BAK
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 11, 2007
- 124,790
- 288,165
Historic ruling means Canadian mining company to be tried on home soil for abuses abroadBY LIAM BARRINGTON-BUSH JEN WILTON | JULY 24, 2013
TORONTO A ruling made on Monday by Supreme Court of Ontario Justice Carole Brown means that a legal case brought by 13 Mayan Q'eqchi' against Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals can now proceed to trial in an Ontario courtroom. The ruling is the first of its kind in Canada and will send shockwaves through Canada's mining industry, as Hudbay will now have to respond to charges of murder and rape in Guatemala on home soil.
"We are suing a Canadian company for negligent management essentially," Cory Wanless, co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Klippensteins law firm, explained in an interview. He said of the hearing in early March that led to this decision, "We were arguing that the Canadian company in its head office in Ontario, was the one that set policy regarding community relations, set security policy and determined how they would interact with local peoples and we say they did that negligently and should be held responsible when things go wrong."
According to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAIT) statistics, 75 per cent of the world's mining companies are based in Canada. A combination of favourable tax breaks and few laws that hold the companies to account for their actions overseas has meant that many companies call Canada home, without operating mining projects in the country and often receiving primarily foreign investment via the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Murder, rape and forced evictions.
Monday's ruling applies to three related law suits, which were consolidated for the preliminary hearings, filed against Hubday Minerals, including the case brought by Angelina Choc, the widow of slain anti-mining activist Adolfo Ich Chamán. Ich was a respected community leader in the town of La Unión, located near Hudbays former Fenix mine. On September 27, 2009, the sounds of gunshots heard in the vicinity of the mine brought Ich from his home. Although he arrived unarmed, he was brutally attacked by roughly a dozen mine security staff with a machete and then fatally shot in the head at close range. Ich left behind five children and a community in mourning.
German Chub, a young father in the same town, also brought a law suit against Hudbay, alleging that the head of security for the mining operation shot and gravely injured him on the same day that Ich was killed. Chub survived the attack, but is now paralysed and has lost the use of his right lung.
The third law suit involves 13 Mayan women who say they were gang raped by mine security staff during forced evictions in the rural town of Lote Ocho. In early January 2007, at least five Mayan communities were forcibly displaced from their lands, while dozens of houses were burnt to the ground in the wake of the attack.
TORONTO A ruling made on Monday by Supreme Court of Ontario Justice Carole Brown means that a legal case brought by 13 Mayan Q'eqchi' against Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals can now proceed to trial in an Ontario courtroom. The ruling is the first of its kind in Canada and will send shockwaves through Canada's mining industry, as Hudbay will now have to respond to charges of murder and rape in Guatemala on home soil.
"We are suing a Canadian company for negligent management essentially," Cory Wanless, co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Klippensteins law firm, explained in an interview. He said of the hearing in early March that led to this decision, "We were arguing that the Canadian company in its head office in Ontario, was the one that set policy regarding community relations, set security policy and determined how they would interact with local peoples and we say they did that negligently and should be held responsible when things go wrong."
According to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAIT) statistics, 75 per cent of the world's mining companies are based in Canada. A combination of favourable tax breaks and few laws that hold the companies to account for their actions overseas has meant that many companies call Canada home, without operating mining projects in the country and often receiving primarily foreign investment via the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Murder, rape and forced evictions.
Monday's ruling applies to three related law suits, which were consolidated for the preliminary hearings, filed against Hubday Minerals, including the case brought by Angelina Choc, the widow of slain anti-mining activist Adolfo Ich Chamán. Ich was a respected community leader in the town of La Unión, located near Hudbays former Fenix mine. On September 27, 2009, the sounds of gunshots heard in the vicinity of the mine brought Ich from his home. Although he arrived unarmed, he was brutally attacked by roughly a dozen mine security staff with a machete and then fatally shot in the head at close range. Ich left behind five children and a community in mourning.
German Chub, a young father in the same town, also brought a law suit against Hudbay, alleging that the head of security for the mining operation shot and gravely injured him on the same day that Ich was killed. Chub survived the attack, but is now paralysed and has lost the use of his right lung.
The third law suit involves 13 Mayan women who say they were gang raped by mine security staff during forced evictions in the rural town of Lote Ocho. In early January 2007, at least five Mayan communities were forcibly displaced from their lands, while dozens of houses were burnt to the ground in the wake of the attack.
