Canada's Toxic Legacy: Pan American Silver and Mining Billionaire Ross Beaty in Latin America

Join us for a virtual forum to hear from frontline communities and organizations in Latin America who have lived or observed the arrogant disregard of peoples’ rights, the lasting environmental disasters, and the forced displacement to make way for mining projects backed by Ross Beaty, Vancouver-based Pan American Silver’s founder and outgoing chairman.

The webinar will be held in Spanish with simultaneous English interpretation available on Zoom. Please register to receive the Zoom link.

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More about the event

On May 12, during the Annual General Meeting of shareholders, Ross Beaty will retire as chairman of the board of Pan American Silver, a company that he founded in 1994. Beaty is considered Canadian mining-industry royalty, given the millions of dollars he has raised for himself and shareholders. 

He has also constructed a public image as an environmentalist and philanthropist through the grant-making of the Sitka Foundation and individual donations to higher education institutions, like the University of British Columbia’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Lately, the media has also portrayed him as a leader in corporate social responsibility. 

None of these portrayals reveal the true legacy of community harm and environmental destruction that Beaty’s investments have wrought throughout Latin America. 

Join us for a forum to hear from local voices on the harm left behind by Pan American Silver in Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and Argentina. We will also hear from communities in Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil impacted by Equinox Gold, the rapidly growing Canadian company Ross Beaty plans to focus on after retiring from Pan American Silver. 

WITH PARTICIPATION FROM:
Cooperacción, Peru
Member of the resistance to mining in Chubut, Argentina
Xinka Parlament of Guatemala
Community members from La Colorada, Zacatecas, México
Community of Carrizalillo, Guerrero & Mexican Network of Mining Affected People (REMA), México
Shuar Arutam People (PSHA), Ecuador
Community member from Aurizona, Brazil

With support from: Allard Centre for Law and the Environment – University of British Columbia, B.C. Casa/Cafe Justicia - Vancouver, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique Latine (CDHAL) - Montreal, Common Frontiers, Earthworks, EJAtlas, Guatemala Scholar Activists - University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Project, Inter Pares, Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, Mining Justice Action Committee - Victoria, Mining Justice Alliance - Vancouver, UBC Students for Mining Justice - Vancouver, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network - Toronto, MIGRANTE B.C., MiningWatch Canada, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Social Justice Fund, Rights Action, United Steelworkers, Victoria Central America Support Committee, Our Time Vancouver, Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala (PAQG), Victoria Friends of Cuba