Sued in a Canadian court
Barrick gold
on trial
The third lawsuit in less than 10 years on the same human rights issues – excess use of force by police providing security services to the North Mara Gold Mine leading to deaths and injuries of local Kuria peoples.
Rather than fight serial lawsuits, Barrick needs to stop the killing and maiming, and stop relying on armed security, including Field Force Units of the Tanzanian Police, to guard its mines.
BACKGROUND
For the third time in under ten years, alleged victims of violence by police providing security at the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania are seeking legal remedy. This time, Canada’s Barrick Gold is being sued in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice by the Vancouver-based law firm Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman (CFM) and Waddell Phillips in Toronto. Read the Statement of Claim.
The victims are Indigenous Kuria whose villages surround the mine’s pits and waste dumps. For well over a decade Kuria men, women, and children, have been subjected to excess use of force by mine security and police leading to beatings, serious injuries, killings, and rapes.
THE FIRST LAWSUIT: The first lawsuit, on behalf of alleged victims of excess use of force by police leading to deaths and injuries, was filed by the firm Leigh Day in 2013 against Barrick’s then-subsidiary, U.K.-based African Barrick Gold plc., and the North Mara Gold Mine ltd. That case was settled out of court in 2015, on behalf of 13 Kuria villagers.
THE SECOND LAWSUIT: The second lawsuit was brought in 2020, initially on behalf of seven alleged victims of mine security and police providing security to the mine. The case was filed against Barrick Tz Limited by the firm Hugh James. MiningWatch Canada assisted members of that group of victims and continues to support the lawsuit, which is ongoing.
THE THIRD LAWSUIT: In September 2019, Barrick Gold purchased the shares of minority shareholders in Acacia Mining in a $1.2bn buy-out and the company has since had direct management control of the North Mara Gold Mine. Now Barrick is being sued in its home country Canada for alleged human rights abuses that have taken place over the past three years since Barrick has had direct management control of the mine: excess use of force by police contracted to provide security services to the North Mara Gold Mine leading to deaths and injuries of local Kuria peoples.
Press releases
Barrick Slapped with Third Lawsuit on Same Human Rights Abuses at Tanzanian Mine: ‘Business as Usual’?
(Ottawa) November 23, 2022 | For the third time in under ten years, victims of ongoing police violence at Barrick Gold’s North Mara Gold Mine are seeking legal remedy – this time in Canada. Today, Vancouver-based law firm CFM filed suit in an Ontario court on behalf of Indigenous Kuria plaintiffs whose communities surround the mine’s pits and waste dumps.
(Ottawa) October 11, 2022 | In September, MiningWatch Canada conducted another human rights investigation at the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania, owned and operated by Canadian company Barrick Gold. The findings of this investigation are published today in the latest report and focuses on human rights abuses that have taken place at the mine in the three years since Barrick’s 2019 takeover.
Latest report
“He was murdered”: Violence against Kuria High after Barrick takoever of mine
In September, 2022, MiningWatch Canada conducted a human rights investigation at the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania. The report focuses on human rights abuses that have taken place at the mine in the three years since Barrick Gold’s September 2019 takeover, when the company assumed ownership and management control under CEO Mark Bristow.
Letters to Barrick
January 27, 2023: MiningWatch to Barrick
RE: Forced evictions and related human rights abuses ongoing at North Mara Gold Mine
MiningWatch Canada has conducted seven human rights field assessments in NorthMara since 2014. The most recent in September of 2022. We have gathered information on and documented some 100 cases of excess use of force by private security and police contracted to provide security at the North Mara Gold Mine. The types of violence we have documented include: rape, severe beatings leading to life-altering injuries and death, and injuriesand deaths sustained through projectiles, such as teargas canisters, a sound bomb, rubber bullets or bean bag rounds, as well as live ammunition.
For more information, contact Catherine Coumans at catherine@miningwatch.ca.