BARRICK GOLD AGM PROTEST
9:30 AM
Metro Convention Centre
Organized by: Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
For more info contact: [email protected], http://mininginjusticesn.wordpress.com/
Once a year, the board of Directors of the world’s most powerful gold mining corporation converge in downtown Toronto. Join us to…
CONFRONT BARRICK GOLD!
WHEN: April 24, 2013
WHERE: Toronto Metro Convention Centre
WHY: In countries around the world, Barrick takes advantage of inadequate and poorly enforced regulatory controls to rob indigenous people of their lands, destroy sensitive ecosystems and agricultural land, support brutal police and security operations, and sue anyone who tries to report on it. In the context of this libel chill, Barrick has branded itself as the socially responsible mining giant and boasts its listing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Behind the scenes, Barrick has been singled out [1,2] as the company most involved in the lobbying effort to stop private member’s bill C-300. This bill would have withdrawn government funding and diplomatic support for companies found – after an investigation – to be abusing human rights or violating international environmental norms.
Meanwhile, gang rapes and killings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abuses that stem from the militarization of Barrick’s Porgera and North Mara mines. In both places, people are killed and arbitrarily detained regularly by the police and security. In the Porgera valley, mine waste is dumped directly into the rivers, poisoning hundreds of kilometres of waterways in one instance and turning a valley into a marsh of quicksand in another. The quicksand valley is swallowing up schools and houses to landslides, forcing people to move further and further up the mountainside to live. In North Mara, 40,000 small scale miners were economically displaced for the creation of the mine, left to scavenge for survival in the waste dumps of Barrick’s mega-mine. In other words, these mines present human rights crises in themselves, that aren’t going to be resolved with a nicely worded human rights policy or a limiting remediation package.
Be there with us to tell investors: “GOLD IS A TOXIC ASSET, INVEST IN LIFE!”
CONFRONT BARRICK GOLD!
WHEN: April 24, 2013
WHERE: Toronto Metro Convention Centre
WHY: In countries around the world, Barrick takes advantage of inadequate and poorly enforced regulatory controls to rob indigenous people of their lands, destroy sensitive ecosystems and agricultural land, support brutal police and security operations, and sue anyone who tries to report on it. In the context of this libel chill, Barrick has branded itself as the socially responsible mining giant and boasts its listing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Behind the scenes, Barrick has been singled out [1,2] as the company most involved in the lobbying effort to stop private member’s bill C-300. This bill would have withdrawn government funding and diplomatic support for companies found – after an investigation – to be abusing human rights or violating international environmental norms.
Meanwhile, gang rapes and killings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abuses that stem from the militarization of Barrick’s Porgera and North Mara mines. In both places, people are killed and arbitrarily detained regularly by the police and security. In the Porgera valley, mine waste is dumped directly into the rivers, poisoning hundreds of kilometres of waterways in one instance and turning a valley into a marsh of quicksand in another. The quicksand valley is swallowing up schools and houses to landslides, forcing people to move further and further up the mountainside to live. In North Mara, 40,000 small scale miners were economically displaced for the creation of the mine, left to scavenge for survival in the waste dumps of Barrick’s mega-mine. In other words, these mines present human rights crises in themselves, that aren’t going to be resolved with a nicely worded human rights policy or a limiting remediation package.
Be there with us to tell investors: “GOLD IS A TOXIC ASSET, INVEST IN LIFE!”