“As a Canadian, when you go overseas, you’re used to everybody hugging you and welcoming you with open arms,” said Stephanie Boyd, director of The Devil Operation, a documentary film about the struggle of the Peruvian human rights defenders against North American mining companies.
“In Peru, Canada’s image has been tarnished … there’s this whole idea of the ‘ugly Canadian,’ so I felt a responsibility, as a Canadian, to make some films that show the communities’ point of view, and the idea was to bring them back and show them in North America … where these [mining] companies are based.”
A collaborative effort by the UBC Social Justice Centre and Stop the Institute, The Devil Operation was the last in the series of events at the UBC Social Justice Centre Conference 2015. The two organizations were strong opponents of the $25 million federal project called the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute (CIRDI), which supports mining companies -- some of which commit human right abuses overseas.
“[CIRDI] is headquartered at UBC … 75 per cent of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada…. In fact, Canadian mining companies actually have the world’s worst records on human rights of any country…. So that’s how the mining issue has become a big issue at the Social Justice Centre,” said this year’s Social Justice Centre Conference co-chair, Eviatar Bach, a third-year physics and computer science student. “[We] want to bring those voices here, where a lot of people aren’t aware … about all the human rights violations that these companies are committing.”
Boyd hopes that students can be more informed and aware of the social tension inflicted by the Canadian industry overseas, and to take active roles in promoting grass-root equity right here in Vancouver. “[I would like students to] think about the difficulties of having corporate sponsorship of the university and what that is doing to academic freedom…. I [also] hope people will get involved with the local struggles in Vancouver.”
Regarding The Devil Operation, Bach said “this is just one story of thousands of this industry. It’s a very human story -- you can see what this community went through … [and to get] some idea of the violence that is caused by [the Canadian mining] companies, and hopefully, for the people who weren’t as informed about these issues to come to this event, to become informed about and maybe get involved with the solidarity efforts that are happening at the university and other places in the city and on the national level.”
Correction: A previous version of this article said Peruvian human rights were abuse by Canadian companies. While Canadian companies play a role, Newmont, the company that owns the project mentioned in the film, is American. The article has been changed to say North American mining companies. The Ubyssey regrets this error.