Public Lecture: Grahame Russell
Saturday, November 5, 2011, 7:30 pm
Audain Gallery, SFU Goldcorp Ctr.
“This is How the Unjust Global Economy Works: Canada in Guatemala and Honduras”
With all the recent attention in the US, Canada and Europe on the costs of corporate greed it seems timely to draw attention to Canadian mining companies and the impact they have beyond our borders on communities, indigenous people and the environment.
Latin America is the most important regional destination for Canadian mining activities resulting in encroachment on indigenous and peasant farming communities, environmental contamination and gross violations of human rights. It is essential that as Canadians we understand the links between Canadian investment, including Canadian pension funds, and the unacceptable costs to Central American communities.
Grahame Russell is a non-practicing lawyer, author, Adjunct Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), and, since 1995, co-director of Rights Action. For over 10 years, Grahame lived in Mexico and Central America, working with grassroots organizations and NGOs on environment, development and human rights issues.
Rights Action is a tax-charitable organization in Canada and the USA that funds and supports community-controlled development, environmental justice and human rights projects in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in Chiapas and El Salvador; and that carries out education and activism work in the USA and Canada related to global human rights, enviromental and development issues. Grahame regularly writes and gives public presentations about these issues.