“Based on my knowledge of the way this department works, we are not the CIA, we are not other governments, we are Canada, and we have our own way of doing things and we’ve always resolved, and continue to do so, according to the Canadian way.”

—André Lemay, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

Pierre Trudeau pioneered the phrase, and the style of diplomacy it was supposed to represent. To do things the Canadian way meant to promote trade and human rights at the same time; peace through economic growth, economic growth through peace.

But documents on the Bulyanhulu matter have surfaced which have many asking if the Canadian way is policy or just public relations. Can trade and human rights go hand in hand?

The Canadian government was clearly concerned about both. Although heavily censored, declassified correspondence of the Canadian High Commissioner in Tanzania obtained under Access to Information legislation shows Canada’s deep involvement in the Bulyanhulu file.

On one hand, numerous memos show the Canadian High Commissioner working to “underline her preference for a peaceful solution.” She works to ensure the evictions proceed as smoothly as possible, and later informs DFAIT that “the news on Bulyanhulu is all good.” The miners are gone and “the government showed courage and as a result there was no violence.”

As she works towards a careful solution at Bulyanhulu, she is also working hard to promote the Canadian company which has mining rights to the area. In one memo to the president of Tanzania, she notes the “Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto stock exchanges have become the leading sources of exploration capital in the resource sector…. It will be important, therefore, that outstanding problems relating to title and to illegal activities be quickly removed.”

“Illegal activities” refers to the day-to-day activities of the local residents, small-scale peasant miners, numbering in the tens of thousands, who had been working at the gold mines since they discovered the gold in 1976.

She continues to promote trade shortly after the miners were evicted, passing a recommendation to “buy Sutton stock now” on the advice of a London investment house to a Tanzanian official (whose name the censor has deleted).

Lemay speculated on why the Canadian High Commission would give a stock tip. “Our key people in our missions are in a position to say, ‘Yes, we want as many people to register in the Canadian stock markets as possible,’ as any stock market world-wide would want to do…What we’re trying to get, is we’re trying to get as many clients as possible.”

But others think the desire to “get as many clients as possible” is blinding the government to more fundamental issues.

“The allegations of the deaths somewhat are the most sensational part of the story, but they’re not the most disturbing, quite frankly,” says Joan Kuyek of Mining Watch Canada. “The most disturbing is that these people would be just thrown out of this area with no regard to what was going to happen to them.”

And although he believes that “usually both partners gain from trade,” Lemay had to pause when asked what Tanzanian miners have gained from a Canadian company’s influence in the area.

“If they have, I don’t know,” he said. “The company says they have.”

Barrick says the mine employs 1,000 people and has created more than 7,500 indirect jobs.

But Kuyek believes this does not compare to the tens of thousands who were employed in small-scale mining, saying that the government also got higher returns through small-scale mining than through foreign ownership.

Whatever the case, one would suspect that, given the Canadian Way, an independent inquiry into alleged deaths would be supported by the Canadian government. But since the evictions, the government has looked upon the prospect of an independent inquiry with disdain. “We are keeping an eye on the public relations aspects,” the High Commissioner says in a note to thank Sutton for the thank you note they had sent her. “I am confident the Tanzanian Government will be able to deal with the efforts of the illegal miners to rewrite history.”

That confidence would not be misplaced. During the fall of 1996, when the High Commissioner wrote that note, she was also sending complaints to Ottawa about John Cheyo, the leader of the opposition United Democratic Party of Tanzania. Cheyo had taken up the cause of the Bulyanhulu miners and called for an independent investigation in stump speeches during a parliamentary by-election he was contesting. The UDP formed an 18-member commission of inquiry into the August events in the fall of 1996, including three UDP members of the Tanzanian parliament.

But six years later, the controversy continues to simmer. Just last week, Mark Bomani, former Tanzanian attorney general and close associate of Nelson Mandela, added his name to the already long list of those who believe the miners are not trying to rewrite history; that, in fact, history has not yet been written, nor can it be until an independent investigation has occurred.

Below are the names of people who cannot be accounted for:

Kidawa Sosoma
Sita Daudi Misuko
Ntemi Nyanda
Turo Masanja*
Abdu Mussa
Juma Shabani
Juma Saidi
Hamisi Saidi
Mazuli
Clement
Masali
Juman Lushesheta
George Lutobeka
Paul Lubinza
Isanga Simba
Ramadhani Mrisho
Samuel Paul
Leonard George
Kulwa Issa
Samwel John
Paul Mchafu
Ibrahim Taslima
Hamdani Taslima
Jonathan Lwekamwa
Ernest Lwekamwa
Tigufundurwa Butondo
Martin Jambi
Kulwa
Masanja Maganga
Juma Rashidi
Masanja Hamisi
Masudi Saidi
Mahambuya Mazuri
Athumani Hamisi
Raphael Masonga

  • At a recent CCM (ruling party) function, officials claim to have produced Turo Masanja; however, the man’s identity has yet to be confirmed by any independent sources.

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