Photo: “RCMP arrest and remove the protester’s designated police liaison representative shortly after arriving to enforce the injunction and break up the camp on the Salisbury Forest Service Road at the north end of Kootenay Lake.” Photo by Louis Bockner.

The Trail Times reports: “An independent review of RCMP actions in shutting down a 2022 logging protest near Argenta is still underway [more than] a year after it began, and the lawyer representing the people who were arrested says the delay is predictable.”

“Noah Ross, a Denman Island-based lawyer representing the arrested protesters, said the delays are an indication that as Canadians we do not value ‘timely, impactful police accountability’ as much as we value ‘getting people off the road so industry can happen’.”

Photo: Noah Ross.

The article continues: “Ross thinks the investigation should be about ‘officer misconduct’, not just about policies and systemic issues. ‘It’s not about what the complainants were most interested in, which was having an independent investigator look at RCMP conduct,’ Ross said.”

C-IRG operations should be stopped

A year ago, on March 17, 2023, the Kimberly Bulletin had reported: “Noah Ross, a lawyer who represents [Last Stand West Kootenay], told the Nelson Star that he thinks the CIRG should be disbanded, or at least its operations should be stopped, while the investigation is underway, because the unit committed a number of human rights violations while making its Argenta arrests.”

That article adds: “He said the CIRG created a large exclusion zone that blocked local residents from accessing their homes and travelling on a public road. The officers sealed the whole area off, he said, and aggressively arrested many people who were not actually blocking the road. ‘It seems a lot of these human rights violations or charter rights violations were planned into their operations,’ Ross said.”

Systemic investigation launched on March 9, 2023

The terms of reference for the CRCC systemic investigation launched on March 9, 2023, notes: “The file review will focus on the C-IRG’s governance, command and control, and operational planning, as well as its activities and enforcement operations with respect to at least three sites [including] the Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd injunction on Salisbury Creek Forestry Road.”

C-IRG arrests on Argenta forest service road

In May 2022, the C-IRG arrested 17 people positioned near the bottom of a forest service road at the north end of Kootenay Lake, near Kaslo.

As Louis Bockner has reported in The Narwhal: “[The road] was being occupied in an effort to protect a 6,200-hectare strip of forest surrounded by a provincial wilderness conservancy. Parts of the area, known as the Argenta-Johnsons Landing face, were set to be logged by Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd. in April [2022]. Due to the occupation, three weeks had passed without a chainsaw or feller buncher roaring to life.”

That article adds: “’It’s brutal that people got arrested that had no intention to’, says Noah Ross, a lawyer who is representing many of those arrested. ‘It’s scary and [there’s] a lot of stress and expenses.’”

“According to Ross, who is also representing land defenders arrested at Fairy Creek, the RCMP’s approach to land defenders has changed in the last decade. He’s observed an increase in the use of exclusion zones — areas where members of the press and legal observers are denied access in the name of creating safe work areas for officers.”

“Ross sees this as an escalation in tactics by the Community-Industry Response Group and believes that the arrests of people wishing to peacefully protest were unlawful. ‘It sounds like there were a couple of arrests of people in hardblocks, which were reasonable,’ Ross says. ‘But I don’t know that any of the other [people] were properly arrestable under the injunction.’”

The article further notes: “Ross says the same troubling approach was taken in November [2021] on Wet’suwet’en territory. ‘It seems like there’s a culture of non-accountability to civil liberties within [the Community-Industry Response Group], where they’re willing to kind of go beyond the injunction in order to try and break a camp,’ adding that extending that to a small blockade in the Kootenays just seems ‘completely out of historical tradition in relation to rural forests.’”

Webinar on C-IRG violence

To watch our 1-hour webinar from April 16, 2023, that features Bockner speaking about the situation at Argenta, click here.

That webinar also features powerful presentations from Wet’suwet’en land defender Jocey Alec, Professor Tia Dafnos, and frontline activist Molly Murphy. The panel was moderated by PBI-Canada Board member Phil Henderson.

We continue to follow this.

Photo: Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.

Is Canada choosing to export “military goods” to Israel approved prior to January 8, 2024, based on commercial “implications” while disregarding human rights commitments in the Genocide Convention and the Arms Trade Treaty?

On March 19, the House of Commons passed a motion — in a 204 to 118 vote — stating Canada will “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas.”

The Trudeau government weakened the original wording of the motion that had called on Canada to “suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas.”

The Globe and Mail has reported: “By mid-day on March 18, one source said, more than 70 Liberal MPs had told the whip’s office that they would vote with the original version of the motion. Several sources said the government expected that number to keep rising to between 80 and 90. Others believed it could climb even higher, opening the possibility that the motion would pass.” This prompted the government to “scramble to convince New Democrats to accept amendments and avoid exposing deep divisions in the governing party.”

According to NDP Member of Parliament Heather McPherson, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly approached her before the vote and pushed for the softer language on arms exports because: “They didn’t want the liability of cancelling arms contracts.”

The following day, the Canadian Press reported this statement from Global Affairs Canada: “Since Jan. 8, the government has not approved new arms export permits to Israel and this will continue until we can ensure full compliance with our export regime. …Given the nature of the supply chain, suspending all open permits would have important implications for both Canada and its allies.”

As such, export permits issued before January 8 are still in effect.

This is significant because The Maple has reported: “The Trudeau government authorized at least $28.5 million of new permits for military exports to Israel during the first two months of the state’s brutal war on Gaza… The information provided by GAC does not indicate the time period for which the newly authorized permits are valid for, meaning not all the goods may have been exported in 2023.”

The case of LAV exports to Saudi Arabia

Back in April 2016, then-Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion, defending the controversial decision to export Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia, told the House of Commons: “It was to honour the signature of a contract.”

He then added: “I have the power to allow the export permit or revoke them according to the behaviour of the country regarding human rights on the use of the equipment. The equipment has not been misused since 1993.”

Then in February 2018, speaking on the same issue of LAV exports to Saudi Arabia in the context of C-47, legislation that would bring Canada in accord with the Arms Trade Treaty, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland highlighted: “Canada will honour, to the greatest extent possible, pre-existing contracts.”

The Canadian Press added: “Freeland said Canada’s word as a ‘trusted partner’ in international negotiations has to be protected.”

At that time, then Amnesty International Secretary-General Alex Neve rightly commented: “Honouring contracts is no defence to or justification for action that may lead to serious human rights violations.”

Brief suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia

In August 2018, in response to a Foreign Affairs Department tweet expressing concern about human rights in Saudi Arabia, their government responded by implementing a freeze on “all new trade and investment transactions”.

Then in November 2018, Canada announced it would review all Saudi arms sales and freeze new export permits.

But by September 2019, a Global Affairs Canada briefing note to Freeland stated it had found no credible evidence linking Canadian exports of military equipment to human rights violations by Saudi Arabia.

And the ban on new export permits was lifted by April 2020.

In March 2023, The Breach reported on the likely reasons Canada upheld its contract to sell LAVs to Saudi Arabia: “Cheap reliable oil, new markets for Canadian corporations, and a heavily-armed proxy for Western countries. According to a document obtained by The Breach, these are among the reasons Justin Trudeau’s government continues to send massive amounts of weapons to Saudi Arabia.”

The Arms Trade Treaty

It is also notable Dion and Freeland made their arguments before Canada formally became a State Party to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on September 17, 2019.

Now, Kelsey Gallagher of Project Ploughshares comments: “Under Article 7(7) of the ATT, States Parties are encouraged to reassess previously approved arms exports when new information emerges after the initial authorization of an export permit.”

That new information could include the January 26^th ruling by the International Court of Justice that found it plausible that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.

It could also include the statement on March 26 by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese who found: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”

Albanese further specified: “Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent: causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group.”

As such, according to Albanese, Israel meets three of the five criteria for committing a genocide defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (that Canada ratified in 1952).

A question

As such, the question appears to be: Is Canada, in choosing to export already approved military goods to Israel, valuing “the nature of the supply chain”, and validating past justifications about “the signature of a contract” and its role as a “trusted partner” in international negotiations, above its human rights obligations?

World Beyond War Canada tweet.

Photo: An Israeli F-35I with four GBU-31 bombs in the foreground. The Boeing-developed Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance tail kit converts an unguided MK-84 bomb into a “smart” guided bomb unit (GBU).

Today, on the 176^th day of the Israeli assault on Gaza in which 82 people were killed over the last 24 hours, and in which an attack on Rafah continues to appear imminent, news is breaking of new weapons transfers to Israel.

The Washington Post reports: “The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.”

It then explains: “The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. [And] last week, the State Department authorized the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth roughly $2.5 billion, U.S. officials said. The case was approved by Congress in 2008, so the department was not required to provide a new notification to lawmakers.”

The MK84 and MK82 bombs are manufactured by General Dynamics Ordinance and Tactical Systems (GDOTS), while the F-35 fighter jets are built by Lockheed Martin. General Dynamics also produces the F-16 fighter jet for the Israeli air force. Both the F-35 and F-16 are capable of carrying the MK84 and MK82 bombs.

Photo: An Israeli F-16 armed with GBU-31 bombs (2,000 pound MK84 equipped with a JDAM guidance system).

Shareholders

Among the top Canadian shareholders in General Dynamics (as of December 31, 2023) are the Royal Bank of Canada ($808,850,000.), Bank of Montreal ($370,538,000.), and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ($38,747,000.)

Defense World has also noted: “Royal Bank of Canada reissued an ‘outperform’ rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of General Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, January 25th.” General Dynamics has posted that RBC Capital Markets analyst following them is Ken Herbert at (415) 633-8583.

Defense World has also reported: “[General Dynamics] recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.42 per share.”

Fintel notes that RBC owns 3,114,908 shares in General Dynamics.

Along with the $809M that the Royal Bank of Canada holds in General Dynamics, it also holds $934M ($933,605,000) in Lockheed Martin.

Components

Project Ploughshares has highlighted: “The United States is not only the largest provider of military aid to Israel but is also typically the largest consumer of Canadian-made military goods in any given year. Project Ploughshares conservatively estimates that the value of annual Canadian military exports to the United States is well over C$1-billion. Some Canadian-made components transferred to the United States, including components integrated in the F-35 aircraft, are eventually supplied to the IDF.”

“Canadian suppliers have manufactured segments of the F-35’s airframe and a host of internal components, including engine monitoring sensors, printed circuit boards, segments of the landing gear, inserts of the weapons bay door, and the horizontal tail of the aircraft.”

They add: “Critical aspects of the aircraft apparently unaltered on the [Israeli Air Force] F-35I variant include the F135 engine, elements of the landing gear, and parts of the fuselage, all of which contain Canadian components.”

Oil exports from Canada

The Guardian has also reported: “Israeli jets and tanks bombarding Palestinians are being fueled by some of the world’s most profitable fossil fuel companies [according to research by Data Desk commissioned by Oil Change International]. Israel relies on crude oil and refined products from overseas to run its large fleet of fighter jets, tanks and other military vehicles.”

The article notes that one ship with JP8 jet fuel left the US for Israel on December 6, 2023, and another departed on February 9, 2024.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) adds: “Canada is now the largest single source of U.S. total petroleum and crude oil imports. …Some of the crude oil that the U.S. imports is refined by U.S. refineries into petroleum products—such as gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, and jet fuel—that the U.S. later exports.”

It is not known how much of the 4.36 million barrels of crude oil per day that Canada exports to the U.S. could be then shipped by the U.S. to Israel to fuel its fighter jets, tanks and other military equipment.

In April 2023, CBC reported: “A report from a coalition of environmental groups shows that Royal Bank of Canada was the biggest fossil fuel financier in the world last year after providing over $42 billion US in funding.”

ICJ ruling

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled this past January 26th that “there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice” will be caused to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention (paragraph 74) and that “at least some” of South Africa’s claims that Palestinian rights needing protection under the Genocide Convention were “plausible” (paragraph 54).

Toronto-based law professors Heidi Matthews (Osgoode Hall Law School), Faisal A. Bhabha (York University) and Mohammad Fadel (University of Toronto) have commented: “The Export and Import Permits Act forbids arms permits to be issued if there’s a ‘substantial risk’ that the goods could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. Because the ICJ found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada’s obligation to prevent genocide, and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.”

UN Guiding Principles

The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 2011, cautions: “The responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate. It exists independently of States’ abilities and/or willingness to fulfil their own human rights obligations, and does not diminish those obligations. And it exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations protecting human rights.”

This responsibility extends to companies that build fighter jets and bombs, those that provide the components, those that fuel these machines, and to those that finance them.

Actions challenging RBC, April 6

RBC will hold its annual meeting in Toronto on April 11. Just prior to that there will be 25+ actions in multiple cities on April 6. The action taking place in Ottawa is noted here.

Shut down CANSEC, May 29-30

A mobilization is also being planned during the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa where General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and multiple other transnational weapons companies, including Elbit Systems, will be present.

We continue to follow this.

Peace Brigades International calls on the international community to “show its strong support for such important institutions for global justice as the International Court of Justice and to “suspend the supply of arms to Israel”.

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 month, audio recordings of C-IRG brutality were played in a British Columbia courtroom, including audio of the RCMP ridiculing Indigenous women wearing red handprints to symbolize our missing and murdered.”

He then notes: “Yet, the unit was not suspended during the systemic review nor will any public hearings be held. It’s been over a year and we have heard nothing, though this is no surprise, and our expectations are not high.”

Chief Na’Moks further highlights that he will be in Vienna for the European Gas Conference (March 26-28) to “ensure Europeans know that Canadian gas [is] awash with violence and the state-sanctioned trampling of Indigenous rights.”

The webpage for the People’s Summit 2024 (March 21-24) that is challenging the European Gas conference included in its program:

“Truth-Telling: Human Rights Violations and Climate Destruction in Canada: People think of Canada as a climate leader and peace keepers. Little does the world know that Canada is not only home to disturbing human rights violations, intensive climate destruction, and dehumanising efforts for land defenders but it is not just the companies but the Canadian government that has approved violent policing efforts on Indigenous communities. 6 proposed LNG projects are pushing forward, one a carbon bomb, with various pipelines without the consent from all Indigenous communities. It is time to speak the truth and call for global solidarity to help bring about social and climate justice for a better future and to protect the beauty of so-called Canada.”

At the closing press conference today (Monday March 25), Chief Na’Moks noted: “You know our country of Canada holds this great reputation around the world as being a peaceful, welcoming democratic country and it’s not true. They burn down our houses, they throw us in jail, they destroy our rivers, our lands, our future of our children and your children too.”

He further highlighted:

“We are the template of the violence to come in that country. When they create an arm of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and it’s referred to as C-IRG, Community-Industry Response Group, it will change its name to Critical Response Unit. When they create an arm like that which is militarized, strictly to come onto Wet’suwet’en, Gitxsan lands, Indigenous lands, then that is what is threatening democracy in this country. Canada itself, the Prime Minister, has enacted the Emergency Measures Act, and within that it opens a door for this unit, which was supposed to be short-term directed at us, as well as a few of our neighbours. They made it permanent and the world should know that. That this great country of Canada, that has this great reputation, you need to challenge that reputation, because the violence that has come to us. I don’t know how many of you have stared down the rifle of a gun, how many of you can step outside and say there’s a sniper, we do. How many of you have had canine units come into your house, come through your doors with power saws and axes, burn down your homes, and that is the democracy in Canada you’re not learning about.”

We continue to follow this and call for the abolition of C-IRG.