Canadian mining companies still global leaders in environmental devastation and Indigenous land theft
Protest of Tahoe Resources' Escobar silver mine outside the Constitutional Court of Guatemala in 2018. Photo credit: Jackie McVickar
By Shaurya Kshatri
As much as 75 per cent of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada — companies that frequently come under fire for violating human rights, ignoring Indigenous sovereignty, and seriously damaging the environment.
These companies have extraction operations on every continent, including Asia, the Americas, and Africa, and many projects are operating against the expressed wishes of the local Indigenous communities.
Many of those Canadian mining executives will be in Toronto this week at the world’s biggest mining conference, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention 2022, June 13 to 15.
Mining watchdog groups are already calling it a "greenwashing” campaign. Many have been demonstrating in the streets outside.