Confronting Corporate Impunity (2011 Conference)

This conference, titled ‘Confronting Corporate Impunity’, reflected the collective effort of several organizations and grassroots groups in Toronto in collaboration with peoples, communities and organizations facing and resisting the entrance of corporate mining mega-projects into their territories. This year’s keynote speaker was Winona LaDuke, and the conference was launched by a dance party with Test Their Logik, Ruben Esguerra, DJ AntiCapitalista, and more!

Particular themes discussed this year included:

  • Gendered violence, inequity and feminist perspectives
  • Militarization and forced displacement
  • Indigenous knowledge and spirituality as forms of resistance
  • Labour rights and the rhetoric of development
  • Criminalization of dissent and protest
  • Environmental contamination effects and health
  • Food security and water rights
  • The cycle of supply and demand of uranium in the North
  • Tar sands and the petroleum industry in the North and South

Some workshops included:

  • Opening with Susana Deranger and Danny Beaton
  • Food Security and Water Rights, with Jethro Tulin, Carlos Perez and Vidalina Morales Gomez
  • Tar Sands Role Play workshop, with Dave Vasey
  • Disrupting the Uranium Supply Chain, with Vicki Monague and Angela Bishoff
  • Labour Rights and Rhetoric of Development, with Ilian Burbano, Marc Rowlinson and Federico Veronesi
  • Exercising Sovereignty Through Community Referendums, with Ulises Garcia
  • Local Mining Struggles, with Clifton Nicolas, Dianne Wiggins, and Carl Cosack
  • Mining Displacement and Anti-Colonial Struggles with Jacob Rumbiak, Stewart Vriesingal and Zaffar Jawaid
  • Mining Struggles within Canada
  • Global Mining Struggles
  • Feminist Resistance and Gendered Violence, with Natalia Atz Sunoc, Gloria Chicaiza and Vidalina Morales Gomez
  • Legal/Legislative, with Miguel Magalang, Murray Klippenstein and Santiago Escobar
  • Criminalization of Protest, with Enrique Rivera, Jethro Tulin and Carlos Perez Guartambel
  • Women’s Rights
  • Direct Action
  • Community Radio Building, with Sakura Saunders
  • Health Roundtable, with Susana Caxaj