Police Violence

BHRRC: “630 instances of attacks against people raising concerns about business-related harms” in 2023

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has released its report titled: People power under pressure: Human rights defenders & business in 2023. A key finding of the report is: “Between January 2015 and December 2023, the Resource Centre documented over 5,300 attacks globally against HRDs challenging corporate harm. Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc at meeting with Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Buenaventura

PBI-Colombia has posted: “We accompanied @Nomadesc [the Association for Social Research and Action] in a meeting with @CIDH [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] in Buenaventura, to follow up on the ‘civic strike’ agreements. It is urgent to overcome impunity, and provide guarantees to the territory and those who inhabit it.” Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Ottawa Police Service receives $50 million in federal budget, intends to create a “permanent Special Events Team”

CBC reports: “The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) will receive $50 million in federal funding over the next five years to enhance security near Parliament Hill. The proposed funding, to be dispensed in equal $10-million annual payments beginning in 2024-2025, will help ‘bolster the Ottawa Police Services’ presence around the Parliamentary Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Indigenous communities present to UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water about the threat of Ring of Fire mining

Last night we heard powerful testimony from Indigenous communities who would be affected by the Ring of Fire mining development. Representatives from the Neskantaga and Attawapiskat nations made presentations to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water, at a gathering at Carleton University in Ottawa. Neskantaga Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee and families in the call to find Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz

4-minute read. PBI-Mexico has posted: “Yesterday [April 4], we accompanied the families of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz together with the @comitecerezo [Cerezo Committee]. We are also working with the Special Search Commission ruled by the SCJN [Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation] in 2022. #PBIaccompanies #Until We Find Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Ontario companies export armoured vehicles to police forces implicated in human rights violations

Photo: Roshel Inc., an Ontario-based company trying to export its armoured vehicles to Israel, will be an exhibitor at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 29-30. There are human rights concerns about how some armoured vehicles manufactured in Ontario are used by security forces around the world. The human Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks speaks at the People’s Summit in Vienna about RCMP C-IRG violence

Video: Chief Na’Moks at the People’s Summit in Vienna along with Hup-Wil-Lax-A and Gwii Lok’im Gibuu of the Gitxsan Nation. Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks writes in Ricochet Media: “This month marks one year since the RCMP’s civilian watchdog, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, launched an investigation into C-IRG.” “Last Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Trans Mountain pipeline to be operational by Canada Day; cost should include RCMP repression of Indigenous resistance to the megaproject

Photo: On March 19, 2018, Dan Wallace, of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation was tackled by RCMP officers at a protest against the Kinder Morgan pipeline in Burnaby on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Kwikwetlem peoples. By May 2018, the Canadian government had bought the pipeline. The CBC reports: Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Israel reportedly seeks to import about 30 armoured vehicles made by Brampton, Ontario-based Roshel Inc.

Photo: An Israeli police armoured vehicle drives by as Palestinian Muslim worshipers who were prevented from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque pray outside Jerusalem’s Old City, November 11, 2023. Photo by AP. The CBC reports: “The federal government is deliberately slow-walking a request from Israel for permission to import Canadian-made armoured Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Texas-based Western LNG intention to proceed with PRGT pipeline raises concerns about the C-IRG on Gitxsan territory

Photo: On March 6, Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs called for the government to disband C-IRG. Photo by Amanda Follett Hosgood. The Narwhal reports: “The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project would connect Montney gas to Ksi Lisims, a proposed liquefaction and export facility on Nisga’a territory. Approved by the B.C. Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago