An international tribunal of environmental rights activists recently found extensive evidence that the Canadian mining sector is “guilty for the violation of Rights of Nature across South America and Serbia.” The guest on this episode of Mongabay’s podcast corroborates these accusations, and describes human rights abuses in South American nations that she has seen in her reporting, too.

Brandi Morin, a Cree-Iroquois-French environmental journalist and freelancer for Mongabay, discusses how Canadian mining projects impact ecological health and the rights of Indigenous communities in places such as Ecuador and Bolivia.

“Canada is the mining giant of the world, and around the world, they're getting away with atrocities. They aren't regulated very well to hold them to account. It's a free-for-all out there,” she says.

Find the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. All past episodes are also listed here at the Mongabay website.

Image Credit: Intag community members block security guards hired by the mining company Copper Mesa Corporation (at the time a Canadian firm) from entering Junin Reserve in Ecuador in 2006. Image courtesy of Elisabeth Weydt.

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Time codes

(00:00) Canadian mining in South America

(15:39) A ‘green transition’?

(23:50) A mining state in Ecuador

(28:19) The International Rights of Nature Tribunal

(35:00) You can’t protect the Earth by destroying the Earth

Canada's mining sector a stain on the nation, Indigenous journalist reports