After 14 deaths at one mine with Canadian connections and a pattern of corruption and abuses across the country, Peru’s bishops are asking Canada’s government and its vast mining industry to do something to protect Indigenous people and poor farmers who often suffer when mines move into their neighbourhood.

If the Liberal government stands past the Sept. 23 throne speech, Martin Blanchet’s seven-year battle to get somebody with authority to look into how Canadian mining companies and others treat workers, communities and the environment in poor countries will finally get an airing in the House of Commons. 

The decade-old battle for a truly independent watchdog over Canadian mining and other businesses with operations abroad isn’t over, according to Development and Peace advocacy and research officer Elana Wright.

Canada’s bishops have listened for years as frustrated Church leaders in the developing world decry Canadian companies for acting as if the worker codes and human rights mandated by Canadian law become optional when operating abroad.

In the absence of a long-promised federal ombudsperson, legal experts have asked the British Columbia Securities Commission to investigate the sale of a Canadian-owned silver mine in Guatemala.

More than 200 activists and organizations from 56 countries have asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get a move on and hire the ombudsperson he promised almost one year ago.

Talking about theology and mining in the same breath is not uncommon in Latin America.

Provincial superiors of the English and French Canadian arms of the Jesuits wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Aug. 11 asking him to put pressure on the government of Honduras to protect the life of Jesuit Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno.

Earlier this year protesters in a small Guatemala village blockaded a giant silver mine operated by a Canadian company and for a month stood their ground despite being regularly tear-gassed by paramilitary police.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Large-scale mining and extractive operations are failing to deliver economic benefits while causing environmental damage and human suffering throughout Latin America, said a coalition of church organizations and environmental groups.

The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland lost a vote at the May 11 Annual General Meeting of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc., but they won attention from the mining giant’s management.

OTTAWA – The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to heed a letter from more than 160 Latin American organizations that has raised concerns about the operations of Canadian mining companies abroad.

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine environmentalists and advocates for farmers, fishers and the poor praised lauded the recently released encyclical, "Laudato Si'," as "affirmation" for their causes and said that, using it as a guide, they were ready to get to work.

TORONTO - It’s taken six years and $12.6 million in legal fees, but El Salvador expects to learn before the end of this year whether it has to pay $301 million to a shell company whose sole purpose since 2009 has been to extract money from the country for a mine that never got built.

Catholic bishops and religious orders from the high arctic to the southern tip of Patagonia are demanding accountability for Canadian mining companies operating in Latin America up to and including the right of villagers and farmers to sue in Canadian courts in the event of environmental disasters and human rights abuses.