 |
| — A protest in Vancouver over our mining operations in Tibet — |
WHY WOULD STEVIE TARGET BRAZIL? According to Dave Dean at Vice, “75% of the World's Mining Companies Are Based in Canada”. Maybe that's why Stevie wants to know what the Brazilian Ministry of Mines is planning?
All over the world, companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and run out of lawyer’s offices on Bay Street or skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver (whose real financiers may live in Australia or Nevada) are handling the mining game at home, throughout parts of Asia, South America and surprisingly, even with all the talk of China’s investment in Africa, it turns out that it’s Canada, not China, who is quietly dominating and exploiting African mining. All told, almost 1,300 mining companies based out of Canada are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in over 100 countries around the world.
Well, well, time to do some rat removal. These are not nice people, and they do nasty things to people in their way.
In Central and South America, Canada’s reputation is being dragged through the dirt to the point where in some countries, it’s apparently better for travellers to say they’re American than Canadian, and it’s not hard to see why. Vancouver-based Pacific Rim is suing the government of El Salvador, a country with a GDP of $23 Billion (Canada’s is $1.7 trillion) for $315 million dollars because they didn’t let them follow through with a mine that threatened to pollute the Lempa River—a watershed that accounts for 60% of the country’s clean water.
As if that’s not enough, a region of Guatemala was militarized last month—and the right to protest or form meetings has been suspended by the president—following clashes between local protesters who are concerned for their drinking water and employees of Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources inc.
While most companies probably do operate ethically and to the best of their ability—while maintaining healthy and sustainable relationships with local cultures and their environments—unfortunately these few stories really are the tip of the iceberg as far as Canada’s mining reputation that is beginning to be noticed as the worst in the world.
4 comments:
That darling of Sun News Diane Francis has a thesis that Canada can only survive through Union with the USA. Her case is built upon the idea Canada does not have the capital necessary to exploit our resources. The facts above seem to indicate that is wishful thinking on her part.
Hello Ed,
Such a rational and clear-sighted post that I'm sure it will be overlooked.
It's hard to tell the clientele to leave the burning bar if they don't want to.
Ordinary Canadians merely have the illusion of living in a wealthy and prosperous country while the real profits and wealth that they and their nation generates all quietly goes elsewhere.
Meanwhile they struggle to keep up appearances as both they and a national governemnet that clearly isn't and never has been on their side, has plunged them ever deeper into debt and it is a debt that is owed to the very same kind of people outside of their country that have already milked them and bilked them for all that they're worth, with an approving and helping hand from their very own national government.
If you think that ordinary Americans are the only ones caught up in the unpayable debt and death trap that the Federal Reserve system has placed them in, guess again.
The Canadian federal government sells and has been selling that same Fereral Reserve 43 billion in Canadian treasury notes and mortgage backed securities every month to ensure that it's grip on Canada, Canadians, and their economic future, is already safely in it's hands and under it's full control as well.
The very best slaves are always the ones that are foolish enough to believe that they aren't and who will continue to deny that fact no matter how high the pile of evidence that unequivocably proves it gets.
@silverfox, The government takes in more revenues from the lottery than oil royalties.
The New Energy Plan works in Norway but not in Canada, pity.
Post a Comment