Vol. 72/No. 25      June 23, 2008

Written by Alain Deneault, in collaboration with Delphine Abadie and William Sacher, Noir Canada is a well-documented exposé of the role of Canadian mining companies in Africa and the support they receive from the Canadian government.

Barrick Gold objects to a section in Noir Canada about the company’s responsibility for the 1996 expulsion of thousands of small-scale, self-employed miners and their families from the Bulyanhulu mine in Tanzania, in the course of which 52 miners were reportedly buried alive. The authors are calling for an independent public inquiry into what happened.

The refusal of écosociété and the authors to be intimidated has received significant support here. As of June 7, more than 5,000 people and organizations had signed a petition initiated by écosociété demanding that the Quebec government adopt a law banning suits like this one aimed at silencing critics and opponents of corporate interest. These are often called SLAPP suits (strategic lawsuit against public participation).

Among the signatories are the Canadian Labor Congress, Quebec Labor Federation, Confederation of National Trade Unions, and the Confederation of Quebec Trade Unions, as well as several well-known individuals.

During a May tour in Montreal, socialist candidate for U.S. vice president Alyson Kennedy met with Noir Afrique author Alain Deneault to learn more about the case and express her solidarity.

Kennedy and her former coworkers, along with the United Mine Workers of America and the Militant, were targets of a similar lawsuit between 2004 and 2006 in Utah as part of a struggle to win a union at the Co-Op coal mine. Co-Op’s owners charged in their suit that the miners, the union, the Militant, and other defendants defamed it by statements made about the lack of safety and the poor working conditions in the mine. The suit was dismissed in 2006 as the result of a sustained defense campaign in the labor movement.

A June 12 benefit concert will take place in Montreal for écosociété and the three authors of Noir Afrique. For more information on the defense campaign see http://slapp.ecosociete.org.
 
 
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