A grad student at U of T has been mentioned in a legal face-off between the world’s largest mining company and three Montreal authors.
Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation is suing Delphine Abadie, Alain Deneault and William Sacher over their French-language book Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique (Black Canada: Plundering, Bribery and Crime in Africa) as well as its publisher, Écosociété, for $6 million.
Noir Canada, published April 2008, documents the role of Canada-based industry abroad and accuses multiple oil, mining, and industrial companies of violating human rights and wreaking environmental havoc. The book alleges that a company later purchased by Barrick played a role in forcibly displacing independent miners and residents from Bulyanhulu, Tanzania in 1996, during which 52 people were buried alive.
Barrick denies the claims. Spokesperson Vince Borg told The Varsity in an email that “virtually nothing” written in Noir Canada about the Bulyanhulu mine is true and that the company helps the communities it works in.
During the trial in Quebec, U of T grad student and outspoken activist Paul York was mentioned. At an event York organized last July at Hart House, Sacher spoke about the issues in Noir Canada. Barrick sent someone to listen to the talk.
“As long as the litigation continues, we will continue to take steps to protect our reputation and to monitor any public statements of the defendants concerning Barrick,” said Borg, adding that the event was open to the public.
Écosociété and the three authors are also facing a $5 million lawsuit in Ontario from Canada-based mining company Banro Corporation, which operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sacher was invited to speak at U of T in March, but declined to come on the advice of his lawyer: “So far, we have cancelled at least 5 events where we had been invited.Also, the book’s distribution has been stopped,” he wrote in an email.
York said Barrick is linked to U of T because its founder and chairman, Peter Munk, has donated approximately $11 million to U of T and is the namesake of the Munk Centre. Barrick itself has donated about $1.4 million.
York argued this contributes to a culture of corporatization on campus and threatens academic freedom.
According to York, Barrick’s lawyers made a motion to subpoena him to give discovery, a form of answering questions outside of court to provide information that could be used in a case. The motion was defeated last week.
York said he felt he was being targeted for his activism. He is an active member of the group Protest Barrick and once publicly denounced Munk, saying his company had committed murder.
Although the case has not been reported in major English-language media, it has been covered in Quebec and France.
“We are strongly convinced that the issues raised by our struggles are crucial for the future of democracy in Canada,” wrote Sacher, who called Canada a “judicial paradise” for mining companies.
Sixty publishing countries from 30 countries have signed a document asking Barrick to drop the lawsuit, calling the case a SLAPP (Strategic lawsuit against public participation). The company feels otherwise.
“Any individual or entity has a right to protect themselves against libel and that is what we are doing in the instance,” said Borg. “Public discussion is a healthy component to any democracy, but it should be based in the truth.”
