Law firms work with mining industry to extort foreign governments

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June 20, 2023


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Completely corrupted “international dispute settlement” process
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** Mercenary law firms work with mining industry to extort (err, sue) foreign governments using international trade treaties and so-called “investor-state dispute settlement” mechanisms

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Here, a legal memo from the Canadian law firm McCarthy Tetrault ([link removed]) offering a “full suite” of legal strategies about how to extort (err, sue) foreign governments for hundreds of millions of dollars.

To learn how the “international dispute settlement” mechanisms actually operate, read this EXTRACTION CASINO ([link removed]) report by the Institute for Policy that Studies documents how “mining companies gamble with Latin American lives and sovereignty through international arbitration.

This article from The National Observer ([link removed] ([link removed]) ) sets out how “Canadian mining companies sue developing countries for policies that affect their profitability and often win huge payouts from these poorer countries.”

Rights Action shares McCarthy Tetrault’s legal memo - and referenced reports - to illustrate how completely corrupted the “international dispute settlement” process is, a process created by governments ostensibly to help resolve serious issues and disputes related to the operations of global companies and investors in countries around the world.

Yet, the entire “dispute resolution” system is cooked in favor of companies and investors based mainly in the rich powerful countries. “The payout for wealthy Canadian investors has been huge”, reports The National Observer.
In the “La Puya” mining resistance struggle documented in our book TESTIMONIO: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala, U.S.-based Kappes, Cassiday Associates is following a two-prong strategy: pushing ahead – together with the corrupt, repressive, pro-mining Guatemalan government - to try and win a manipulated “consultation process” with local communities (that have long been in resistance to KCA’s illegal mining operation), while “suing” the same government for $400 million in damages in case KCA doesn’t “win” the corrupted consultation process.

“These investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) are being used by multinational corporations to extract payment from poor countries or strong-arm them into abandoning environmental policies”, denounces The National Observer report.

The EXTRACTION CASINO report “exposes 38 cases of mining companies that have been filing dozens of multi-million dollar claims against Latin American countries before supranational arbitration panels, demanding compensation for court decisions, public policies and other government measures that they claim reduce the value of their investments. In most of these cases, communities have been actively organizing to resist mining activities and defend their land, health, environment, self-determination and ways of life. For them, these suits represent a further assault against their self-determination and the already limited protections they have. Meanwhile, for transnational mining companies, supranational arbitration is yet another opportunity to strike it rich through reckless, casino-style gambling, given the recourse they have to bring suits within a system in which the deck is heavily stacked in their favor.”

There is nothing easy about holding the global extractivist industry and its investors accountable for systemic violence and repression, environmental harms and corruption associated with so many extractivist operations around the planet when the entire political-legal accountability system is rigged in their favor by design.
* New mining laws in Mexico could give rise to challenges under international investor treaties, May 30, 2023, by law firm, [link removed]
* Canadian mining companies keep targeting developing countries in dispute settlements, By Natasha Bulowski ([link removed]) , May 18, 2022, [link removed] ([link removed])
* EXTRACTION CASINO - Mining Companies Gambling with Latin American Lives
and Sovereignty Through International Arbitration, by Manel Perez Rocha & Jen Moore, IPS, [link removed]

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TESTIMONIO: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin (UNBC) and Grahame Russell (Rights Action)

Learn how mainly Canadian (and U.S.) companies operate in Mayan “sacrifice zones” in Guatemala, for the benefit of governments, investors & consumers in the global north.
* In the media: [link removed]
* Order books:[link removed]
* Available in U.S.:[link removed]


More information
* Catherine Nolin: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
* Grahame Russell; [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
* www.testimoniothebook.org

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support decades long community/ environment/ human rights struggles of land defenders in the mining “sacrifice zones” of Guatemala and Honduras, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82552 RPO Corktown, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

Credit-card donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donate securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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