Federal Election - May 2, 2011

 Well, Canadians went to the polls and elected a majority Conservative government. That's the way our democracy works. Quebec went massively and surprisingly NDP; Ontario went massively and surprisingly Conservative, thus giving Harper his majority.  Meanwhile it will be interesting to see that path the Prime Minister charts. Quebec will draw its conclusions.

Marlin Mine -- again

This is just a little note to say that CSC Perspectives has published a report I prepared on the Marlin open-pit gold mine owned by a subsidiary of Goldcorps and situated in Guatemala. 

You can access the article at http://www.holycrossjustice.org/Perspectives/Marlin%20Mine.htm

     There is an important addition to be made: Not only has the Interamerican Court of Human Rights ordered the mine operations suspended (almost a year ago and without effect !!), the Special rapporteur on Indigenous affairs of the United Nations recently published a powerful report on mining in Guatemala with a long appendix about the Marlin mine.  It can be found at:
http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/special-reports/observaciones-sobre-la-situacion-de-los-derechos-de-los-pueblos-indigenas-de-guatemala-en-relacion-con-los-proyectos-extractivos
    Unfortunately the Anaya report exists only in Spanish at this point but I will have more to say about it later.

As we enter into the national election campaigns in Canada, the way Canadian mining companies are acting in other countries, and even in our own, is clearly an important issue.