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Could the Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza be fueled by petroleum exports to the United States from Canada?

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: An Israeli Air Force member prepares an F-35I Adir for takeoff from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, March 16, 2023.

The Guardian reports: “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 adds that this supply chain relies heavily on fossil fuels from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Brazil, Gabon and the United States.

The article also notes that one ship with JP8 jet fuel left the US for Israel on December 6, 2023, after more than 16,000 Palestinians had been killed, and another departed on February 9, 2024, two weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) interim ruling that Israel could plausibly be committing genocide against Palestinians.

Tweet by Oil Change International.

Canadian crude oil and jet fuel exports to the United States

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) notes: “Canada is now the largest single source of U.S. total petroleum and crude oil imports. In 2022, Canada was the source of 52% of U.S. gross total petroleum imports and 60% of gross crude oil imports.”

Significantly, it further notes: “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.”

The Canadian Energy Centre also says: “While Canadian oil and gas exports currently go almost exclusively to the U.S., once they enter the integrated pipeline system, they can become so-called ‘re-exports’ from U.S. Gulf Coast to overseas markets.”

And the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) industry association has documented: “In 2020, U.S. imports of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products from Canada averaged more than half a million barrels per day, or more than 8 billion gallons in total for the year.”

Overall, the United States imported 4.36 million barrels of crude oil per day from Canada in November 2023.

Complicity

The Guardian article highlights: “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has continued since the ICJ ordered the Israeli government to prevent any genocidal act. The ICJ ruling has legal implications for countries and corporations, which must ensure they are not complicit in genocidal acts. Human rights experts said that countries and corporations supplying oil to Israeli armed forces may be complicit in war crimes and genocide.”

The research suggests those companies include BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies.

David Boyd, an associate professor of law, policy, and sustainability at the University of British Columbia and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, says: “The countries and companies that have continued to supply oil to the Israeli military since the decision of the international court of justice are contributing to horrible human rights violations and may be complicit in genocide.”

Other areas of concern

Apart from the possibility of Israeli warplanes being fuelled by exports from Canada, there is also the concern about component parts.

The Globe and Mail newspaper has previously reported: “Israel’s arsenal includes F-35 fighters and Canada has contributed components to every F-35, according to the Canadian government. The Canadian-made components that go into each F-35 don’t show up in Ottawa’s records of military exports because they are shipped to the U.S., where the aircrafts’ manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, is based, and Global Affairs does not publish the full value of annual military exports to the U.S.”

Last month, a Dutch appeals court ordered the government of the Netherlands to stop shipments of components for F-35s to Israel because as cited in their ruling: “There is a clear risk that the F-35 fighter jets are used by Israel to commit serious violations of humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.”

Other areas of concern that have been highlighted in articles and petitions include Canada’s military exports to Israel (Trudeau Government Authorized $28.5 Million Of New Military Exports To Israel Since October, The Maple), Canada’s purchase of missiles from Israel (Canadian Military Buying $43 Million Of Israeli Missiles Used In Gaza Attacks, The Maple), and Scotiabank’s shares in Elbit Systems Ltd., the largest Israeli weapons company (Tell Scotiabank to Divest Now from Elbit Systems, The Action Network).

Yesterday, the Toronto Star reported: “Canada stopped approving exports of non-lethal military goods and technology to Israel two months ago [on January 8] amid deepening concerns about possible human rights violations.” This comes from an anonymous source at Global Affairs Canada and is yet to be verified.

House of Commons debate, March 18

On Monday March 18th, the House of Commons will be voting on a motion that calls on the Government of Canada to demand an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and to suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas. It is possible during that debate that the issue of fuel exports may also be raised.

Sources

The Guardian article can be read in full at Revealed: How the global oil industry is fueling Israel’s war on Gaza. The research report, commissioned by Oil Change International and done by Data Desk, can be read here.

The Peace Brigades International statement on Gaza can be read here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied river defender Bernardo Caal Xol marks the International Day of the fight against Dams

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: On May 10, 2023, Caal Xol marched to the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City to demand sanctions against those who have violated the rights of Q’eqchi’ peoples including Spanish businessman Florentino Perez and his company Cobra SA, a subsidiary of the Madrid-based Grupo ACS.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied Maya Q’eqchi’ water defender Bernardo Caal Xol has tweeted: “Today is the International Day of the fight against Dams. Our Rivers are sacred, water and blood of Mother Earth. Water is life and not a commodity.”

International Rivers highlights: “The International Day of Action for Rivers is a day dedicated to solidarity – when diverse communities worldwide come together with one voice to affirm that rivers are vital and need our protection.”

They further note: “The International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life was adopted by the participants of the first International Meeting of People Affected by Dams, March 1997 in Curitiba Brazil. Representatives from 20 countries decided that the International Day of Action would take place on March 14 – Brazil’s Day of Action Against Large Dams. Our aim on this International Day of Action for Rivers, is to raise our voices in unison against destructive water development projects, reclaim the health of our watersheds, and demand the equitable and sustainable management of our rivers.”

The fight against the Oxec III dam

Caal Xol is a leader in the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabon and their struggle against the Oxec dams on their territory without free, prior and informed consent.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has previously explained: “The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón is made of more than 190 Q’eqchi’ communities who live in the Cahabón River basin. Since 2015 they have organized around defense of territory and against the launch of the OXEC I and OXEC II hydroelectric projects installed on the Oxec River, a tributary of the Cahabón River.”

REMEZCLA has reported: “Due to construction of a pair of dams, Oxec I and Oxec II, water along the river has either been contaminated or has dried up, leaving the region’s roughly 30,000 Q’eqchi in danger. The company behind the dam project is the Spanish Grupo Cobra, owned by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez; he visited the site of the project site in 2014 to initiate construction.”

As noted above, Cobra is a subsidiary of Grupo ACS which also has subsidiaries in Canada, including ACS Infrastructure Canada, Inc. in Toronto.

In April 2023, Power Technology noted: “Oxec III is a 75MW hydro power project. It is planned on Cahabon river/basin in Alta Verapaz. The project construction is likely to commence in 2025 and is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2027.”

On May 10, 2023, PBI-Canada observed a march by the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón in Guatemala City that included a banner that read: “We demand that the Oxec 3 licence be cancelled.”

Breakbulk Magazine has previously reported Hatch’s Ontario, Canada-based project manager for Oxec II Hooman Ghassemi “finished the conceptual design for Oxec III [in 2017].” Hatch was founded in Toronto, Canada, by W.S. Atkins as W.S. Atkins & Associates in 1955. It has offices around the world with its headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario.

Caal Xol at the UN in Geneva

Caal Xol also recently tweeted: “At the invitation of international Human Rights organizations, we were at the UN to continue denouncing human rights abuses in Guatemala. We met with Rapporteurs and urged them to carry out the protocols to visit Guatemala and verify our complaints.”

Photo: Clement Voule (Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association), Caal Xol, Luis Pacheco (from Totonicapán, Guatemala) and Kerstin Reemtsma (PBI-Guatemala).

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón since July 2017.

Photo: Maya Q’eqchi environmental defender Bernardo Caal Xol spent four years in prison for his peaceful resistance to dams being built on ancestral territory without consent. He was released from prison in March 2022. PBI-Canada met with him on May 5, 2023, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

RCMP C-IRG assisted North Vancouver detachment after injunction prohibits protests on highway overpass

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: The RCMP C-IRG assisted the North Vancouver RCMP detachment when pro-2SLGBTQIA+ activists counter-protested anti-SOGI demonstrators in July 2023. Photo by Nick Laba / North Shore News.

Following Amanda Follett Hosgood reporting in The Tyee that RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) officers supported local police at rallies in southern British Columbia, most likely in October 2023, in opposition to Israel’s attack on Gaza, Vancouver Is Awesome now reports that C-IRG officers also assisted a local RCMP detachment with a protest in North Vancouver in July 2023 that had been organized by opponents of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) lessons in schools.

The full story can be read at Controversial RCMP unit aided local detachment during North Vancouver overpass protests.

Bob Mackin explains in the article:

“A senior officer from the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) contacted an operations manager with the province’s highways department, after a judge granted the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure an injunction last May aimed at stopping weekly protests on the Mountain Highway overpass above Highway 1.

‘One of the functions of this unit is addressing injunctions within the province,’ explained Staff Sergeant Jason Charney in a July 6 email to Michael Braun, obtained under the freedom of information law.

‘I have been tasked with assisting the North Vancouver RCMP detachment with the injunction which is currently in place for the Mountain Highway overpass. I was hoping that we could meet next week and go over the injunction.’

The remainder of the paragraph was censored because the ministry feared disclosure would reveal information about policy advice and law enforcement.”

Photo: Staff Sgt. Jason Charney at Fairy Creek, August 2023.

Video: Charney on Wet’suwet’en territory, October 9, 2021.

The article then quotes Const. Mansoor Sahak, public information officer with the North Vancouver RCMP, who says:  “CRU-B.C. did assist last July but generally they are called upon by detachments to assist with large protests.”

CRU-B.C. refers to the “Critical Response Unit-British Columbia”, the rebranded (but seemingly still not officially announced) name for the C-IRG.

The article also quotes S. Sgt. Kris Clark, spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP, who says: “While originally created to respond to gas and pipeline-involved protests, the C-IRG has been deployed to logging protests, homelessness protests, has overseen anti-COVID mandate demonstrations (a.k.a. convoy) and been deployed to natural disaster events across the province including floods and seasonal wildfires as well.”

The Tyee has previously reported that Staff Sgt. Clark says the C-IRG’s approach to public disorder has been adopted as a “national best practice”.

This despite a “systemic investigation” of the C-IRG by the federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC). The Ottawa-based CRCC began its investigation more than a year ago after receiving nearly 500 complaints about the C-IRG. The CBC has reported: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations.”

Photo: An open letter calling for the suspension of C-IRG deployments during the systemic investigation was delivered to the CRCC on March 22, 2023.

C-IRG rebranding, expanding

The rebranding and expansion of the mandate of the C-IRG does not suggest it will stop intervening against Indigenous and community land defence struggles against oil and gas pipelines and the logging of old-growth forest.

It remains unclear how the CRU-B.C., a British Columbia-based unit, has been adopted as a “national best practice”.

That said, historian Brian Smallshaw has written: “From OPP [Ontario Provincial Police] Interim Superintendent Marcel Beaudin’s testimony at the POEC [Public Order Emergency Commission] hearings on October 29th [2022 into the Freedom Convoy protest of January-February 2022 in Ottawa] I learned that he regularly consulted with his colleague in BC, Chief Superintendent John Brewer, Gold Commander of the C-IRG, who oversaw police enforcement at Fairy Creek and Wet’suwet’en.”

Photo: An RCMP tactical vehicle near Parliament Hill on February 20, 2022. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press.

We continue to follow this with interest.

PBI highlights situation of human rights defenders in Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia at UN Human Rights Council session

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 12, Peace Brigades International (PBI) Advocacy Coordinator Yannick Wild presented to the 55th Human Rights Council Session at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor.

In his presentation, he noted:

“In Kenya, grassroots human rights groups raised multiple alerts, reporting that the 2022 Community Groups Registration Act is used to pressure them to refrain from crucial human rights activities, like advocacy and violation monitoring. Many Youth Human Rights Defenders who belong to community-based organizations such as Nairobi’s Mathare Social Justice Centre, face registration challenges or requests to alter their objectives.

In Honduras, 2023 has seen a significant increase in attacks against Human Rights Defenders. Youth are often on the front lines defending human rights in the country, facing cyberbullying, defamation campaigns on social media and in the media, as seen in the case of the organizations COPINH and ARCAH. There is an urgent need to strengthen a national protection system to ensure they can carry out their activities safely.

In Guatemala, over 5900 attacks against Human Rights Defenders were reported by UDEFEGUA in 2023 (2022: 3504 attacks, 2021: 1004). The ongoing cooptation of the justice system intensifies the criminalization of defenders, justice operators, and journalists. Urgent action is needed to request the Public Ministry to stop the criminalization of HRDs and on the contrary to investigate and prosecute attacks against Human Rights Defenders.

In Colombia, the National Protection Unit (UNP) remains deficient, and progress on developing a public policy for Human Rights Defenders, as well as reactivating protection programs for women and collective measures, is slow. Additionally, there is persistent impunity for serious police violations against youth during the 2020 and 2021 protests.”

The video of this can be seen here.

For the text of UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor’s comments that opened this session, please click here.

PBI-Switzerland.

PBI asks the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing to visit Guatemala, see the situation of forced evictions

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 4, Peace Brigades International (PBI) Advocacy Coordinator Yannick Wild presented to the 55th Human Rights Council Session at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal.

His presentation noted:

“In Guatemala, in recent years, dozens of forced evictions have left thousands of families, mainly Indigenous peoples, in a situation of humanitarian emergency. International standards have not been respected, and most have been carried out with disproportionate use of force and violence, sometimes extrajudicial and with the presence of armed non-state actors. Dozens of families have lost their homes, their belongings, and their crops have been destroyed. In addition, many people have been evicted and criminalized and arrest warrants have been issued through a co-opted justice system.

Unequal and disputed land tenure, a structural cause of agrarian conflict, together with a co-opted justice system that favors economic powers for extractivist, agribusiness and energy projects, is resulting in the loss of access to land and territory for indigenous peoples.

We ask the Rapporteur to visit the country and learn first hand about the problems and advise the communities as well as the implementation of the amicable agreement recently agreed with the government.

We support the call to Guatemala by Commissioner Pulido of the Inter-American Commission in February 2024, to provide security to the communities so that there will be no more evictions. We also endorse the recommendation of an independent delegation of lawyers to suspend the granting of licenses for activities that affect the ancestral territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent and consultation.”

The video of the presentation can be seen here.

For more about the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project (1983 to 1999, 2003 to the present), click here.

PBI-Switzerland.

Militarization, megaprojects and the June 2nd presidential election in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Demonstrators confronting armed military officials patrolling the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus megaproject. Photo by Carlos Beas.

As Mexico heads towards general elections to be held on June 2nd this year, we recall concerns raised by Peace Brigades International prior to the July 1, 2018 election.

In June 2018, PBI-United Kingdom commented in The Guardian:

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) won that July 1, 2018 election and became the President of Mexico in December 2018.

In January 2019, PBI-Mexico commented: “The militarization of the country continues to be a concern for Mexican and international civil society. Since the government of Felipe Calderón [2006 to 2012], the ‘War on Drugs’ [launched on December 10, 2006] has resulted in a drastic increase in violence in the country with horrific numbers of human rights violations. The organizations that PBI accompanies link this military strategy to the human rights crisis in which the country still finds itself. In this context, the AMLO government’s proposal for a National Guard is of serious concern to human rights organizations.”

The National Guard

In September 2022, The Guardian reported:

“Soon after taking office in December 2018, he [AMLO] created a new force, known as the national guard, to take over public security across the country. And then he successfully pushed his political party, and allied parties, to hand the control of the national guard over to the Mexican army.

The Mexican senate voted the measure into law earlier this month despite López Obrador promising the newly created force would remain under civilian control.

The national guard was meant to replace the disbanded federal police as a public security force. Now, analysts say placing the force under the control of the military is a final step in the militarization of public security in Mexico.

The move has sparked an outcry from human rights organizations who state that, rather than turn security over to the military, the government should instead reform state and local police forces.”

Militarization and megaprojects

Then in September 2023, Avispa Midia reported:

“The federal government has also assigned a growing list of other civilian tasks to the armed forces, through a series of administration and legislative actions and reforms.

These tasks include the construction of megaprojects, or the management of companies in charge of them, like the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Corridor, and airports. There are also plans to soon begin to operate a military airline. Military institutions also control ports and customs.

The [Washington Office on Latin America/WOLA] study [Militarized Transformation: Human Rights and Democratic Controls in a Context of Increasing Militarization in Mexico] warns that while their powers and authority are growing, the armed forces do not have effective civilian controls over their actions.”

The Interoceanic Corridor

As noted above, the Interoceanic Corridor is a task assigned to the armed forces.

On July 27, 2023, PBI-Mexico tweeted: “PBI accompanies the observation mission in the Isthmus. It will continue to monitor the risk situation in which the indigenous peoples affected by the construction of the Interoceanic Corridor in their territory find themselves. Here we share the press release.”

The Observation Mission stated: “Among the authorities responsible for the human rights violations identified during the mission are the National Guard, the Navy, the Sedena [the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense], the State Police, the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, municipal authorities and the Agrarian Attorney’s Office. Various companies, armed groups and local chieftains were also identified.”

PBI-Canada webinar

On September 21, 2023, PBI-Canada organized a webinar featuring Carlos Beas Torres of the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI), Margherita Forni of PBI-Mexico and Hannah Matthews of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) that discussed concerns about the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject, including the militarization of the project.

The 2024 election has begun

Mexico News Daily now reports: “The official campaign period for Mexico’s upcoming federal election began Friday [March 1], exactly 93 days before voters will go to the polls to elect a new president for the next six years.”

Where do the candidates stand on militarization?

The three leading candidates appear to be Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez.

Politico.mx sets the context: “During AMLO’s government, the military adopted a preponderant role in the State, not only in that they had a greater presence in public security, but also in public administration by granting them the administration of airports such as the AIFA, the Mayan Train, construction works and companies.”

It then notes:

“Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has been in favor of the Armed Forces continuing to carry out public security tasks, as well as other activities that the president has given them, considering that they did it well.

Xóchitl Gálvez has proposed returning respect to the Armed Forces and removing them from civilian activities, focusing on national security instead of public safety.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez has also been against the military carrying out civilian activities and public security tasks, although he has not made a concrete proposal on the issue of militarization.”

We continue to follow this with interest.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Mayan Poqomam resistance to sand mining in Chinautla

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Wednesday [March 6], #PBI accompanied the Multisectoral of Chinautla. We were present at their encampment where they meet every day to discuss the situation in the territory caused by the presence of sand mining companies.

We took the opportunity to meet with various local state entities to discuss the security situation of the Multisectoral.”

The situation in Chinautla

This past January, Prensa Comunitaria reported:

“Santa Cruz Chinautla and its authorities maintain a peaceful resistance against the La Primavera and Piedrinera San Luis sand mines, which have been operating illegally with expired licenses since 2022, and have not obtained an extension to operate.

These companies have maintained the industrial extraction that has generated environmental pollution of the river that bears the same name of the community (from where the potters extract the mud for their pottery crafts), where it has been reported that they discard construction material, garbage and earth, due to agreements between the municipality and some neighbors with transporters. In addition, roads have deteriorated due to the use of heavy transport, causing landslides and cracked homes.

In addition, recently, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred) has reported that the extraction of white sand in the territory has caused landslides and several families in the community have lost fragments of their homes due to this.”

PBI-Guatemala has also explained:

“The region has been a sand mining area for decades, but it was in 1995 that large-scale sand extraction began with heavy machinery, an activity that had a strong social and environmental impact on the area. More than 2,000 people are being affected in different ways: earthworks, caused by machinery, which crack their houses; respiratory problems, due to dust kicked up by vehicles, suffered by people living closer to the road; Decrease in the quality of the area’s clay, a raw material used in handicrafts, the main economic activity of these communities.

In addition, this population is also affected by the pollution of the river, which comes from the garbage dump in zone 3 of the Capital City, this derives from a problem that increases in rainy seasons.”

PBI-Canada visits, May 2023

Hope with the election of Arevalo?

On January 15, after the swearing in of the new Guatemalan president Bernardo Arevalo, El Faro quoted René Chacón, a Mayan Poqomam leader and second mayor of Santa Cruz Chinautla, who commented:

“We hope that there will be democracy for all, development and benefit for the whole country. In Santa Cruz Chinautla there is a large exploitation of part of the sand mines that have been degrading our land. Seeing these things, we came together. And here is not only Chinautla, but all the villages… But we have to wait. Even [the last president Alejandro] Giammattei said he wasn’t going to be corrupt. And in the long run he was. We can’t trust anyone, just wait for their will.”

The PBI-Guatemala Project has been accompanying the Chinautla Multisector Urban Platform since December 2018.

Further reading: “Our community is forgotten.” Visit to the residents of Chinautla (PBI-Guatemala article).

Photo: PBI-Canada meets with the community, May 1, 2023.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAJAR lawyers’ collective at meeting with Embassies following threats against its members

By
Brent Patterson
-

The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) has posted:

“Attention. Today we met, in the company of @PBIColombia, with representatives of the [Embassies of] Belgium, Chile, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, as well as with the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, the European Union, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Central America and the Caribbean, who expressed solidarity with @Ccajar for the threats that persist against its members and offered support in the search for guarantees for their lives and for the exercise of their work as human rights defenders.”

They also posted:

“Representatives of embassies and human rights organizations also heard some concerns from @Ccajar against police abuse, the murder of social leaders and defenders, as well as the little progress in terms of impunity and dismantling of criminal structures, among other issues.”

Recent statements from CAJAR include:

January 22, 2024: “The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar) denounces to the public that the current president of the organization, Yessika Hoyos Morales, received today a new threat against her life, which would be related to the case of Jenner Alfonso Mora, one of the young victims of the Mondoñedo massacre. committed by members of the National Police (DIJIN) in 1996.”

January 10, 2024: “The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar) denounces to the public and the national and international community that the organization’s lawyer, Santiago Salinas Miranda, was the victim of a physical attack on Monday, January 8, by two women who had harassed other members of the human rights organization in the past.”

We continue to follow this with concern.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) since 1995.

PBI-Canada noted in Canadian Dimension article that links Safran to the RCMP C-IRG and Israeli military

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Blockade of Safran Electronics in Peterborough, February 26. Photo by Irene Suvillaga.

Canadian Dimension magazine recently published Direct action confronts Canada-Israel arms trade by Kirsten Francescone and Irene Suvillaga.

Their article highlights: “Safran Electronics & Defense Canada Inc. [whose] facility located in the south-end of Peterborough [is] a subsidiary of the Safran Group, a French multinational that manufactures defence-related equipment and components, and has contracts with the Israeli military to provide it with telemetry equipment and battlefield targeting technology.”

Noting a community blockade of the Peterborough facility, the article quotes Urpi Pine, an Indigenous organizer who took part in the action, who says: “If the government isn’t going to take action to prevent this ongoing genocide, then we are going to take matters into our own hands. The settler-colonial state of so-called Canada must stop the flow of weapons to Israel; we are morally and legally bound to do so.”

Safran and RCMP H145 helicopters

The article further reports:

“Indeed, Safran’s links to settler-colonialism don’t stop with Israel. In 2023, Peace Brigades International reported that the RCMP special task force responsible for the militarized raids on the ancestral lands of the Wet’suwet’en nation in British Columbia utilize Airbus H145 helicopters, the engines for which are produced by Safran. In 2015, it was reported that Israel-based international military technology company and defense contractor Elbit Systems purchased H145 helicopters from Airbus for the Israeli police force to use in ‘counter-terrorism’ and ‘border security’ operations.”

The Canadian Dimension article links to RCMP use helicopters, airplanes and drones to surveil and arrest Wet’suwet’en land defenders (PBI-Canada, May 21, 2023).

H145s at Fairy Creek

In May 2021, Narcity reported: “The RCMP confirmed to Narcity that four people were arrested on May 26 with the help of helicopters after staging tree sit-ins to stop old-growth logging in the forest, which sits on the unceded territories of the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations on Vancouver Island.”

On May 27, 2021, photographer Mike Graeme also posted on Instagram: “Helicopters were heard overhead all day today, as RCMP resorted to removing tree-sitters by air.”

Photo by Mike Graeme. This appears to be an Airbus H145 helicopter.

Photo: The H145 is equipped to deploy the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team. The ERT has been deployed as part of the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) raids on Wet’suwet’en territory in January 2019, February 2020 and November 2021.

The RCMP C-IRG is currently under “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

A recent statement on the need to stop weapons exports to Israel signed by United Nations Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and working group members highlights: “Arms companies contributing to the production and transfer of arms to Israel and businesses investing in those companies bear their own responsibility to respect human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. They have not publicly demonstrated the heightened human rights due diligence required of them and accordingly risk complicity in violations.”

CANSEC arms show, May 29-30

Numerous groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and World Beyond War Canada, are currently organizing to protest CANSEC.

Safran (Booth 221) and Airbus (Booth 401) are both listed as exhibitors at CANSEC. Notably, Elbit Systems, the largest weapons supplier to Israel, will also be at CANSEC (Booths 1421/M10).

For updates on community organizing in opposition to CANSEC, click here.

To read Direct action confronts Canada-Israel arms trade by Kirsten Francescone and Irene Suvillaga, click here.

PBI-Guatemala highlights intervention by US Embassy in support of controversial Canadian Cerro Blanco mine

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted on Facebook:

“The US Embassy advocated for the mining company and the Cerro Blanco project, while environmental groups and settlers of Jutiapa have on several occasions expressed concern because the reactivation of the project is a risk to the environment, water and health of the communities villages in Guatemala and El Salvador.”

They link to this Prensa Comunitaria article that reports:

“In 2007, the company Entremares S.A. obtained permission to operate thanks to an environmental impact study with inconsistencies and information gaps.

[After the mine’s tunnels repeatedly flooded], the company applied for a two-year permit to suspend its operations. After this time, if it did not start operating, it had to be cancelled and closed, according to the Mining Law.

Soon after, the company Entremares partnered with the mining company [Vancouver-based] Goldcorp, but by 2013, it sold its shares because the project continued to flood. The shares were bought by [Vancouver-based] Bluestone Resources.

By December 2021, Bluestone Resources plans to submit to the MEM [Ministry of Energy and Mines] a proposal to reactivate the mine using an update to the same environmental impact study they submitted 14 years ago, but with an obvious change. The mine would no longer be underground but open-pit.

On September 18, 2022, organizations and the population of Asunción Mita held a Municipal Consultation [and] 7,481 people voted NO to mining, while 904 voted YES, the result of the Municipal Consultation of neighbors is directly binding.

In 2023, the U.S. Embassy accredited in Guatemala advocated with the government of Alejandro Giammattei in favor of the reactivation of the Cerro Blanco mining project located in the municipality of Asunción Mita, Jutiapa.

The U.S. diplomatic mission asked for ‘support to learn about the progress that has been made in the process of approving the modification of the environmental plan in order to continue assisting U.S. investors who are interested in investing and contributing to the economic development of Guatemala.’

Just five days before the end of Giammattei’s government, on January 9 [2024], the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources approved the mining company to modify the environmental instrument, Bluestone issued a statement in which it announced that it would begin the exploitation of gold and silver.”

The full article can be read at Estados Unidos intercedió a favor de la mina Cerro Blanco (Prensa Comunitaria, March 4, 2024).

Furthermore, the Extractive Industries Observatory (OIE) has tweeted:

“We want to revisit a key conversation about the Lundin family and their power in the global extractive industry. In 2020 we explored his controversial career behind Bluestone Resources and the Cerro Blanco project. But today, there are new updates that you need to know about.

There is a lot of talk about the Cerro Blanco mining project and the Canadian company that operates it, Bluestone Resources $BSR , but we have rarely mentioned the history behind the latter and the people who manage it: the Lundins. This is the controversial trajectory of this family:”

That thread can be read here.

Lundin Group website.

Lundin Group website.

We continue to follow this.

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