Amani Mhinda traveled from Tanzania to speak out against Barrick Gold's abuses at their mines sites there. However, despite holding a legal proxy to enter the meeting, his entry to that meeting was denied.

"As part of Civil Society Movement in Tanzania and Citizens of Tanzania we would like an end to atrocities and human rights abuses which has come to be associated with Canadian mining investment. I am here to represent Ms. Otaigo, who died in April because she drank poisonous water next to Barrick's North Mara Mine," said Amani. "Clearly, Barrick denied my entrance because they wanted to cover up the abuses that their company is responsible for."

Other advocates were able to attend Barrick's meeting, reading statements from the communities in Papua New Guinea and an Indigenous community in Northern Chile.

"Our request � the solution � is to relocate our people to an area where we can live away from the mine, away from the daily environmental hazards, the militarization, the detentions, the shootings and the rapes," read the statement from the Porgera Alliance in Papua New Guinea. "When will you acknowledge the harms that your company has cause and work towards resolving these issues? We need to work towards long terms solutions today."

The statement from the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Community in Chile highlighted the will of the Huascoaltinos to oppose the mine. The Diaguita Huascoaltinos have a case against Chile in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, because of Chile's approval of Barrick's Pascua Lama Project.

Despite being barred from the meeting, Amani and other advocates were able to tell their stories to a crowd of people outside the meeting who had gathered for the AGM protest and Occupy Toronto encampment.

read complete statement from Porgera Alliance here: http://protestbarrick.net/article.php@id=808