Spurred by Sunday’s front-page New York Times story on Hudbay Minerals’ alleged human rights abuses in Guatemala, the entire Canadian mining industry is coming under increased scrutiny by Canadian lawmakers.
Liberal MP (Member of Parliament) John McKay is calling for stricter oversight of Canadian mining companies abroad as plaintiffs increasingly look to Canadian courts to seek justice, according to an April 5 story in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
“These unwelcome instances keep on coming up,” McKay said in an interview after the Times story shone a harsh spotlight on Hudbay accused of serious crimes in Guatemala, the Globe and Mail reported.
“And not only does the mining company suffer brand problems, so also does the industry suffer brand problems, and so also does our nation suffer brand problems …. It has been and continues to be a bit of a black eye on our country,” the Toronto newspaper quoted McKay as saying.
McKay has long been pushing for the creation of an ombudsman position that could investigate claims against Canadian companies abroad and impose sanctions, the Globe and Mail reports.
“There still has to be a day of reckoning for a company that commits egregious actions,” McKay told the paper.
The Times reports that the Hudbay case is being watched carefully because it appears to offer a new legal pathway for those who say they have suffered at the hands of Canadian subsidiaries.
“Up until now, we just have not had judicial decisions that help us consider these sorts of relationships,” said Sara Seck, an expert on corporate social responsibility at the Faculty of Law, Western University, in London, Ontario told the Times. “For once, the court is going to look at what really happened here, and that is important.”
The Times story reports on the same Guatemala plaintiffs that appear in InvestigativeMEDIA’s 2015 documentary “Flin Flon Flim Flam — Hudbay’s Hoax”.
The film documents Hudbay’s history of pollution in Manitoba, human rights abuses in Guatemala and Peru and corporate deceptions during the permitting process to construct the proposed Rosemont copper mine in southeast Arizona.
THE CRIMES COMMITTED BY MINING COMPANIES OPERATING OFFSHORE ARE ENDLESS . THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT HAS TURNED A BLIND EYE TO THIS ABUSE AS THE CANADIAN MINING INDUSTRY REPRESENTS A VERY POWERFUL LOBBY GROUP . HOPEFULLY , THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE VULTURES TO COME HOME TO ROOST .
DURING MY 30+ YEARS WORKING AND LIVING IN AFRICA , I ENCOUNTERED THE ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR OF CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES . THERE WERE NO EXCEPTIONS . LOSS OF LIFE WAS NOT UNCOMMON . THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS WERE BRIBED AND RAISED NO ALARMS .
THE RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR CANADIAN COMPANIES OPERATING OFFSHORE ARE OUT OF DATE AND INADEQUATE . IF A CASE REACHES OTTAWA BY CHANCE IT MAY SIT THERE FOR YEARS DURING WHICH TIME NO ACTION IS TAKEN . THE TOTAL COST INVOLVED IN CASES OF THE PEOPLE AGAINST CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES MUST BE CHARGED AGAINST THE MINING COMPANIES IN QUESTION . THE MINING COMPANIES KNOW THE RISKS OF WORKING OFFSHORE AND MUST BE PREPARED TO PAY THE PRICE FOR THE CARNAGE , ENVIRONMENTAL DESECRATION , ETC THAT RESULTS FROM THEIR ACTIVITIES .
How wonderful that someone is really paying attention!
We do not want them in Arizona!!!
Our own country, the US also turns a blind eye to potential and present problems because of the very outdated mining laws till in force from the 1800s, No effort is made in Congress to update and modernize laws that now do not regulate air quality, allows mining companies to take all the water available even if nearby homeowners lose theirs and to pollute nearby water sources, no regulations to protect the flora and wildlife and so on. Even i they sign a binding agreement to repair and return the area to its previous conditions, all they have to do is file bankruptcy or just plain walk away and the the land to which they have laid waste, is left devastated and ruined forever. They’ve made their big killing and that’s all that matters to these CEOs.