Dr. Margo Matwychuk is an assistant professor of anthropology and director of social justice studies at UVic.
In a recent email exchange between one of the members of the group organzing a screening and discussion of the film “The Business of Gold” and the Media Relations and Public Affairs Office of the University of Victoria, the Media and Public Relations Office suggested that “with regards to information about Goldcorp’s activities, the mining company has regularly posted updates on its website with its response to an independent human rights report released in 2010 and implementation of the report’s recommendations. The company has also addressed questions raised about Marlin Mine at http://www.goldcorp.com/English/blog/Articles-Details/2012/Myths-of-Marlin-Mine/default.aspx.”
It is troubling that, at a leading research institution that is committed to “providing a high-quality learning and research environment and integrating teaching, learning, research and civic engagement across the disciplines” (Strategic Plan 2012:6), this office offers company propaganda rather than academic, peer-reviewed research in support of the University’s decisions and activities. We do not accept such incomplete and biased research from our faculty and students. We should not accept it from our institution either. A few hours spent on our library’s website searching the term Goldcorp and peer-reviewed journal articles in the Summon search engine provided the following list of references. We strongly recommend that everyone consult these research papers and that Media Relations and Public Affairs share this list when future queries arise as to Goldcorp’s human rights record in relation to the Indigenous peoples with whom they interact.
Selected research papers
Altschuller, Sarah, Anna Dolize , Michael Fessler and Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile (2012) “Corporate social responsibility,” International Lawyer. 46.1 (Spring): 179-89.
Barnett, Tracy L. (2010) “Gold on Hold,” Cultural Survival Quarterly 34-3.
Basu, Niladri, Marce Abare, Susan Buchanan, Diana Cryderman, Dong-Ha Nam, Susannah Sirkin, Stefan Schmitt, Howard Hu, (2010) “A combined ecological and epidemiologic investigation of metal exposures amongst Indigenous peoples near the Marlin Mine in Western Guatemala,” Science of The Total Environment, 409 (1) (Dec): 70-77
Bebbington, A. (2009). The new extraction: rewriting the political ecology of the Andes. NACLA Report on the Americas, 42(5), 12-20.
Benson, Peter, Edward F. Fischer and Kedron Thomas (2008) “Resocializing Suffering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala’s New Violence,” Latin American Perspectives , 35 (5): 38-58
Brophy, Enda, and Myka Tucker-Abramson (2012) “Struggling Universities: Simon Fraser University and the Crisis of Canadian Public Education” Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (special issue “Out of the Ruins: The University to Come”) 28 (Fall): 21-40.
Coumans, Catherine (2011) “Occupying Spaces Created by Conflict: Anthropologists, Development NGOs, Responsible Investment, and Mining,” Current Anthropology 52 (S3): S29-S43.
Dougherty, Michael L. (2011) Peasants, firms, and activists in the struggle over gold mining in Guatemala: Shifting landscapes of extraction and resistance. PhD Dissertation. The University of Wisconsin – Madison, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing.
Garibay, Claudio, et al. (2011) “Unequal Partners, Unequal Exchange: Goldcorp, the Mexican State, and Campesino Dispossession at the Peñasquito Goldmine” Journal of Latin American Geography 10(2): 153-176.
Gordon, Todd and Jeffery R. Webber, (2011) “Canada and the Honduran Coup,” Bulletin of Latin American Research, 30 (3): 328-43.
Hogenboom, Barbara (2012) “Depoliticized and Repoliticized Minerals in Latin America,” Journal of Developing Societies 28: 133-158.
Holden, William N., and R. Daniel Jacobson (2008) “Civil Society Opposition to Nonferrous Metals Mining in Guatemala,” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 19 (4): 325-350
Kamphuis, Charis (2012) “Canadian Mining Companies and Domestic Law Reform: A Critical Legal Account,” German Law Journal 13(9): 1456-1486; Osgoode CLPE Research Paper No. 10/2013
Maheandiran, B., DiFederico, J., Aguilera, R., & Imai, S. (2010). Goldcorp and HudBay minerals in Guatemala. Osgoode CLPE Research Paper, (09).
Martínez-Prado, Adriana; Ma. Elena Pérez-López; Joaquín Pinto-Espinoza; Blanca Amelia Gurrola-Nevárez; Ana Lilia Osorio-Rodríguez (2011). “Biorremediación de suelo contaminado con hidrocarburos empleando lodos residuales como fuente alterna de nutrients” Revista Internacional de Contaminación Ambiental (Agosto-Sin mes): 241-252.
McGee, Brant (2009) “The Community Referendum: Participatory Democracy and the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent to Development,” Berkeley Journal of International Law 27(2): 570-635.
Nicoll, Georgina Elsie (2012) Corporate social responsibility in the Canadian mining sector: the case of Guatemala’s Marlin Mine. MA Thesis, University of Victoria.
Profitt, Norma Jean (2010) “Forum [Invited Papers]: Spirituality, Social Work, And Social Justice,” Canadian Social Work Review 27 (1):127-132.
Rasch, Elisabet Dueholm (2012) “Transformations in Citizenship: Local Resistance against Mining Projects in Huehuetenango (Guatemala),” Journal of Developing Societies 28: 159-184.
Rondon, Glevys (2009) “Canadian Mining in Latin America: Corporate Social Responsibility and Women’s Testimonies,” Canadian Woman Studies 27(1) (Fall/Winter): 89-96.
Smith, Emilie Teri. (2009) Guardians of the blue-green plate, the blue green bowl: what the world can learn from the Maya-Sipakapense Of Guatemala. PhD Dissertation, Vancouver School of Theology (Canada), ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing.
Sosa, Irene, (2011) “Responsible Investment Case Studies: Newmont and Goldcorp,” in Julia Sagebien and Nicole Marie Lindsay, ed. Governance Ecosystems, Palgrave Macmillan.
Urkidi, Leire (2011) “The Defence of Community in the Anti-Mining Movement of Guatemala,” Journal of Agrarian Change 11 (4):
Yagenova, Simona V. and Rocío Garcia (2009) “Indigenous People’s Struggles Against Transnational Mining Companies in Guatemala: The Sipakapa People vs GoldCorp Mining Company,” Socialism and Democracy 23(3):
Zarsky, Lyuba and Leonardo Stanley (2011) Searching For Gold In The Highlands Of Guatemala: Economic Benefits And Environmental Risks Of The Marlin Mine (available at http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/marlinemine.pdf.)