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Mining (3)
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Student group in Vancouver Raises the Alarm Over Extractive Industries on Campus
By Katherine Dodds On September 28, 2014 | 2 CommentsGuest Blog by Sam Stime, Calling on Corporation Blog readers to sign our petition!
For a year, students at UBC and SFU have been raising the alarm bells about the federally-funded and mandated Canadian International Institute for the Extractive Industries and Development, the CIIEID, now housed at our universities. After extensive due-diligence, we’ve rolled out a petition calling on the decision-makers at our universities to review the poorly informed decision to host the extractive industry think-tank, and to take the precedent-setting step of dismantling it.
The petition is available here. The students’ blog StopTheInstitute.ca provides extensive background to problems around Big Mining, Canadian diplomatic support for Canadian extractive companies overseas, and a narrative of the students’ rigorous search for information from the completely opaque CIIEID. The petition is getting attention from citizens, NGOs, and academics across Canada, who recognize this institute as a threat to academic freedom & integrity, as corporatization of the universities in its most heinous form, as an academic cloak concealing a predatory industry, and as a menace to the well-being of communities and to the local decision making processes of sovereign nations. To date, hundreds of stakeholders have signed on to the petition, including dozens of faculty at the coalition universities.
In stating what is expected of the university, the student blog doesn’t beat around the bush. Cards promoting the line-in-the-sand petition don’t either. Text accompanying an image of a gaudy masquerade mask reads, “Cute mask. But claiming to ‘alleviate poverty’ by promoting Canadian mining overseas isn’t fooling anyone.’ It goes on to assert, “This new mining institute is a threat to academic independence, and a threat to many countries’ own resource governance decisions. It’s way too problematic to host at our universities. Together, we’re asking the highest authorities at UBC, SFU, and EPDM to close it. Please sign the petition today.”
With the atrophy observed among directors, managers, and other key staff (all mention of them having been removed from the CIIEID ‘people’ page in the last months), students are now confident that the charade is nearly over.
The petition has stimulated a critical examination of whether it’s really appropriate for such a mining institute to be hosted at our universities. It’s urged self-reflection on Canadian complicity in abuses and exploitation outside Canada’s borders, and challenged our own assumptions about our right to acquire others’ resources, even at the cost of their own sovereign decision-making.
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Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of HelloCoolWorld.com, the grassroots team behind The Corporation, and is featured in a "Grassroots Marketing" segment on The Corporation DVD set. She is dedicated to harnessing the power of the film to rein in corporate abuse through the development of the Campaign 4 Corporate Harm Reduction. |
It’s Time for Canada to be Open for Justice!
By Sandy Haksi On May 26, 2014 | 0 CommentsJoin us in a campaign to make Canadian mining companies accountable.
Vancouverites will be able to catch a special fundraiser screening of The Corporation this Monday, May 26 with an info fair, panel guests (including The Corporation author Joel Bakan!) and after-party. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a devil's bargain since the event will be held at Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, which we were graciously offered for free, yet comes with some controversy. The mining company got its name on the door with a $10 million donation to SFU which outraged many people, including us, considering their track record of destructive and exploitative behaviour.
75% of the world’s mining companies have their headquarters here in Canada and it's no wonder why: there are virtually no regulations to prevent unscrupulous corporations from committing human rights violations overseas. And our mining companies, like Goldcorp, have been busy - poisoning water, destroying farms, even violent intimidation and murder.
One of the earliest supporters of The Corporation film, Inter Pares also co-founded the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) and they are part of a coalition calling on Canadians to ensure that mining victims can access justice here in Canada. We've now come on board along with groups like Amnesty, Kairos, BC Teachers Federation and Oxfam Canada, to advocate for federal legislation that would establish mandatory standards for Canadian extractive companies operating abroad, especially in developing countries. Over 80,000 people have sent a letter to their Members of Parliament and on May 14, hundreds gathered on Parliament Hill to show their support.
For our part, we'll be handing out postcards at the May 26 screening to be sent to Goldcorp's Vancouver head office letting them know that we don’t check our conscience at the door just because their name is on it. Join us and get your tickets now!
Support the Open for Justice campaign and help fight mining injustice here and around the world. Check out the video from Inter Pares below, as well as links to action.
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Canada: A Haven for Mining Corporations?
By David Ng On November 05, 2013 | 0 Comments
At a recent conference in Vancouver, I met a Corporation fan and we got into a very interesting discussion about mining in Canada, and "the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development (CIIEID)" that has recently been formed at the University of British Columbia.
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David Ng is a Hello Cool World veteran with experience going back a decade. David first worked with us when he was just 14 years old as a participant in the youth advisory group for the sexual health education program Condomania. Now an accomplished videographer passionate about the issues of gender and power, he is currently on sabbatical in South Africa while he pursues a Masters in Gender Studies with a focus on international developme
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