December 29, 2008 · Posted in: Environment Watch, i Report Features
The Canadian quandary
OUR latest story by PCIJ Fellows Isa Lorenzo (from the Philippines) and Philip Ney (from Canada) looks at the mixed record of good and bad business practices by mining firms from Canada, the world’s largest exporter of metals and minerals.
In 2004 alone, the Canadian extractive sector invested 26.6 billion Canadian dollars (about $22 billion) overseas. In the Philippines, six Canadian mining companies run and operate 13 projects to extract silver, gold, copper, and nickel, at a total declared cost of $1.26 billion.
In their home country, these firms are subject to strict environmental and social regulations, but away from the prying eyes of the Canadian citizens and media, they do not behave as well overseas.
As they dig for pay dirt, some of these firms have logged destructive trails — of violence and deceit against workers and host communities, and toxic mine tailings wreaking havoc on the environment.
In Zamboanga del Norte, indigenous Subanon elders say that TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc (TVI), a subsidiary of the Canada-based TVI (Toronto Ventures Incorporated) Pacific, has turned Mount Canatuan, which the Subanon consider sacred, into “a dumpsite.”
Read on at pcij.org.
1 Response to The Canadian quandary
LanceAbet
January 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am
This article clearly shows that the only real protection that we could do to the environment is to totally ban mining. In a country such as ours that could hardly implement rules and regulations, the best thing that could be done is to never start an activity such as mining or logging at all. I just hope that what happened to Canatuan does not happen to our place in Borongan.