The Canadian mining, oil and gas industry has a poor record when it ... Environmental destruction from Canadian mining,
CANADA: Help make Canada “Open for Justice” The Canadian mining, oil and gas industry has a poor record when it comes to respecting human rights in other countries. Many people around the world have been forced from their homes and off their land so that Canadian companies can extract oil, gold and other minerals. People have reported threats, injuries, rapes and even deaths for protesting against Canadian mining companies near their communities. Environmental destruction from Canadian mining, oil and gas activities has also violated people’s rights to water, food and health.
Principle 27: States should provide effective and appropriate nonjudicial grievance mechanisms, alongside judicial mechanisms, as part of a comprehensive State-based Those who have been harmed by the operations of Canadian extractive operations abroad need to be able to defend their rights and to protect system for the remedy of businessrelated human rights abuse. their livelihoods and ecosystems. When their rights are not respected, they need to have somewhere to go to seek recourse . Principle 27 When people living in other countries are harmed by Canadian companies, it is often very difficult for them to defend their rights and to obtain justice and compensation. They face so many legal, financial and political barriers that justice becomes nearly impossible. The Canadian government needs to take action to ensure that people who have been harmed by Canadian companies have access to remedy in Canada. Urge Canada’s prime minister to make sure that Canada is “Open for Justice”.
Photo caption: Farmers confront riot police at the site of the formerly Canadian-owned, now Chineseowned, Letpadaung copper mine near Monywa in central Myanmar on 22 December 2014. On the same day, a protester was shot and killed by police. Local people are protesting against forced evictions from their land to make way for the mine. © AP/Press Association Images
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Activate your pens and keyboards! Please write to Canada’s prime minister. Start your message Dear Prime Minister Trudeau. Describe who you are and why you are concerned about the human rights practices of Canadian mining, oil and gas companies in other countries. Emphasize that people who are harmed by Canadian companies in other countries have difficulty obtaining justice and must have access to remedy in Canada. Call on the Prime Minister to ensure that Canada is “Open for Justice” through the creation of an extractive sector ombudsperson and by ensuring access to Canadian courts for people who have been harmed by Canadian companies in other countries. Send your message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2 Postage: Fax:
None required (613) 941-6900
Via website: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contactpm
On 27 September 2009, Adolfo Ich Chamán (pictured on the photograph beside Angelica) was killed, witnesses say, by private security guards contracted to Compañia de Niquel Guatemala, a subsidiary at the time, of HudBay Minerals. Criminal charges have been laid in Guatemala in connection to his death. Adolfo was a respected Indigenous Maya-Q’eqchi community leader and an outspoken critic of mining activities in his community. Angelica Choc, his widow, has launched a precedent-setting civil claim in Canadian courts (Choc v. HudBay). © James RodrÍguez MiMundo.org
You can support the men and women of El Estor, Guatemala, who courageously filed a lawsuit in Canada against a Canadian mining company!
You may use the following message in Spanish. It will be translated into the Maya-Q’eqchi’ language and shared with them: No están solos! No están olvidados!
Tell Angelica, Germán, Rosa, Margarita and the others who filed the lawsuits that they are not alone, that they are not forgotten in their long struggle to seek justice in Canada, and that many Canadians support their call for justice.
Send your message to Angelica and Friends Klippensteins, Barristers & Solicitors 160 John St., Suite 300 Toronto ON M5V 2E5
TAKE PART: writeathon.ca
