13.05.2026 News Release Residents of Saint-Michel-des-Saints express their Support for the Atikamekw Family Territory Chief Émilien Dubé in his Opposition to Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie mine Saint-Michel-des-Saints/Montréal – May 13, 2026. On this day of the annual general meeting of shareholders of the mining company Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG), a group of citizens from Saint-Michel-des-Saints wishes to express its support for Atikamekw family territory chief Émilien Dubé, who opposes the Matawinie mining project, which is located near his ancestral family territory on the territory of the...

13.05.2026 News Release Atikamekw Ancestral Family Territory Chief Strongly Opposes Nouveau Monde Graphite’s mining project in Manawan Manawan – May 13, 2026. As the Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) annual general meeting of shareholders opens today, Mr. Émilien Dubé, chief of an ancestral family territory and member of the Atikamekw Nation of Manawan, announces his firm opposition to the Matawinie mining project. Mr. Dubé’s ancestral family territory is located close to the Matawinie mine site of NMG. Concerned...

08.05.2026 Blog Entry Barrick's Virtual AGM Curtails Meaningful Engagement with Stakeholders Today MiningWatch Canada attended Barrick Mining’s virtual Annual General Meeting. MiningWatch’s Catherine Coumans attended as a proxy holder. She input the four questions below well before the request for questions was made by CEO Mark Hill. When it came time for someone appointed by Barrick to read out the questions that person only read out MiningWatch’s questions related to the...

08.05.2026 News Release Global communities alert Barrick shareholders to serious allegations of human rights and environmental impacts FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Toronto – ON) On the occasion of Barrick Mining Corporation’s (Barrick) 2026 Annual General Meeting, communities affected by the company’s operations across Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific are speaking out about their allegations of human rights violations and environmental harm linked to Barrick’s global mining projects. From repeated toxic spills at the Veladero mine in Argentina, to...

07.05.2026 News Release Prominent Canadians Urge Halt to Canada–Ecuador Free Trade Deal, Cite Dangerous Risks to Rights and the Environment FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ( Ottawa, Ontario) Prominent voices from across Canada—including human rights, Indigenous, labour, and environment leaders—are calling on the federal government to halt a proposed free trade agreement with Ecuador that flies in the face of the Carney government’s stated commitment to international human rights and values-based foreign policy. “Canada needs to listen. Indigenous people in Ecuador said...

07.05.2026 Brief Canada's Free Trade Agreement with Ecuador: Why We Say No Canada and Ecuador have negotiated a free trade agreement that is fiercely opposed by Indigenous Peoples, trade justice advocates, water defenders and human rights and environmental justice organizations in Ecuador. We join them in opposing the deal for the following reasons. There is a dire human rights crisis in Ecuador Civil society organizations and Indigenous organizations in Ecuador were never... Read more

07.05.2026 Editor Message Canadian Civil Society Leaders Say NO to the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement Prominent Indigenous, human rights, labour, environmental and other civil society leaders from across Canada are raising their voices to say ‘NO’ to the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement.

05.05.2026 Letter to Development Banks: Civil Society Organizations Express Concern over Human Rights Risks at Reko Diq mine Last April 2, 2026, Barrick Mining Corporation disclosed that they are slowing down activity and reviewing security risks around the Reko Diq project in Balochistan, Pakistan until mid-2027. While this development is crucial given the ongoing war in West Asia, the Reko Diq project has been exacerbating risks for human rights defenders, fueling conflict and insecurity, and leading to environmental...

04.05.2026 MiningWatch in the News Inside the Fiery End of Vancouver Island’s Last Coal Mine How a US owner’s dream of ‘clean’ coal left behind acid, arsenic and a warning for today. A Tyee investigation. Zoë Yunker When left unattended, large piles of coal can spontaneously combust, which is what happened on Campbell River’s oceanside loading dock on Sept. 24, 2019. The coal pile and the mine from which it came had just been abandoned...

02.05.2026 MiningWatch in the News Canada’s diamond industry begins a long goodbye By Zoë Yunker, the Financial Times The closure of Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine is the beginning of the end for a lifeline of the remote Northwest Territories. ... Read the full article.

28.04.2026 Letter to Prime Minister Carney: Several Canadian organizations urge decisive action on unilateral deep-sea mining The following letter was sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joanne Thompson, Minister of Natural Resources Tim Hodgson, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity Marc Miller, and Secretary of State (Nature) Natalie Provost by a group of concerned environmental organizations including MiningWatch Canada, Oceans North and Greenpeace Canada.

27.04.2026 News Release The Opposition is Growing: Eleven Organizations Seek to Intervene in Lawsuit Against Bill C-5 (Gatineau) Eleven environmental, scientific, medical, and human rights organizations from across Canada are seeking leave to intervene in the legal action brought by the Quebec Environmental Law Centre (CQDE) against the federal Building Canada Act (C-5). In its lawsuit against this law — passed under closure in June 2025 despite strong opposition from environmental groups, Indigenous communities, and civil society...

24.04.2026 MiningWatch in the News Canada offers mines and more in $730b investment bid slammed as unsustainable David Brown Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has touted his country’s natural resources as the main attraction for securing more than $700 billion in new investments over the next five years — a plan that a mining watchdog has blasted as “robber baron capitalism.” Carney announced in a press release a summit scheduled for Sept. 14-15 in Toronto that will...

23.04.2026 News Release MiningWatch Joins Global Call for Governments to ‘Free Themselves’ from International System of Secretive Tribunals MiningWatch Canada has signed onto an open statement alongside over 340+ civil society organisations calling on governments around the world to build a coalition to “free themselves” from a little-known international system of secretive tribunals. Published ahead of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels , taking place in Colombia at the end of April, the statement says...

21.04.2026 Don’t Neglect Your CORE: Canada’s Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise On Wednesday, April 15, Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada's Research Coordinator, presented on behalf of the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability to the All Party Parliamentary group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. In her presentation, Catherine raised serious concerns regarding the status of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) which has been without an ombudsperson since May 2025, leaving...

23.04.2026 Brief Joint Brief by MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec meilleure mine: Draft Regulation amending the Mining Regulations The provisions of the Projet de Règlement modifiant le Règlement sur les mines (Draft Regulation amending the Mining Regulation, hereinafter "draft regulation" ) follow the adoption in November 2024 of the Act to amend the Mining Act and other provisions. At the time, the former Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Ms Maïté Blanchette Vézina, who has since left the... Read more

15.04.2026 Friends of MiningWatch Businesses, Conservation Groups Urge Independent Oversight of Massive Coal Mine Expansion in Polluted Kootenai Watershed Groups say expansion could damage a waterway already impacted by decades of coal mining MONTANA AND IDAHO – Today, a coalition of businesses and conservation organizations formally requested that the Canadian government require a more rigorous review of a proposed coal mine expansion in British Columbia that threatens downstream waters in Montana and Idaho. In a letter to Canadian Minister...

10.04.2026 Blog Entry BC's Revised EA Process - When is an expedited process not an expedited process? When the BC government introduced Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act last May, Premier David Eby said it was needed in order to speed up the construction of dams and major highways in response to economic pressure from US tariffs. When it passed into law less than a month later, Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma assured the public that it would...

07.04.2026 News Release Ontario Court of Appeal rules on human rights case of Tanzanian plaintiffs against Barrick Mining Today three justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of 29 Indigenous Tanzanian plaintiffs who sought permission to have their case against Barrick Mining heard in Canada. The plaintiffs allege killings, maimings, and torture that occurred between 2021 and 2023 at the hands of Tanzanian police contracted to provide security at Barrick’s North Mara Gold Mine. 1...

07.04.2026 Friends of MiningWatch Plaintiffs react to Ontario Court of Appeal Ruling that Lawsuit Against Barrick Mining Corporation for Human Rights Abuse in Tanzania Cannot Be Heard in Canada (Toronto, ON) Today, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Matiko John v Barrick Gold Corporation. The decision prevents the plaintiffs from bringing a lawsuit in Ontario against the Toronto-based Barrick Mining Corporation for human rights abuses allegedly committed on its behalf by security forces at the company’s mine in Tanzania. The lawsuit against Barrick sets out allegations...