Image from OCHRP.
The Canadian Defence Review reports: “Marking a significant step in Canada’s Indo-Pacific engagement, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will actively participate in Exercise BALIKATAN, an annual military exercise in the Philippines, from April 20 to May 8, 2026. …While in previous years the CAF participated as observers, this year, Canadian personnel will train shoulder‑to‑shoulder with partners in areas such as air and missile defence, coastal defence, logistics and sustainment, medical support, maritime strike operations, and multinational coordination.”
That article adds: “CAF participation in Exercise BALIKATAN this year includes: The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command is a high‑readiness organization able to deploy agile special operations forces on short notice to protect Canadians from threats at home and abroad.”
OCHRP opposes these annual war games
The Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (OCHRP) has highlighted: “While Canada and the US claim to be building the defensive capabilities of the Philippines, in reality they are giving military support to a government accused of well-documented human rights abuses on activists human rights defenders, and Indigenous peoples in the name of counter-insurgency.”
Land and environmental defenders
Globally, one land and environmental defender is killed every other day. Between 2012 and 2023, at least 298 defenders were killed in the Philippines (the third highest in the world after Colombia and Brazil). It continues to be the most dangerous country in Asia for land and environmental defenders.
Global Witness documented the murder of 8 more land and environmental defenders in 2024.
The State of the World’s Human Rights report (Amnesty International, April 2025) further notes that in the Philippines: “’Red-tagging’ the public vilification of human rights defenders and other targeted groups and individuals as alleged members and clandestine recruiters of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) continued. …Activists increasingly became victims of enforced disappearances. In April, labour organizer William Lariosa was reportedly abducted in Bukidnon province; the military denied holding him in custody. He remained missing at year’s end.”
Philippine peasant leader Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, the chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid Pilipinas (KMP), will be speaking in Ottawa on Wednesday April 29 at Carleton University, Paterson Hall, Room 201. He may comment on the link between weapons exports and attacks on communities.
Bell helicopters for the Philippines
Bell Textron Canada Limited will be at the CANSEC arms show this year.
In February 2018, CBC News reported: “Earlier this week, Reuters reported the Philippines inked a $233-million deal to buy Montreal-built Bell helicopters. Other reports said the deal was worth up to $300 million. The Canadian Commercial Corporation, which facilitated the deal, wouldn’t confirm the cost.”
At that time, McMaster University professor Netina Tan and graduate student Marvin Mercado commented in The Conversation: “It doesn’t take a security expert to point out that in the Philippines under Duterte’s leadership, the helicopters were likely to be used for combat purposes. There has been major news coverage of the Philippines’ bloody internal conflicts and extra-judicial killings.”
In April 2018, the National Post reported: “Just months after a contract to sell military helicopters to the Philippines was cancelled, a Canadian firm is hoping it can revive the controversial deal. … Bell says it is now back in discussions with the Philippines as a potential client for the same helicopters.”
The Philippines at CANSEC, May 27-28
The Philippines is one of 60+ international delegations that will be present at the CANSEC arms and technology trade show at the EY Centre in Ottawa on May 27-28 that includes exhibits by the five most profitable weapons companies in the world as well as the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems.
Image by CADSI (the Philippines flag is in the third row, fourth from the left).
A wide range of social movements, peace groups, faith communities, non-governmental organizations, and individuals will be mobilizing to protest the CANSEC arms show on Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28.
The Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) has noted: “CFSC is planning to be present at CANSEC this year… We’re planning a silent vigil/Meeting for Worship on the afternoon of the first day of CANSEC to be a physical presence of unity and nonviolence—showing that strength comes through peace.”
For updates on the mass protest being planned for May 28, click here.
Photo: OCHRP at ILPS meeting.
Accompaniment
Peace Brigades International-Canada is highlighting the dangers faced by human rights defenders from the arms exports promoted at the CANSEC arms show as part of our commitment to holistic protection accompaniment.
PBI recently launched a Southeast Asia Project to accompany human rights defenders in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
