PBI-Canada presentation to UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water Pedro Arrojo-Agudo
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, is visiting Canada from April 8-19. He will share the preliminary findings of his visit on April 19 at 11:30 am ET at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa. He will then present his final report, with findings and recommendations, to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this coming September.
His call for submissions includes: “Issues related to actions of Canadian mining companies in Canada and globally relating to the rights to water and sanitation.”
At a consultation on April 8 at Carleton University in Ottawa, PBI-Canada highlighted related concerns and has submitted these brief written case studies of Canadian corporations impacting the right to water in Peace Brigades International-accompanied struggles in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.
COLOMBIA: Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management has owned the majority of shares of the Colombian power generation company Isagen since 2016. Through that purchase, Brookfield now owns the fourth largest dam in Colombia, the Sogamoso Hydroelectric Dam near Bucaramanga. Between 2009 and 2014, six community members were killed and others disappeared due to their opposition to the dam (that began operation in December 2014). More recently, the dam has been implicated in the death of fish in the San Silvestre wetlands when it has opened its floodgates. PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN, the fisher union affected by this.
*In October 2022, the Special Rapporteur was in Barrancabermeja and met with Juan Camilo Delgado (CREDHOS), Yuli Velasquez (FEDEPESAN), Ivan Madero (CREDHOS) and Marie Zeller (PBI-Colombia).
GUATEMALA: Mississauga-based Hatch Ltd. did the conceptual design and detailed design-build-engineering plan for the Oxec II hydroelectric dam on Maya Q’eqchi’ territory in Guatemala. Their Niagara Falls-based office says Hatch has been “developing hydroelectric sites in Guatemala for 20 years.” Hatch also did the conceptual design for the Oxec III dam (construction on that could start next year). PBI-Guatemala accompanies Bernardo Caal Xol of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabon who spent more than four years in prison for being a spokesperson for Maya Q’eqchi’ opposition to Oxec dams.
*In March 2024, the Special Rapporteur met with Bernardo in Geneva and expressed an interest in visiting Guatemala. PBI-Canada also met with Bernardo in Guatemala in May 2023.
HONDURAS: Montreal-based Hydrosys built a dam on the Canjel River on Lenca territory without their free, prior and informed consent. In 2015, COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres said she had received death threats related to her opposition to this dam. In January 2016, a bus headed to protest the Rio Canjel project was stopped by Honduran police searching for Caceres. She was killed on March 3, 2016, due to her opposition to another dam, the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque River. PBI-Honduras accompanies the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
Photo: PBI-Honduras began accompanying COPINH shortly after its co-founder Berta Caceres was murdered.
MEXICO: The PBI-Mexico accompanied Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water-Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala (FPDTA) has stated that the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) favours Canadian mining companies such as Vancouver-based Alamos Gold. The PIM includes an aqueduct that will draw 50 million litres of water a day from the Cuautla River to cool the turbines of a nearby thermoelectric plant that will generate power for projects like mines. Náhuatl water protector Samir Flores Soberane, a member of the Peoples’ Front, was murdered on February 20, 2019, for his opposition to the PIM megaproject. In 2022, the Esperanza Gold Project was sold to Vancouver-based Zacatecas Silver.
WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORY: We would also like to mention the role of Calgary-based TC Energy in the construction – without consent – of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. PBI-Canada visited their yintah in November 2021 and met with Indigenous water protectors who had been violently assaulted by a specialized unit (called the Community-Industry Response Group/C-IRG) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). These criminalized water protectors, some of whom are now in court and facing criminal contempt charges and possible time in jail, were peacefully defending Wedzin Kwa, a salmon-bearing river they consider sacred. They see the construction of this pipeline and the potential loss of this river and salmon as part of the ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples in this country.
*The Special Rapporteur will be visiting Wet’suwet’en territory as part of this visit and meeting with Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and land and water defenders. PBI-Canada was on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021 and saw the dried blood on Logan’s ear after he was released from custody by the RCMP.
These are situations of concern for us that we continue to follow.
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