The Dominion - barrick gold

Barrick's Bodysnatchers

Tim McSorley — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:00:22 +0000

Wanton killings, criminalization, and degradation continue at the North Mara Mine in Tanzania

NEW YORK, NY—On May 16, over 1,000 people entered a mine in northern Tanzania, desperate to collect whatever gold they could from the modern industrial site that used to be their bread and butter. But instead of providing the displaced artisanal miners with a boost to their meager income, the day ended in horror. Seven men were killed, and at least a dozen wounded when police unleashed a hail of bullets.

The next day, African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick Gold, released a statement admitting that seven people were killed and twelve injured at their North Mara mine in Tanzania. The killings came at the hands of Tanzanian police, who Barrick originally claimed were under sustained attack by 800 "criminal intruders" (a number Barrick revised to 1,500), who illegally entered the North Mara mine to steal gold ore. Since this fatal confrontation, tensions have been high in the Tarime District, with an increase in the number of police, the deployment of water cannons, the arrest of journalists and two members of parliament for "instigating violence," and the theft of five of the seven bodies from the mortuary by police.

Confrontations between local people and the mine's security forces are not uncommon near Barrick's North Mara mine in Tanzania. As Bloomberg journalist Cam Simpson reported in a December 2010 feature story about the mine, before this latest massacre "at least seven people have been killed in clashes with security forces at the mine in the past two years." These security forces, according to company documents, include police who Barrick pays to guard its North Mara mine.

“They are not arresting them or taking them to court,” said Machage Bartholomew Machage, a member of the Tarime District Council, the highest local government body, in an interview with Simpson. “They are just shooting them.”

One week after the most recent spate of killings, the police stormed a local mortuary and stole the bodies of four of the dead. This move, according to locals, was to prevent the villagers from holding a planned memorial service at the mine on Tuesday.

Police also arrested and charged two members of Parliament, a legal advisor, and journalists for "instigating people to cause violence." MP Tundu Lissu, who was among those arrested, was in Tarime to assist with post-mortem medical examinations of bodies to identify exactly which parts of the bodies of the deceased were shot by the police.

“Normally if you shoot a person on the head it means you intended to kill them. However, if you shoot them on the leg it means you tried to stop them from doing something… this exercise will help us to know the police’s intention,” he explained to local journalists. Tundu was arrested two days later at the funeral of the local villagers killed by Barrick security.

At this time, Lissu and six others remain in police custody and their bail has been denied. Meanwhile, the four journalists, MP Esther Matiko, and opposition cadre John Heche posted bail and were released after six hours in custody.

According to George Marato of Tazania's Guardian newspaper, these violent confrontations can be blamed in part on corruption amongst the security forces at Barrick's mine. According to his interviews with locals following the latest killings, police and company staff conspire to facilitate illegal entry into the premises to scoop sand with gold concentrates. For example, one group would pay one million shillings (around $650) in exchange for a half-hour of scooping sand from the ground.

The violent confrontations occur, according to Marato, when disagreements arise over the amount of compensation for company insiders, often due to hikes in "gold theft fees." He writes, "Ensuing wars of words turn into confrontations that provoke policemen to fire at the very people who had been co-conspirators not long previously."

This situation, according to Marato, is then compounded by local youngsters who attempt to force their way to the compound to scoop the sand free of charge.

Tensions with the locals can be traced back to the mine's early history of displacement and dispossession. Before the mine opened, an estimated 40,000 people living in the area, a large majority of the population, depended on small-scale mining for their livelihoods, according to a history compiled by the mine’s first proponent, Afrika Mashariki Gold Mines Ltd.

Small scale miners, represented by five villages, had mineral rights to the lands that they mined, but were forced to sell these claims to Afrika Mashariki under illegal and irregular circumstances, according to a legal complaint launched in July 2003 by the Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT) on behalf of 1,273 former small-scale miners. In another lawsuit, 43 landowners alleged to have been paid no compensation, while being forcefully evicted from their lands.

Since then, there have been multiple fatal confrontations at the mine site. In December 2008, one such incident resulted in a civilian uprising where locals set fire to $7 million worth in mine equipment. This number, which was originally estimated at upwards of $15 million, is disputed by locals. As now, Barrick blamed the damage to equipment on "well-organized groups" that raided the mine site. However, signed affidavits [1, 2] from witnesses to the event claim that angry villagers had only set one Caterpillar loader on fire on a road outside the mine, after they had heard of the killing of their compatriot. These affidavits and others [3, 4] describe this incident in detail, as well as documenting the history of violence and impunity at the mine site, and the criminalization of community advocates following the murders.

Sakura Saunders is the co-editor of protestbarrick.net, an all-volunteer network of groups researching and organizing around mining issues, particularly those involving Barrick Gold.

To read this article in Spanish/Para leer este articulo en espanol: No a la mina

North Mara mine

Living in the shadow of the North Mara mine

Global Day of Action Against Open-Pit Mining: DEFENDING THE SACRED WIRADJURI HEARTLAND ["AUSTRALIA"]

Sandra — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:55:35 +0000

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[Indigenous Ipili human rights activist Jethro Tulin and traditional landowner Mark Ekepa from Papua New Guinea listen to NEVILLE "CHAPPY" WILLIAMS denounce Barrick Gold mine in sacred heartland of Wiradjuri People. PHOTO: Sandra Cuffe, 2008.]
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RE-POSTING EXCERPT FROM 'MOTHER AFRICA' BLOG - http://justiceinunjustworld.blogspot.com/ - BY AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS & SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST EVANS RUBERA, OUTSPOKEN CRITIC OF BARRICK GOLD MINING IN AFRICA:

[...]

Neville Chappy Williams, who has consistently opposed the open-pit mine at Lake Cowal in the middle of the Murray-Darling Basin, has delivered documents to the Deputy Canadian High Commissioner, Mr René Cremonese, and the Minerals Council of Australia in Canberra as part of the Global Day of Action against open-pit mining.

Neville Chappy Williams is a Traditional Owner of Lake Cowal and has fought many court cases against mining at Lake Cowal.

“It is my sacred duty to protect Lake Cowal and our ancient cultural heritage. We will never give up. I will fight to the bitter end.” Currently, he has halted the proposed expansion of the gold mine in Barrick v Williams in the NSW Court of Appeal.

“The Lake Cowal gold mine operated by Barrick Gold from Toronto, Canada is desecrating our sacred heartland of the Wiradjuri between the Kalara/Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee rivers in central west New South Wales."

[...]

Statement at UNPFII: Canadian Mining in Papua New Guinea

Sandra — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:45:36 +0000

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[photo: Jethro Tulin reading a statement in front of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, right before the Barrick Gold Annual General Meeting, April 29, 2009. photo by Sandra Cuffe.]

Earlier today, indigenous Ipili human rights activist Jethro Tulin, executive director of the Akali Tange Association in Porgera, Papua New Guinea, registered and read a formal statement to the plenary of the 8th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN headquarters in New York City. The statement follows below.

After the UNPFII ends this coming Friday, Jethro Tulin will be traveling to Washington DC for a series of meetings. Before returning to Papua New Guinea, he will be speaking at a series of public events in Montreal, Ottawa (tbc) and Toronto, between June 5th and June 9th.

For more general information, see ProtestBarrick.net

For more information about (or to help coordinate) events, contact: Sandra Cuffe, 514-583-6432, lavagabunda27@yahoo.es
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A Statement
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Eighth Session

Intervention by: Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer of Akali Tange Association (Porgera, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea)

Supported by: Asia Caucus, Pacific Caucus, Western Shoshone Defense Project (Nevada, USA), Peoples Earth, Society for Threatened Peoples International (ECOSOC), Indigenous Peoples Link

Item 7: Future Work of the UNPFII
New York, May 27, 2009.

May 11: Mining Company to Stake Claim on Mount Royal

Sandra — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:00:51 +0000

MountRoyalProposedMine.png

For immediate and widespread distribution:

Québec – Canada – Americas

mining, human rights and citizens’ rights

an open-pit mine on the mont-royal?

see : www.royalor.com

citizens’-action

may 11 2009

Mont-Royal 1 :30 -2 :30

(at the gazebo at Duluth & Parc)

Representatives of different communities affected by Canadian open-pit mining projects will stake a claim on the mineral rights of the Mont-Royal. Their aim is to symbolically demonstrate the harms and prejudices faced by their communities whether in Québec, elsewhere in Canada , in Mexico , in Honduras , in Chile or in Papua New-Guinea. The claim will be duly filed with the Ministère des Ressources naturelles du Québec.

Come one, come all to call for :

1. a reform of mining laws

2. the legal accountability of canadian companies operating abroad

3. a public debate free of « slapp » suits
________

In collaboration with Coalition québécoise sur les impacts socio-environnementaux des transnationales en Amérique Latine and many other organizations. For more information : Lazar Konforti 514.827.7486 lazar.konforti@gmail.com, Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert 514.398.4251 daviken.studnicki-gizbert@mcgill.ca. An event organized in conjunction with the Cadre des activités parallèles du 5e Congrès mondial d’éducation relative à l’environnement (www.5weec.uqam.ca), May 10 - 15 Palais des Congrès Montréal.

Indigenous Community Leaders Confront Barrick Gold in Toronto

Sandra — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:45:41 +0000

On April 29th, as Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold held its annual general meeting inside Toronto's Metro Convention Centre, a colourful protest took place across the street.

Indigenous leaders from Diaguita territory in Chile, affected by Barrick's upcoming Pascua Lama mega-project, and from Ipili territory in Papua New Guinea, were permitted to address the AGM as proxy shareholders.

While the company recognized that there have been "some deaths" around the mine in Porgera, Papua New Guinea, Barrick vehemently denied any link to or responsibility for the documented extrajudicial killings, harassment by company security forces, or - more recently - the grave human rights violations currently continuing under a State of Emergency in Porgera.

A national newspaper in Papua New Guinea ran a
front page story on April 30th about security forces burning the homes of several hundred landowners living around the mine. Community activists involved with the Porgera Landowners' Association estimated that the number of torched homes has reached between 500-600 as of April 30th.

Protest Barrick, an activist network that has been working to link affected communities and raise awareness about the issues they are facing, has organized a speaking tour in southern Ontario and Montreal over the next two weeks, with the participation of affected community leaders.

Canada in Africa: an anniversary news bulletin about Noir Canada

Sandra — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:44:08 +0000

Noir Canada.jpg

INFORMATION BULLETIN

First anniversary of Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique

Montreal, April 23rd 2009

It was just over a year ago, on April 15th 2008, that Alain Deneault, Deplhine Abadie and William Sacher officially launched Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, published by Les Éditions Écosociété, despite legal threats of lawsuits by Canadian multinational Barrick Gold (see demand letter sent by Barrick Gold).

Two defamation lawsuits followed, with Canadian mining companies Barrick Gold and Banro claiming damages amounting to $11 million dollars. The authors and publisher of Noir Canada have since had to deal with amendments to these claims, multiple and cumbersome judicial proceedings (requests for documents, endless interviews conducted by opposing counsel, etc.), the preparation of voluminous defence records for two different jurisdictions, numerous commutes to Toronto, the rejection of a request to transfer Banro’s Ontario lawsuit to Quebec, the appeal of that decision, along with the considerable costs that such proceedings require and the psychological and moral strain that comes with being put under such pressure.

In the meantime, the authors of Noir Canada remind us that “the Canadian pillage of Africa continues”, while “the Canadian government has just consecrated Canada as being a judicial haven for extraction corporations worldwide” (see the communiqué by the Collectif Ressources d’Afrique below).

Toronto, April 26: An examination of the Canadian mining industry

Sandra — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:41:09 +0000

QuestionSustainabilityImage.jpg

WHAT: 1 day conference about mining issues within Canada and abroad

WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 10:00am - 7:30pm

WHERE: Earth Sciences, Room 1050 (ES 1050), University of Toronto, 5 Bancroft Avenue

Moderated by Judy Rebick

$10 (sliding scale) to cover cost of meals; free for students. No registration required. Donations gladly accepted (available seating for 400 in auditorium).

Hosts: UTERN, Science for Peace, Students Against Climate Change / Toronto Mining Support Group, Aboriginal Students Association of York University

With the intention of building a movement for change within Canada we are hosting a conference on mining issues at the University of Toronto. This conference will provide the space for people within Canada to interact with affected communities and each other, and the conference format prioritizes facilitating conversations focused on solutions to ending corporate impunity.

“The Question of Sustainability” is a conference dedicated to examining the Canadian mining industry through the lens of sustainability within ecosystems, human rights, culture, and economics.

Featuring speakers from Papua New Guinea, Chile, the Congo, Guatemala, Tanzania and Peru, as well as many First Nations speakers and academics from Canada. This conference brings together indigenous people from the global south and the global north, and serves to address some of the complex social, political and environmental issues that relate to the imposition of extractive industries on traditional cultures.

Major issues include water use and contamination, human rights violations by Canadian companies operating abroad, the question of corporate social responsibility, and the autonomy and preservation of traditional cultures.

Blows to Barrick

dawn — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Back-to-back setbacks scuff gold miner's shine

"There is no business today of any scope, of any size, in a civilized society that can make false claims without being exposed to penalties."
–Peter Munk, Chairman and Founder, Barrick Gold

Norway's Ministry of Finance announced on January 30 that it would exclude mining giant Barrick Gold from the country's pension fund for ethical reasons. One week later, another blow to Barrick, this time in Australia, occurred when a judge ruled in favor of Wiradjuri Traditional Owner Neville "Chappy" Williams, granting an injunction restraining the proposed expansion of Barrick Gold's mine in Lake Cowal, New South Wales. More significant than the $200 million divestment or the delay in Lake Cowal mine's expansion, is the insight into Barrick's behavior that these rulings expose.

While the Norwegian Council of Ethics full recommendation mentions conflicts involving Barrick in Chile, Tanzania, and the Philippines, the panel acknowledged that, "due to limited resources," it restricted its investigation of Barrick to the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea. The Porgera mine has been a prime target for criticism because Barrick dumps its mine waste directly into the river system, a practice banned in almost every country in the world.

Barrick boasts in its Porgera Mine Responsibility Report that its "environmental specialists routinely monitor the land, air and water," claiming that environmental performance data tables are available on its website.

Norway's Council on Ethics found – after multiple requests – that Barrick "does not publish any figures relating to the discharges from the Porgera mine and provides little information in general on the environmental aspects of the operation."

Thus, relying on data from 1999, instead of discrediting Barrick's claims that it "follows a government-approved environmental management and monitoring program," the Council criticized the standards of that program and noted that there is only one compliance point – 165 km downstream from the mine.

The Council also found Barrick's claim that "there are no irreversible significant and adverse chemical impacts on this river system" was not credible, noting that "all surveys [that the Council] has had access to show an unambiguous trend of elevated heavy metal concentrations in the sediments."

Barrick asserts that "health risk assessments and medical assessments of downriver populations have been conducted and interim reports are posted from time to time. [Barrick does] not believe that there is evidence of health risks to the downstream populations."

Not only was the Council unable to find any scientific reports on human health since Barrick started to manage the mine, but through its own investigations of the mine site, the Council found that those living near the site were in direct contact with mine waste: through footpaths, gardens, alluvial mining, and water collection facilities.

In addition, the Council noted that local residents themselves have "no access to information regarding the content of hazardous substances in the tailings, air emissions and air quality, or the quality of the drinking water."

"Barrick's operation of the Porgera mine entails an unacceptable risk of extensive and irreversible damage to the natural environment... reinforced by the lack of openness and transparency in the company's environmental reporting," reads the Council's final report.

"It's unbelievably embarrassing," admits Canada's Green Party deputy leader Adriane Carr. "It's got to be bad news for Canada when a foreign government says it's going to sell its shares in a Canadian company they figure is unethical."

All the more embarrassing is that Barrick's chairman Peter Munk recently received the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor.

Within a few weeks of Norway’s announcement, the Porgera MP Phillip Kikala made calls to impose a state of emergency in Porgera, motivated by situation reports presented to him by Barrick (PNG) Limited. The National Executive Council has now made a call-out for a combined defense force and police operation in Porgera including five mobile forces and one platoon at a cost of 12 million PNG Kina.

According to ABC Australia, “Armed men have been holding up trucks carrying supplies for the mine and businesses in Porgera.” But Jethro Tulin of Porgera Alliance, a coalition of landowners and human rights defenders, believes the real lawlessness is reflected in the environmental and human rights abuses committed by Barrick. In a press statement he demands the PNG government and Barrick “immediately start to address the catastrophic problem pro-actively rather than over-reacting with high level security installations and branding it as a law-and-order problem... Ordinary people are already victims of what has gone wrong.”

A week following Norway's divestment, Barrick had another setback when the proposed expansion of their Lake Cowal mine was turned down in New South Wales' Land and Environment Court.

Barrick spokesman Bill Shallvey said that the company would appeal the decision, adding that the company had taken the appropriate avenues to seek approval to modify the gold mine.

History reveals a different story.

This is the third injunction that Wiradjuri Elder Neville "Chappy" Williams has won against Barrick Gold. Before Barrick constructed the mine, Williams won an injunction on the grounds that the Wiradjuri relics were being damaged without any "Consent to Destroy."

The latest injunction is a small victory in relation to the larger struggle for Native Title recognition in the Lake Cowal Area.

Williams, who applied for this and previous injunctions, is also the spokesperson for the Mooka/Kalara United Families claim group, which represents over 3,000 Wiradjuri people.

Since 2002, they have been fighting the New South Wales government over the native title to the Lake Cowal area, where Barrick is mining an ancient ephemeral lake and Wiradjuri sacred site.

"Barrick negotiated in secret with five unauthorized Wiradjuri," Williams explained to a roomful of shareholders at Barrick's Annual General Meeting last year.

"Barrick claims a good record in negotiating with Wiradjuri, but this is not true and the main negotiator, Percy Knight, was on a suspended sentence for fraud when he signed the deal. Now, the entire Wiradjuri nation is supposedly bound to this agreement but no one else can see it, even though we have tried to get a copy under Freedom of Information."

The group that Barrick had negotiated with, the "Wiradjuri Condobolin Native Title Claim Group" (later renamed "The Wiradjuri People") received an undisclosed amount of financial compensation for giving their consent to mine the area. This gives all new meaning to Percy Knight's statement that "the Wiradjuri people and Barrick enjoy "a mutually beneficial relationship."

Neville has made several attempts to get a copy of the ancillary deed and other documents like a full inventory of artefacts collected at Lake Cowal, but Barrick claims that the deed is "Commercial-in-Confidence."

The "Wiradjuri People" have since discontinued their title claim to Lake Cowal, leaving Chappy's group as the sole native title claimant to the Lake Cowal area.

"They couldn't prove their connection to the land, so they just took the money and ran," explained Williams when asked about why the "Wiradjuri People" discontinued their land claim.

"They claim to be Wiradjuri elders, but they signed a consent to destroy Aboriginal objects. How could they do that? They are really just sellouts who have signed away our ancient cultural heritage."

Under duress, the Mooka and Kalara United Families group will present an anthropological report in March and make a case for their Native Title claim. The Federal court will give further directions on the Title Claim case in May.

If successful, there is still a worry that the traditional owners will be unable to stop Barrick's mine on their land, which was once used for ceremonies and known as the "Sacred Heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation."

According to Australia's Native Title Act, when conflicts arise over land use, traditional owners have no right to a veto, they can only negotiate on how to say yes.

"If the traditional owners refuse to say yes, the matter goes to arbitration and the government can override it in 'the national interest.'" The Native Title Act has been condemned by the United Nations multiple times as a racist law.

Even given these difficult circumstances, the group remains hopeful. "We have to fight for every inch that we get; we've been in the court for 10 years and are very pleased with the result of this court case," Williams admitted of the Mooka/Kalara group's long struggle to save the Lake Cowal area. "But we will fight to the bitter end to protect and preserve our cultural heritage."

Sakura Saunders is an editor for protestbarrick.net, an all-volunteer news site that networks organizations and community groups organized against Barrick Gold around the world.

Glossing over the Truth

Mirage of El Dorado - trailer

Van Ferrier — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:27:09 +0000

Mirage of El Dorado, the new film by Martin Frigon, takes us high into the Andes of northern Chile where Canadian-owned Barrick Gold, the biggest gold producer in the world, is set to move glaciers if necessary to get at the mineral riches beneath.

National Post, Toronto Star: "Assailing a tycoon"

dawn — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:47:30 +0000

petermunkflyer.jpg

Corporate executives in Canada are not used to being called out in public for their actions, or the actions of their companies.

But that's what happened a couple nights ago in Toronto, when Barrick boss Peter Munk and his daughter Nina appeared at an event at Indigo bookstore.

According to the Toronto Spectator blog, "a nondescript gent stood up and, in a wan tone, began to ask a question that seemed to turn on what he claimed was Barrick’s spotty environmental record... The fellow simply carried on like a low-key high school English teacher addressing morning assembly. As he gathered pace, the tenor of his accusations grew more and more inflammatory: 'Murder…slaughter…rape…Peter Munk has blood on his hands.'"

The story in the Spectator was later picked up by the National Post and the Toronto Star.

The National Post's self professed "B-list" pundit Jonathan Kay could do no better than speculatively slander the rebel interlocuter based on his tennis shoes:

"Anyone who makes a regular appearance at such bookish soirées will know this breed well. I wasn't there when the Munks got ambushed. But here's what I'm guessing the verbal assailant looked like: ill-fitting jacket, t-shirt advertizing a political party that no longer exists, focused stare, tote bag full of leaflets and odd homemade food items, and, of course, the shoes."

November in Review

Stuart Neatby — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:55:15 +0000

Worker and Student Strikes, War Resistance, Climate Change Topples Howard

In France, an unprecedented strike of transport workers erupted throughout Paris, sparking waves of walkouts of public employees, students, teachers, and postal workers. The strike was the first major challenge for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May on a free-market platform. In line with this platform, Sarkozy has proposed a sweeping reform plan of France's public sector. The strikes began after rail workers took to the streets in protest of a bill that would increase their pension contribution period. The transport workers, whose strike shut down all but 90 of Paris' 700 fast train lines, were joined days later by public sector workers, who staged walk-outs in protest of plans to lay off 23,000. By late November, after weeks of class disruptions, several student unions struck as well in opposition to plans to privatize France's exclusively public post-secondary universities. At the peak of these strikes, a multi-sector 24-hour walk-out brought hundreds of thousands into the streets of Paris on November 20th. Although the rail workers strike effectively ended on November 22nd, after 42 of the 45 committees representing the striking workers voted to suspend their work stoppage, some public sector unions have warned that new strikes could begin next month.

In Quebec, 38 Student Unions and students associations representing about 58,000 University and CEGEP students participated in multi-day strike actions in response to the de-freezing of tuition fees by the Charest government. The strikes were called by the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Etudiante (ASSÉ), a province-wide union of student associations. On November 15th, a one-day strike was called across the province and 2000 marched in Montreal against the Charest government's post-secondary education plans. This march came two days after 300 students staged an occupation of the CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal. Police responded with overwhelming brutality, arresting 150. Other students faced police attacks after staging a sit-in at the office of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) rector Claude Corbo. The demands of ASSE are wide-reaching, and include free and accessible post-secondary education for all students in Quebec. Organizers have hinted at further strike action in the winter term.

In Olympia, Washington hundreds of anti-war demonstrators successfully blockaded the entry of military equipment returning from Iraq. This military port town is used to ship military equipment to and from Iraq, including armoured transport 'striker' vehicles. Blockades on November 9th shut down military traffic into and out of Olympia for 18 hours. Roving highway blockades throughout the town further impeded the entry of military equipment. Civilian shipments were allowed to enter and leave the port. Police responded with force, arresting 66 in total over the week and a half of actions and heavily pepper-spraying, tear gassing, and shooting demonstrators with rubber bullets. After several more days of protest actions, another sit-down blockade brought the military port to a halt for another 13 hours on November 13th. Said protest organizer Phan Nguyen: "We also encourage other communities to look around and just see what all the possibilities are and understand that they are capable of doing this."

The Canadian Supreme Court refused to even hear the case of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the first two war resisters to have publicly travelled to Canada in order to refuse to fight the war in Iraq. They are expected to face deportation proceedings. The War Resisters support campaign held protests in eight Canadian cities and is appealing to supporters to bombard Canadian MP's with letters and faxes asking for a parliamentary provision allowing Hughey and Hinzman to remain in Canada.

In Pakistan following the imposition of marshal law by military dictator Pervez Musharraf, thousands of political opposition activists, lawyers, judges, human rights activists, and political workers were rounded up and arrested within days. Musharraf's crackdown occurred as the Pakistani Supreme Court was to rule on his eligibility to run for a second term in office. The Supreme Court had shown an unprecedented judicial independence on numerous occasions, perhaps most notably in its June ruling against the privatization of Pakistan's state steel mill due to its proposed sale to a Russian-lead consortium linked to the current Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Despite the military crackdown, protests, particularly by students and lawyers, have continued into December throughout the country demanding the re-instatement of the Supreme Court judges and the resignation of President Musharraf. Contrary to its own rhetoric, the US government has maintained steady political and economic support to Musharraf throughout the month, despite the brutal repression being meted out. US officials later applauded the President's announcement that he would name himself president of the country for another five-year term. Musharraf has stated that the marshal law will be lifted on December 16th.

A No Border Camp organized by immigrant rights activists along the US-Mexican border was attacked by approximately 100 border control guards, who used with pepper gas pellets, tazers, and batons against 30 peaceful demonstrators. The camp was set up to challenge neo-liberal capitalism, border militarization and migration controls. Demonstrators had conducted a number of non-violent actions, including a cross-border kissing booth where activists on both sides of the border kissed through holes in the border fence separating southern California from Mexico. Three were arrested in total. Another no border camp, was held in Montreal at the Laval Detention Centre, where refugees, immigrants, and non-status people are detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Anti-uranium mining activist and grandmother Donna Dillman has moved her hunger strike from Sharbot Lake to the Queen's Park legislature in Toronto. Dillman's hunger strike began in solidarity with two first nations communities, Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin, who had occupied a uranium mine on unceded land currently under the proprietorship of Frontenac Ventures. Like Dillman, the majority of non-native community members in the region were supportive of the occupation, which ended last month. Dillman's hunger strike enters its sixtieth day as of this writing, and she has pledged to remain camped out in her car in front of the legislature until a moratorium on uranium mining is enacted.

Environmentalists in Nova Scotia have won a major victory after a government-appointed panel deemed that a proposed gravel quarry near the rural town of Digby would cause irreversible environmental impacts upon the coastal eco-system. A US-based company had planned a 150-hectare basalt quarry and a marine terminal along the Digby neck peninsula. The quarry would produce gravel exclusively for export to the United States. The proposal was killed this month after the Nova Scotia government upheld the ruling of the independent panel.

In Tanzania, Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold was hit by a strike of over 1,000 of its workers, bringing the company's operations within the country to a halt. The workers were striking over a number of grievances with Barrick, including salaries, meagre healthcare allowances and non-payment of risk allowances. In response Barrick fired hundreds of workers who participated in the walk-out. The Tanzania Mines and Construction Workers Union responded by taking Barrick to court, to seek an injunction on replacing the fired workers until the company had addressed the union's grievances. The legal decision on the injunction is pending as of this writing. Meanwhile, days before the miners strike began, over one thousand marched against Barrick's proposed Pascua Lama project in the streets of Santiago, Chile

In Venezuala, Hugo Chavez has been handed the first loss of his term in office after a national referendum on constitutional reform yielded a rejection by a margin of less than a percentage point. The proposed changes to the constitution included the expansion of state cooperatives and participatory community councils, the reduction of the work-day to six hours, the creation of a new class of 'social' property, the expansion of social security benefits to workers in the informal sector, and, most controversial of all, the lengthening of the presidential term from six to seven years and a removal of term limits for President. Although Chavez still maintains overwhelming popularity within the country, the vote yielded a high abstention rate, indicating that even among supporters of Chavez's social project there were some widely-felt reservations with the proposed reforms. The opposition campaign against the amendments was heavily financed by the CIA and the US government, who continue to work to destabilize the Chavez-led government.

The British Columbian Supreme Court gave a boost to aboriginal land claims in Canada after ruling that the Tsilhqot'in First Nation be granted ownership rights of the Chilcotin region, a two thousand square kilometre region of the province. But the outcome of this legal case, which took a decade to complete, has much wider reaching implications. In his 458-page ruling, BC Supreme Court judge David Vickers deemed decisions about forestry and mining upon unceded territory to be illegitimate without consultation and agreement with First Nations communities. He also ruled that traditional hunting and trapping areas be admissible as jurisdiction of land claims. The ruling stopped short of a binding legal decision, but the provincial government has been ordered to pick up the full legal tab of the case, which amounts to $30 million in legal fees.

In Australia the government of conservative prime minister John Howard, one of the closest allies of the Bush administration, was soundly defeated in this month's elections. Climate change and Iraq were the dominant issues of the campaign. National demonstrations against the Howard government's refusal to adopt the Kyoto Protocol drew 115,000 two weeks prior to the election. In-coming Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to adopt the Kyoto treaty and withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq by 2008, although hundreds of troops will remain in the country in 'supportive' roles. There are also no plans to withdraw Australia's 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.

In the lead-up to the international conference on global warming in Bali, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the organizing body behind the conference, released a new report revealing that greenhouse gas Emissions from the world's richest countries were "at an all-time high." The two countries with the most drastic increases in GHG emissions were also the sole two hold-outs to the Kyoto process amongst the developed nations of the world: the United States and Australia. Meanwhile, Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, has called Canadian PM Stephen Harper's unwillingness to support binding GHG emissions-reduction targets, unless they apply equally to developing countries, an "opportunistic" action. Said Pachauri: "This particular government has been a government of skeptics. They do not want to do anything on climate change."

Student Strike 2007

Striker