Written by: Daniel Xie

On Sunday, activists from various organizations held a rally directed against the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) meeting in Toronto. The rally was organized by various groups including Climate Justice Toronto, Rising Tide Toronto, the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, and many others.

The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network has previously carried out disruptions of PDAC. This is done to call out PDAC lobbying for Canadian mining companies. These actions further perpetuate their various human rights abuses in the Global South(which is something that even PDAC admits, but does not reveal to the public).

This year, the protests focused on climate justice and how the influence of PDAC and mining companies in Canada make it impossible to achieve the goals needed to cut Canada’s environment to a sustainable level.

For instance, Teck, PDAC's top sponsor, tried to push through a tar sands mine that would single-handedly blow through Canada's emissions budget and make it impossible to meet our climate targets, through popular backlash to the megaproject, particularly from indigenous leaders, caused it to cease operations. Organizers also sought to raise awareness of how mining companies are using the PDAC conference to “greenwash” their policies and put on a facade of fighting the climate crisis or proposing “ethical” capitalism.

According to Mining Injustice Solidarity Network organizer Rachel Small, the rally has seen 500 attendees. Many of the activists there came to call out the impact that mining companies had on the environment and the impact mining operations have in perpetuating ecological damage and the forced displacement of indigenous peoples, or were at the frontlines of battles with the mining companies in the communities they lived in.

Indigenous rights in Canada was a key issue raised by many of the demonstrators. Indigenous activists such as Nigel Henri Robinson of Indigenous Climate Action, as well as #IdleNoMore activist Crystal Sinclair showed up during the rally, with Crystal Sinclair giving one of the first speeches during the rally.