15,000 march on the Canadian consulate in Thessaloniki in opposition to Eldorado Gold. Photo by Nikolas Giakoumidis/ Associated Press.
CBC.ca has posted an Associated Press report that notes, “More than 10,000 people (took) to the streets of Greece’s second largest city (on Saturday) to protest a planned gold mine they see as an environmental risk. Police blocked the crowd’s march to the Canadian consulate in Thessaloniki… Eldorado Gold Corp., based in Vancouver, Canada, has been granted the rights to the gold mine in Halkidiki peninsula, east of Thessaloniki. …(The company) plans to begin digging soon.”
An Al Jazeera English TV news report on the protest – which notes that 15,000 people were at the protest – can be seen here.
Eldorado Gold Inc. is developing the Skouries and Olympias mines (in Halkidiki in Central Macedonia) and the Perama Hill mine (in Eastern Macedonia).
Last month, the Canadian ambassador to Greece Robert Peck defended Eldorado’s Perama Hill mine at a meeting with Alexandroupolis mayor Evangelos Labakis who raised environmental concerns and said that the mine would be resisted. In late-November 2012, more than 3,000 people marched on the Canadian consulate in Thessaloniki, but their route was blocked by riot police.
The Council of Canadians and the Blue Planet Project stand in solidarity with our Greek allies opposed to the Eldorado Gold mines.
For more, please read:
VIDEO: Canadian ambassador defends destructive mine in northern Greece
NEWS: Anti-mine protesters march on Canadian consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece
NEWS: Police fire tear gas, raid Greek town opposed to Canadian mine
NEWS: Vancouver-based mining company threatens Greece’s water, trees under austerity measures
