People Before Profit Rally

Event Details

The funders of Coastal GasLink are coming to town — along with the massive network of resource extraction companies that Canada is run by and built to serve. Toronto is about to host the world’s biggest mining convention — PDAC. It’s time to show up in force to oppose PDAC and to continue to #ShutDownCanada.

Bring your friends, colleagues, kids, neighbours, and loved ones. We will have speeches, music, performances, puppets, and food!

It has never been more clear that oil and mining companies dictate government policy, and railroad over Indigenous rights in doing so. As we rise up from coast to coast in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation, we are proving that popular resistance is the only way to disrupt the power of the extractive industry.

Join us to rally in solidarity with every community on Turtle Island and beyond that has found itself staring down the barrel of a gun while opposing Canada’s ongoing colonial project through violent resource extraction.

When: Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre
This is a child-friendly event!

***What is PDAC?***

On March 1 the world’s largest mining conference will begin in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. With approximately 25,000 attendees, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention will host many of the world’s most destructive and violent companies together in one place, making deals to sell off the rest of the planet and extract every last bit of oil, gold, uranium, and every other exploitable resource that they can find.

The attendees list doubles as a Rolodex of the world’s worst corporate criminals. Just one company alone–Teck, PDAC’s top sponsor– is trying to push through approval this week for a mega tarsands mine that would single-handedly blow through Canada’s emissions budget and make it impossible to meet our climate targets. PDAC attendees include some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and represent companies committing some of the worst climate and human rights crimes in the world.

***Why should you care about the PDAC convention?***

Because Canada’s mining companies, with the full and unconditional support of the Canadian government, wreak havoc on communities around the world, blatantly violating human and Indigenous rights, inflicting severe environmental destruction, and creating vast economic inequalities.

Because even as land defenders across so-called Canada are shutting down railways to halt the invasion of unceded Wet’suwet’en territory, and even as Wet’suwet’en land defenders are arrested for simply being on their territory, extractive companies are hiding behind the guise of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, holding glitzy galas to celebrate each other’s greenwashing and charitable efforts.

Because their “business as usual” is a direct path to a planet that is literally unlivable. A world with even greater levels of wealth inequality. A world in which the mining companies that inflict mass forced displacement are also the lobbyists for harsher border and migration policies. A world defined by imperialism and neo-colonialism. A world where the rights of capital take precedence over human rights. This is not the world we deserve. And it is not the world we are trying to build.

***JOIN US on March 1st to protest PDAC!***

A coalition of dozens of community groups and organizations are calling on Torontonians to join us in protesting PDAC. On Sunday, March 1st at noon, we will show up in solidarity with those on the front lines to stand up for the future we all deserve.

Come on out, bring your friends, colleagues, neighbours, and loved ones. We will have music, performances, and food. Come be with us as we gather in community to stand up to the extractive industry’s violence, ongoing colonization, and complete disregard for the future of life on this planet.

They are not in charge of our city, our futures, or this planet.

***Toronto: the hub of extractivism***

It’s no accident that PDAC takes place in our city every year. Nearly 75% of mining companies around the world are Canadian, and Toronto in particular is known as the global hub for mining finance. This same industry is also one of the world’s most egregious offenders when it comes to human rights and environmental abuses, infamous for destruction through:

– Violent colonization to shove through their extractive projects,
– Land theft, forced displacement, and dispossession of land and livelihood,
– Creation of militarized warzones to defend their oil rigs and mines,
– Violent repression including assassination and sexual assault of those who resist,
– Disruption of culture and community cohesion,
– Wide-scale contamination of water, land, and air, threatening health and food security.

Enough is enough! We demand an end to all of this extractive violence that renders our planet unlivable.

This requires:
– No more pipelines
– No fossil fuel extraction
– No more open pit mines
– No more land theft and forced displacement
– No more corporate impunity
– Status for all, including all those displaced by extractive industries and their destructive impacts
– Full recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and respect for local self-determination

PDAC and everything it stands for is fundamentally incompatible with the world we need to build for our future.

This event is being hosted by OPIRG Toronto, No One Is Illegal, Rising Tide Toronto, FridaysforFuture Toronto/GTA, Artists for Climate & Migrant Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty

To endorse the action and to connect with our event organizers, please email info@mininginjustice.org

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