(In)Equality Matters: Social justice and the economy

Excerpt:

“Since its founding 35 years ago, Inter Pares has worked with farmers' groups, women's organizations, human rights groups, indigenous organizations, health associations and social movements around the world. We have had the privilege of relating to many people who are working, often against great odds, to overcome some of the obstacles to equality and social justice.

But in the late 1990s, something new started happening. Inter Pares began to receive calls from our counterparts in Ghana, in the Philippines, in Nicaragua, telling us that Canadian mining companies were digging trenches in the rainforest reserve, forcing communities off land, and refusing to clean up spills of toxic wastes in local fishing waters. Inter Pares had had no experience with mining, and we had no idea what to do.

So we reached out to organizations we knew here in Canada for help, and we discovered that the same kinds of abuses were happening right here in Canada, particularly in the north, and particularly in aboriginal communities.”