INDIGENOUS WOMEN PRESS HUDBAY ON HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

GUATEMALA MINE

TORONTO • Two Indigenous Guatemalan women stood quietly in front of a Toronto courthouse on Tuesday morning, surrounded by a scrum that included a filmmaking crew, lawyers, media and a gaggle of other people.

In a case being closely followed by the mining sector, the two women, Irma Yolanda Choc Cac and Angelica Choc, had travelled from a remote part of eastern Guatemala, to continue pressing legal claims that Hudbay

Minerals Inc., one of Canada’s oldest mining companies, bears liability for rape, violence and other human rights abuses that took place more than a decade ago when their village was razed to make way for the Fenix nickel mine.

Their lawsuit, originally filed in 2011, ties into a trend of increasing scrutiny of Canadian mining and exploration companies’ overseas activity. In its wake, other plaintiffs sued at least two other mining companies under the same novel legal theory, which accuses the mining companies of negligence.

“I’m assuming any chance of resolving anything between these parties has long since left the building,” said Michael McGraw, the presiding case-management master who functions like a judge.

In a courtroom packed with journalists and supporters of the women, the lawyers had planned to argue about whether the plaintiffs could amend their complaint against Hudbay to include new details about the alleged human rights abuses. However, the parties pushed the hearing back until November while they discuss a compromise.

The suit claims security personnel for Skye Resources — bought by Hudbay in 2008 for US$451 million to acquire the Fenix mine project — worked with Guatemalan military and police to clear the land and raze the Mayan Q’echi community of Lote Ocho for the mining project.

Several of the plaintiffs in the case, including one present Monday, have filed documents in which they describe the trauma — being tied, beaten and gang-raped in front of their children — in excruciating detail while under examination by Hudbay’s lawyers at Fasken, Tracy Pratt and Robert Harrison.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they have gained new details from documents and emails that Hudbay produced during the litigation to substantiate the alleged human rights abuses. They say they have filed documents in court that contain new details related to payments Skye made to military and police, and to the arrangements between Skye’s security force and local police and military.

Lawyers for Hudbay told the hearing they would consider agreeing to allow the plaintiffs’ amended complaint, although they may challenge whether Ontario is the proper jurisdiction to hear the claims.

Financial Post