In Memoriam

Dacajeweiah
Splitting-the-Sky

January 7, 1952 - March 13, 2013

On March 13, Dacajeweiah, Splitting-the-Sky, 61, left us forever when he passed away in his home in Adams Lake, British Columbia. Dac's colonial name was John Boncore Hill, from Six Nations. "From Attica to Gustafsen Lake," and thereafter, he was a warrior, a comrade, a friend.

We deeply mourn his loss.

The family will release a biographical statement and details of memorial arrangements in due course. With deepest love to his wife and soul-mate, She-Keeps-the-Door, and children. We stand with Dac's many many co-fighters and friends.

Harper's Foreign Investment Protection Agreements and the Modern-Day Scramble for Africa

The Harper government used a Canadian mining industry convention to announce the signing of its two latest international trade agreements. This was an appropriate venue for the announcement since the agreements serve the narrow private interests of global mining monopolies. It was not surprisingly warmly received by their representatives participating in the convention. The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) immediately issued a statement hailing the agreements.

The announcement was made at the convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in Toronto on March 4 by Minister of International Trade Ed Fast who is also Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway. Fast said two new Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (FIPAs) had been signed, one with Cameroon and one with Zambia.

Cameroon is a country in central west Africa and Zambia is in southern Africa. Both countries have huge human and natural resources which for many generations have made these countries targets in the colonialist and imperialist scramble for Africa. Zambia is a major producer of copper and nickel and has other vast mineral resources. Cameroon has partially developed petroleum resources and an array of undeveloped mineral resources.

The Harper government's eagerness to support Canadian-based companies' participation in the modern-day scramble for Africa is expressed pretty plainly in its media release on the two latest FIPAs, "There is significant potential for increased Canadian investment in Cameroon and Zambia -- especially in the mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, education and health sectors. Canadian companies are already heavily invested in both countries. In 2011, Canadian mining assets in Cameroon were valued at more than $35 million. In Zambia, assets were worth over $6 billion, accounting for 20 percent of all Canadian mining assets in Africa." In total, Canadian mining investment in Africa has reached $31 billion, up from only $5 billion in 2005.

The newly signed FIPAs will make the investment arrangements and contracts of Canadian investors immune from interference or restriction by the national governments of Cameroon and Zambia. Anything Canadian-based investors feel is detrimental to their private interests can be referred to the binding international arbitration processes spelled out in the agreement.

The Canadian government is pushing FIPAs throughout Africa, with a total of nine FIPA initiatives completed or underway. FIPAs have already been signed with Benin, Madagascar, Senegal and Tanzania. It also has signed a FIPA with Mali where Canadian armed forces are participating in the French military invasion and occupation, supposedly in defence of "Canadian interests." The Canadian government is currently negotiating FIPAs with Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Tunisia.

The MAC statement hailing the new FIPAs with African countries says, "Given the global nature of our sector, the Canadian mining industry is highly supportive of the formation of new trade agreements. Today's announced FIPAs with Zambia and Cameroon are strategic, and help ensure that Canadian mining investment is supported and protected in these important emerging markets where great opportunities for responsible [sic] mining growth exist."

The MAC statement went on to provide the numbers on these "great opportunities." African countries, it said, accounted for 15 per cent of global mineral exploration investment in 2011. That same year the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the TSX Venture exchange raised $1 billion in capital for mining projects in 35 African countries and companies listed on those exchanges had 684 mineral extraction projects underway in African countries.

It is easy to see why representatives of Canadian-based mining monopolies are so enthusiastic about the agreements signed by the Harper government. These monopolies and the financial oligarchs associated with them are a competitive force in global resource extraction.[1] The mining sector deal makers headquartered in Canada want to fight to win in the scramble for resources in Africa and globally. The FIPAs will serve their private interests by reducing risk and enabling the mining monopolies to do as they please in the signatory countries.

What cannot be seen though is this -- what is in these trade agreements for Africans and Canadians? Other than the privileged minority aligned with global deal makers, who benefits from agreements like the FIPAs? Why does the Canadian government put its international trade and diplomatic apparatus -- and even its armed forces as in the case of Mali -- at the service of private interests and their aggressive global quests?

The Harper government is a one-trick-pony with the same answer for everything -- to create jobs and prosperity. True to form, when announcing the latest FIPAs International Trade Minister Ed Fast said, "Our government is helping create jobs, growth and prosperity for families in every region of our country by ensuring investments by Canadian businesses are protected abroad." Fast gives no explanation of this ridiculous proposition that "protecting Canadian businesses abroad" creates jobs. What kind of prosperity could shuffling mining stock certificates around Bay Street offices or moving bags of money around from one vault belonging to the international financial oligarchy to another create?

Neither the interests of Canadian workers, nor those of workers in the countries of Africa and elsewhere are served by agreements such as FIPAs. They have no other outcome than ensuring monopoly right and enabling monopolies to operate with impunity throughout the world. Canadian workers and those abroad are served when monopoly right in the resources sector and other sectors is severely restricted by national governments.

Resources in Zambia, Cameroon and Canada and anywhere else are just useless rocks until workers apply labour to these resources to create wealth. Workers who create this wealth have every right to decide what resources are extracted and how the wealth they create is used. Affirming this right requires monopoly right to be restricted, not the expansion of monopoly right and impunity as is done in FIPAs and other neo-liberal trade agreements.

1. The following information is from the MAC. There were 1,646 mining companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges in 2011, more than the London, Australian, New York and Hong Kong exchanges combined. These companies had a market value of $428 billion, value equal to mining companies listed on the London and on the Australian exchanges and 38 per cent of the value of those listed on the New York exchange. In 2011, the Canadian exchanges raised $12 billion in equity for global mining operations, slightly more than the London market and more than the New York, Australian and Hong Kong exchanges combined. http://www.mining.ca/www/media_lib/MAC_Documents/F&F2011-English.pdf

A Different Truth About Canadian Mining Companies

On March 3, the opening day of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange in Toronto, the Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, praised what he called the ethical behaviour of Canadian mining companies and their important contributions to the world economy. He also praised the leadership they are allegedly showing in implementing responsible mining practices. In his speech, Minister Fast talked about "safe practices" and "responsible mining practices" and said that "Canada's mining sector -- which employs more than 300,000 Canadians -- leads the world in responsible mining practices." Fast recalled the measures that the Harper government has taken in 2009 to rebuild the tarnished reputation of the Canadian mining companies in the world. In March 2009, the Harper government established the Office of the Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor and the Centre of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They were created to assist the mining companies to portray themselves as doing something socially positive. Minister Fast did not explain in his speech why these measures had to be taken.

Mining Industry in Canada

Canada, besides being endowed with vast and rich natural resources, is the home of some of the biggest mining companies in the world. Mining giants such as Barrick Gold, Teck Corp (Cominco), IAMGOLD, SEMAFO, Kinross Gold, Gold Corp, and many others are headquartered in Vancouver or Toronto.

Canadian mining companies operate on all continents and in more than 100 countries including all the developing countries. They operate both underground and open pit mines that extract gold, silver, copper, platinum, diamond and rare earth metals.

Reputation of Canadian Mining Companies

In the world and in Canada, Canadian mining companies are known as polluters, as wreckers of the natural and social environments, as a source of conflicts with the local population and especially with the peoples of Aboriginal origin, besides being the plunderers of resources. Their reputation in regards to human rights is terrible. A rapporteur for the United Nations, John Buggie, referring to the activities of Barrick Gold and Teck Corp in Peru, the Philippines, Australia and Tanzania said: "In the mining sector, respect for human rights is very problematic."

The Cases of Barrick Gold, Teck Corp and IAMGOLD

This Canadian mining company is the biggest gold producer in the world. In 2012, it produced 7.42 million ounces of gold. Its headquarters are in Toronto and the company is a member of the World Gold Council. Barrick Gold is known for trying to suppress any criticism and any opposition to its activities, whether in Canada or abroad. On May 16, 2011, in the Nyamongo-Tarime district in Tanzania, five people died and many more were injured in a clash between the local population and the security forces of Barrick Gold. The same day, at the North Mara mine also in Tanzania, the company's security forces killed seven and injured 12 people during a demonstration of the local population against the plan of the company to displace them from their village. Reporters were also arrested during the clash.

In Papua New Guinea, charges of rape were alleged against Barrick Gold's security forces. In 2009, Barrick had to pay U.S.$89 million for "environmentally unsound practices." In 2009, at the Porgera Gold mine, also in Papua New Guinea, the Ipili native people sued Barrick Gold for heavy metal contamination of their sources of drinking water and the rivers on which they depend for their living. Barrick forced the displacement of the aboriginal population of Porgera using the local corrupt police and its own security forces.

In Chile, at the Pascua mine in February 2010, Barrick contaminated the surface water of the villages that surround the mine. In Dominican Republic, Chile, South Africa, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, the U.S. and Mexico, Barrick Gold is known for diverting and taking control of the water to serve its own aims, at the expense of the local populations.

In Peru, Placer Dome, which is controlled by Barrick Gold and owns the Antamina mine in the Cajacay region, is responsible for several toxic discharges in the environment. About 210 people were poisoned because of a toxic discharge on July 25, 2012. In the same region, another Canadian company, Teck Corp, polluted the drinking water and the rivers in Huarmey and Cascajal.

On February 12, 2013, a major toxic discharge happened at the Pueblo Viejo Gold Mine in the Dominican Republic. The mine is owned 60 per cent by Barrick and 40 per cent by Gold Corp.

The environmental degradation that is caused by Barrick Gold is such that Norway expelled the company on January 30, 2009 from the Government Pension Fund Global and the Government Pension Fund of Norway. On the same day, Norway withdrew its participation in Barrick Gold's mining projects.

Aboriginal people in Australia have accused Barrick Gold of killing people who refused to be displaced from their homes.

The company is based in Vancouver. It extracts copper, coal, zinc and is also active in the energy sector. It was convicted of multiple violations of environmental laws in Canada and abroad. In 2003, it was responsible for a toxic discharge of lead in the Columbia River. Teck Corp owns the Red Dog mine in Alaska that was called the most polluted mining site in the U.S. in 2000.

In 2004, the Colville Confederated Tribes sued Teck Corp for the pollution of Roosevelt Lake and of the Columbia River in Washington State. In 2003, CBC produced a documentary entitled: "A Century of Slag" which is mainly about Teck Corp. The documentary details more than 100 years of pollution of the Columbia River by Teck Corp, from 1896 to 1995. Teck Corp finally admitted before a U.S. Court in 2012 that it polluted the Columbia River and Roosevelt Lake from 1896 to 1995.

The company is headquartered in Toronto. It operates five gold mines on three continents. It has three mines in Quebec: Niobec Niobium Mine, Westwood and Mouska Gold Mine of which it owns 100 per cent. It is present in Ecuador (Quimsacocha mine), Suriname (Rosebel Gold Mine), Mali (Sadiola Gold Mine -- 41 per cent owned by IAMGOLD and Yatela Gold Mine of which it owns 40 per cent), Burkina Faso (Essakane Gold Mine -- 95 per cent owned), Botswana (Mupane Gold Mine) and Ghana (Tarkwa Gold Mine and Damang Gold Mine).

All the mines operated by IAMGOLD, with the exception of those in Quebec, are open pit mines.

IAMGOLD is known for displacing local populations that live on and near its mining sites in order to seize the water resources to clean its minerals and to use the mercury to extract gold from its mines. The company operates in countries in which environmental norms are either minimal or non existent. According to environmental groups, there have been several and frequent discharges of toxic materials and heavy metals.

In November 2006, IAMGOLD bought Canadian mining firm Cambior for U.S.$1.3 billion. In 1995, Cambior caused a discharge of 4 million cubic metres of acid in the Essequibo region in Guyana. This ecological disaster led IAMGOLD to cease all its activities in the region.

In Burkina Faso in May 2011, a violent labour dispute erupted at the Essakane Gold Mine.

Conclusion

Canadian mining companies are anything but ethical. For decades now, they have been involved in disputes with the First Nations in regards to the occupation and illegal use of hereditary lands. In Mexico and South America, the people are pointing an accusing finger at them for the disappearances and the killings of environmental and trade union activists. Barrick Gold even created NGOs to try to convince Chilean villagers to be displaced so that mining operations can take place in the Atacama region near the border between Chile and Argentina.

The creation by the Harper government of the Office of the Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor and the Centre of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility does nothing to stop the mining companies from acting with impunity. Far from it. It shows that the government is actively assisting these mining companies to trample the rights and sovereignty of the countries and peoples where they operate. It must not pass!

Some of the victims of Canadian mining firms (left to right): Guatemalan community leader Adolfo Ich, killed by security forces of HudBay Minerals in 2009; Bernardo Vasquez, who opposed the activities of Canadian mining company Fortuna Silver Mines in Oaxaca, Mexico, killed in 2012; Teodora Antonia Hernández Cinto, active in the struggle against
Canadian mining firm Goldcorp Inc.'s cyanide leaching gold mine in Mayan territories of western Guatemala,
was shot and injured in July 2010.

Cliffs Resources to Close Iron Ore Pellet Plant
in Quebec

On March 11, Cliffs Natural Resources announced that it would be closing its Wabush Pointe Noire iron ore pellet plant located in Sept-Iles, Quebec. The plant will close by the end of June putting 165 workers employed at the plant out of work. The docking and ship loading facilities connected to the Pointe Noire plant will continue to operate as Cliffs intends to continue shipping iron ore without the ore being pelletized.

In the Cliffs media release on the announcement, Cliffs CEO Joseph Carrabba said, "Due to the dynamics in the marketplace, we are taking measures to adjust our iron ore pellet production at our Wabush operation while continuing to meet our customer commitments.... Today's announcement is expected to improve our cash cost profile for the full-year in order to remain globally competitive in the iron ore market."

What Carrabba means by this statement is that Cliffs will continue to ship 3 million tons of iron ore from its Wabush mine in Labrador without the value of pelletizing being added to the ore at the Pointe Noire plant before it is shipped. The loss of 165 jobs and the impact this will have on the workers involved in a town of only 26,000 people in a remote region is of no concern to Cliffs. This U.S. based global monopoly is narrowly focused on the private interests of its owners, on the "cash cost profile" and being "globally competitive."

Iron ore for the Pointe Noire plant comes from the Cliffs' Wabush Scully mine near Labrador City, Newfoundland & Labrador in the Labrador Trough iron mining region. The ore is currently concentrated at the Wabush mine site and shipped by rail to Sept-Iles for pelletizing. Pelletizing is an operation in which workers add value to the iron ore by mixing additional material with the ore and using thermal, chemical and mechanical operations to partially process it according to the requirements of steel producers.

The governments involved -- Canada, Newfoundland & Labrador and Quebec -- will all permit Cliffs to eliminate this manufacturing process which adds value to the iron ore resource and to ship ore out of the region in a raw form. These governments along with Cliffs Resources are moving the resource sector in exactly the opposite direction to that being demanded by the workers and communities of the resource regions and by the entire working class.

People are demanding an end to the shipping of raw resources. They are demanding that governments restrict monopoly right and defend the public interest. Governments must not allow global monopolies to carry on organizing the extraction of resources in ways that serve only narrow private interests while disregarding the livelihoods of workers, the viability of the resource communities and the all-round development of the economy.

Blackmail by Mining Companies in Quebec

Since the last election and especially since the election of the Pauline Marois Parti Québécois government, the issue of deep reforms to Quebec's Mining Act has arisen, including increased royalties to the province for the exploitation of mineral resources.

In this context, the mining companies operating in Quebec have not remained idle. During the week of March 3 to 9, Rio Tinto, the largest producer of iron ore in Quebec, announced the upcoming sale of its facilities and mines in both Canada and Quebec. In the week of March 10, it was Cliffs Natural Resource's turn to announce the closure of its pelletizing operations in the Port of Sept-Iles and its concentration operations at the Wabush and Fermont mines. Cliffs will however continue iron ore extraction and is building reserves.

On March 12, DG Goldcorp, the second largest gold producer in the world, addressed "players in the mining industry" of Quebec at a meeting of "leaders of the mining industry," organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec, and the firms Fasken Martineau and KPMG-SECOR. The theme was "the investment environment," including taxes and fees in the future mining regime in Quebec.

This is the second time in less than a year that the largest iron ore multinationals (Rio Tinto, BHP-Billiton, ArcelorMittal, Tata and Vale) and gold multinationals operating in Quebec have taken action in protest of infringement of monopoly right. The first time was during the election campaign in the summer 2012. The iron ore mines then manipulated the price of iron ore on the markets which went from $53 per tonne to $74 per tonne.

This time around, these monopolies claim that the large volume of ore available on the markets and the slowdown in economic growth in China are behind their decisions.

This strategy of the monopolies to manipulate prices is not only used against Quebec, but in all the countries currently considering changes to mining laws or establishing a mining law to increase the charges levied by the country. Several countries around the world have taken this step.

The mining multinationals' lobbying and blackmail of the Marois government must be opposed. As the workers in Alma, across Quebec and elsewhere are demanding, companies' exploitation of natural resources must benefit the people and their communities by providing well-paying jobs and revenue from taxes and royalties.

UN Report Criticizes Harper Government's
Dereliction of Duty

On March 11 in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, submitted a report to a meeting of the United Nations Council of Human Rights. The report is based on his official visit to Canada from May 6-16, 2012, made at the invitation of the government, in which his mission was to examine how the right to adequate food is being realized in Canada.

The report criticizes the Government of Canada on the issues of food insecurity and malnutrition. Amongst other things, the Special Rapporteur points out that the Harper government's decision to drop the long form census undermines its ability to address these issues. The elimination of this form prevents Statistics Canada from compiling an analytical assessment of the country, noting that "in order to effectively combat hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of who is hungry, food-insecure and malnourished."

De Schutter also criticized the proposed free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, which the government would like to conclude by the end of the year. He noted that initiatives to promote food, nutrition and local markets, such as those that promote local procurement may be affected by this agreement. He added that there is a provision in the draft agreement that prohibits municipalities from promoting Canadian goods and services for contracts over $340,000.

The rapporteur also criticized the decision to eliminate the National Council of Welfare, which he describes as "a forum for the collection of data and the comparison of social assistance rates across the country."

He also criticized the government for putting an end to the Canadian Wheat Board's public monopoly. He gave his strong support for the supply management systems in place for dairy, poultry and egg production, which is a point of contention for a possible free trade agreement as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

A significant number of Canadians are living on welfare and do not receive adequate food due to the increased cost of housing, De Schutter said.

The report also criticized Canada for not fulfilling its obligations under international conventions such as the right to food, which is a derivation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

"The special rapporteur is concerned about the growing gap between Canada's international human rights commitments and their implementation domestically," the UN report stated.

In conclusion, the report urges Ottawa to create a national strategy for food to fight hunger in a growing number of vulnerable groups, including First Nations people and people on welfare struggling to make ends meet. According to the rapporteur the strategy should include municipal, provincial and federal levels of governments.

The findings of De Schutter's report are corroborated by Food Banks Canada, which for 16 years has painted a picture of food bank usage and meal programs in the country. According to Food Banks Canada, more than 882,000 Canadians used a food bank in March 2012, an increase of 2.4 per cent, compared to the previous year. The number of people using food banks suggest that those with food problems has jumped 31 per cent since the beginning of the recession in 2008.

Children and youth represent 38 per cent of food bank users, while people on social assistance, First Nations people and single parent families must also deal with food insecurity.

Despite the compelling facts, the Harper government has arrogantly declared that it is unimpressed by the report's criticisms.

Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Elissa Goldberg, said De Schutter exceeded his mandate by commenting on agriculture, international aid and trade policies in Canada.

During his fact-finding mission last May, Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said De Schutter was "ill-informed" and "patronizing," while Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney tried to discredit the work of De Schutter and his office by calling him "ridiculous."

These arrogant statements are a vain attempt to cover up the Harper government's dereliction of duty to uphold the most basic rights and its utter hypocrisy of condescending to others around the world about human rights. These statements must be rejected with all the contempt that they deserve.

Food bank use across Canada in March 2011, according to Food Banks Canada (click to enlarge).

Note to Readers

Due to celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the Internationalists, TML Daily was not published on Friday, March 15, 2013 and TML Weekly was not published on Saturday, March 16, 2013.

Dacajeweiah Splitting-the-Sky