition, 10 of the projects directly affect Indigenous peoples from at least 16 ethnic groups, as well as traditional peoples such as riverine communities and the protected areas, land reform settlements, and rural communities they inhabit. Together, these four countries account for 85% of the Amazon, a tropical forest with the greatest biodiversity in the world and which plays a key role in containing the climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change".  (https://miningwatch.ca/news/2023/9/1/amazon-watch-launches-report-unmask...)

BREACH OF CANADA’S

EXTRATERRITORIAL OBLIGATIONS:

CORPORATE ABUSES IN ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, GUATEMALA, MEXICO, PERU AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 

In the 4th cycle of Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), more than 50 civil society organizations and communities impacted by Canadian business conduct in Latin America and the Caribbean presented three reports that reveal troubling findings.

This is not the first time that Canada has been denounced before the United Nations Universal System for the improper behavior of its companies abroad. During its third UPR, Canada received six recommendations1 that, despite committing to implementation, evidence presented by civil society in this cycle demonstrates the persistence of non-compliance with its extraterritorial obligations and lack of adequate measures to fulfill the responsibility to regulate the conduct of its companies.

For example, of the 37 cases outlined in the three reports, 27 are located in fragile ecosystems such as the Amazon biome and the glaciers of Patagonia. Civil society reports demonstrate the recurrence of serious contamination and destruction of nature resulting from these projects, and the systematic violation of local communities’ individual and collective rights. Such is the case in Lot 192, with more than 2,000 impacted sites, in which Frontera Energy is responsible for 105 oil spills that contaminated rivers, lakes, groundwater, and the air quality of 26 Amazonian Indigenous communities. Upon its departure, Frontera Energy presented its Closure Plan without contemplating the remediation of any sites. Likewise, the impacts of the Veladero mine in Argentina, operated by Minera Argentina Gold SRL, a joint venture with Barrick Gold and the Chinese company Shandong Gold, has resulted in at least five toxic waste spills of cyanide, arsenic, mercury, and other substances into the Jáchal River. This project violates the Glacier Law because it is located in a periglacial zone. It also impacts the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve zone recognized by UNESCO, impacting endangered species.

The figures are alarming: 32 of the 37 projects explicitly violate the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Such is the case of the Volta Grande project in Brazil, where an environmental catastrophe is foreseen with toxic spills in the Xingu River, impacting water, fauna, and flora, and depriving communities

● Regional Report: Reveals the status of 37 projects in 9 countries in the region, involving 34 Canadian companies and consortiums. Most of these projects are in the extractive sector (27 mining and 8 oil) and two renewable energy projects (1 hydroelectric, 1 wind). In all of them, human rights have been violated and serious environmental impacts have been reported, impacting Indigenous, Afro-descendant, peasant and fishing communities.

● Amazon Report: Measures the impact of Canadian companies in the Amazon basin of Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. The report analyzes 12 extractive projects that impact fragile ecosystems and Indigenous communities,demonstrating that Canadian companies systematically violate impacted communities’ human rights and threaten the environment in a region with the greatest biodiversity in the world, which is a strategic space toconfront the climate crisis.

● Oil Report: Assessing Canadian business conduct in eight oil projects in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, the report reveals how the lack of protection mechanisms, access to justice, and comprehensive redress for impacted peoples and communities, requires Canada to recognize the interconnection between human rights and the environment, and take concrete measures to address the negative impacts of Canadian companies.

 

of their livelihoods and traditional ways of life; or the Varadero Mine project in Chile, which has contaminated water sources with mercury, compromising the food chain, and especially impacting rural populations and children. On the other hand, the Hidrosogamoso dam in Colombia, operated by ISAGEN - Brookfield Asset Management, is causing significant damage to ecosystems and local communities. Lithium and uranium mining in the Falchani, Macusani, and Quelccaya projects operated by American Lithium in Peru, generates toxic waste of metals, metalloids, and other toxic chemicals impacting more than 700,000 people, and is a polluting agent for the watersheds of Lake Titicaca and the Amazon River.

26 projects record impacts on Indigenous peoples’ rights, and in 24 of them, the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ rights to territory and self- determination. In particular, the reports detail cases such as the Autazes project in Brazil, which impacts the Mura ethnic group, facing forced evictions and illegal land purchases. In Chile, the Pascua Lama project and the La Copia project impact the right to territory with misleading acquisitions and the exclusion of environmental studies. In the case of the Guajira I project, Wayuú territory suffers conversion to private property due to wind and solar 

projects. These examples highlight the lack of respect for the rights of communities and the need to protect their ancestral territories and natural resources.

Regarding the right to prior consultation and consent, 27 of the 37 projects violate this right. This happened in the case of the Warintza mining project in Ecuador, where Solaris Resources Inc. has employed divisive strategiesand ignored the Shuar Artuam people’s right to territory. The Ixtaca mining project in Mexico, also faced complaints for violating Indigenous rights and for this reason was suspended by the Supreme Court. Likewise, in Guatemala, the El Pato II mining project impacts Mayan Poqomam and mestizo communities without adequate prior consultation. In Colombia, the company Libero Copper, which operates the Mocoa mining project, impacts the ancestral territory of the Inga people, violating their right to consultation and evading responsibility.

In 19 of the 37 cases, the economic, social, and cultural rights of local communities have been violated. This is the case in the Machado gold mining project in Colombia, operated by the Canadian company Cosigo Resources LTD, which seriously impacts places sacred to the spirituality of the Yaigojé Apaporis territory Indigenous peoples, especially the La Libertad

creek, from which life originates and which is fundamental for the healing of human health and the world. Likewise, the El Llagal tailings dam, related to the Pueblo Viejo Mine operated by Barrick Gold in the Dominican Republic, caused the relocation of 65 families from their local communities. However, due to non-compliance with the terms of the contract, another six communities are demanding relocation as a result of environmental and health impacts. In Lot 192 in Peru, the population continues to consume fish from contaminated waters, animals drink from contaminated rivers, and vegetables grow on contaminated land. In Belo Sun’s Volta Grande project, the installation of fences to separate the company’s territory obstructed access to natural resources, directly impacting access to river water, fishing, and low-impact extractive activities, and hindering access to food, water, and traditionaleconomic activities.

The magnitude of violence in projects where Canadian companies participate is of concern; 16 of the projects evaluated impact political and civil rights, placing human rights defenders at risk, including the militarization of territories, the abuse of public forces to benefit the interests of companies, and the criminalization of human rights defenders.

The mining projects La Plata, operated by Atico Mining Corporation, and Las Naves, operated by Curimining S.A. (a subsidiary of Adventus Mining Corporation), and Salazar Resources Limited in Ecuador, are seeking to legalize their operations following the implementation of an environmental consultation process that violates both the country’s domestic laws and international human rights obligations. This has led to several confrontations between the security forces and the impacted communities. As a result, in July 2023 protests around 20 people were injured

and two were detained, in addition to several reports of military personnel harassing children. Likewise, in Lot 95, in Peru, protests demanding respect for the rights of communities ended with the death of several demonstrators at thehands of police guarding the oil camp. Camera images later showed the bodies entering the Petrotal oil company facilities. In the La Fortuna Project in Ecuador and El Portón in Colombia, defenders face criminalization, impacting their psychological health and community life.

Finally, 14 Canadian projects fail to guarantee the rights to information and participation. One example is Equinox Gold in Brazil, which has withheld information about its operations and impacts, including the rupture of a dam. In addition, in the Volta Grande project in Brazil, many Indigenous and settled communities of the agrarian reform were not properly informed about the project. In Ecuador, Gran Tierra Energy carried out exploration without providing adequate information to impacted communities in the Charapa, Chanangué and Iguana Blocks. Similarly, in the La Fortuna and Loma Larga mining projects in Ecuador, there are extensive allegations that consultation with Indigenous and peasant communities was not carried out properly and they did not obtain consent, yet the authorities and the company ignored these failings and allowed the projects to continue operating.

The undersigned organizations have supported several sustained processes of advocacy and public denunciation in the 37 documented cases, however, Canada has not made greater efforts to ensure respect for human rightsand environmental protection, with the justification that it promotes responsible business conduct and that it has implemented conflict resolution mechanisms for this purpose.

These reports demonstrate that there is a pattern of human rights and environmental abuses by Canadian corporate entities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, the reports reveal that Canada is not implementing adequate and/or effective measures to ensure compliance with its extraterritorial obligations; moreover, none of the policies in place, in practice, prevent corporate abuses, nor do they guarantee access to justice and redress for communities impacted by the operations of Canadian companies abroad.

https://amazonwatch.org/assets/files/2023-08-31-unmasking-canada-report.pdf

Canadian mining firm Barrick Gold "is failing to adequately disclose the environmental and social risks posed by its planned expansion at the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic", according to an independent report by mine safety expert Dr. Steven Emerman. 

Photo: A house in the community of El Naranjo in the Dominican Republic, metres away from the existing area for mine waste at Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo mine. Source: Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada

 

In operation since 2012, Pueblo Viejo is one of the world’s largest gold mines. With the existing area to store mine waste nearly full, Barrick has submitted plans to build a second “Tailings Storage Facility (TSF)” to extend mining operations to 2049. The proposed “Naranjo TSF” would store nearly 645 million cubic meters of combined tailings and potentially acid generating waste rock in an area nearly 16 kilometres square, held back by a dam the size of a 48-story building. Proposed as an aboveground tailings impoundment in an area prone to flooding and high seismic activity, mine waste would require close monitoring and care generations after operations ceased.

Among other findings, Dr. Emerman’s expert review reveals that Barrick is failing to consider the real environmental and social risks of its proposed expansion, fails to properly disclose how it chose the site and design for the tailings dam, and fails to fully consider the implications of a dam collapse. 

“Local communities have long called on Barrick to address and remedy existing environmental and health impacts from current mining operations at Pueblo Viejo, and the people and environments most affected by this proposed expansion are still being left in the dark,” says Leoncia Ramos from the Comité Nuevo Renacer. “We have been left without access to water, with health problems and with environmental contamination. The new tailings dam will only compound these problems.” 

“An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) is a tool that the Dominican government and the Dominican public can use to determine whether the approval of the proposed Naranjo facility would be a wise decision,” says Dr. Emerman. “But the Dominican government has greenlit this expansion based on faulty and incomplete information provided by Barrick Gold. Barrick’s ESIA should be redone.” 

According to Dr. Emerman’s findings, the ESIA for the Naranjo TSF lacks a clear understanding of why the chosen site was selected and provides no explanation for building an aboveground facility rather than follow industry best practice, which requires companies to consider backfilling existing open pits with waste rock and tailings to reduce the significant environmental risks associated with aboveground tailings dams of this size. The ESIA fails to mention the well-documented environmental and social impacts of a dam failure and does not consider the cumulative impacts of building a second dam in such close proximity to the existing one. 

“Barrick’s ESIA outlines a plan for 10 years of water treatment, but doesn’t include a plan for even one day of monitoring or maintenance of the dam itself after the mine closes,” says Jan Morrill, Tailings Campaign Manager at Earthworks. “This leaves the Dominican government on the hook to fund and oversee any long term care of one of the largest rockfill earth core dams in the world.” 

“The way a mining company conducts an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment provides key insight into the company’s values,” says Diana Martin, Co-Manager at MiningWatch Canada. “Several key documents cited throughout the ESIA are listed in the bibliography as ‘still in progress,’ making it impossible for the Dominican government or anyone else to properly assess Barrick’s analysis. This shows they are not serious about managing risk.” 

Representatives from ENTRE have submitted the findings to the Dominican government and anticipate a response in the coming weeks. “Dr. Emerman’s review should be a wake-up call for the Dominican government and the international community,” says Fernando Peña of the National Space for Transparency in the Extractive Industry (ENTRE). “Affected communities need to be fully informed about the risks such a project poses. As it stands, Barrick is failing to be transparent about the risks they themselves identify as extreme and which will impact our lives, our environment, and our future.” 

https://miningwatch.ca/news/2023/9/6/barrick-s-major-mine-expansion-domi...

Vancouver based mining company Ivanhoe Mines has carried out human rights abuses in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at its Kamoa mining complex against thousands of people through evictions, substandard housing, and polluted drinking water that caused diseases according to Amnesty International, which interviewed 130 people during its investigation, as the Trudeau government does nothing to stop Canadian mining company abuses around the world.

Polltued water borehole, the only source of water for 4,000 people, built by Kamoa in Muvunda, 26 February 2022, (© Amnesty International).

The Canadian company Ivanhoe Mines compromised the human rights of hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who were evicted to make way for the expansion of a sprawling copper-mining complex in the country’s south, a new report has found.

The report, issued jointly by Amnesty International and the Initiative pour la Bonne Gouvernance et les Droits Humains (IBGDH), focuses on the impacts of the expansion of copper and cobalt mining on human rights in the DRC. In Powering Change or Business as Usual?, researchers detail how the scramble by multinational companies to expand mining operations in has led to the forced eviction of entire communities and grievous human rights abuses, including sexual assault, arson and beatings. In response, Amnesty International and IBGDH are calling for an immediate, nationwide moratorium on forced evictions connected to the country’s mining sector.

• Access the full report: Powering Change or Business as Usual?
• Take action: Stop forced evictions due to mining in the DRC

Allegations against the Vancouver-based firm Ivanhoe Mines include the treatment of dozens of families evicted in 2017 to accommodate the development of the Kakula copper mine. In 2016, the Kamoa Copper mining company — in which Ivanhoe owns a 39.6% stake — identified 45 households across a 21-square-kilometre area for relocation. The company promised to build 45 resettlement houses in the town of Muvunda at its own expense.

Hundreds  were evicted, given substandard housing to make way for mine expansion. Unfortunately, the living conditions the families encountered in 2017 after their eviction fell short of international human rights standards and contravened DRC law. “Researchers observed that substitute houses Kamoa built in Muvunda are not equipped with running water, electricity, or connected to any sewage system,” the report’s authors wrote. “Many reported that at the time of the eviction, resettlement houses were too small for their family sizes.”

“Kamoa’s parent companies, including Ivanhoe mines, have a duty to bring the replacement houses in Muvumba up to international standards,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, echoing a call to action outlined in the Powering Change report.

“In addition, any plans to expand the Kamoa complex must respect DRC residents’ rights under the country’s constitution and international law. Anything less is unacceptable.”

The UN’s Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement stipulates that relocation sites must satisfy the criteria for adequate housing under international human rights law. These criteria include, among other basic amenities, access to potable water, energy for heating and cooking, washing and sanitation facilities, and education, health and childcare services. Moreover, these provisions must be secured before a relocation occurs.

In the case of the families evicted by Kamoa Copper, the community’s only source of drinking water for many months was a single borehole shared by 4,000 people. Interviewees said the borehole would break down for months at a time and they would have to repair it at their own expense, relying in the meantime on the polluted Mulunguishi River for drinking and sanitation. A group of women resettled in Muvunda told researchers they experienced skin rashes and vaginal infections after using nearby water streams. Meanwhile, Kamoa Copper built comparatively luxurious housing for employees and contractors stationed at the Kakula mine.

Ivanhoe’s human rights failures in the DRC reinforce the urgent need for the federal government to enact rigorous legislation regulating the conduct of Canadian mining companies and other enterprises operating overseas, Nivyabandi said. “In the rush to build a green economy, Canadian companies must not trample over the lives and livelihoods of anyone they perceive to stand in their way. We must ensure that affected communities have access to accountability and justice when their rights are under threat.” 

Growing demand for clean-energy technologies has created a corresponding demand for certain metals, including copper, and cobalt, which is essential for making most lithium-ion batteries. These are used to power a wide range of devices including electric cars and mobile phones. The DRC has the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, and the seventh-largest reserves of copper.

“The forced evictions taking place as companies seek to expand industrial-scale copper and cobalt mining projects are wrecking lives and must stop now,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s global Secretary General.

Donat Kambola, president of IBGDH, said: “People are being forcibly evicted, or threatened or intimidated into leaving their homes, or misled into consenting to derisory settlements. Often there was no grievance mechanism, accountability, or access to justice.” Candy Ofime and Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International researchers and co-authors of the report, said: “We found repeated breaches of legal safeguards prescribed in international human rights law and standards, and national legislation, as well as blatant disregard for the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

https://amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/canadian-mining-firm-human-rights-v...

The indigenous Kuria have been forced off their land in 2022-2023 because of the  expansion of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania using state violence to clear the land. 

Between mid-2020 and September of 2023 Kuria people from the villages of Komarera2 and Kewanja were subjected to a process leading to forced eviction from their lands to make way for the expansion of Barrick Gold’s3 North Mara Gold Mine in the Tarime district of Tanzania. Most families were evicted in December 2022, with the remaining families evicted in August and Sep- tember of 2023.4 The eviction process was unpredictable, coercive, intimidating, violent, and possibly not in accordance with Tanzanian law. Impacts on food security and family finances began even before the demolition of villagers’ homes, lands and properties and have worsened in the year since these families were evicted. Those who received some compensation for the loss of their lands and homes received so little that they cannot replace what they have lost and most have become landless and homeless with serious consequences, particularly for women and children. The evictions have traumatized families who watched as their lands, homes and possessions were bulldozed.

Barrick Gold has not been transparent regarding the human rights impacts of the eviction process discussed in this report. In public statements, Barrick5 has been singularly fixated on possible cases of development of properties through planting of trees or crops or improve- ments to houses after an imposed “cut-off” date of May 28, 2020.6 This questionable focus, presumably to avoid payments for any such developments, deepened the harm caused by the forced evictions. Villagers became aware of the imposed cut-off ruling at different times throughout the eviction process, starting in June 2020. They reported being warned by villageofficials and others involved in the eviction process that if they cultivated their own land, they risked losing all compensation for the loss of their homes and lands. This led to families expe- riencing food shortages well before they received any compensation, which did not occur until 2022. Some reported going into debt to buy food, as they were in fear of planting or harvesting their own crops.

For Kuria people, land is essential for survival. The people of Komarera and Kewanja Villages are subsistence farmers and herders. Excess produce from their land is sold in the market providing funds to build their homes, to pay for goods they cannot produce and for school fees for children. Land is also essential for cultural and social cohesion and mutual support. Many of the families displaced by the forced evictions were living on land passed on to them by their parents and grandparents before them. They do not hold title deed to their lands. Multiple generations commonly live on each piece of land, and extended family members live on adjacent parcels. It is common for 10 or more people in a household to live on each parcel of land. It is also common for those who die to be buried on the land they lived on. Forced eviction from their land has removed the very basis of survival for these Kuria families, has scattered family members among people who have given them temporarily shelter, and has made it very difficult for most of these evicted family members to feed themselves or support each other. Some described having become beggars, relying on the kindness of their former neighbours and friends for survival. ...

The Kuria affected by the forced evictions are Indigenous people, whose primary language is Kuria. In the eight years that MiningWatch Canada (MiningWatch) has met with the Kuria around the North Mara Gold Mine, they have always identified their clan as Kuria and have been able to provide readily the name of their sub-clan. None of the people MiningWatch spoke to in 20227 and 2023 were consulted in regard to the forthcoming evictions. ...

The families MiningWatch met with in 2022 and 2023 are now homeless, traumatized, and facing food shortages. The impact is particularly severe for women and children. Widowed women, grandmothers who are primary caregivers for grandchildren, and some wives whose husbands have more than one wife,10 are particularly vulnerable. ...

A CONTEXT OF VIOLENCE

The forced evictions have taken place in the context of increased violence by mine security and mine police at the North Mara Gold Mine directed against Kuria men and boys who attempt to eke out a living by seeking gold-bearing rocks in the waste rock dumps around the mine. There are currently three ongoing international lawsuits11 on behalf of victims of alleged excess use of force by mine security and mine police at the North Mara mine, or on behalf of their families. The evictions occurred to make way for a new open pit that is currently under construction. Over the last year, MiningWatch has received increased reports from villagers about killings of local Kuria by mine police on, and near, the new waste rock dumps surrounding the pit construction. The evictions in Komarera and Kewanja have led to hunger, homelessness and financial insecurity. These are conditions that are likely driving more desperate young men to seek residual gold in the waste rock dumps that are arising in the place where they used to live and farm.

Section One - Section One provides a timeline of the forced eviction process, as well as more in-depth information related to individual stages of the process. It provides insight into the impacts as described by victims of the eviction process.

Section Two – Section Two details the human and Indigenous rights that have been violated in the forced evictions at the North Mara Gold Mine.12

Section Three - Section Three discusses international voluntary standards in regard to min- ing-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR),13 in particular as these apply to Indigenous peoples. It focusses on standards set out by the International Council on Mining and Metals,14 an industry association of which Barrick is a member, and by the International Finance Corpo- ration15 of the World Bank, with which Barrick says it is compliant. These standards are con- trasted with the process endured by the evicted families at the North Mara Gold Mine.

11 www.barrickontrial.ca
12 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Forced Evictions, Fact Sheet No. 25/Rev.1. 2014. P. 3.

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/FS25.Re...

13 Mines, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD), Breaking New Ground, Chapter 7, 2002. https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/G00899.pdf ; see also, Downing, Theodore, E. 2002, Avoiding New Poverty: Mining-Induced Displacement and Resettlement. Commissioned by MMSD. https://www.iied.org/sites/default/ files/pdfs/migrate/G00549.pdf

14 ICMM. Land acquisition and resettlement: Lessons learned. https://www.icmm.com/website/publications/ pdfs/social-performance/2015...

15 International Finance Corporation. Performance Standard 5. Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

https://www.ifc.org/en/insights-reports/2012/ifc-performance-standard-5

The forced eviction of Kuria families from their homes and lands is an abuse of their human rights and of their Indigenous rights. The evictions have caused a humanitarian crisis that requires an immediate response. ...

Those that questioned the evaluation process were threatened with, or experienced, violence.29 A father, with 14 people in his household, said, “[o]ne [police] came and took a runga [a wooden club] and pressed it on top of my foot and started hitting me with it. I pulled my leg back. He asked if he should hit me on the head. The other one [police] told him not to.”
At the end of each evaluation the landowner was instructed to sign the evaluation form (Valu- ation Form 3). This again was a source of stress as many villagers cannot read and many only speak Kuria. The form was in Swahili. Some asked for the opportunity to have a family member, who could read, read it to them. In all such cases interviewed by MiningWatch, this request was denied. Even those who could read were not given an opportunity to carefully review the document. Many asked for a copy of what they were being told to sign. They were told no one could have a copy. A few landowners who had smartphones asked if they could take a picture of the form. They were also told that was not allowed. Some refused to sign. They were told that the only way they may, eventually, get a copy of this evaluation document would be to sign it now. A mother with 13 people in her household said, “We were told that we have to sign so that we can get the evaluation document at the village office later.”

https://miningwatch.ca/sites/default/files/2023-11_EvictedForGoldProfits...

 EarthRights International (ERI), MiningWatch Canada and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre Human Rights Clinic at the University of Ottawa has submitted a report to  the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), that the "Canadian government is not upholding its obligations to protect women against human rights abuses." The report "charges that Canada has been supporting and financing mining companies involved in discrimination, rape, and violence against women in their operations abroad, when it should be holding those companies accountable for the abuse." In other words, "Canada has been complicit in mining companies pervasive abuses against women".

The Canadian government is not upholding its obligations to protect women against human rights abuses, according to a reportsubmitted yesterday by EarthRights International (ERI), MiningWatch Canada and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre Human Rights Clinic at the University of Ottawa. The report, submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), charges that Canada has been supporting and financing mining companies involved in discrimination, rape, and violence against women in their operations abroad, when it should be holding those companies accountable for the abuse.

A majority of the world’s mining companies, operating at over 8000 sites in over 100 countries, are headquartered in Canada. Many of these mines are also sites of serious human rights violations, including direct violence against local women and environmental degradation that destroys women’s ability to support their families. One recent study found that Canada’s mining companies are involved in such abuses and conflict more than any other country’s.

At Papua New Guinea’s Porgera gold mine, operated for years by Canadian miner Barrick Gold, local women have accused mine security personnel of a decades-long campaign of violations including systemic sexual violence and brutal gang rape.

“The allegations against Canadian corporations are not isolated incidents,” says Marco Simons, General Counsel at ERI. “There is a systemic pattern of reported abuses associated with Canadian extractive sector companies operating outside Canada.” While some women have received remedies, or are pursuing litigation in Canada, most women have not. Women face barriers in accessing justice in both their home countries and Canada.

Under CEDAW, Canada is obligated to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination of any women by national corporations operating in other countries, and is required to do so by taking measures to prevent, prohibit and punish violations by those corporations. It also requires them to provide effective remedies to victims of such violations.

“Despite calls from civil society, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, individual Members of Parliament, and numerous U.N. treaty bodies to take proper legislative action to regulate its corporations, ensure accountability for involvement in harm and access to a remedy for victims of corporate related abuse,” said Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada, “Canada has failed to do so.”

Canada’s current approach is failing to stop and remedy abuse. Instead of regulating its corporations and preventing them from discriminating against women, Canada supports its mining companies. Export Development Canada provides financial loans to companies associated with alleged human rights violations; and Canadian development aid is used to expand the extractive industries’ operations abroad.

Canada is actively trying to take a leadership role at the UN. In announcing that Canada will compete for a seat on the Security Council, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “it’s time for Canada to step up once again.” But Canada has not shown leadership in protecting women from abuses by its mining companies.

“With this submission, our organizations hope that Canada and other home States implement mechanisms to assure that private extractive companies respect environmental standards and the human rights of women,” says Salvador Herencia-Carrasco, Director of the Human Rights Clinic at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre.

Read the related documents

https://earthrights.org/media_release/report-to-un-committee-canada-comp...

Canadian mining company Belo Sun is suing indigenous community leaders in São Francisco near the Volta Grande mine in Brazil and environmental rights defenders  for their alleged support or involvement in the illegal occupation of company-owned land in a process of legal intimidation that is becoming widespread with extractive industries. “In most cases, these are not stand-alone acts: They are part of a strategy for spreading fear and weakening civil society organizations that work in defense of human rights.” The mine would "the region’s rich biodiversity and Indigenous communities that would suffer from the loss of fish, food and clean water".  The mine's "tailings dam, which will be about 13 stories high, runs an “unacceptably high risk” of rupture that could flood the area with up to 9 million cubic meters (2.4 billion gallons) of toxic waste and contaminate the already fragile Amazon ecosystem". Belo Sun also engages in physical intimidation: "“People who live in the area where the mining company wants to set up the project are always harassed and watched by Belo Sun’s armed security guards,” says Melo da Silva. “They pull out guns, chase our team and provoke allied groups against us.  Just in Brazil, 37 Canadian extractive companies have been cited for environmental and human rights abuses while the Trudeau government has done nothing to regulate these companies international operations. "In April 2023, more than 50 civil society organizations, including Amazon Watch, submitted a series of reports to the U.N. highlighting dozens of instances of corporate rights violations by Canadian companies in Latin America. Volta Grande was one of 37 Canadian projects mentioned due to its explicit violation of human and environmental rights in Brazil. According to the authors, Canada has failed to implement adequate or effective regulation, oversight and accountability".

Last June, around a hundred rural workers from the surrounding region, together with the support of local Indigenous populations, formed an encampment within Ressaca settlements to protest the sale of public land to Belo Sun. Image by Verena Glass / Xingu Vivo.

Canadian mining company Belo Sun has filed a lawsuit against community leaders and environmental rights groups for allegedly invading and occupying company-owned land, in a case the defendants are calling an attempt to criminalize environmental defenders in the region.

According to some lawyers and campaigners not involved in the case, the lawsuit lacks accuracy and Belo Sun is engaging in a pattern of legal intimidation through this case and previous actions against those who challenge their operations in the Brazilian Amazon. The company denies these allegations.

Following a series of protests by landless workers and Indigenous groups against its plans to expand mining operations, the mining company announced the lawsuit on Oct. 17.

The contentious mine, known as Volta Grande, would cover more than 2,400 hectares (5,930 acres) in the Volta Grande do Xingu region, making it the biggest open-pit mining project in Latin America. While some locals favor the mine for the potential jobs and investment it could bring, others says its plans to extract 5 tons of gold per year for at least 12 years near the Xingu River could result in catastrophic damage to the watershed. This would pose a threat to the region’s rich biodiversity and Indigenous communities that would suffer from the loss of fish, food and clean water.

According to a report, the tailings dam, which will be about 13 stories high, runs an “unacceptably high risk” of rupture that could flood the area with up to 9 million cubic meters (2.4 billion gallons) of toxic waste and contaminate the already fragile Amazon ecosystem. ...

For the last two years, landless peasants have accused Brazil’s federal agency for agrarian reform (INCRA) of illegally giving away 24 square kilometers (9.2 square miles) of public land reserved for agrarian reform to Belo Sun for mining exploration. Landless peasants are a group of rural workers or fishers who seek land for settlements or small-scale farming under Brazil’s land reform plans. According to an investigation, the deal between INCRA and Belo Sun involved an exchange of trucks, laptop computers, GPS devices and an undisclosed percentage of the company’s mining revenue. The legality of this deal has since been challenged in a lawsuit, but a judge’s decision has yet to be made.

INCRA did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

For five days in June 2022, around a hundred landless peasants from the surrounding region, together with the support of Indigenous and local communities, protestedagainst INCRA and Belo Sun’s agreement. The groups in Volta Grande do Xingu created an encampment inside the Ressaca settlement – an area of land that was created by INCRA in 1999 to house 600 families of rural workers across 29 lots between the municipalities of Altamira and Senador José Porfírio — which is included in the deal. Belo Sun does not recognize that the land belongs to the rural workers who built the encampment and regularly refers to them as “invaders” and “land squatters” in its lawsuit.

According to the company’s petition, the groups built homes on the contested site, cut up and detoured the company’s water pipes to the camp, used an electricity transformer to redivert electricity, contributed to deforestation and created a violent atmosphere in the region.

In retaliation, Belo Sun sued 40 local residents and members from various social and environmental organizations, including the Brazil director of Amazon Watch, the Amazon program director of International Rivers and the general coordinator of the Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement, a prominent group protesting against the mine. The allegations included the “invasion and illegal occupation” of company-owned land or their direct support of the “occupation.” The company also accuses NGOs of disseminating false or distorted information, including dubious studies, on the impact of its mining project. ...

“Belo Sun’s intention with the criminal complaint against us is to intimidate us,” says Antônia Melo da Silva, the general coordinator of the Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement, named in the lawsuit. She also denies her presence at the camp. “But it is Belo Sun that must be expelled from the territory. The Volta Grande do Xingu cannot stand any development that destroys the environment and the lives of its peoples.”

In 2022, Belo Sun filed a lawsuit against a university professor who spoke out against the risks that the Volta Grande project would bring to the Xingu River and surrounding communities. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil also received an extrajudicial notice from the company after the publication of their report, arguing Belo Sun did not properly consult communities in the region.

“People who live in the area where the mining company wants to set up the project are always harassed and watched by Belo Sun’s armed security guards,” says Melo da Silva. “They pull out guns, chase our team and provoke allied groups against us.”

Following the lawsuit, 26 human and environmental rights groups, including the Pará Society for the Defense of Human Rights and the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy, published a letter of repudiation denouncing the lawsuit as an act to stop residents in the area from making claims to their own territory and defending their right to a healthy environment.

“This is an attempt to silence families and leaders who are on the frontline of the struggle for agrarian reform, and to intimidate national and international networks that monitor and denounce the destruction caused by large enterprises and companies in Volta Grande do Xingu,” they wrote in the letter. ...

Marcella Ribeiro, a human and environmental rights lawyer for the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, who is not involved in the lawsuit, says these sorts of tactics are a way for companies to use judicial power to obstruct the work of defenders and persuade them to abandon their mission of defending rights.

According to Ribeiro, the criminal complaint filed by Belo Sun failed to identify and connect specific criminal acts to each one of the more than 30 people denounced. “The lack of accuracy in Belo Sun’s demand raises questions about its intentions,” she says.

She adds that the accusations are “imprecise” and refer to a series of protests that local police have already stated were not unlawful.

In recent years, Ribeiro has seen an “exponential and worrying increase” in the number of lawsuits filed by extractive companies against environmental and human rights defenders, particularly in Latin America. “In most cases, these are not stand-alone acts: They are part of a strategy for spreading fear and weakening civil society organizations that work in defense of human rights,” she tells Mongabay. Such complaints could create tensions in the territory and have a direct impact on how the defenders see themselves and how they are seen by others in their communities and regions.

Belo Sun has requested reparations for the damages caused by the protesters as well as the disclosure of the banking details of NGOs, protesters and their representatives; the blocking of their accounts; and the arrests of those involved. Ribeiro says any charges will result in huge personal and financial costs for those mentioned in the lawsuit. ...

Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement and the Alliance of Volta Grande do Xingu lawyer, Diogo Cabral, says the case could take years to process. When questioned about the likelihood of any charges being made, he says there is little justification for criminal prosecution because the information presented by the company is inadequate. ...

In April this year, more than 50 civil society organizations, including Amazon Watch, submitted a series of reports to the U.N. highlighting dozens of instances of corporate rights violations by Canadian companies in Latin America. Volta Grande was one of 37 Canadian projects mentioned due to its explicit violation of human and environmental rights in Brazil. According to the authors, Canada has failed to implement adequate or effective regulation, oversight and accountability.

“This initiative by Belo Sun and other companies in Brazil and Latin America to criminalize defenders is a strategy to weaken resistance and fragment communities,” Gabriela Sarmet, a campaign adviser for Amazon Watch, tells Mongabay. “This is a very classic practice at this early stage of mining projects, in order to be able to destabilize any form of confrontation with these extractive projects.”

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/mining-company-belo-sun-sues-environme...