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Rights Action SPEAKING TOUR, SPRING 2008
“INVESTING IN CONFLICT”
NORTH AMERICAN MINING COMPANIES, TRICKLE DOWN "DEVELOPMENT," & ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION
WHEN: March - April 2008
WHERE: Ontario, Yukon, British Colombia (Canada); Washington, Oregon (USA)
WHO: Dawn Paley
CONTACT: Dawn, dawnpaley@gmail.com, 1-250-231-5158
Conflicts around Canadian-U.S. mining projects in Central America have accelerated since the first recent open pit mines were initiated in Honduras in 2000. What are the causes of these conflicts? Who benefits from these mining operations, and who pays? What is the role of North Americans – governments, private sector and citizens - in allowing these conflicts to continue, and how can we help bring them to and end? Goldcorp Inc. is one of the major companies that Dawn will be talking about, based on her extensive work in Goldcorp affected communities in Honduras and Guatemala.
Dawn Paley is an independent journalist and organizer from Vancouver, currently based in San Marcos, Guatemala. She has been researching and writing about the effects of Canadian and U.S. mining projects on the development, enviro- and human rights of people in Southern Mexico, Central and South America for the last five years. Dawn writes for the Dominion Paper, and recently contributed to "Extraction!"; a graphic novel about Canadian extractive companies around the world.
GOLDCORP Inc. Annual Shareholder Meeting, May 20th, Toronto: This tour is planned, in part, in build up to the Annual Shareholder Meeting of Goldcorp Inc. to be held in Toronto May 20th. For more info about education and activism work related to Goldcorp’s AGM: info@rightsaction.org
* * *
ITINERARY
15 MARCH – SATURDAY – HAMILTON
McMaster University
Global Citizen Conference
3:30-4:30.
Location: Michael Degroot Centre for Learning, McMaster.
shelley@opirg.ca
TORONTO
7pm: 341 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Party Room. Second floor
Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle of Toronto
Maria Paez Victor, mpaez@sympatico.ca
16 MARCH – SUNDAY - TORONTO
4:00pm: San Lorenzo Church
Vilma Caceres, vilmalcc@hotmail.com
17 MARCH – MONDAY - TORONTO
York University Extractive Industries Research Group (EIRG)
2:30-4:30.
York University Keele Campus, 305 York Lanes
Simon Granovsky-Larsen, simongl@yorku.ca
18 MARCH – TUESDAY – LONDON
[2 days of events]
Marie-France Arismendi, arisblou@hotmail.com
19 MARCH – WEDNESDAY – LONDON
Marie-France Arismendi, arisblou@hotmail.com
20 MARCH – THURSDAY - TORONTO
12-2pm.
University of Toronto, Hart House South Dining Room (2nd floor)
Sana Malik, sana.maliko@gmail.com, Alina Smirnova, alina.smirnova@gmail.com
7-9pm.
University of Toronto - OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)
Christina Parker, cparker@oise.utoronto.ca
25 MARCH – TUESDAY - OTTAWA
1:00–3pm:
University of Ottawa - OPIRG
Room 205 of the University Centre of the University of Ottawa
JP Prevost, jp.prevost@gmail.com
Evening:
Carleton University
Egla Martinez, egmarsa@gmail.com
27 MARCH – THURSDAY - MONTREAL
18:00PM:
UQAM – Universite de Quebec a Montreal
Table ronde sur les investissements (privés, publiques) dans les projets miniers et les conflits socio-environnementaux liés à cette argent.
Ariella Orbach, campagne@ccdhal.com
2 APRIL – WEDNESDAY - WHITEHORSE
[2 days of events in Whitehorse]
Tory Russell, trussell@navigonet.com
3 APRIL – THURSDAY - WHITEHORSE
Tory Russell, trussell@navigonet.com
4 APRIL – FRIDAY - VANCOUVER
Evening: St. James' church hall
Emilie Smith, emilietsmith@hotmail.com
Steve Stewart, sstewart@codev.org
5 APRIL – SATURDAY - VANCOUVER
10:45 - 1:15: Presentation title "Organizing for Human Rights"
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
BC Federation of Labour Social Justice Conference
6 APRIL – SUNDAY – WASHINGTON, SEATTLE [USA]
Daniel Stoner, danielppd@mac.com
7 APRIL – 10 APRIL – OREGON, Portland, Salem, Eugene, Corvalis [USA]
George B. Hutchinson, geothegreen@comcast.net
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Please join . . .
Rights Action’s
EDUCATIONAL DELEGATION TO HONDURAS
July 7-12, 2008
Learn about community and Indigenous Garifuna resistance to large scale “development” projects (including Goldcorp Inc.’s open pit, cyanide leeching gold mine and large scale tourist plans on Honduras’s north Caribbean shore) and about community development alternatives.
FOR WHOM: Citizens and activists, donors, professors and educators, media, health, environment and legal professions, who are concerned about exploitation-poverty-“development” / foreign interventions and repression / environmental destruction / etcetera, in countries of the “global south”, and about community-based resistance and work for equality, justice and locally controlled development and environmental well being.
STUDY PLAN: Through a series of Tegucigalpa city meetings and over-night visits to communities (including campesino and Indigenous Garifuna communities negatively affected by mining and tourism “development” projects), the Delegation will focus on:
* HISTORY: In readings recommended to folks before the trip, and discussions during the week, this Delegation will provide a summary understanding of 500 years of Honduran and Central American history – including the negative role played by powerful, wealthy countries of the global north, this historical perspective being necessary to understanding Honduras’ endemic poverty, racism, repression, impunity and lack of democracy today;
* PARTICULAR ISSUES: Indigenous-Garifuna and campesino resistance to the harms and violations caused by the global mining industry (namely Goldcorp Inc.’s “San Martin” gold mine) and to large landowners and the tourism industry that are using repression and other tactics to move Garifuna Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands and communities on Honduras’ Caribbean shore;
* RESISTANCE & GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS: Despite the on-going repression, added to exploitation and widespread enviro-destruction, there are courageous and vibrant grassroots organizations organizing and fighting for a just development model, for democracy and the rule of law, for the environment and women’s rights.
This Delegation, led by Grahame Russell of Rights Action, will enable participants to learn first-hand about community development, enviro- and HR struggles and organizing, and about how to be involved, in North America, with political, legal and quasi-legal activism and organizing in support of community-controlled development, enviro- and HR work.
RISKS: Rights Action will have an open discussion with participants about potential risks: on-going political issues; crime; health; etc. Participants will sign a waiver, accepting responsibility for what might happen during the Seminar.
COSTS: US$650. This includes 2 meals a day for 6 days; lodging for 7 nights/ in-country transportation / translation / guiding / honorariums for local community-based groups that participants visit with. Participants are responsible for arranging and paying for their travel to and from Honduras.
DATES: Delegation members would have to arrive into Tegucigalpa on Sunday July 6th and leave on Sunday, July 13th.
IF INTERESTED, CONTACT: info@rightsaction.org, 860-352-2448, www.rightsaction.org
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