February 2, 2022
SHARE
COMMONS
MINING #8 – The Crying of Lot 8
Many Canadian mining companies are pariahs around the world. So why does Canada allow this to happen? And is this industry violent by its very nature?
Jordan Cornish
Producer
Arshy Mann
Host & Producer
Kieran Oudshoorn
Managing Editor, Podcasts

In 2007, the small Guatemalan village of Lote Ocho, Spanish for Lot 8, was burned to the ground by military, police and security for a Canadian-owned mine. Eleven women claim they were raped during the evictions.

A few years later, a prominent community activist is murdered in broad daylight by the head of security for the mining company. 

These are just some of the many crimes that Canadian mining companies have been accused of committing in this region over the last 60 years.

Many Canadian mining companies are pariahs around the world. So why does Canada allow this to happen? And is this industry violent by its very nature?

 

Featured in this episode: Angélica Choc, Grahame Russel, Catherin Nolin, Heather Gies, Richard Poplak

 

To learn more:

“How a Canadian mining company infiltrated the Guatemalan state” by Max Binks-Collier in The Intercept

“Guatemala mine’s ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader’s murder” by Sandra Cuffe in The Guardian

Paradise Lost by CTV’s W5

 

Additional music from Audio Network

 

This episode is brought to you by Rotman’s Behaviourally Informed Strategy Program & Dispatch Coffee 

More from this series
Across Canada, emergency rooms have been shutting down, leaving desperate people in the lurch. And at the heart of this health care crisis, is a labour crisis.
March 27, 2024
The rise of gig work and temp agencies have made employment more precarious than ever
March 20, 2024
This season of COMMONS will dig into the fascinating history and ever-changing present of what it means to be a worker in Canada.
March 6, 2024
In this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Noor Azrieh sits down with Peter Smith to discuss his reporting on right-wing conspiracy groups like Qanon and Romana Didulo.
February 7, 2024
Canada’s biggest grocery chains spent nearly 2 billion last year buying up their own stocks.
January 3, 2024
Richard Marsh was born into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. He got out of the group he calls a cult and has made it his mission to expose the Brethren for their alleged abuses.  Now he’s on the run from Brethren members who’ve been searching for him for years. The man hired to hunt Marsh down? David Wallace.
December 27, 2023
But at what point does it go from being harmless entertainment and turn into something more sinister?
December 20, 2023
Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, is unlike almost any other cult leader Canada has ever seen
December 13, 2023
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
COMMONS