Mining Resistance Stories

Anti-frack­ing pro­test­ers on the Sea­way Inter­na­tion­al Bridge at Akwe­sasne, Mohawk ter­ri­to­ry, Nov 9, 2013.

Akwesasne Anti-fracking Protest Briefly Closes Seaway International Bridge

OTTAWA — The Sea­way Inter­na­tion­al Bridge between Corn­wall and the U.S. was closed for about an hour Sat­ur­day as First Nations pro­test­ers staged an “infor­ma­tion march” in oppo­si­tion to hydraulic frack­ing gas extrac­tion process­es.

First Nations Granted Delay On Shell’s Tar Sands Project

Ear­li­er this week  the Cana­di­an Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment Agency (CEAA) announced that a fed­er­al deci­sion on Shell Oil’s Jack­pine Mine Expan­sion, a 100,000 bar­rel per day open pit tar sands mine expan­sion, would be delayed an addi­tion­al 35 days.  At the heart of this deci­sion is the Athabas­ca Chipewyan First Nation who has been speak­ing out against the project since day one cit­ing a vari­ety of con­cerns relat­ing to treaty and abo­rig­i­nal rights as well as  direct and cumu­la­tive envi­ron­men­tal impacts.

Colombia: Mine Opponents Assassinated

Cesar Gar­cía, a campesino leader who opposed the min­ing oper­a­tions of Angl­o­Gold Ashan­ti at La Colosa in the cen­tral Colom­bian depart­ment of Toli­ma, was assas­si­nat­ed Nov. 2 by an unknown gun­man as he worked his small farm at the vere­da (ham­let) of Cajón la Leona. Sup­port­ers said he had been tar­get­ed for his work with the Envi­ron­men­tal Campesino Com­mit­tee of Caja­mar­ca, the local munic­i­pal­i­ty. In a state­ment, the Net­work of Toli­ma Envi­ron­men­tal and Campesino Com­mit­tees said the Caja­mar­ca group had been “stig­ma­tized as ene­mies of progress in the region,” and false­ly linked to the gueril­la move­ment.