April 21, 2020
Dear Vice-President Goel:
We write with regard to the University of Toronto’s recent circulation of mining TNC Vale’s COVID-19 Challenge research funding invitation.
Recognizing that the novel coronavirus is having an unprecedented public health, social, political, and economic impact globally and in Canada – and that there are urgent and ongoing needs for research on everything from basic sciences and clinical/health care system dimensions, to livelihood, housing, mental health, and other socioeconomic accompaniments to the pandemic – we write to express our dismay at the University of Toronto’s promotion of one particularly unethical research funding source.
We are deeply concerned that the University of Toronto’s research networks, including the University Health Network, are promoting and collaborating with the Vale COVID-19 Challenge.
Vale, a $USD 34 billion Brazil-headquartered mining enterprise with a subsidiary in Canada, has an atrocious human rights record with a decades-long trail of death and destruction across multiple countries. This iron-ore, nickel, and coal mining corporation has been implicated in criminal negligence leading to multiple environmental disasters. Just over a year ago, a tailings dam rupture at Vale’s mine in Brumadinho, Brazil killed almost 300 people and ended the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. In 2015, another Vale tailings dam failed in Mariana, Brazil, leaving 19 people dead, thousands homeless, and hundreds of thousands with a toxic water supply. In both cases, Vale had advance knowledge of these murderous catastrophes- in the- making, amplifying its safety, ethical, and environmental violations to a criminal dimension. Within Canada, over the past decade, Vale has been fined for repeated workplace safety
violations connected to several worker deaths at its Sudbury, ON nickel mining and smelter complex.
This evidence of extreme human rights, ethical, and health and safety violations, together with scores of other similar instances across the world, have led affected communities and public interest civil-society organizations to call for Vale’s suspension from the UN Global Compact. More broadly, the human rights abuses, health harms, and environmental destruction perpetrated by transnational mining companies including but not limited to Vale have been extensively documented by academics, civil society organizations, and affected communities. By uncritically accepting funding from mining-funded philanthropies and forming partnerships with mining companies, the University of Toronto is building its global reputation upon the displacement, dispossession, and death of people around the world. The acceptance of funding from mining companies (and from philanthropies bankrolled by their profits) by the U of T’s health and medical institutions to promote health and healthcare innovation is especially ironic,
as these very companies cause unconscionable harm to the physical, environmental, and psychosocial health of people in the communities in which they mine.
Recalling that the “The University of Toronto is dedicated to fostering an academic community in which the learning and scholarship of every member may flourish, with vigilant protection for individual human rights, and a resolute commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, equity and justice”:
- We call on the University of Toronto to reject collaboration with Vale and other
corporations that are implicated in human rights violations, the oppression of
vulnerable peoples, and environmental decimation. This includes the promotion of
funding by said corporations. - We ask you to clarify, on behalf of the University of Toronto administration and in the
spirit of transparency, how the University of Toronto came to accept and endorse this
initiative from Vale, given widely-recognized wrongdoing by the corporation. In the
absence of an explanation, interested parties will have no choice but to conclude that
the University of Toronto is supportive of Vale’s operations. - We demand the establishment of a university-wide task force that will produce 21stcentury
ethical guidelines for corporate initiatives and partnerships, as well as
philanthropic contributions, that are consistent with the mission of the University of
Toronto and apply even under crisis conditions.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Anne-Emanuelle Birn Professor Centre for Critical Development Studies,
UTSC and Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Paul Hamel Professor Faculty of Medicine
Nikisha Khare MPH, Medical Student, Faculty of Medicine
Gavin Smith Emeritus Professor Anthropology
Full List of University of Toronto Signatories:
Name Title Department/ unit
Alessandra Ceccacci Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Alissa Trotz Professor University of Toronto
Andrea A. Cortinois Assistant Professor Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Andrea Charise Assistant Professor Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society, UTSC
Anne-Emanuelle Birn Professor Centre for Critical Development Studies, UTSC and Dalla
Lana School of Public Health
Antonio Torres-Ruiz
Sessional Lecturer and
Affiliated Faculty Political Science at UTSC and Latin American Studies
Anup Grewal Assistant Professor Historical and Cultural Studies/UTSC
Ben Akrigg Associate Professor Classics
Bettina von Lieres
Assistant Professor, Teaching
Stream Centre for Critical Development Studies
Blake Poland Associate Professor Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Cara Elliott MD Candidate Faculty of Medicine
Chandler Davis Professor Emeritus Mathematics
Cynthia Cranford Associate Professor Sociology
Daniel Scott Tysdal
Associate Professor,
Teaching Stream English, UTSC
Deborah Cowen Professor Geography & Planning
Denise Gastaldo Associate Professor Faculty of Nursing
Donald Kingsbury Lecturer Political Science and Latin American Studies
Edward Andrew Professor Emeritus Political Science
Emily Gilbert Professor
Canadian Studies and Department of Geography &
Planning
Emmanuelle Arpin PhD candidate IHPME
Freida Chavez
Associate Professor,
Teaching Stream Nursing
Gavin Smith Emeritus Professor Anthropology
Genevieve Ritchie Instructor Equity Studies, New College
Girish Daswani Associate Professor Anthropology
Helena Kita Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
James Deutsch Assistant Professor Psychiatry
Jamie Stark Medical Student Undergraduate Medical Education
Janice Boddy Professor and Chair Anthropology
Jayeeta Sharma Associate Professor Dept of Historical and Cultural Studies
Jayoti Rana Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Jesook Song Professor Anthropology
Jillian Kohler Professor Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Joel Lexchin Dr. Family and Community Medicine
John Noyes Professor Germanic Languages and Literatures
Joseph Berkovitz Associate Professor
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Technology
Kajri Jain Associate Professor Visual Studies/Art History
Kanta Murali Associate Professor Political Science
Katherine Blouin Associate Professor Historical and Cultural Studies/Classics
Ken Derry
Associate Professor,
Teaching Stream Historical Studies
Ken Kawashima Professor East Asian Studies/History
Ken MacDonald Professor Centre for Critical Development Studies
Ken MacDonald Professor Centre for Critical Development Studies
Kevin Coleman Associate Professor History
Kevin Edmonds Assistant Professor Caribbean Studies
Krista Maxwell Assistant Professor Anthropology
Laura Toth Executive Assistant Arts and Science
Leslie Chan Associate Director Centre for Critical Development Studies, UTSC
Linda Kohn Professor Emerita Dept. of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Loreto Fernández
PhD student, international
student Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Lucia Dacome Associate Professor
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Technology
Manjot Sunner Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Maria Leis Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Mariana Valverde Professor Centre for Criminology and Socio-legal Studies
Mark Hunter Associate Professor Human Geography
Mark Solovey Associate Professor IHPST
Mary Nyquist Professor English and Comparative Literature
Matthew Farish Associate Professor Geography & Planning
Mauricio Terebiznik Associate Professor Biological Sciences UTSC
Melanie J. Newton Associate Professor History
Michelle Daigle Assistant Professor
Centre for Indigenous Studies and Department of
Geography & Planning
Miguel Torrens Librarian Libraries
Nada Moumtaz Assistant Professor Study of Religion
Nancy Jackson Professor Emerita OISE/Department of LHAE
Nicholas Sammond Professor Cinema Studies Institute
Nicola Gailits PhD Candidate Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Nikisha Khare MPH, Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Nisha Toomey PhD Candidate Social Justice Education
Padmaja Sreeram Medical Student University of Toronto
Paul Downes Professor English
Paul Hamel Professor Faculty of Medicine
Peter Fitting Professor Emeritus French/cinema studies
Priya Prabhakar Nursing Student Bloomberg School of Nursing
Rachel Goffe Assistant Professor UTSC Human Geography
Rinaldo Walcott Professor SJE/OISE
Rosa Sarabia Professor Spanish and Portuguese
Ryan Isakson Associate Professor
Centre for Critical Development Studies and Department
of Geography
Sanda Munjic Associate Professor Spanish and Portuguese
Sarah Khan Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Seana Adams Medical Student MD Program
Shahrzad Mojab Professor OISE/UT
Susan Antebi Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Suzanne Sicchia, Associate Professor Teaching
Stream Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society
Tanya Titchkosky Professor Social Justice Education, OISE, U of T
Tarek Ibrahim Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Taylor Jordan Medical Student Faculty of Medicine
Ted Sammons Assistant Prof. (CLTA) FAS
Uzoma Esonwanne Associate Professor English
Valentina Napolitano Professor Anthropology
Wesal Abu Qaddum PhD student LHAE
Other Toronto-based Concerned Colleagues and Citizens:
Name Title Department
Ann Marie Beals Concerned Citizen
Claudia Chaufan Health Graduate Program Director School of Health Policy and Management
Judith Marshall
PhD U of T, Associate, CERLAC, York
University Alumni, U of T
Liisa L. North Professor Emeritus Political Science
Naomi Binder Wall LHAE/Adult Education
Ryan Torrence York U Dept of Health
Sarah Anderson Registered Midwife, MA Candidate Health Policy & Equity
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