Brutalities of Canadian Mining Corporations and the Twilight of Capitalist Progress
Moving away from primitive societies and feudal systems, humans have advanced our societies through the conquest of nature, modernization, and capitalism. An exploration of the Canadian mining industry leads us to question the ethics around the notion of progress, and the future of mankind.
There is no justice and peace for anyone in this poisoned human culture.
We are pawns, deskilled to play the game.
Vulnerable are our minds; designed and toyed with like machines.
Input; Output.
We are all robots, begging for more, and more, competing against one another,
Faster, and faster.
Numb us; Feed us lies and take the parts of us that make us one and dismember them under the project of “liberation.”
Left with fractured humanity, we reach the threshold.
The system collapses in on itself; It is designed to fail.
Human consciousness is awakening to the realities of global devastation through deeper investigation and knowledge on the underlying evil systems and practices that have been widely enforced and carefully massaged into every fabric of our reality. Shoved down the throats of those who chose peace by capitalist beasts, violence, genocides, resource appropriation, are at the hands of the Western world and rooted in settler-colonial history. Covetous and insatiable, the beast must sacrifice; death and exploitation is simply a customary byproduct. We are simultaneously the contributors and byproducts of systems upheld for what we deem as “progress” for human culture.
A history of our species– defeated and berated under the notion of discovery, progress, innovation– sets the foundations for our contemporary mega-corp tyrannized society. As the Canadian mining industry grows in capital, beneath the soil we dig up imperialist dogmas, uncovering the brutalities and wicked practices within the industry. Working to uphold oppressive systems, disjointing civility within the human species, we are left to ask ourselves: Is this progress, and towards what ends?
The Global North and South: who is truly the “minority”?
The Global South, or what we call the “minority” population that perhaps makes up most of the world, is the most vulnerable to the actions of Western powers. Through the neo-liberal concepts of free market and free trade, wealthy nations establish dominance written into agreements that essentially grant them access to resources from the impoverished South; a sly move for capital control. This means that the market is not free when systems of operation, legal frameworks, capital, and physical infrastructures strictly come from within certain nations. Subsequently granted power for resource and labour exploitation in regions internationally, nations partake in capital gouging. Globalization therefore reflects domination of the wealthy over geographies worldwide.
But as the system stops benefiting the majority, it loses its value. The global market is designed to cater to the needs of the far and few, while political authorities and corporations exercise their power and wealth, redistributing funds into initiatives they see fit for their social, political, economic conquest; Take the current events between Gaza and Israel as an example.
Enlightened! Towards Progress, Development and Corruption
The mining industry is just one of the global markets that brings to light how the world has been divided under the conquest of natural resources, and of humans from each other. It exposes the disparities between the global North and South through exploiting labour and resources from underdeveloped regions that face little regulatory standards and wealth to combat unjust treatment.
Ontario, or “a place to grow” as the province slogan reads, is proudly pasted on polluting automobiles and their license plates for display on excursions within the province and beyond our arbitrary geographical boundaries. I would argue it's an ironic mouthful for a province that’s institutions play an underlying yet catastrophic role in global destruction. For its exploitative and inhumane practices—Canada must be held accountable. Electricity, oil, and manufactured goods fueled by massive global mining operations put Canada’s name on the map, industry wide and economically. Although partaking in ecological ravaging filtered through the carefully packaged narratives of social and economic prosperity, the nation gets away with its actions through the admirable cause of progress and development.
Photo Courtesy of Alpha History
Modernity sprouted out of the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century and backed by the values of the Scientific Revolution that came before. Our culture has since moved away from “primitive” ways of living, establishing social and political climates for greater innovation, scientific discoveries, and the conquest of natural materials. Through the process of reasoning, we have come to normalize comforts and luxuries as science has helped us reach a point where disease and famine are no longer leading factors of human extinction.
But who is “us” and “we,” and why is this separate from the rest of human beings and other living things? Why is the Western world benefiting at the cost of innocent lives?
This story that has been constantly fed to us and normalized into our society, fails to capture the truth of what “progress” and “development” actually means for people and the planet.
Where have our modes of thinking led us to and at what cost? Under the project of capitalism, we have been led astray into uncharted territories that yet again threaten our species as a whole in new and innovative ways with few benefiting from the current state.
What does it mean to have nationhood?
As one of the first philosophers of capitalism—and precursor to famous revolutionary philosopher and socialist Karl Marx—Gregor Hegel discussed the contradictions of the system in its essence. Analyzing the era of transition between the feudal system to new capitalist strategies of advancement in the 19th century, Hegel suggests that the ways in which humans understand the self, their purpose, and even the way we learn to love one another is shaped by economics. The Recht or human right, that is a derivative of “self realization” and the idea of being free-willing agents, also causes us to believe in the ability to construct our own reality through individuality; upholding a crucial value base for rampant capitalist ideology which he argued, is inherently imperialistic.
His philosophy tackles the civil (or bourgeois) society, revealing how corporations, their institutional values and appearances as community, alternatively operate under private agendas and self-interest. Various institutions including workplaces may seem like a family to us, where members find themselves working together towards particular ends. However, businesses inherently work to retain ethical order (ie. interest of the institute), while providing a platform where actors feel as though their needs are met with subjective freedom– a person’s ability to act and make choices through the free and willing contribution to certain institutions in exchange for some reward or compensation.
The United States of Capitalism // Photo Courtesy of the Washington Examiner via Yahoo!News
Predicting the disconnect between the rich and poor and the unsettling and insatiable desires through free market capitalism, Hegel foresees physical and ethical degeneration of our population under such systems. Early thinkers like Hegel have helped to constitute our knowledge bases and values as a rational species.
Education systems are an instrument of profit and control
Our society is built upon institutions. Institutions are a business; education is a business designed to maintain the status quo.
University institutions– including the number one university in Canada, the University of Toronto (UofT)– generate profit with the hundreds of thousands of student participants enrolled yearly with excruciating tuition fees for access to education, making it an exclusive privilege and not a human right. Not to mention, the University of Toronto operates through the support of various private entities and government bodies. So who's to say what arbitrary standards deem the institution top in Canada; And further, highly ranked on a global scale, especially when the stakes involve many partners, powers, and money at play.
Capping student numbers a flawed and backward move, university leaders warn // Photo Courtesy of Universities UK
In its 2022-2023 budget report, the university discloses 3.36 billion dollars invested back into the institution's operations with tuition fees making up 68% of the total value. The report further outlines 491 million dollars in research revenue in 2021-2022, with 26 million dollars expected in funding by the federal government and 17 million dollars allocated through the private sector in 2023-2024.
Lassonde Institute of Mining // Photo Courtesy of the University of Toronto
One of these world renowned centres for research and development is UofT’s Lassonde Institute of Mining. The institute suggests its research is catered towards developing cost-effective modes of managing issues within the industry including toxic waste soil management, issues of chemical runoff into water bodies, and the repurposing waste products.
Proudly named after Canadian mining trailblazer and business mogul Pierre Lassonde, the research institute was granted over 10 million dollars from the philanthropist. Donating over 100 million dollars in total to various engineering and mining institutes across the US and Canada, many hold his name in recognition, including the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University and Lassonde Studios at the University of Utah. Recognized in both the American and Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, Lassonde was recently appointed Officer of Order by the Governor General of Canada—granting him a position of great honour and importance in representing the values of Canada and its achievements.
UofT’s research operations are supported by the Canadian Research Chairs (CRC), vetted through various national research councils, of which 40 of the total 330 chairs represent Indigenous, women, minorities, or persons with disability—making up only 12%. The university further highlights private gratuities that contributed 3.17 billion dollars towards the institution as of 2022, contributing 2.5% to the 2023-2024 operating revenue in endowed funds which are generated through a pool of investors, while its use towards research remains outside of the operations budget. UofT had generated a total of $1.41 billion in its research and innovation initiatives through national and international partnerships with private, government, and non-profit organizations.
Not only does the calculated incentivising of the future Canadian workforce towards particular industries start at the university level; Students in public schools are being influenced at an even earlier age. Government initiatives such as the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program makes efforts to encourage students to join Canada's trade sector through promotionary workshops across Ontario school districts. This includes showing students a “pathway for success” through a future in the mining industry. Providing them co-op placements, incentivizing students to picture their career development, contributing the economic and industrial development of Canada all while truly contributing to an industry built on destructive global practices.
Photo Courtesy of Mining Matters
Organizations such as Mining Matters call themselves “charitable” organizations that provide the public with educational resources built on the foundations of STEM, and prioritizing Indigenous education and outreach programs. The organization works to connect Indigenous youth to diverse career opportunities within the mining sector through guided workshops and site visits, ironically within their own communities that have been ecologically destroyed by the industry.
Mining companies such as Agnico Eagle that host their mines in the Canadian territories, home to Indigenous communities, express gratitude for the efforts of the Mining Matters. Funded by national and provincial governments, national banks like the CIBC and BMO, school boards, various mining companies, post-secondary institutes and more, the “education” is not simply teaching kids about rocks and minerals through excavation and play, it is to harness their interest and train them as future workers within the field. Through the label of education, such initiatives work to funnel underprivileged Indigenous communities back into contributing to the economic system that historically enslaved them and continue to treat them with indignity.
Indigenous children don't need job opportunities, they need human rights.
Devastation of the Canadian Mining Industry: National and Global
The horrors of the mining industry can be understood at both a national and global level.
Located in Toronto, the mining financial capital of the world, the mining industry contributes largely to Toronto's Stock Exchange, and hosts over 1,600 mining headquarters.
The mining industry is the largest employer of Indigenous communities in Canada. According to the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), it employs over 700,000 people in total, making it one of the leading countries in mining in the world. Of which, 392,000 workers are located within the country where 16,500 positions are occupied by Indigenous people (as of 2020).
The MAC projected 82 billion dollars invested into the industry between 2020-2030, however, Canada still finds itself competing with Australia for the first place. Through increasing initiatives for investing into the industry, encouraging greater participation of Indigenous people in mining, providing a “low carbon” approach to mineral extraction, maintaining global relations and agreements within the free trade market for economic expansion, as well as scientific and technological innovation, Canada aims to preserve their position of global superiority and authority.
Canada seems to pride itself on its green technologies in mining operations, suggesting that Canadian mines operate with lower carbon emissions than their global competitors, with the MAC even calling the minerals “responsibly sourced.” Directing attention to Canadian mines currently operating out of regions in Africa and Latin America reveal an alternative reality, where unethical conditions lead me to believe that people are treated as expendable at the hands of corporations.
The Barrick Gold Mine Corporation, as the second largest mining corporation in the world operates out of the Mara Mine located in Tanzania, Africa. Last year, the Canadian company faced a third lawsuit for violation of human rights and police brutality, including numerous deaths, torture and rape by Tanzanian mine guards.
Locals salvaging waste materials for gold remnants in Tanzania // Photo Courtesy of The Guardian
When the land was first sought out by foreign companies in the 1990s, the local mines that were already operating under the ownership of local populations had been stolen with violence against the indigenous Kurya community members who refused to be displaced, with little compensation. As the Barrick corporation continues to expand their sites, the local community becomes poorer, their families hungry as mining police are appointed at the interest of investors. After countless human rights violations the company had faced a lawsuit in 2022 for their part in the deaths, torture, and assault of locals. The company, however, denied accountability of the conduct of Tanzanian police guards, suggesting they were not employed through the company. However, according to investigations by RAID, Barrick Corp provided over 150 of these police guards with weapons, vehicles, food, and shelter.
Barrick CEO Mark Bristow // Photo Courtesy of Bloomburg
CEO Mark Bristow even goes as far as to say that watchdog organizations such as RAID, who speak with locals and report 77 people killed and hundreds brutally assaulted, tortured, and raped, project inaccuracies and blow the issue out of proportion. In recent years, pictures of the millionaire posed with trophy killing of various endangered animals in Africa have also stirred controversy. Further demonstrating his lack of ethical concern for animals and the environment, the photos were used in promotional material for South African hunting tours. Prior to the images catching the attention of news media outlets, Bristow was also an active member of Panthera, a council for wildlife protection, however resigned his position after the controversy in 2018.
Policing at the Barrick Gold Mine borders // Photo Courtesy of RAID
This was not the first time the company had been under fire for their human rights and environmental violations. Operations in Argentina further exposed local populations to chemically contaminated water after a river spill on at least three accounts as of 2022. On one account, the company paid off a couple billion dollars in fines for the cyanide exposure to local populations. Following this instance, the company was yet again held accountable for a new chemical spill of mercury, with Bristow further denying that the spills caused any significant environmental damage or violated any human rights.
Veladero Mine, Argentina // Photo Courtesy of Financial Post
Weaponizing positions of power, Mark Bristow and the Barrick Gold Corporations sitting on an annual revenue of over 10 billion dollars represents only one case of a corporation's negligence of human dignity and prosperity as a collective, while mirroring the history of oppression within Canada.
Selling the idea of “helping” people in underprivileged communities
Canada as a nation is an accumulation of corporations that consolidate power over the people.
Using wealth and power, individuals are able to convince populations to work within their system. Forcefully extracting their resources and labour to their benefit is an ultimate deception.
In her book Colonial extractions: race and Canadian mining in contemporary Africa (2015), author Paula Butler points to the innocent image granted to Canada as a country that has often been given the title of moral, democratic, and humanitarian. However, using critical race theory, she uncovers the global context of Canada's mining operations as she focuses her research on Canadian mining in Africa, building on the authorship of Indigenous scholars, and conducting interviews with mining professionals while investigating industry platforms and their harm committed to the local African populations. Butler aims to recontextualize false narratives of Canada as a non-colonizing state, suggesting the conditions of the industry are rooted in Canada’s settler-colonial past. This is made possible through the support of the Canadian federal government, institutional structures, and enormous wealth embedded in the mining industry.
She traces the history of the global mining industry to the mid 1980s where the shift towards using the World Bank led developing countries to be roped into agreements that promised economic growth and modernization, but would inevitably destroy their social, economic, and environmental climates.
With the corrupt and unbalanced order, negotiations cannot be met, communities are forcibly removed for mining establishment, local economies are crippled due to foreign operations, children are forced to labour and receive compensation only in food,while waste material that poison local water bodies remain undealt with by companies. Efforts made by whistleblowers, journalists, and activist groups to expose the truths and hold companies accountable are often censored, threatened, or even killed.
It becomes evident in the chosen language, marketing, hidden stories, and carefully selected statistics, and government self-interest, that Canada and its democratic government works to save face and defend its corporate partners regardless of their inhumane action. Labelled as exploration and development, carefully selected public relations terms are used to neutralize unlawful practices and justify criminal actions to keep the public at bay.
Is this where we part ways?
Our spirits are grieving as we uncover that our human ancestors and their children are granted no salvation under the system.
We educate ourselves and hold them accountable though unsettling and painful.
Some will express rebellion through their art.
Others will use their hearts and voices to fight.
Bringing into material dimensions sights of liberation and hope;
It is not our faithful duty to play the game.
We can cultivate our own peace through, and for, the collective.
The impacts of our preceding Age of Enlightenment was not only the era of scientific and technological innovation, but one that was underpinned by economic structures that construed our “progress.” The neo-liberal agenda and its ongoing racist, classist, colonial project, so carefully massaged into us, makes up who we fundamentally are as a society. Projected through every institution; politics, law, education, and medicine, imperialism is not a fixed historical concept. These activities are evident in current global affairs.
“The development of modern industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers.”
- Karl Marx (Communist Manifesto, 1848)
We are constantly sold myths by corporations and institutions that dominate our country’s economy. Our knowledge bases are built on foundations of modernization that benefit few. PR teams and the media often do a stellar job at hiding the realities of the nation's role in brutality. But history repeats itself, or rather has never ceased to ripple through time. The lack of justice and peace we experience has led us astray from what it means to be a community, a united species; evident through the violence inflicted on one another.
Human essence vanishes as we are all aliens to one another and the material realities we manipulate with the notion of “conquest of nature.”
Photo Courtesy of Jim Figora
We are minute in the grand scheme of life on earth. There were many civilizations and species that came before us, many that have been wiped out before us too. Even if our species dies under the shackles of capitalism, either through nuclear war, or the environmental disaster that wipes out all life on earth, there will be life forms and sentient beings that come after. Paradoxically trapped by comfortable lifestyles while living under a system of inhumanity, the dilemma is faced by every labouring human within the system; do we finally choose the red pill and face the unknown, or stick to blissful ignorance?
Pulling ourselves out of the daily pursuit of greater achievement and productivity, we are reminded to give back to our communities, to stay connected to one another spiritually and intellectually through reasoning with dignity, and kindness. By understanding ourselves and the “oneness” we share with other species, our environment, and each other, we recognize that humanity needs to stand with and not against one another to see true progress.
