Dominicans and Haitians impacted by Canadian mining are taking their fight to Ottawa
Diana Martin and Kiegan Irish / October 25, 2026
A Canadian-operated gold mine in the Dominican Republic is facing growing opposition from communities who say that their water, health, and livelihoods have been harmed by years of mining operations. Another Canadian company is seeking approval for a new mine near the Haitian border, raising fears that similar impacts could extend into communities in the neighbouring country.
This week, two community leaders from the Dominican Republic and Haiti are bringing these concerns directly to Ottawa, calling attention to the consequences of Canadian mining investment abroad and demanding action from the federal government.
Both projects are at critical junctures. Canadian mining giant Barrick is pursuing a major expansion of its Pueblo Viejo gold mine despite longstanding community demands for relocation and environmental protection. Meanwhile, Toronto-based Unigold is seeking permits to develop its proposed Neita gold project near the Haitian border, where locals fear that mining could threaten shared water resources in a region already facing severe humanitarian and environmental pressures.
Pueblo Viejo: A warning from communities living with mining
Located in the Dominican Republic’s Sánchez Ramírez province, Pueblo Viejo is Latin America’s largest open-pit gold mine. Operated by Barrick in partnership with US-based Newmont, it began production in 2012 and has generated vast quantities of mining waste. This includes rock that can release harmful sulphuric acids and metals into the environment, as well as tailings, a slurry of finely ground rock, water, and chemical residues left over from gold processing.
Mining is a major contributor to the Dominican Republic’s economy, with mineral exports reaching a record US$2.59 billion in 2025, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the country’s total merchandise exports.
For more than a decade, communities living downstream from the existing tailings dam have reported water contamination, air pollution, damage to crops and livestock, and serious health concerns, including persistent skin lesions, respiratory difficulties, and exposure to toxic metals. They have also documented the deaths of thousands of livestock and losses to local cacao production. Approximately 450 families across five communities are demanding relocation to a safer environment. Since 2011, residents have relied on bottled drinking water.
Despite these impacts, Barrick is advancing an expansion that would extend mining operations beyond 2040. Central to the project is a new tailings storage facility at El Naranjo, designed to hold hundreds of millions of tonnes of additional mining waste. Its construction requires the resettlement of six other rural communities and has raised further concerns about water contamination and dam safety.
Communities have pursued multiple avenues to have their concerns heard. In 2024, residents marched more than 100 kilometres to Santo Domingo to demand immediate relocation for families still in the area. They have also filed constitutional protection actions challenging the expansion and appealed directly to Barrick’s shareholders in Canada, with little action. Barrick has repeatedly rejected allegations of environmental contamination and inadequate dam safety.
“The expansion’s relocation program continues to leave 450 families living below the dam wall unprotected, despite over a decade of calls for relocation,” says Leoncia Ramos, a community organizer with the Comité Nuevo Renacer. Referencing an independent review of Barrick’s impact assessment for the expansion, which projects “more than 100 fatalities” in the event of a dam failure, she warns that further delays could have deadly consequences.
In August 2026, five residents took their demands to another international forum, filing a formal complaint with the London Bullion Market Association. The complaint raises allegations of environmental harm and human rights violations and challenges whether gold from Pueblo Viejo meets international responsible sourcing standards.
These efforts reflect the determination of these communities to hold accountable not only the mine operator but also the international institutions and markets connected to its operations.
Neita: Concerns about mining risks crossing borders
Further west, Canadian company Unigold is seeking authorization to develop the Neita gold project in the Dominican Republic’s Dajabón province, near the Haitian border. Although the proposed mine would operate on Dominican territory, communities in neighbouring Haiti fear that its environmental impacts could reach them.
Haitian organizations warn that mining could contaminate or deplete shared water resources, threatening drinking water, agricultural production, and rural livelihoods. Concerns include the potential impacts of cyanide use in gold processing and contamination from mine waste.
The stakes are particularly high in Haiti, where armed violence, widespread displacement, hunger, and weakened public institutions have deepened an already severe humanitarian crisis. For agricultural communities that depend on healthy land and reliable water supplies, additional environmental pressures could further undermine food security and livelihoods.
Communities are organizing before mining begins. Since 2025, Haitian organizations, including the Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environnement (GAFE), have held public information sessions and mobilizations in border communities. In February 2026, about 140 people from seven Haitian communities gathered to coordinate their response. In July, Haitian and Dominican civil society organizations met in Dajabón to exchange information and develop joint strategies to protect shared natural resources.
They are demanding that the potential cross-border impacts be adequately assessed and that Haitian communities have a meaningful voice in decisions that could affect their future.
“Recurrent droughts in the North East of Haiti, one of the impacts of climate change, are already exacerbating hunger in this fragile region, where small farmers eke out a living with small-scale agriculture,” says Dr. Ary Régis, who is a member of GAFE, pointing out that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share waterways vital for irrigation, such as the Artibonite River.
“Mining operations only a few miles away in the Dominican Republic will only further deplete the region’s precarious water supply and bring more hunger. The voice of the Haitian communities who stand to be impacted by the actions of a Canadian mining company must be heard.”
Canada’s contradictory priorities in the Caribbean
The pushback from communities affected by these mining projects highlights the contradictions in Canada’s approach to the Caribbean. Ottawa is strengthening its security and commercial ties with countries in the region, notably through a memorandum of understanding with the Dominican Republic aimed at promoting Canadian security companies. The agreement creates a procurement pathway through which the Dominican Republic can access Canadian defence technology and services. Canada is also one of the largest foreign investors in the Dominican Republic.
At the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand announced $35.3 million in security funding to be disbursed across the Americas. This sum includes funding for the Gang Suppression Force in Haiti. Ottawa again demonstrated its focus on the security crisis in Haiti during Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs Mona Fortier’s visit to the island, an engagement that highlighted “Canada’s trade and investment diversification agenda … [and] supply chain resilience.”
These efforts signal a deepening military and commercial presence in the region. Yet the very commercial interests Canada promotes can contribute to the insecurity its investments purport to address. Mining projects such as Pueblo Viejo and Neita can threaten subsistence agriculture and drive people off their land, deepening poverty and social instability.
Promoting mining abroad, failing to ensure accountability at home
While Canada promotes its mining industry abroad through trade agreements and the expansion of international supply chains, it has repeatedly failed to establish effective mechanisms to prevent human rights abuses and ensure access to justice for impacted communities.
Canada’s foreign policy agenda and investment policies provide extensive support to mining interests, but the accountability mechanisms that allow communities to seek remedies when faced with the harms caused by extractive industry are severely limited.
Canada’s National Contact Point—a mechanism designed to promote responsible corporate behaviour and help resolve complaints about Canadian companies operating domestically or abroad—has faced review for failing to live up to its mandate under OECD guidelines. After more than a decade of civil society advocacy for the government to develop an ombudsperson capable of responding to abuse claims from impacted communities, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) was shuttered this spring by the Carney government after sitting empty for more than a year (read more of CD’s coverage of the closure here).
This accountability vacuum is endemic to the international economics of Canadian supply chains. As noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Canadian government “does not comprehensively regulate the activities of Canadian companies operating transnationally,” contributing to a situation of “deep-set, systemic and structural racism.”
Bringing the concerns home to Canada
This October, representatives from both countries are visiting Ottawa to meet with Canadian lawmakers, civil society organizations, and the public to raise pressing questions about Ottawa’s responsibility to prevent harm and ensure accountability.
They share common concerns, even at different stages of the mining lifecycle. At Pueblo Viejo, communities are seeking remedies for years of reported harm while confronting further expansion. Near the Haitian border, communities are mobilizing to prevent similar consequences before a new mine is approved. For Haitian communities, Pueblo Viejo offers a warning of what can happen when mining advances without adequately addressing environmental risks and community concerns.
By bringing these struggles to Canada, the delegation is making a direct connection between decisions made by Canadian mining companies and the government and their consequences for communities abroad. It is well past time for Canada to rein in its own industries. Communities across the Caribbean and around the world are counting on it.
Diana Martin has worked with MiningWatch Canada for over a decade and has more than 15 years of experience in human rights, social justice, and corporate accountability. She serves on the board of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability and works closely with mining-affected communities in the Dominican Republic to defend their rights and seek accountability.
Kiegan Irish is the advocacy officer for Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada
Source: Canadian Dimension