What implications could Canada-US trade and security talks have on the safety of human rights defenders?
Photo of the RCMP on Wet’suwet’en territory by Dan Loan: With the mining of critical minerals, fast-tracked resource projects and energy corridors potentially on the horizon, the controversial RCMP CRU-BC remains positioned as a “national best practice”.
On April 15, Ottawa-based CBC Senior reporter on defence and security Murray Brewster noted: “Talks between Canada and the U.S. on a renewed trade deal are expected to get underway in the first week of May.”
And back on March 28, the CBC had also reported: “The prime minister [Mark Carney] said he and [US President Donald] Trump agreed to sit down and negotiate a comprehensive ‘new’ economic and security relationship between the two countries should Carney win next month’s federal election [on April 28].”
What could the talks include?
Washington-based CBC News correspondent Alexander Panetta has speculated that “a new economic and security arrangement with the United States” could include the US demanding “more market access for [dairy] farmers in Wisconsin”, an end to the “digital services tax, which penalizes U.S. tech giants”, and “new measures to keep Chinese products out of supply chains — from steel to cars”.
Panetta also suggests we should expect US calls “more military spending, and faster, especially in the Arctic”, “ramped-up talk about developing Canada’s critical minerals”, and potentially “ballistic missile defence”.
Energy corridor
Toronto-based CBC Senior Reporter Mark Gollom has also recently highlighted: “Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre are offering similar sounding energy development plans that would fast-track regulatory processes and create energy corridors to develop natural resource projects. …Both Poilievre and Carney said their plans would help reduce reliance on the U.S, particularly in the wake of the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.”
Savanna McGregor, the Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, has written in The Toronto Star: “Speaking for the Algonquin, we would sooner go to court than accept a corridor which fails to meet our needs.”
The RCMP CRU-BC/C-IRG
The BC Supreme Court recently found that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), now rebranded the Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC), had violated the Charter rights of three Indigenous land defenders resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.
The RCMP C-IRG is also currently the subject of a “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) to “examine whether relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and training” are “consistent with applicable jurisprudence/case law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Despite this, the issue of this militarized police unit repeatedly used against land and environmental defenders has not emerged in recent media reports about the push for energy corridors, pipelines, the extraction of critical minerals that are likely to encounter Indigenous opposition.
For example, an article published today on calls to reform the RCMP by CBC reporter Catharine Tunney, there is no reference to the C-IRG/CRU-BC.
That article notes that Prime Minister Carney says “I view the RCMP as central to the security of Canadians”, an NDP spokesperson said they “remain committed to strengthening the RCMP’s ability to serve communities effectively and respond to public safety needs”, while the Conservatives did not comment.
Five areas of concern
Five potential areas that could impact the safety and security of human rights defenders, notably Indigenous land defenders in this country:
1- Increased military spending in the Arctic could mean the militarization of Indigenous territories with Arctic military bases and infrastructure (such as radar installations) that could impact human rights, the environment and wildlife.
2- The rapid development of critical minerals, most notably in the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario, could also impact human rights and the environment, especially if Indigenous land defenders seek to block major extractive projects that they see as lacking consultation and free, prior and informed consent.
3- Increased border militarization, including the continuation of RCMP Black Hawk helicopters patrolling Canada’s southern border with the US could impact the rights of migrants fleeting persecution and rights violations.
4- A closer military/security partnership between Canada and the US would likely undermine the calls for greater transparency on the export of Canadian-manufactured “military goods” to the US, notably the lack of control over those goods being re-exported and used to commit human rights violations.
5- An energy corridor, cutting wait times and fast-track approvals for major resource projects, as well as deeming extractive megaprojects such as pipelines in the “national interest” have the potential to collide with Indigenous rights and could see communities mobilizing to defend their land and waters.
Within these areas of concern is the potential for the continued use or even expansion of the C-IRG/CRU-BC that was described in early-2024 by RCMP senior media relations officer Staff Sergeant Kris Clark as a “national best practice”.
We continue to follow this.
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