The feds, not just companies, responsible for mining harms abroad and should be held to account

A dominant player in the global mining industry, the Canadian government touts its economic diplomacy as a benefit companies can expect if they raise funds here.

A memorial to Mariano Abarca is pictured in 2010. The Canadian government published guidelines for supporting human rights defenders in 2016, but we have seen little evidence of change since, and the decisions so far in Abarca’s case only reinforce the embassy’s one-sided approach, writes Jamie Kneen. Flickr photograph by Dawn Paley

Opinion

BY JAMIE KNEEN

November 10, 2021

A case before the Federal Court of Appeal this week shines a light on why we urgently need not only corporate accountability, but government accountability when it comes to Canadian mining operations abroad. In 2009, Mexican environment defender Mariano Abarca was killed for denouncing environmenta...

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