Photo: Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation Head Councillor Cecilia Begg speaks at the rally in front of the Ministry of Mines in Toronto in July 2023. Jessica Smith Cross/The Trillium.

The final text from the UN COP28 climate summit, issued on December 13, commits to “tripling renewable energy capacity globally”.

Global Witness, however, cautions, with respect to “strategic minerals and the transition to ‘clean’ energy”, “there wasn’t a single commitment [in the text] to mitigate the destructive impact of extracting minerals on affected communities.”

The Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, Canada

On December 7, CBC reported: “Mining claims staked in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire area have risen by 30 per cent since last year, according to provincial data analyzed by the Wildlands League. The crescent-shaped mineral deposit in the James Bay lowlands has been eyed as a critical source for Ontario’s burgeoning electric vehicle battery industry for years.”

That article highlights: “Surrounding First Nations say there hasn’t been proper consultation about mining projects on their territories. A number of rallies have been held at Queen’s Park in Toronto this year by members of the First Nations Land Defence Alliance, calling out the province’s free-entry mining system and demanding a meeting with Premier Doug Ford.”

PBI signs letter on just transition and critical minerals

On November 28, Peace Brigades International, along with 101 other organizations, signed this open letter to the State parties at the COP28 climate summit.

Key excerpts from that letter include:

“We are also told that the only way to cut carbon emissions is through an explosion in transition minerals mining. We undoubtedly need minerals to support a burgeoning renewable energy sector. But we also know there is no ‘just energy transition’ if the goal is replacing conventional vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs) one for one. The number of new mines that will need to open in this scenario is at best simply unrealistic, at worst poised to lead to severe environmental and human rights harms.

Mining always comes with risks of human rights and environmental abuses. Over 510 allegations of abuses associated with top-producing mining operations of cobalt, copper, nickel, manganese, lithium, and zinc have been documented in the past decade – with one in four associated with attacks against human rights defenders. The extractive industry is the most dangerous sector for those voicing concerns – with little progress in bringing the drivers of these attacks to justice recorded to date.

Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected, with more than 50% of the world reserves for transition minerals on or near Indigenous or peasants lands, while in 2022 they counted for 34% of all the environmental defenders killed in the world.”

Among the demands in the letter, it states: “We call on world leaders to commit to climate action [that includes] clear protection mechanisms for human rights and environmental defenders.”

EU invites Canada to join “critical raw materials club”

This past November 23-24, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated at the European Union-Canada summit held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador:

“I want to extend a warm invitation to Canada to join our critical raw materials club, which we will launch at COP28. Canada is indeed in pole position for what critical raw materials are concerned. You are today the only country in the Western hemisphere with all the raw materials required for lithium batteries. Canada exports 90% of its mineral products. And the European Union is Canada’s second largest export market. So I would say that this is a perfect match, let us work on that.”

On December 2 at COP28, President von der Leyen launched the Global Pledge on Renewables and Energy Efficiency.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Ring of Fire

And this past August, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, released his report on his Visit to Canada that took place in March. On page 20, he said Canada should “suspend large-scale mining and other business activities in the Ring of Fire region … until the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected is secured.”

COP28 and environmental defenders

In its assessment of the COP28 final text, Global Witness also notes:

“Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, we documented the killings of at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders… In the run-up to COP, we joined 150 organizations to call on the UNFCCC to recognize and protect Defenders. And yet, there is not a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final text.”

We continue to follow this situation closely.

In this recent interview, PBI-UK asked Colombian human rights lawyer Reynaldo Villalba of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR):

“PBI has provided protection to CCAJAR since 1995 – almost 30 years! How has PBI’s support been instrumental in ensuring the safety and effectiveness of your work? Could you share specific instances where PBI’s presence has made a difference?”

He responded:

“Beyond the tangible effects of PBI’s presence and accompaniment in Colombia, their support also extends into the realm of mental and psychological well-being. I will give you an example involving my wife. Before embarking on tasks such as attending hearings or visiting different regions, she always asks, ‘Is PBI going to accompany you?’. The affirmative response provides not only comfort for me but also a sense of ease for my family.

While authorities furnish us with bulletproof vests, symbolically, PBI’s protective accompaniment vests provide the most effective protection. PBI are the ones who have prevented attacks on our lives.

In hearings within military battalions, where we actually move around our perpetrators’ spaces, PBI’s accompaniment not only annoys the hell out of them – and they’ll make direct comments about why these guys are here – but acts as a crucial deterrent.

Another time, in Santa Marta, an incident unfolded while travelling with a PBI representative. We were being followed by a van with darkened windows, which accelerated suddenly and braked in front of us. At that moment, I thought, what if I had been alone? What if PBI had not been with me? Would they have bundled me into the van? Would I have been disappeared that night?

I also know of other organizations where strange people have come into their offices, but PBI’s presence acted as a shield. It is not just the PBI vest, but the presence of them being foreign – it is an enormous deterrent. Their presence is also crucial when we venture into areas of high conflict in Colombia, especially during the workshops we give in communities.

Additionally, PBI’s own workshops – touching on topics such as case file security – and the psychological and emotional support they provide further fortify our capacity to navigate the challenges we face.

Then there is PBI’s impact globally. Their speaker tours and advocacy efforts ensure that the issues we confront receive attention on a broader stage. I also believe that PBI volunteers, even after leaving, continue to be ambassadors for human rights in Colombia and around the world.

This is why I say that the work of PBI is essential. I just hope their work can be better supported to guarantee their future and be able to expand further around the world.”

To read the full interview, please go to the PBI-UK website here.

Note: On July 5, 2022, PBI-Canada met with CCAJAR lawyer Rosa Maria Mateus in Bogota to discuss the impacts of the Cerrejon coal mine on Indigenous peoples and the right to water. Coal from this mine is still exported to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Photo: Mobilizations continue in Guatemala in defence of the general election.

Bernardo Arévalo was elected on June 25, 2023, to be the President of Guatemala. He is scheduled to be sworn-in on January 14, 2024.

On December 12, the Associated Press reported: “Guatemala faces mounting criticism by world leaders and watchdogs accusing it of attempts to block progressive President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office in January.”

“The victory of Arévalo and his Seed Movement party is seen as a threat to those who have long wielded power in Guatemala. The anti-corruption crusader has been a target for months, with arrests of party members, raids and repeated requests to lift his immunity so prosecutors can investigate him directly.”

That article adds: “Arévalo [has] accused the prosecution of seeking to undermine his ability to govern, and was quickly backed by a growing number of international entities such as the Organization of American States and the European Union, which had sent observers to monitor the election and confirmed that voting adhered to democratic standards.”

CNN has also reported: “Arévalo, who is due to take office in January, responded to the ministry’s allegations last week saying the attempts to malign his party with various crimes, as well as questioning the elections, were all part of an attempted ‘coup d’état’.”

Canada’s position

Al Jazeera has noted: “On Friday [December 8], prosecutors threatened to annul the victory of Arevalo, who is set to take office on January 14.”

On Saturday December 9, the Embassy of Canada in Guatemala tweeted:

“On #AntiCorruptionDay, Canada strongly condemns the anti-democratic actions headed by @MPGuatemala (Public Ministry) and corrupt Guatemalan actors. Our @OAS_official [Organization of American States] statement was clear: ongoing attempts to undermine the election results must stop. Guatemalans deserve better.”

We ask that Canada also increase protection measures for human rights defenders (including visits with them, public support and the provision of emergency visas).

The OAS resolution can be read here. The voting record, showing Canada supporting the resolution, can be seen here.

For updates

We are following posts on Facebook by Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc on the now 72 days of, as he writes, “peaceful mobilization and resistance, against a coup perpetrated by the Public Ministry (MP), in complicity with the Congress of the Republic and the Supreme Courts of Justice (CSJ) and the Constitutional Court (CC).”

We also continue to follow updates from PBI-Guatemala on Facebook for more on this developing situation.

Photo: During a PBI-Canada visit to Guatemala in May 2023, we talked with a community member who explains how their river has been impacted by the nearby sugar mill. Canada is one of the largest importers of sugar produced in Guatemala.

As 2023 draws to a close, we hope you can support our work moving into 2024.

You can do so here.

In 2023, we highlighted, contextualized and visibilized the PBI accompaniment of frontline defenders via this e-newsletter and on social media, supported the visits of defenders from Colombia, Mexico and Wet’suwet’en territory to Ottawa, met with communities in Guatemala impacted by sugar exports to Canada, and most recently organized a webinar on the United Nations COP28 climate summit and environmental defenders.

In 2024, we plan to bring to Toronto Colombian social leaders who have been criminalized for protecting their community from a Canadian oil company, launch a campus-based strategy to find volunteers to accompany defenders in Latin America, continue our work calling for the disbanding of the RCMP C-IRG unit deployed against land defenders, oppose Canadian weapons exports, and much more.

You support can help make this happen.

We have one-staff person, a volunteer Board of eleven people and an annual budget of less than $90,000. Your donation this month will go a long way to keeping our work going strong into 2024. If you can donate, please click here now.

We also welcome cheques mailed to: Peace Brigades International-Canada, 211 Bronson Avenue, Mailbox #220, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6H5.

On December 7, PBI-Canada organized a webinar on the United Nations COP28 climate summit and environmental defenders.

The latest draft of the Global Stocktake (GST) – essentially the COP28 summit declaration – was released on Monday December 11.

It can be read here.

Significantly, the GST still does not include any reference to environmental defenders.

Global Witness has documented that at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders have been killed since the COP21 summit in December 2015.

At the PBI-Canada-organized webinar, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst noted:

“Currently, as you know, there is no clear reference to environmental human rights defenders in the current draft document on the loss and damage fund. That’s why it’s also important to have a clear reference to human rights defenders in the final outcome document of COP28. It’s also why it’s important to keep clear references to defenders and Indigenous peoples in all documents related to the protection of human rights.”

Of the 177 defenders killed in 2022, 88 per cent were killed in Latin America and 36 per cent were Indigenous peoples.

Many more have been harassed, threatened and criminalized.

On our webinar, Wet’suwet’en land defender Eve Saint shared her experience of being arrested at gunpoint by the C-IRG, a special unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) deployed against land defenders, for peacefully resisting the construction – without free, prior and informed consent – of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on her territory in northern British Columbia, Canada.

Colombian water protector Yuli Velasquez also shared how she has experienced three armed attacks against her life since January 2021 for protecting the San Silvestre wetland near the city of Barrancabermeja. She recently commented in El Pais: “Governments must listen to environmental defenders and take account of their demands. We have much to contribute in terms of addressing the climate crisis. The COP28 is a good opportunity for states to show they truly value our work.”

In 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed: “Human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

And yet something as seemingly simple as including their single 42-word sentence in the draft GST/COP28 summit declaration has not happened.

The Human Rights & Climate Change Working Group has also recommended that this single 50-word sentence could be included in the COP28 text:

“Urging all Parties to commit to the enhanced protection of environmental human rights defenders, including reporting, investigating and seeking accountability and redress for reprisals against environmental human rights defenders, and public information about the actions taken to do so as well as public recognition of the importance of their work.”

As hope for inclusion in COP28 dims, attention is starting to turn to a Peoples’ Summit that could take place at the time of COP30 in Brazil.

At our webinar, Global Witness policy advisory Javier Garate commented:

“There are big plans for organizing a parallel COP of civil society and I think it is a huge opportunity for all of us to work together towards COP30 in Brazil with all the energy to put the issues of local communities, Indigenous communities, land and environmental defenders that need to be at the centre of this conversation and to demand as we talk about climate solutions and the fight against climate change that the work, the protection, and the struggle of local communities has to be at the center of those conversations.”

We look forward to engaging in that parallel summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil in 2025 and share the concern that it is still two years away and that on average a land and environmental defender is killed every two days.

COP28 was scheduled on Tuesday December 12.

Thank you to PBI-Canada Board member Ailish Morgan-Welden for facilitating this webinar!

On December 7, The Maple reported:

The federal government is refusing to say whether or not it made the decision to green-light nearly $1 million in new military exports to Peru during a period of brutal crackdowns by the country’s government against Indigenous-led protesters.

Documents obtained by Amnesty International Canada through an access to information (ATIP) request and shared with The Maple show that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) authorized new exports of military goods to Peru valued at $960,000 for a three-year period starting on February 6 this year.

Kathy Price, a campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, explained: “There’s no post-shipment controls. There’s no post-shipment monitoring. There’s no on site verification to ensure that the Canadian exports were not used in the repression.”

As explained by arms monitoring expert Kelsey Gallagher in a previous interview with The Maple, Canada’s export control categories provide only broad strokes about the kinds of military goods being sold to foreign governments and their militaries.

That concern was also shared by Brent Patterson, director of Peace Brigades International – Canada.

“One of the many troublesome aspects of this, always, is the lack of transparency,” Patterson told The Maple. “I think we’re intentionally left in the dark in terms of trying to piece things together.”

“It’s just fundamentally inappropriate and wrong that we don’t have this information as a matter of public record.”

He added that it is concerning to see no sign of there having been a pause on military exports to review such sales to Peru in light of the brutal crackdowns.

Patterson agrees that GAC’s claims about the robustness of its vetting process are dubious.

“We’re assured that there’s this kind of robust assessment beforehand that we don’t see, that surely cannot be all that robust when we see the countries or the situations in terms of where Canadian-made weapons are sold,” he explained.

To read the full article by Alex Cosh, click here.

On December 9, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“The Open Town Hall for Socialization and Consultation of the Ecotek Investment Power Plant Project was annulled by the municipal mayor’s office of Tocoa (Colón)”

On Facebook they also further explained:

“After this decision, the organizations present decided to conduct a self-consultation in which they rejected the Los Pinares/Ecotek investment project.

Wendy Castro, sub-coordinator of Plataforma Agraria reports: ‘Our children need clean and non-polluted air, they need clean and nonpolluted water!’”

This tweet from Las Noticias de Colón further explains:

“Mayor Adán Fúnez postpones the Cabildo due to the request of the boards of influence to the Ecotek electricity project that were intimidated and threatened. The women tore up the documents and set fire to it in front of the stage where the main table was.”

Photo of the town hall meeting.

Background

The Municipal Committee for the Defence of Public and Common Goods has long opposed the Inversiones Los Pinares open-pit iron oxide mine in the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park, and the associated Ecotek processing plant for iron oxide pellets that is located about one hundred meters from the Guapinol River.

Photo: The mine site.

Photo by Guapinol Exige Justicia.

Photo: The mining project and pelletizing plant.

Late last month, Criterio.hn had reported:

“In Tocoa, northern Honduras, the threat of contamination from the mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek, both subsidiaries of the Emco Holding Group, does not disappear.

Currently, the power generation project, which in a first phase would generate 25 megawatts, for a future total of 50 megawatts, is being promoted as a solution to the energy problem in the municipality of Tocoa, department of Colón.

Juana Esquivel, a defender and member of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, [said] that a first point is that the energy component of the mining megaproject was born to supply the iron oxide pelletizing plant, a mineral that has been extracted from the Carlos Escalera National Park.

In addition to this, she said, the public is also not told that the thermoelectric plant is based on pet coke, a by-product derived from the oil refining process, which he pointed out as ‘highly polluting and harmful to health’.

It is important to note that initially the electricity generation component for the pelletizing plant was designed to function as a hydroelectric plant on the Guapinol River, but in recent months it mutated to power generation through petroleum coke.

[On] Tuesday, November 14, the Municipal Corporation of Tocoa, through its mayor Adán Funes and a majority of councillors, voted in favor of holding an open town hall on Saturday, December 9 for the population to decide in relation to the installation of the electric generation plant based on petroleum coke.”

This is the open town hall that was then cancelled.

Image from Guapinol Resiste.

Criterio.hn has also explained:

“There are seven extractive projects that threaten the community of Tocoa, Colón, northern Honduras, but the operation of six of them literally depends on one, which is the generation of energy from the thermoelectric plant based on water and petcoke (petroleum coke), which is being promoted by the mayor of that municipality Adán Fúnez and the government. through the Ministry of Natural Resources (Serna).”

We continue to follow this.

On December 7, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm at the interim hearing in which they were going to decide whether to close the criminalization case against 3 organized fishermen from El Estor and the journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc. The 4 accused were linked to criminal proceedings by four Russian workers of the Fenix project in 2017, owned by CGN – Pronico and Solway.

The hearing was adjourned because Solway’s attorney didn’t show up on time. Although she has already expressed her willingness to step down the criminal process, the hearing was rescheduled for January 31.”

Background on the case

In November 2022, Prensa Comunitaria reported:

“On April 1, 2017, when Cristóbal Pop went fishing at dawn, he found a thick red spot covering the shore of Lake Izabal.

The fisherman knew very well that the contamination could only be the responsibility of the CGN-Pronico mine and so he denounced it.

Representatives of the CGN-Pronico mining company accused him of illegal detention of people, for a demonstration held by the Artisanal Fishermen’s Union in the vicinity of the colony of Russian officials, to denounce the contamination of Lake Izabal.

Since then, the criminalization against him has not stopped and now the threats and intimidation against him are added.

Both Pop and the rest of the fishermen and the journalist [Carlos Ernesto Choc] accused in this same case have not stopped attending the hearings in all these years, some have kept prison, others have given up the struggle and have withdrawn, but others, like Cristóbal Pop, continue in resistance against mining in their territories.”

PBI-Canada met with Choc in Guatemala City in May 2023 and organized this webinar with him in August 2023.

The Canadian connection

The Fenix mine was originally owned by several Canadian companies in succession (INCO Ltd., Skye Resources, Hudbay Minerals Inc.), is now owned by a Swiss-based Russian company (Solway Investment Group).

In April 2023, Newsweek reported that Montreal-based Central America Nickel (CAN) could purchase the mine with the support of the U.S. (and presumably Canadian) embassies in Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos/ Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.

On November 28, PBI-Mexico posted:

“On November 27 and 28, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Peoples Front of Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala in their press conferences about the case of Jaime Dominguez Perez, a survivor of torture.

The defender was arrested in September 2013 as part of a protest against the mega-project Project Integral Morelos (PIM). After several years of fighting for the recognition of this crime, in July 2023 the Human Rights Commission of the State of Morelos issued a recommendation to various state authorities recognizing acts of torture and their due reparation.

PBI calls on competent authorities to guarantee the right to defend human rights, ensuring non-repetition, comprehensive repair and the right to free expression and determination of peoples.”

The Peoples Front further explains:

“In the different territories of the Nahua indigenous peoples of the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, the Morelos Integral Project, in the course of its construction, has violated in many ways and imposed the project on their territories. Through murder, torture, jail and repression of state police, federal police, military and strike groups. The PIM has been built on violence, grave violations of human rights and lawlessness.

On September 19, 2013, in the Colony el Algodonal in Cuautla, the neighbors of the place stopped the construction of the aqueduct (one of the components of the PIM). Morelos State Police in charge of Alicia Vázquez Luna, repel the people and encapsulate Jaime Dominguez Perez (member of the Front of the People in Defense of Land and Water. Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala), who was supporting the neighbors.

Jaime had been missing for 8 hours since his arrest, in which elements of the Morelos State Police tortured him, hitting him in the ears, face and ribs causing him severe injuries and hearing loss, in addition to keeping him handcuffed for all those hours and threatened him with death for ‘walking of revolting’.

We demand punishment for those who ordered, supervised and executed the operation as well as those who detained and tortured Jaime Dominguez. We demand that the use of torture end as an established practice on officers. We demand respect for the right to defend human rights and the repair of the damage caused by the Morelos Comprehensive Project through its cancellation.”

Their full post can be read here.

People’s Front opposes PIM megaproject

The PIM megaproject was built by the Spanish companies Abengoa, Elecnor and Enagas and the Italian company Bonatti.

In December 2021, Enagás and Elecnor sold their ownership of the pipeline to the Sydney, Australia-based Macquarie Group. Macquarie has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

The People’s Front has also linked Toronto-based Alamos Gold to the PIM megaproject (its Esperanza Gold Project mine is situated in Morelos). In February 2022, that mine was sold to Vancouver-based Zacatecas Silver.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has accompanied the Peoples Front in the Defence of Water-Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala since 2020.