Canadian Mining Firms Face Severe Penalties
Mining Watch warns of major disaster in southern
Philippines
A Canadian mining watch
warns of a major environmental disaster in southern Philippines. In the
Canadian Parliament, a move is afoot to impose stiffer penalties on mining
firms for criminal negligence.
By Edwin C. Mercurio
Bulatlat
OTTAWA,
Canada
- Toronto Ventures, Inc. (TVI)-Pacific and other Canadian mining firms in
the Philippines face severe
penalties for criminal negligence, environmental pollution, questionable
land acquisitions and human rights violations.
This developed as a
member of the Canadian Parliament, Ed Broadbent, last week told a visiting
delegation of Filipino tribal leaders, environmentalists and government
officials from Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, southern Philippines that he
will introduce amendments to Bill-C45 which will include criminal
liabilities for Canadian mining executives operating overseas.
Bill C-45 was enacted
by the Canadian Parliament Oct. 31 last year following the Westray Mining
disaster in Nova Scotia which killed 26 miners. The legislation, which
helps ensure organizations are held accountable when they commit criminal
offences, has passed both the House of Commons and the Senate and is
expected to receive Royal Assent soon.
The move in
Parliament came on the heels of a Canadian mining watch’s warning of a
major environmental disaster in Zamboanga if TVI is allowed to continue
its mining exploration activities in the area.
After meeting MP
Broadbent in Ottawa last week, Soliling Ansino Mato, a Subanon tribal
leader, quoted the MP as having pledged to introduce the amendments to
Bill C-45.
Soliling Mato, along
with Subanon Timuay Noval Lambo, Concepcion Capitana, Luni Lucas and Geoff
Nettleton were on a speaking tour sponsored by Kairos-Canada last week.
The group spoke in various symposiums in Ottawa,
Montreal
and Toronto calling attention to the destructive impact of mining
activities by TVI in the ancestral domain of the Subanon tribe in Siocon
and Canatuan, Zamboanga del Norte.
Criminal liability
Bill C-45 modernizes
the law on the criminal liability of organizations including corporations
to reflect the increasing complexity of today's corporate structures.
Among others, the
legislation would make companies and other organizations criminally for
endangering public safety and for other types of criminal negligence.
Wanton or reckless disregard of this duty causing death or physical harm
would result in criminal charges.
Geoff Nettleton, of
UK-based Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links (PIP-Links) who accompanied
the group in Ottawa said that TVI has resorted to “dubious methods of land
acquisition, the employment of heavily armed security forces that have
committed serious human rights violations in securing the company’s
mineral rights.”
“These actions would
make TVI’s company executives and officers criminally liable overseas once
the amendments are passed,” Nettleton also said.
Environmental disaster
Meanwhile, visiting
Zamboanga recently, Catherine Coumans of Miningwatch-Canada reported about
negative effects of the mine’s operations on the Siocon and Lituban Rivers
that the Subanon tribes rely on for irrigation and fish farming. The
Subanon, she said, are blaming TVI for the deteriorating fishing
conditions in the river’s estuaries.
Most immediately
threatened by the mining activities are the indigenous Subanon of Canatuan.
TVI has started operations this year and has already bulldozed the top of
the mountain that is sacred to the Subanon. There are several villagers
living on the slopes of the proposed mine who will be displaced by the
mine if it progresses, Coumans said.
Coumans also warned
that open pit mining which TVI is using to mine gold and other mineral
deposits in Siocon generates enormous amounts of run off from the pit and
environmentally toxic waste (waste rock and tailings). The combination of
mountain top mining, high rainfall and large amounts of toxic waste have
all too often proved disastrous in the Philippines, as elsewhere in the
tropics.
“Not only high
profile catastrophic failures, such as the one that occurred at Placer
Dome’s Marcopper mine in the Philippines in 1996, are a concern, but also
the slow and steady releases of uncontrolled erosion from the mine site
and the inadvertent, and sometimes deliberate, releases of tailings into
waterways to relieve pressure on overfull tailings facilities,” the
Canadian environmentalist said.
Coumans also said
that TVI has not complied with its 1997 Environmental Compliance
Certificate due to its completely inadequate management of erosion from
the mine site. Although the actual mine operations have only gotten under
way this year, the sand bag enclosures that are supposed to stop runoff
from the fledgling mine are clearly already failing to do so, she added.
She cited reports,
including a testimony by a former worker, of the way TVI has been
releasing tailings during heavy rains into nearby creaks that feed the
major rivers.
Human rights violations
The Canadian mining
watch also accused TVI of hiring armed paramilitary guards known as
Special Civilian Armed Auxiliaries (SCAA). “These guards are trained and
armed by the Philippine military, but employed by TVI,” she said. The
guards man several checkpoints between the town of Siocon and the mine in
Canatuan.
The SCAA guards
control the movement of goods and people on and off the site, which is
also part of the government-recognized ancestral land of the local Subanon
people, Coumans said. Leaders of the indigenous community who oppose the
mine have been singled out for victimization. The recognized “Timuay” or
leader of the Subanon of Canatuan, Timuay Jose Anoy, can no longer pass
the checkpoints to go to his home, nor can others from Canatuan who have
expressed opposition to the mine.
Again, she said, TVI
is clearly not in compliance with its 1997 Environmental Compliance
Certificate that requires the company to assure that “public roads shall
remain open to allow the free flow of traffic.”
Villagers from
Canatuan and of Siocon have faced attacks by the SCAA, reports said.
Community opposition to the mine has been met with violence from security
forces. There have also been several reports of shooting incidents
involving company security. The most recent was in March 2004, when
picketers opposing the movement of mining equipment were fired upon by
company security and military. Four people, including tribal elder Timuay
Macario Salacao, were hit and wounded.
As a result, Coumans
said, all affected communities have unified in the “Save Siocon Paradise
Movement.”
Subanon, along with
environmentalists, Church groups and local executives are calling for the
Canadian government to stop backing TVI and for the Canadian company to
immediately withdraw its abusive security personnel and leave the area in
peace.
The new
multi-sectoral alliance of community organizations in Canada, the
Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), has passed a resolution
endorsing the move planned by MP Ed Broadbent to introduce amendments to
Bill-C-45. Bulatlat
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