MJAC history

January 2012 – November 2013

Organizational Activities

  • approved group name and created mission statement
  • set-up bank account
  • brainstormed fundraising ideas
  • created and maintained e-mail listservs, Facebook page, and website (an MJAC YouTube channel is in the works)
  • created large MJAC sign for meetings
  • organized rotating chair, notetaker and urgent action committee
  • liaised with numerous affinity groups in Victoria (and a few in Vancouver)
  • became a member of Mining Watch Canada
  • created a research and support team

To educate ourselves, we heard presentations by

  • Chandu Claver on Mining in the Philippines
  • Terry Wolfwood & Gerd Weih on Mining in El Salvador and Mexico
  • Amy Crook (Fair Mining Collaborative) on best mining practices from around the world, through the "lens" of indigenous law and practice

Public Film Presentations

  • Business of Gold – Goldcorp Inc. in Guatemala: showings at both the Central America Support Committee meeting & at UVic’s Cinecenta
  • Defensora-- struggles of Mayan Q’eqchi communities in Guatemala and their attempt to get justice and remedy in Canadian courts against the nickel mining company Hudbay Minerals. Presented by Rachel Schmidt, producer/director and Grahame Russell, co-director of Rights Action.
  • The Devil Operation – international, award-winning Peruvian documentary about Fr. Marco Arana and Peruvian farmers and activists struggling to preserve their land and culture from the Yanacocha gold mine, South America's largest gold mine,
  • El Problema – Potash in Western Sahara. Presentation by Ray Masoud Buhri.
  • Gold Fever – Two showings at Cinecenta followed by a Q and A (discussion) following each showing. 
Gold Fever witnesses the arrival of Goldcorp Inc. to a remote Guatemalan village. Three community women, Diodora, Crisanta and Gregoria resist the threat to their ancestral lands in the face of grave consequences.
  • Tambogrande: Mangoes, Murder, Mining by Ernesto Caballos and Stephanie Boyd. Documentary detailing the Tambogrande residents five-year-struggle to thwart the Peruvian government's connivance with Manhattan Mines, a Canadian mining company, to build a copper and gold mine.

Public Presentations

  • “Over Mined, Under Ruled: Justice Activism for Corporate Regulation”: presentations by Peter Julian, MP (Burnaby – New Westminster) & Jen Moore (Mining Watch Canada)
  • Co-sponsored “Coal Hard Truth” – Raven Coal Mining forum (mine proposed for mid-island)
  • Co-sponsored “Assault on Democracy in Haiti” – Roger Annis and Jeb Sprague who spoke on para-militarism and Canadian mining
  • “Imperial Canada Inc: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries” – panel discussion with author Alain Deneault, Kevin Williams, Rob Wipond, and Chandu Claver (book tour)
  • “Water is More Precious than Gold” – Vidalina Morales (El Salvador) on national tour spent 3 days in Victoria including two public meetings and separate meetings with three MPs
  • “Holding Canadian Mining Companies Accountable” – our member Sharlene Patterson spoke about her United Steelworkers exposure tour to Oaxaca, Mexico
  • “Mining in Ecuador” – members Nedjo Rogers, Rosemary Mann and Charlotte Mann spoke of their recent months working with local communities.
  • “Accountability Gap: Canadian Mining in Mexico” – human rights lawyer Alejandra Anchieta spoke about the Excellon Mining Company in Durango
  • Co-sponsored “Voice of Justice – Mining in the Philippines” with Bishop Bantolo, Diocese of Masbate

Some other actions

  • Earth Day – participated in walk and displays in 2012 and 2013
  • “Shout Out Against Mining Injustice” -- many of our members attended (at their own expense) the June 2012  two-day Council of Canadians Conference in Vancouver and participated in street rallies in front of mining headquarters
  • attended local anti-Enbridge rallies
  • our members submitted numerous Goldcorp limericks to Monday Magazine (and took the top prize)
  • wrote letters of complaint to the MPs who took the Goldcorp junket to Guatemala
  • purchased and distributed copies of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  • circulated the Bill 323 petition (An Act to amend the Federal Courts Act -international promotion and protection of human rights)

Groups with whom we have often networked and co-sponsored events:

  • Amnesty International (Vancouver)
  • BBCF (Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation)
  • CASC (Central America Support Committee)
  • Council of Canadians (Victoria)
  • CUPE Canadian Union of Public Employees) Vancouver Island District Council
  • Development and Peace (Victoria)
  • Fair Mining Collaborative
  • FLMN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Victoria)  
  • Friends of Cuba ((Victoria)
  • KAIROS (Victoria)
  • Mining Watch Canada
  • SJC (Social Justice Studies – University of Victoria)
  • Victoria Peace Coalition