Press Conference: Regulating the Activities of Canadian Mining Companies

Who?

• José De Echave, CooperAcción, Peru
• Thomas Akabzaa, Coordinator, Africa Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society, Ghana
• Jacques Saramin Boengkih, Director, Agence Kanak de développement, New Caledonia

When?
Monday, November 13 at 12:45

Where?
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Amphitheatre SH-2800 200 Sherbrooke Street West

Voluntary Measures Have Failed - Canada Must Regulate Its Mining Companies in Developing Countries
International experts on the disastrous impacts of Canadian mining companies in developing countries will be in Montreal on Monday, November 13.

World wide, Canadian mining companies are implicated in numerous human and environmental abuses including toxic dumping, the destruction of protected areas, forced displacement of indigenous peoples, and death threats. The cases are widespread throughout the developing world and cannot be dispelled as a few isolated cases. Such abuses are the norm, not the exception, and industry promises to self-regulate can no longer be entertained.

The international experts will be in Montreal next week to participate in the government-led roundtable in Montreal. This roundtable, the last of four, is part of a process initiated by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in June, 2005, to study ways of curbing abuses in the mining sector. Since the roundtables are closed to the media, the press conference will be the opportunity to hear from the Southern experts.

A public symposium, “Extractive Industries? Destructive Industries?” will also be held on Monday, November 13 in UQAM’s Amphitheatre SH-2800 (200 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal). The Montreal Coalition on Mines and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability will be on hand to give civil society’s perspective on mining in the affected communities and to call on Canada to live up to its international obligations.

For more information contact:
Denis Tougas Entraide missionnaire
Tel. (514) 270-6089
dtougas@web.ca

Andrea Botto
Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability
Tel. (613) 789-9368 Tel. as of November 12: (613) 255-1373
cnca@halifaxinitiative.org