Press Advisory: Legal case in Canada Against Mining Company

Below:  press releases - English & Spanish - about press conferences in Toronto & Guatemala City, concerning a legal case filed in Canada, against a Canadian mining company, for the killing of a Mayan community leader in Guatemala.

 

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ENGLISH - PRESS CONFERENCE IN TORONTO
December 1, 2010 - Toronto

ANNOUNCEMENT OF LAWSUIT AGAINST
MAJOR CANADIAN MINING COMPANY
RELATING TO MURDER OF
MAYAN LEADER IN LATIN AMERICA

Toronto, November 29, 2010: On Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 10:30am, lawyers for the widow of a community leader who was shot and hacked to death in an unprovoked attack by private security forces employed at a Canadian mining project in Latin America will announce a lawsuit brought in Ontario courts against a major Canadian mining company.

The murdered man was an outspoken critic of harms caused by Canadian mining activities in his community.  To date, no one has been held accountable for his death.

This press announcement comes one month after Parliament voted against Bill C-300, a bill intended to ensure that Canadian mining companies operating abroad act in accordance with Canada's commitments to international human rights standards.

Other participants will include:

The Honourable Peter Julian: Member of Parliament and author of Bill C-354: legislation which seeks to protect foreign citizens against serious human rights abuses committed by Canadian corporations operating outside of Canada.

Professor Craig Scott: Director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security, and Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Grahame Russell: Co-director of Rights Action, a non-profit organization that works in close proximity with community groups in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

WHEN:Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 10:30am
WHERE:      Suite 400, 4th Floor "Innovation Lab", 215 Spadina Av, Toronto
CONTACT:    For details as to time and location only:
Murray Klippenstein, Legal Counsel, 416-937-8634 (mobile)
Silas Polkinghorne, 416-799-5365 (mobile)
murray.klippenstein@klippensteins.ca
silas.polkinghorne@klippensteins.ca

For more information see www.chocversushudbay.com, after 10:30 a.m., Dec. 1.

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ESPANOL - CONFERENCIA DE PRENSA
1 de diciembre, de 2010 - ciudad de Guatemala

CASO LEGAL EN CANADA, EN CONTRA DE UNA COMPANIA MINERA, POR EL ASESINATO DE UN LIDER COMUNITARIO EN GUATEMALA

La familia del líder comunitario Adolfo Ich Chaman, quien fuera asesinado el 29 de septiembre del año 2009, en El Estor, Izabal, por fuerzas de seguridad de la empresa HudBay Minerals (de Canada) y su subsidiaria en Guatemala la CGN (Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel),

CONVOCA

a los medios de comunicacion nacionales e internacionales, y a las organizaciones sociales, amigas-os, compañeras-os que nos han acompañado en búsqueda de justicia,

a una CONFERENCIA DE PRENSA

que se llevará a cabo el día 1 de diciembre del 2010,
en el Salón Maya del Hotel Panamerican,
9ª calle, 5-63, zona 1,
a las 10am.

para dar a conocer una accion legal que se ha iniciado en Canada por la comision de este asesinato que ha quedado en la impunidad en Guatemala.

HABLARAN:

Angelica Choc, viuda del finado Adolfo Ich Chaman
Cory Wanless, abogado Canadiense con el bufete de abogados "KLIPPENSTEINS Barristers & Solicitors", de Toronto, Canada
Sergio Belteton, abogado Guatemalteco

AGRADECEMOS SU PARTICIPACIÓN Y SOLIDARIDAD

FAMILIA ICH CHOC
Ciudad de Guatemala,
29 de noviembre 2010

PARA MAS INFORMACION:

En Canada/ USA:  Grahame Russell, Rights Action/ Derechos en Accion, info@rightsaction.org, 1-860-352-2448

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WHAT TO DO?

MINING & CANADIAN & AMERICAN IMPUNITY
Most profits and benefits of the global mining industry in Central America flow to American and Canadian shareholders, investors and company directors.  There are few laws that can be used in Canada and the USA to hold Northamerican companies accountable for environmental and health harms and other human rights violations that occur in the communities and countries where North American companies operate.

SPEAKERS:  Contact us to plan educational presentations in your community, school, place of worship, home (info@rightsaction.org)
EDUCATIONAL DELEGATIONS TO CENTRAL AMERICA:  Form your own group and/ or join one of our educational delegation-seminars to learn first hand about community development, human rights and environmental struggles (info@rightsaction.org)

TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
for indigenous and campesino communities working for community controlled development and environmental protection in Central America, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

UNITED STATES:  Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA:  552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
DONATIONS OF STOCK: info@rightsaction.org

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WWW.RIGHTSACTION.ORG
Rights Action is a not-for-profit organization, with tax charitable status in Canada and the USA.  We directly fund and work with community-based development, environmental, disaster relief and human rights projects and organizations fighting to eliminate poverty and impunity and the underlying causes of poverty and impunity in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in Chiapas [Mexico], El Salvador and Haiti.  We educate about and are involved work aimed at critically understanding unjust north-south relations and global development, environmental and human rights issues and the challenges of poverty eradication.

CREATE YOUR OWN email and mail lists and re-distribute our information
RECOMMENDED DAILY NEWS: www.democracynow.org / www.upsidedownworld.org / www.dominionpaper.ca
RECOMMENDED BOOKS: Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America"; Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"; James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me"; Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine"; Paolo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"; Dr Seuss's "Horton Hears A Who"

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org