PANEL:
When – Thursday, November 21st, 12:30-14:30 pm
Where – UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law (Room 111)
RALLY – We meet at at the LAW SCHOOL at 2:30, we MARCH to the Biodiversity Museum, arriving at 2:50, we’re RALLYING there until 4:30
The UBC Office of Regional and International Community Engagement acknowledges that this event will be held on the traditional, unceded, ancestral territory of the Musqueam people.
For nearly a decade, the Indigenous Xinka people in Guatemala have peacefully opposed the Canadian-owned Escobal silver mine–in defense of their lands, waters, and way of life. For their resistance, Xinka community members have been killed and jailed. Some have been forced to abandon their homes and land.
Join us in a discussion of resistance to Escobal, and about the entanglements of corporate mining-financing in our environmentalist and academic spaces.
PANELISTS:
- Luis Fernando Garcia Monroy, a paralegal and delegate from the Xinka Parliament
- Joe Fiorante, counsel in Garcia v. Tahoe Resources Inc., 2017 BCCA 39
- Dr. Mark Harris, UBC Social Justice Institute
Panel moderated by Dr. Juanta Sundberg, UBC Geography. Translation generously offered by Co Development Canada.
More information on the Escobal Mine and Xinka Resistance:
In 2017, community direct action stopped activity at the mine. Shortly after, the Guatemalan courts recognized that the Guatemalan government discriminated against the Xinka and ordered the state to consult them. Incredibly, the Escobal mine–one of the largest silver mines in the world–was suspended mid operation.
In February 2019, the halted Escobal mine was purchased by Vancouver-based mining giant Pan American Silver – founded and chaired by Ross BEATY.
Now, instead of implementing the open, inclusive consultation process promised in the court ruling, the Guatemalan government appears to be working in the interests of the Canadian mining company–by fast tracking an exclusionary, potentially illegal process aimed at reopening the mine without the Xinka people or their consent.
Luis is from the San Rafael las Flores, Santa Rosa region in Guatemala and has been active in the resistance to the Escobal mine for nearly a decade. Luis, his father, and other community members were shot outside the mine while participating in a peaceful protest in 2013. He was a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Tahoe Resources, which was concluded earlier this year. Currently, he works as a paralegal and community organizer with the Xinka Parliament. We are grateful to the Xinka Parliament for sharing their stories of resistance to Canadian mining, for teaching us about their longstanding practices of self-determined development, and for calling on Vancouver-based Pan American Silver to Stop UnderMining Indigenous Rights and to Drop the Escobal Mine!
Please join us!
Tour and related events organized by:
Amnesty International | Breaking the Silence (BTS) | Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters | CoDevelopment
Canada | Earthworks | Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) | MiningWatch Canada | Mining Injustice Solidarity
Network | Mining Justice Alliance (Vancouver) | Mining Justice Action Committee (Victoria) | Network in
Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) | SFU Institute for the Humanities | Students for Mining Justice (UBC) | Sum of Us
