Cambior croney

New information on the Cambior case ["Coming home to roost," March 27] just keeps coming in--this time implicating the federal government.

When Cambior's Omai gold mine released 3.2 billion litres of cyanide into the Guyanese ecosystem in the summer of 1995, Foreign Affairs Canada insisted it was not getting involved. But documents obtained by Probe International show that Foreign Affairs was in fact helping Cambior lobby the Guyanese government to reopen the mine.

Under the Access to Information Act, Probe International obtained correspondence between Ottawa and Canada's High Commissioner to Guyana, Simon Wade. "They misrepresented themselves to the Canadian people," charges Probe's Pat Adams. "Foreign Affairs was clearly in there slugging for Cambior, not the people affected by the spill."

Adams says Foreign Affairs's operations are often all about helping Canadian companies do business, not diplomacy. Adams is the author of an article on the subject in this month's issue of The Next City. Philip Preville