More than gold at stake

Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, is facing tough questions after the murder last year of three anti-mining activists opposed to its gold mining operation in Cabanas, El Salvador.

Dora Alicia Sorto Rodriguez was shot in the back after doing laundry near her home on Dec. 26. She was eight months pregnant and carrying her two-year-old son, who was shot in the foot, according to local media reports.

The deaths of anti-mining activists in Cabanas, El Salvador, has brought international attention to the fight over the El Dorado gold mine.

Sorto Rodriquez was the third member of the Cabanas Environmental Committee killed in 2009. Ramiro Rivera, the vice president, was gunned down and killed on Dec. 20 in his car, despite having a 24-hour police escort. He was given protection after surviving being shot eight times in August.

A third anti-mining activist, Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro), a well known community leader, was found tortured and murdered in an empty well after disappearing in June 2009.

Since exploration began in 2002, local opposition to the mine has grown immensely.

Opponents say the mine would devastate the local environment while hurting the area’s farming communities. In response, the country’s former president cancelled the project in 2008. Now Pacific Rim has a US$77 million lawsuit pending against the Salvadoran government for the interruption.

“Pacific Rim will not accept the fact that the communities do not want the project to go ahead,” says Jamie Kneen from MiningWatch Canada. “Yet they persist in trying to push the projects through in the face of concerted opposition and all that does is exasperate the tensions in the community.”

Pacific Rim denied any link to the murders in a statement in January. Instead it blamed the deaths on a long-standing family feud in the area.

 “There’s no evidence these killings have anything to do with the debate,” says Pacific Rim CEO Thomas Shrake in an interview from Nevada. “But it's very difficult when activist groups and opposition groups make things up. They just create fear.”

Limited government response

The Canadian government’s response has been limited. “We are saddened by the events in Cabañas, El Salvador,” says Laura Dalby, spokesperson for International Trade, in an e-mail. She says “the Embassy will continue to monitor the situation closely” but is not involved in the investigation.  

Pacific Rim is not the first mining company to be accused of wrongdoing in overseas resource extraction operations. Other Canadian firms operating in places such as Guatemala, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Honduras and Tanzania have also been accused by NGOs of violating international human and environment rights.

People around the world are extroardinarily upset with the activities of some of these companies

In response to these concerns, the federal government launched four new initiatives, including a Centre for Excellence website, to encourage corporate social responsibility and help host countries strengthen their ability to govern and develop their resources responsibly.

“It’s a one-stop shop process,” said former trade minister Stockwell Day at the website’s launch in January. “Companies and stakeholders can find the tools, the information and the best practices to meet and in fact to exceed the social and environmental responsibilities when they’re operating abroad."

Liberal MP John McKay has been advocating for mandatory accountability measures for mining companies found to be in violation of Canadian laws. He believes the website is a little late.

Fighting over legislation

“It’s sort of like Facebook for minors,” says McKay. “It doesn’t really apply to any of the situations that are getting Canadians upset.”

The issue of mining has always been an area of interest for McKay. He launched a private members bill, C-300, that imposes Canadian human rights and environmental standards on Canadian resource extraction companies operating overseas.

John McKay's private members bill is back in committee. It narrowly passed second reading in the House of Commons by a vote of 137-133.

“People around the world are extraordinarily upset with the activities of some of these companies,” said McKay. “The more evidence we hear on this the worse it gets . . .  And it’s getting pretty grim.”

The mining industry is fighting the bill.

“We’re in support of the ideas and the goals that John’s put forward,” says Julie Gielfand of the Mining Association of Canada. “But not in the way that he has crafted it. We have concerns over the process.”

Bill C-300 had just come out of committee and was ready for its third reading in the House of Commons when Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament in December.  McKay says the bill must go back to committee with the potential of hearing more witnesses. However, he is unsure when that will happen.

“It’s going to be tough,” says McKay about the prospects of the bill becoming law. There’s a chance the opposition majority will vote in favour of the bill, sending it to the Senate, he says.

However, the Conservative-controlled Upper Chamber is unlikely to pass it. 

“The Conservatives have made it abundantly clear that they will use all means necessary to terminate this bill,” he says. “[This is] quite regrettable because C-300 serves a very useful function to put some teeth behind the government's rather lean initiatives.”

Discover specific cases of Canadian mining companies whose presence in developing countries have harmed local communities.