The main finding of the Harper government’s first complete human rights impact assessment of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement (CCOFTA), tabled without almost anyone noticing in the House last week, is that there really isn’t any point in doing a human rights impact assessment of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.
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Colombia is paying a high price for the boom in mining, which is producing unrecognized costs due to the preeminence of a narrow and deficient economic philosophy, according to a new book on the subject.
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The Colombian minister of Mines and Energy, Federico Renjifo Vélez, will be at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal this week. On Tuesday, he will be attending a working breakfast titled Doing Business with Colombia. The minister’s visit comes on the heels of a May 2013 report issued by the Colombian comptroller general that links the extractive industry in Colombia to armed conflict and human rights violations.
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On June 6, 2013, Luzmila Ruano Gavira, human rights activist and member of the Committee for the Integration of the Colombian Massif (CIMA), received death threats for her community organizing against mining exploration projects in the Department of Nariño, Colombia. At 9:50 am, Ms. Ruano Gavira was approached by a man in downtown Pasto, the capital of Nariño, who yelled: "Ms. Luzmila, Ms. Luzmila, stop with the mining organizing because you are too pretty a woman to die."
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This summer PASC and members of the Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia (Redher - Colombia Friendship and Solidarity Network) will be organizing a Popular Tribunal against Colombia's extractive industry policies. The Tribunal is a chance to put foreign mining, gas and hydroelectric companies on trial for the pillage of Colombia's natural resources, as well as for fueling political violence against union members, communities affected by mega-development projects, and environmental and social activists.
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Today, May 30, 2013, activists from the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network made their way into the Kensington Room of the King Edward Hotel, in Toronto, where the Annual General Meeting of Pacific Rubiales was taking place. They handed out a press release from the Union of Oil Workers (USO), announcing the Colombian union's lawsuit against Pacific Rubiales for violations of the right to freedom of association.
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Bogota - May 29, 2013- The President of the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Rodolfo Vecino, confirmed today that the union would file suit against the multinational oil company, Pacific Rubiales Energy, for alleged violations of the freedom of association, the freedom of assembly and conspiracy to commit a crime. Mr. Vecino added that the USO would officially file the suit at the Colombian Public Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía General de la Nación) on Thursday, May 30, 2013 at 10 am.
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First Extermination: Turbo-Capitalism Every year at the beginning of summer, for years now, Montreal has fallen prey to a strange fever. For a period of several days, the air labours under a dense and foul-smelling cloud, residents suffer from a kind of collective tinnitus, a persistent and irritating ringing which disturbs thought and sleep. Many neighbourhoods, especially downtown, are invaded by hordes of blank-faced zombies, stripped of their senses and moving mechanically under the hypnotic influence of a malevolent power.
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Not quite letting the sunshine in BY JUSTIN LING April - May 2013 Issue Why Ottawa is resisting implementing mandatory reporting of payments made by resources companies to foreign governments. As the G8 works to increase financial oversight and accountability for the extractive sector, is Canada standing off in the corner?
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