Marlin Mine vote on the agenda for shareholder meetings

With Goldcorp's annual meetings coming up in Vancouver next week, once again shareholders will have the chance to vote on a proposed resolution to suspend operations. I've written about this at length before, so I won't give all the back story here, but needless to say, the saga has been ongoing for quite some time. Human rights violations, lack of community consultation, environmental devastation, even death threats and possibly murder, have all been alleged. One Canadian visual artist describes her visit to the mine, and specifically the tailings pond containing cyanide:

There were “mountains of white foam” on the edges of the “totally toxic” pond whose water was a bright blue hue, the Vancouver resident recalled in an interview at the Georgia Straight offices.

“We were standing at the top of a hill, and I feel like my eyes are totally burning,” Schambach said. “And the hairs of my nose are, like, piercing my skin.”

While this account is obviously unscientific (one can find the science elsewhere), I think it's safe to say that nobody would want this sort of a scene in their own backyard. And, not surprisingly, 18 indigenous Mayan communities have voiced their concern, leading the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call for the mine's suspension.

In the absence of any sort of enforced accountability structure preventing basic human rights and environmental abuses, chances are good that shareholders will choose to continue with business as usual.

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