El Salvador to Canada – Democracy as Investor State

From El Salvador to Canada – Democracy and the Investor State

by VIU

The Vancouver Island University Faculty Association’s Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee brings local filmmaker and activist Paul Manly to VIU for a report-back presentation on October 29 at 7pm, building 355 room 203.

This September, Paul spent 10 days in El Salvador representing the Council of Canadians on an international delegation examining metallic mining and investor-state lawsuits and how they affect communities. While in El Salvador the final hearings for the OceanaGold verses El Salvador investor state lawsuit began in the secretive ICSID tribunal (International Center for the Settlement of Investor Disputes) housed at the World Bank in Washington DC. The delegation toured the country and examined the details of this investor state dispute and the toxic social and environmental legacy of mining in El Salvador.

Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in trade agreements allow corporations to sue governments for lose of potential profits when governments enact laws and policies that constrain corporate activities. The ICSID, which can overrule the decisions of national courts and democratic governments, adjudicates investor disputes based on trade law but does not consider the environmental or social justification for the disputes. OceanaGold, a Canadian-Australian mining company, is suing El Salvador for $301 million for not issuing a mining license for a project called El Dorado. The project has the potential to contaminate the Lempa River, which provides water for two thirds of the population of El Salvador.

In 2013, OceanaGold purchased Pacific Rim, another Canadian mining company for $10.2 million. Pacific Rim launched the original investor state lawsuit over El Dorado for $77 million in 2009. Five environmentalists opposed to the mine have been murdered as a direct result of this dispute. Salvadorans are determined to defend their sovereignty and their democratic authority and the struggle continues.

Canada has signed forty-three agreements with investor state dispute mechanisms and there are currently $2.5 billion in lawsuits against Canada under the North American Free trade agreement alone. Many ISDS agreements do not require that the public be notified about lawsuits or how much taxpayers are on the hook for.

Paul will report back on his experience with this international delegation in El Salvador and will discuss his latest film project, Trade Away, which examines investor state agreements and how they affect communities at home and abroad.

(30)

For Immediate Release

For further information or photographs contact

Eliza Gardener - Eliza.Gardiner@viu.ca

Paul Manly - paulmanly@shaw.ca