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Hudbay executives brush off invitation to speak at Canadian premiere of documentary critical of Hudbay’s worldwide operations

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TORONTO—Arizona independent filmmaker John Dougherty on Thursday personally invited Hudbay Minerals’ top executives, directors, and shareholders to attend the Canadian premiere of his documentary film “Flin Flon Flim Flam” on the company’s troubled worldwide operations.

Mr. Dougherty extended the invitation during Hudbay’s annual shareholder’s meeting and offered an opportunity for Hudbay to answer questions following the upcoming screening of the film at 7:00 p.m., May 24, at the Royal Cinema in downtown Toronto.

Alan Hair, Hudbay’s President and CEO, brushed off the offer saying, “Thank you for the infomercial.” He then immediately adjourned the meeting.

Toronto is the first stop of a 13-city tour spanning Canada that will include stops in Montreal on May 25 and Ottawa on May 26 before heading west to Winnipeg on June 7 and Flin Flon on June 10.

The film documents Hudbay’s history of pollution in Flin Flon, conflict with First Nations in Manitoba, alleged atrocities at a nickel mine in Guatemala, brutality in Peru, and plans to construct a massive open-pit copper mine in Arizona in an environmentally-sensitive area that is the home to the only known wild jaguar in the United States.

The Canadian release of the film comes shortly after the New York Times in a front-page, Sunday story reported on allegations of Hudbay committing serious human rights abuses in Guatemala.

Hudbay is the subject of three civil suits in Toronto from Guatemalan peasants who allege the company committed gang rapes, murder and a shooting that left a man paralyzed.

Canadian author Alain Deneault will join Mr. Dougherty for the Montreal screening to answer audience questions following the screening. Mr. Deneault is the co-author of Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries.

Publication of the book was delayed two years after Vancouver-based Barrick Gold threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against the authors and publishers.

The Hon. John McKay, a Liberal Member of Parliament, is sending his Legislative Assistant to attend the Ottawa screening. Mr. McKay called for stronger oversight of Canadian mining operations abroad in the wake of the New York Times story.

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Forest Service ignored information from hotshot leaders about Granite Mountain’s history of bad decisions

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The first of 19 hearses carrying the bodies of the Granite Mountain Hotshots passes through Peeples Valley, AZ.

The first of 19 hearses carrying the bodies of the Granite Mountain Hotshots passes through Peeples Valley, AZ.

The Yarnell Hill fire investigation conducted by the U.S. Forest Service deliberately ignored information provided by a former hotshot superintendent that the leader of the Granite Mountain Hotshots had a documented history of making bad decisions in violation of basic wildfire safety rules, federal records and interviews reveal.

A second former hotshot superintendent also contacted the Forest Service investigation leader, Mike Dudley, and reported that his conversations with Yarnell Hill wildfire supervisors immediately after the fire pointed to human error by the crew’s leaders as the only plausible explanation for what happen.

The communications are among 2,400 pages of records obtained by InvestigativeMEDIA from a 2014 Freedom of Information Act request. The records were released earlier this year and are heavily redacted even though the investigation was completed in September 2013.

Granite Mountain Hotshot Superintendent Eric Marsh’s decision-making was called into question by men who had directly worked with Marsh, or were aware of his reputation with other hotshot superintendents, in the weeks following the June 30, 2013, tragedy when Marsh and 18 members of his crew were overrun by fire. [Read more…]