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PBI-Canada notes Canada Strong Fund, implications for Indigenous land defenders opposed to “national projects” on their territories

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Gwii Lok’im Gibuu, Katisha Paul, Chief Na’Moks speak in Ottawa, April 14, 2026. Photo by PBI-Canada.

On April 27, CTV News reported: “Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund, calling it the ‘Canada Strong Fund’.”

That news report notes that the federal government will initially contribute $25 billion into the fund.

It also reports: “Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the fund will be up and running ‘in the coming months’, but did not provide a specific date when asked by reporters in Montreal.”

CBC News adds: “The government says the new Canada Strong Fund will work in partnership with private industry to serve as an investment vehicle for the major national projects this government has expressed interest in.”

Canada Investment Summit in Toronto this September

This announcement comes ten days after CBC reported: “Carney has invited 100 of the world’s biggest investors to a summit in Toronto this September. The conference aims to pitch organizations that control trillions of dollars in capital on investing in Canada. The organizations include private investment firms such as Blackrock and some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore’s GIC.”

Major projects recommended for fast-tracking

In September 2025 the prime minister announced that he had recommended LNG Canada Phase 2 to the Major Projects Office (MPO) for fast-tracking. In November 2025 Carney added Ksi Lisims to his list of major projects of “national interest” to be considered for fast-tracking by the Major Projects Office.

LNG Canada Phase 2 would involve the construction of additional compressor stations on Wet’suwet’en territory to increase the flow of the existing TC Energy Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline.

The Ksi Lisims LNG terminal would be fed by the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline that would be built on Gitanyow and Gitxsan territories.

Timelines for pending FIDs

The Globe and Mail reported that “Ksi Lisims is expected to make a final investment decision in 2026” while “industry analysts expect LNG Canada to make a final investment decision by the end of 2026 on whether to proceed with Phase 2.”

Land defenders

On April 14, 2026, PBI-Canada observed in Ottawa the call from Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, Gitxsan hereditary leader Gwii Lok’im Gibuu (Jesse Stoeppler), Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Women’s Representative Katisha Paul for Export Development Canada to reject funding and support for the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG terminal and LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion.

On November 13, 2025, we noted that Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Watahayetsxw (Deborah Good) vowed to establish another blockade on her territory in northern British Columbia in response to the prime minister’s endorsement of Ksi Lisims.

PBI-Canada continues to express concern about the safety and security of Indigenous land defenders opposed to megaprojects on their territories in Canada. We are particularly concerned about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC). The CRU-BC is the rebranded Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), the subject of a systemic investigation by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras meets with Agrarian Platform, COPA; expresses concern about violence faced by the peasantry in the Aguán River Valley

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“‘The INA [National Agricultural Institute] has restricted and withdrawn its technical support from the Agrarian Platform,’ claims Yoni Rivas, the organization’s spokesperson, who also warns of a failure to comply with the state agreements signed in 2022 to make progress towards resolving the agrarian conflict in Bajo Aguán.

In a meeting with PBI, members of the Agrarian Platform and the Coordinating Committee of Popular Organisations of Aguán (COPA) have expressed their rejection of narratives targeting peasant and indigenous groups.

PBI expresses its concern regarding the violence faced by the peasantry and the growing hate speech directed at human rights defenders.”

Additional context

Avispa Midia has explained: “The Agrarian Platform of Aguán is made up of 25 cooperatives seeking to recuperate their lands in the valley. In addition, there are associate campesino companies, which total 43 organizations, that seek through different forms of struggle to recuperate the lands that were taken from them.”

The Agrarian Platform has previously stated: “For decades, armed groups paid by agro-industrialists have displaced agrarian reform cooperatives, accompanied by disinformation campaigns that present the facts as simple confrontations between peasants.”

In June 2025, Criterio.hn reported: “Yoni Rivas insisted that the authorities must intervene urgently to stop the violence and prevent more deaths [of peasant farmers], denouncing that many of these criminal structures enjoy protection from agro-industrial sectors, especially the Dinant Corporation. … The Agrarian Platform pointed out that there is concern about the participation of palm fruit buyers, authorized by agro-industrial companies, in the promotion of these confrontations, a pattern that has been repeatedly observed in the region.”

Dialogue Earth has previously explained: “The Honduran government started promoting oil palm cultivation during the 1960s [but] it was really in the late 1990s that production skyrocketed [and by July 2023, when the article was published] the country has roughly 200,000 hectares of oil palm yielding close to 600,000 metric tonnes of oil a year.”

Dinant and palm oil exports

That Dialogue Earth article adds: “Of the total national production, 61% comes from just three companies – Corporación Dinant, Grupo Jaremar and Aceydesa – and their plantations are located where the highest levels of violence have been recorded.”

Dinant is a Honduran, family owned company. In 1992 the company started to enter the business into the Aguan Valley.

Mongabay has reported: “In 2009, Dinant benefited from a $30 million dollar loan to develop its plantations from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, even though the company was linked to waves of violence against land defenders in the Bajo Aguán Valley region of Honduras.”

That Mongabay article adds: “In 2009, farmer groups warned the IFC that a military coup that summer — carried out with the backing of Dinant’s CEO, right-wing business magnate Miguel Facussé, and unleashing a wave of criminal violence that made Honduras more violent than some war zones — meant the investment was high-risk.”

In November 2023, The Guardian further noted: “In Honduras, [palm oil exports are] mostly going to the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Switzerland, with a value of $334m in 2021. Six large companies control the production, and two claim more than half of all exports.”

It appears that Canada also imports some amount of palm oil from Honduras. We will be in contact with the Trade Commissioner Service of Canada for additional information.

Accompaniment

On October 30, 2024, PBI-Honduras facilitated a visit for PBI-Canada with COPA representatives including Yoni Rivas, Raul Ramirez and Wendy Castro.

There was an armed attack in December 2025 that injured Castro, the Deputy Coordinator of the Platform.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada supports Quaker “peaceful faithful vigil” at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 27

By
Brent Patterson
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The Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) is organizing a “peaceful faithful vigil” outside the EY Centre in Ottawa on Wednesday May 27 starting at 4:30 pm. It is part of their work to show “resistance to weapons and violence”.

Military equipment is used to attack human rights defenders around the world. Armoured vehicles, assault rifles, helicopters, drones, and surveillance technology are the tools that directly affect the safety of defenders.

These “military goods” can include armoured vehicles used to evict farming communities in Honduras, assault rifles to kill defenders in Indonesia, helicopters for “internal security operations” that target defenders in the Philippines and surveil national strike protests in Colombia, armed drones to kill journalists in Palestine, and surveillance technology to track the movement of activists in Mexico.

These tools of repression are often marketed at arms fairs in France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and at CANSEC in Ottawa, Canada.

PBI-Canada continues to make the links between attacks against human rights defenders and the production of military goods, their marketing at arms fairs, and the rules that allow these goods to be exported.

Addressing the supply chain that feeds violence against defenders is an essential component of holistic protective accompaniment and making space for peace, the core mandate of Peace Brigades International globally.

Committee to Protect Journalists: A rising number of journalists were killed by drones in 2025

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Hermes 900 drone. Photo from Wikipedia.

Journalists are human rights defenders – and they are increasingly being killed by armed drone strikes.

In Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders, Global Affairs Canada states: “Journalists and other media professionals often face the same risks as HRDs precisely because of their work.  Because they criticize authority figures, report on criminal activity, and speak the truth, they are often targeted by governments, paramilitaries, armed groups, criminal organizations, and security personnel. Attacks range from harassment and intimidation to assault, abduction, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture and murder.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented: “Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in both 2025 and 2024.” This suggests, according to CPJ figures, that Israel killed 86 journalists in 2025 and 85 in 2024 for 171 of the overall 251 press killings those two years.

Drones: A new tool for journalists’ killers

The CPJ then emphasizes: “One clear warning sign in the 2025 numbers is the rising number of journalists killed by drones: unmanned aircraft or small flying devices controlled remotely and with the ability to visually identify targets.”

The CPJ further notes: “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since CPJ began documentation in 1992.”

And the CPJ reports: “Israel was responsible for nearly 75% of the journalists killed by drones from 2023 to 2025.” That means Israel killed 28 journalists in 2025, 17 in 2024 and 1 in 2023 via armed drone strikes for a total of 46 journalists. That’s 46 of the 62 press killings in those three years.

Elbit Systems

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate notes: “Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems is one of the primary suppliers of weapons and surveillance systems to the Israeli military, including Skylark and Hermes military UAV drones, which form the majority of Israel’s fleet of large drones and have been used extensively in Gaza.”

The AFSC further explains: “Elbit Systems’ killer Hermes 450 and 900 drones have been used extensively in attacks on and surveillance missions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon.”

Along with drone attacks against journalists and media workers, the AFSC notes: “On Oct. 13 [2023], the Israeli military fired 120mm tank rounds at journalists in south Lebanon, killing Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injuring six others in what could amount to a war crime.”

The AFSC then highlights: “The munitions used were most likely M339 rounds made by Elbit Systems, according to Amnesty International.”

Thales

Disclose also reports: “The French armament group sold electronic components and communication systems for Israeli drones for €2m between 2018 and 2023, Disclose can reveal based on business documents. The Thales equipment is likely to be used in strikes against Palestinian civilians.”

They add: “Based on 12 invoices issued between 2018 and 2023 to two Israeli arms industry heavyweights, Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems … Thales sold them operational support systems for €2m for armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”

Disclose emphasizes: “These are not average drones but Heron TP and Hermes surveillance and attack UAVs, two models which have allegedly been used against Palestinian civilians for almost 15 years.”

Israeli airstrike kills Amal Khalil

CBS News reports: “Amal Khalil, 43, a journalist with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, bled to death in the ruins of a building that was hit in an Israeli drone strike after Israeli forces’ gunfire prevented ambulance crews from reaching her ‘for nearly four hours,’ according to Lebanon’s Union of Journalists.”

In a timeline of the attack that killed Khalil on April 22, 2026 in Lebanon, RSF notes: “16:27: a third Israeli strike targets the house. According to RSF, the strike was carried out by a military aircraft, not a drone.”

Amnesty International has called for an immediate investigation.

CANSEC, May 28-29

Israel, Elbit and Thales, along with the world’s largest and most profitable weapons and surveillance companies, will be at the CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre this coming May 27-28, 2026, in Ottawa.

Communities are organizing to shut down CANSEC.

We continue to follow this.

After PBI-Colombia visits Ecuador with observation mission, human rights complaint filed at the UN against military helicopter attack on farmhouse

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: “CANSEC is Global” promotional video shows military arm patch. “We’ve had the Ecuadorean minister on our booth.”

Video footage from the United States Southern Command retweeted by U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth suggests that the Ecuadorian armed forces used an Airbus H225M helicopter purchased directly from the manufacturer in 2023 in the bombing of a farmhouse in the village of San Martin in northern Ecuador on March 6, 2026, that is now the subject of an Alliance for Human Rights complaint as “an attack on a civilian population” filed with the United Nations and Ecuadorean officials.

Though not a conclusive link to the 2023 contract, Airbus was an exhibitor at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa in 2022 and 2023, while an Ecuadorean military official was featured in a “CANSEC is Global” promotional video for CANSEC 2023 that additionally notes “the Ecuadorean minister” was present.

Community mobilizations against CANSEC have highlighted that human rights considerations are marginalized when 60+ international delegations and 300 corporate exhibitors are brought together at CANSEC.

PBI on observation mission in Ecuador

Deutsche Welle now reports that Peace Brigades International, Front Line Defenders, the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), Civicus, 11.11.11, and other international human rights organizations participated in an observation mission in Ecuador that took place from March 2-5, 2026.

The joint report on that mission will be published soon.

DW notes the report “speaks of the closure of civic space, threats against judicial independence and an increase in coercion against people who defend rights in extractive contexts or socio-environmental conflicts.”

DW highlights this excerpt of the statement (on March 6) from the mission: “The implementation of a security-type policy and the normalization of states of emergency and surveillance, as well as militarization, under the argument of facing a serious structural security crisis, is part of the deeply worrying panorama that we observe.”

INREDH: “They bombed a farm”

The Deutsche Welle article adds: “As for the militarization of the country, the population of San Martín, in the province of Sucumbíos, on the border with Colombia, allows us to glimpse what is happening.”

Ingrid García, executive coordinator of the Regional Human Rights Advisory Foundation (INREDH), told DW: “The military set fire to the houses and the next day they bombed a farm that was already completely destroyed.”

Video of that bombing was released on March 6, 2026, the day after the observation mission concluded its visit to Ecuador.

Alliance for Human Rights complaint

By March 24, the New York Times reported: “The Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of groups in Ecuador, filed a 13-page complaint with the Ecuadorean authorities and the United Nations, claiming that the military’s actions were attacks on a civilian population. ‘There isn’t a single public official who has come to verify what happened,’ said María Espinosa, a human rights lawyer.”

Airbus helicopters

Global Defense Corp reports: “Ecuador currently operates a helicopter fleet in which Airbus types represent 80 percent, including the H215 Super Puma, H125 Ecureuil, H125M Fennec, and H145M. These platforms support current counterinsurgency efforts in northern provinces.”

That article also notes: “On June 2, 2025, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo formally delivered the first two Airbus H225M helicopters to the Ecuadorian Army [sourced directly from manufacturer Airbus] during at a ceremony held at Fort Huancavilca in Guayaquil.”

Photo of the H225M helicopter.

Ecuador, Airbus at CANSEC

The Global Defense Corp article says the contract was signed in 2023. The month of that signing is not specified.

Though not a definitive connection, Airbus was present at the CANSEC arms show that took place on May 31-June 1, 2023, in Ottawa, while a short clip of an Ecuadorean military officer was featured in the promotional video released ahead of CANSEC 2023 by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

Human rights violations in Ecuador were raised prior to that time.

Amnesty International has noted: “Ecuadorian organizations reported that the response of the authorities to protests by Indigenous peoples over socio-environmental issues that began in June 2022 resulted in a wide range of human rights violations. These included arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force, criminalization and attacks on journalists and human rights defenders.”

Ongoing monitoring

Peace Brigades International and the other groups in the observation mission pledged to “continue to accompany, monitor and raise awareness internationally about the situation of human rights and the rights of nature in Ecuador.”

PBI-Canada is doing so through its monitoring of the CANSEC arms show taking place this coming May 27-28, 2026, in Ottawa.

Further reading

–PBI expresses concern about the repression of human rights defenders in Ecuador, Canadian groups call for “Voices at Risk” to be implemented (PBI-Canada article, March 11, 2026)

–Despite human rights violations against Indigenous peoples and journalists, CANSEC promotes participation of Ecuadorean military at arms show (PBI-Canada article, May 28, 2023).

Nomadesc organizes 5 actions to end impunity on the 5th anniversary of the Social Uprising in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Image text “5 years since the Social Uprising. To commemorate, remember, rediscover, breathe and always resist.”

The Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) is marking the 5th anniversary of the national strike and social uprising in Colombia.

Nomadesc has posted on social media:

“5 years after the social outbreak, the memory remains alive. We do not forget. We do not stay silent. We do not give in. We unite as organizations to demand truth, justice, and an end to impunity. 5 years, 5 actions to keep resisting. #memory #nationalstrike #colombia.”

The five actions they highlight are: “1) April 28 – Memorial Gallery; 2) May 1 – Demonstration, 3) May 22 – Public hearing, 4) June 13 – Recognition gathering, 5) July 17 – Festival without media.”

They also list the names of 76 people who call to us. The poster notes: “Between April 28 and October 10, 2021, excessive violence by the police claimed the lives of 76 people in the cities of Cali and Yumbo.”

We will be following from Canada these activities in Cali, Colombia.

Journalist, researchers killed by Armed Forces of the Philippines on eve of Operation Balikatan exercise with Canadian soldiers

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: RJ Ledesma, Maureen Keil Santuyo, Errol Wendell, Alyssa Alano.

The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment has expressed its solidarity with the families of the 19 people killed in the Toboso Massacre by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Negros Island on April 19, 2026.

Among the 19 people killed by the AFP were environmental defender and community journalist RJ Ledesma (who was there reporting on how renewable energy projects affect farming communities), community researcher and National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates (NNARA) youth member Maureen Keil Santuyo, community researcher and organizer among sugar workers Errol Wendell, and University of the Philippines Diliman student Alyssa Alano (who had been living among farmers in Negros to study conditions of land grabbing and militarization).

Malaya Movement USA has also noted that Lyle Prijoles was killed in this attack in Toboso, Negros. They highlight: “Lyle was a Filipino American born in San Diego and community organizer in the Bay Area. …One example [of his work] was his advocacy for the Philippine Human Rights Act because he knew that US taxpayer dollars were funding bullets and bombs used by the PNP [Philippine National Police] and AFP.”

Kalikasan states: “Negros has long been subjected to heightened counterinsurgency, where communities serve as deadly military battlegrounds and residents are impunitively accused of being members of the insurgency, all under the guise of ‘security’. This militarization enables land grabbing and the expansion of large-scale projects—such as energy, mining, and reclamation without genuine consultation or respect for people’s rights and the environment.”

Militarization, land grabbing and killing defenders

Global Witness has documented that between 2012 and 2024, at least 306 land and environmental defenders have been killed in the Philippines (the third highest in the world after Colombia and Brazil).

Global Witness has previously noted: “The military was responsible for 64 out of 117 killings of Indigenous defenders between 2012-23.”

The Canadian military in the Philippines

Photo: Canada at the opening ceremony for Exercise Balikatan on April 20, the day after the Toboso Massacre. On April 22, David Hartman, the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines, tweeted: “Canada is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners during Exercise #BALIKATAN.”

The Toboso Massacre took place one day before the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) began its participation in Exercise BALIKATAN. The Canadian Defence Review had reported that Canadian personnel would be training “shoulder-to-shoulder” with partners, which would include the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Less than six months ago, on November 5, 2025, the Canadian government tabled a Notice of Intent to enter into free trade negotiations with the Philippines.

And just a few days earlier, on November 2, Canada and the Philippines signed a “Status of Visiting Forces Agreement” to further deepen security cooperation after a closed-door meeting in Manila.

At that time, Canada’s defence minister David McGuinty stated: “Peace is built on rules, not recklessness. …The Philippines has shown true leadership in upholding international law … and for that [it has] Canada’s greatest and deepest respect.”

In response, BAYAN Canada echoed the calls from BAYAN Philippines for “the immediate termination of the Canada-PH SOVFA.”

And the Ontario Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (OCHRP) in Ottawa stated the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) “means increased violence against activists and poor, people forced from their homes via careless military actions, as well as fisherfolk barred from accessing waterways to support their livelihoods during large exercises like Balikatan, and it means a blank check for the corrupt Government of Marcos Jr. to continue to repress the Filipino people.”

The Philippines at CANSEC

Defence Minister McGuinty will be speaking at the CANSEC “defence, security & emerging technology event” that will take place at the EY Centre in Ottawa this coming May 27-28, 2026.

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) has also indicated that a delegation from the Philippines will there too.

That event will bring together 60+ international delegations and 300 exhibitors including the five most profitable weapons companies in the world: Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics.

For updates on the mass protest being planned for May 28, click here.

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.

Further reading: How the militarisation of mining threatens Indigenous defenders in the Philippines (Global Witness and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, December 2024) and A Dangerous but Strategic Moment for Filipino Environmental Defenders (Danilova Molintas, November 23, 2025).

PBI-Canada sends a 25th anniversary solidarity greeting to the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: Berenice Celeita, the president of Nomadesc, holds a tear gas canister during a PBI-Canada webinar on police violence against National Strike participants in Colombia, June 3, 2021. Three weeks earlier, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) had stated: “The Colombian government has responded with excessive force in the deployment of the military and police with the widespread use of live firearms, rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:

“We extend our greeting and fraternal embrace to Nomadesc on their 25 years of work, @nomadescdh to organizations, communities, and collective processes of southwestern Colombia that fight for life, speaking out against violence and extractivism. #nomadesc #25thanniversary #colombia🇨🇴.”

PBI-Canada shares in this embrace of the work of the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc).

Over just the past five years we recall a few key moments:

Berenice speaks on PBI-Canada webinar on police violence, June 2021

Berenice speaks on PBI-Canada webinar on weapons exports, May 2022

PBI-Canada visits with Nomadesc in Colombia, June 2022

Berenice visits Ottawa, October 2023

Berenice speaks on PBI-Canada webinar COP16, October 2024

Worker solidarity

We also highlight just two of the times that Nomadesc has expressed solidarity with workers struggles in Canada:

– Nomadesc in Colombia expresses solidarity with CUPE and Air Canada flight attendants (PBI-Canada article, September 4, 2025)

– PBI-Colombia accompanied NOMADESC expresses solidarity with Unifor struggle in Saskatchewan (PBI-Canada article, June 24, 2020).

And we note that at the time of the National Strike the labour movement in Canada were clear in their solidarity: Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Unifor, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), United Steelworkers (USW), Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE),  Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Union of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), British Colombia General Employees Union (BCGEU) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Photo: MAY 19, 2021: “PBI accompanied NOMADESC in Loma de la Cruz and Punto Resistencia in Cali in their work of monitoring and verifying violations of the human rights of protesters in the National Strike.”

Arms exports

And we note just a couple examples of their solidarity against war and genocide:

– PBI-Colombia accompanied Nomadesc demands an end to the genocide in Palestine (PBI-Canada article, August 30, 2025)

– Nomadesc message to CANSEC arms show in Canada “We Colombians do not want more weapons” (PBI-Canada article, June 2, 2022).

“We Colombians want no more weapons, no more massacres, no more disappearances, no more threats. No more fear. #StopTheGenocide. We demand truth, justice and guarantees that this will never happen again. Do not send us any more weapons. That makes you accomplices to barbarism. #Nomadesc #uip”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Nomadesc since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

PBI-Canada remembers Indigenous Lenca water defender Berta Cáceres protesting the FTAA in Quebec City in April 2001

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Berta Cáceres with her children in 1999. Two years later, just after her 30th birthday, Cáceres was in Quebec City to protest the FTAA.

Long-time solidarity activist Tracy Glynn recalled at a memorial for Berta Cáceres in Fredericton, New Brunswick: “In 2001, Berta marched on the streets of Quebec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA] — with some of us here today. Let’s be clear that free trade agreements are foreign investor protection agreements. Berta fought against these kinds of agreements most of her life.”

“¡Hermano! Let’s get closer. Vamos.”

Nina Lakhani, author of Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet (Verso Books) has also written about Cáceres in Quebec City in April 2001.

Lakhani highlights: “It was a crisp spring day and Berta Cáceras was there wrapped up, pumped and ready to resist on behalf of the Lencas, her indigenous group. …Berta was with the Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro. They had travelled to Quebec up the east coast as part of a speaking tour organized by Rights Action, a not-for-profit group investigating the impact of North American trade, economic and security policies in Central America.”

“Berta and Gustavo stood in front of parliament facing the impenetrable chain of riot cops, among protesters drumming and singing. It struck Berta that the demonstration was too far back. ‘¡Hermano! Let’s get closer. Vamos,’ she shouted, grinning at Gustavo, grabbing one end of the blue and white Honduran flag. Gustavo seized the other end and they rushed forward into a cold jet of water from a cannon behind police lines. They were pushed back and soaked, the flag went flying.”

Lakhani adds: “But Berta jumped up and yelled, ‘Let’s go again.’ This time, blinding tear gas forced the pair back. But they surged forward again and again, recalled Gustavo. ‘That was Berta. Always tenacious and always willing to put herself in the middle of every act of resistance. She never lost that energy.’”

“Adelante Compañero, you’ll recover from this soon enough.”

Daniel Fireside also recalls: “I met Berta in the spring of 2001. I was hired to be her accompanier/translator/driver for the next two weeks as we traveled across Canada on a speaking tour culminating in a series of protests and alternative conferences outside the Summit of the Americas… After almost two dozen speaking events in half as many towns, we ended up in Quebec City. There we met up with the co-directors of Rights Action, Grahame Russell and Annie Bird, as well as the leader of an environmental activist NGO based in Chiapas, Mexico, the sociologist Gustavo Castro Soto.”

“The lines of police, decked out in full riot gear, gas masks, and body-sized shields, took a proactive approach, lobbing canisters of tear gas and spraying water cannons whenever more they saw a handful protesters gathering together.”

Fireside then writes: “After one too many of these smoking cans was shot in our direction, I was moved to kick it away. I succeeded, but the winds changed and I was enveloped in a cloud of gas. …Berta squirted my eyes with a cleansing solution and gave me an approving smile for my foolhardy action. ‘Adelante compañero’, she said. ‘You’ll recover from this soon enough.’ And then she added with a laugh, ‘At least it isn’t the stuff your government sells to Honduras. They add a chemical that makes us vomit.’”

“Canadian-backed regime change coup”

Grahame Russell has written: “I met Berta in 1998 through my work with Annie Bird at Rights Action that, for 18 years, funded and was a partner-in-activism with Berta and COPINH that Berta had co-founded with her former partner Salvador Zuniga. Over these 18 years, Berta became a very dear friend.”

“On March 2, 2016, Berta was assassinated late at night in her bed, in her home in La Esperanza, Honduras.”

Russell writes: “It bears repetition over and over in the U.S. and Canada, that Berta was assassinated by a narco-dictatorship government and sectors of the traditional Honduran elites who came back to power after the U.S. and Canadian-backed regime change coup in June 2009.”

Photo: On the tenth anniversary of her death, PBI-Canada and PBI-Honduras gathered with many others, including Berta’s children and Gustavo Castro, at the cemetery in La Esperanza, Honduras where Berta Cáceres is buried. Peace Brigades International has accompanied the coordinators of COPINH, including Berta’s daughter Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, since May 2016.

Photos: Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson, March 2, 2026, en route from La Esperanza to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a march to demand justice for Berta Caceres; and April 20, 2001, FTAA protest, Quebec City.

Photo: Grahame Russell and Brent Patterson, Trent Community Movements Conference in Peterborough, Ontario; April 2023.

PBI supports “Dialogues on Journalism and Exile in Central America” regional conference in Guatemala City, April 15-16

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresión. Dina Meza (centre) from the PBI-Honduras accompanied Association for Democracy and Human Rights in Honduras (ASOPODEHU).

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlights:

“To address the growing exile of journalists in the region, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) brought together journalists, media outlets, civil society organizations, government officials, diplomatic missions and international institutions for a regional conference entitled ‘Dialogues on Journalism and Exile in Central America’, held in Guatemala City on 15 and 16 April 2026.

One of the main outcomes of the conference was the clear willingness of Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras to create, with the support of RSF, a working group dedicated to strengthening cooperation in supporting and protecting journalists in exile. This initiative aims to translate the proposals into concrete measures, with the ambition of extending the dialogue to the host countries of the region.

The event was organized by RSF with the support of the EU and in partnership with human rights organisations, Protection International, Peace Brigades International (PBI) and Diakonia, consolidating a collective effort to promote effective responses to one of the biggest current challenges to press freedom in Central America.”

The full statement from RSF can be read at RSF brings together regional actors and organises conference on journalism and exile in Central America.

We continue to follow this issue that includes journalists exiled from Central America who are now living in Canada.

Photos: PBI-Honduras with Dina Meza.

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