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A celebration of the life of PBI co-founder Hans Sinn

By
Brent Patterson
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On the afternoon of September 24, Peace Brigades International-Canada was present in the small rural community of Brooke Valley, about an hour west of Ottawa, Canada, for a gathering to celebrate the life of PBI co-founder Hans Sinn.

Hans passed away on June 29 at 94 years of age.

Hans’ son Anthony (in the photo above) reminded those gathered to celebrate Hans’ life that his father would be the first to say that his work is not yet completed and that all of us can play a role in continuing to build a more peaceful world.

The legacy of Hans includes the accompaniment by PBI of human rights defenders in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia, Nicaragua/Costa Rica and beyond. We continue to draw inspiration from Hans’ example of commitment, focus and determination to contribute to a better world.

Further reading:

-Peace Brigades International co-founder Hans Sinn passes away at 94 years of age (July 3, 2023)

–Hans Sinn’s lifelong journey for a peaceful world (June 9, 2019)

 

Photo: Hans Sinn meeting with Brent Patterson of PBI-Canada at Hans’ home near Perth, Ontario on September 4, 2019, the 38thanniversary of the founding of PBI.

For the author, this Facebook post by Hans just a few weeks before he passed away is humbling and deeply meaningful.

Canada set to spend about $400 million on more than 200 Hellfire missiles for its new $5 billion fleet of Reaper drones

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: AGM-114 Hellfire missile.

The Ottawa Citizen reports: “The Canadian military has set the stage for its purchase of a fleet of armed drones by requesting the United States provide it with 219 Hellfire missiles as part of an overall program that could be worth up to $5 billion.”

The Air-to-Ground (AGM)-114R2 Hellfire II missile “provides precision striking power against tanks, structures, bunkers and helicopters.” Lockheed Martin manufactures the missile body, while Northrop Grumman builds its propulsion system.

The article adds: “Canada, the U.S. government and American drone manufacturer General Atomics are in the final stages of the purchase of a fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones that will be operated from a command centre in Ottawa. A contract is expected to be in place by next spring, if not earlier, military and defence industry officials say.”

Photo: MQ-9A Reaper drone.

The purchase of the Hellfire missiles and “assorted other weapons and equipment” for the drones is worth more than $400 million.

Those additional purchases include twelve Mk82 500-lb General Purpose bombs and eighteen tail kits for GBU-38 and GBU-54 munition systems “that convert existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather smart munitions.”

In May 2021, the Canadian Press reported: “The government and military say the unmanned aircraft will be used for surveillance and intelligence gathering as well as delivering pinpoint strikes from the air on enemy forces in places where the use of force has been approved.”

A media statement from the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on the sale of munitions and other systems for the drones highlights: “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the military capability of Canada, a NATO ally that is an important force for ensuring political stability and economic progress, and a contributor to military, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations around the world.”

In July 2021, The Intercept reported: “By some estimates, U.S. drone operations abroad, conducted by both the military and the CIA, have killed between 9,000 and 17,000 people since 2004, including as many as 2,200 children and multiple U.S. citizens.”

Daniel Hale, a former United States Air Force signals intelligence analyst who helped locate targets for drone strikes when he was deployed in Afghanistan, has stated: “With drone warfare, sometimes nine out of 10 people killed are innocent.”

Canada is expected to receive its first armed drones in 2028.

Further reading: Canada to spend up to $5 billion on 12 armed drones (August 13, 2020)

Photo: An MQ-9A Reaper drone armed with eight Hellfire missiles.

NO ARMED DRONES website.

Families gather on Parliament Hill to call on Canadian government to search Winnipeg landfill

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Jorden Myran, Marcedes Myran’s sister, and Cambria Harris, Morgan Harris’ daughter,  at the national day of action event on Parliament Hill.

The families of two murdered Indigenous women were on Parliament Hill today to demand that the Canadian government fund the search of a Winnipeg landfill to recover the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

Prior to being on Parliament Hill, the families met with federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree. The families had been hopeful that the Minister would tell them that the government was prepared to support the search of the landfill.

Morgan’s cousin Melissa Robinson explains: “We last sat with him five weeks ago and he expressed the work needs to be done, we’re going to start doing it but in five weeks nothing has panned out yet. So, here we are, yet again sitting down and reliving our trauma just to be told that they have more questions.”

Cambria Harris, the daughter of Morgan Harris, said that the Minister’s failure to do this and instead ask for more information was “a retraumatizing experience”.

Cambria says: “It’s clear that reconciliation is dead, because we’re still sitting here 10 months later in these rooms with different politicians of all levels of government explaining my story over and over, begging them to find my mother.”

She adds: “I will no longer be treated like a tick on a politician’s agenda and something that’s less than a human being, because I was not respected in that room today.”

For more read: Daughter of slain First Nations woman Morgan Harris walks out of meeting with minister (Brett Forester, CBC News).

Some of the others who met with the Minister held a brief sit-in in the office given their profound disappointment with his failure to commit to a search of the landfill.

Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris.

It is believed that the remains of Marcedes and Morgan, who were murdered in May 2022, are in the Prairie Green landfill in Winnipeg.

In December 2022, the Winnipeg Police Service announced it would not search the landfill for their remains. That same month, the RCMP also told federal officials that police are not equipped to conduct such a search. In July 2023, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said it was not “viable” to search the landfill.

A study led by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) says a search is feasible at a cost of up to $184 million over three years.

Camp Morgan was set up at the Brady Road landfill in December 2022. A blockade they had set up was dismantled by Winnipeg Police on July 18. Camp Marcedes was set up shortly afterwards at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

We continue to follow this.

Search the Landfills gathering on Parliament Hill, September 18

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Canada will be on Parliament Hill on Monday September 18 starting at 12 noon for the International Day of Action to Search the Landfills event.

This day honours missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people whose remains are either already found or believed to be in the Brady Road and Prairie Green Landfills in Winnipeg and other landfills across Canada.

The House of Commons Sitting Calendar indicates that September 18 is the day that Members of Parliament will be returning to the House of Commons.

Organizers with Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS) are calling for people to be on Parliament Hill “on the 18th when the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran face parliamentarians returning to the House after summer break.”

The Standing Bear Network also highlights: “One crucial aspect of the September 18th event is the scheduled press conference at 10 AM (EDT). The exact location is yet to be determined but will likely be in close proximity to Parliament Hill. This press conference offers an opportunity for organizers, victims’ families, advocates, and allies to address the media directly.”

It is believed that the remains of Morgan and Marcedes, who were murdered in May 2022, are in the Prairie Green landfill in Winnipeg.

In December 2022, the Winnipeg Police Service announced it would not search the landfill for their remains. That same month, the RCMP also told federal officials that police are not equipped to conduct such a search. In July 2023, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said it was not “viable” to search the landfill.

A study led by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) says a search is feasible at a cost of up to $184 million over three years.

In December 2015, the Government of Canada launched the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The final report of that National Inquiry released in June 2019 concluded that the high level of violence against First Nations, Inuit and Metis women and girls is “caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies” and that the crisis constituted an ongoing “race, identity and gender-based genocide.”

This summer, Leah Gazan, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, filed a submission with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples that states: “I am requesting international oversight on the failure of governments to search for our stolen sisters, and uphold the human rights of Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people.”

To donate to support the organizing of this event on Parliament Hill via an electronic money transfer (EMT): familiesofsistersinspirit@gmail.com

#SearchTheLandfills

How are two Canadian corporations – TC Energy and CPKC Rail – implicated in the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject in Mexico?

By
Brent Patterson
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To join a webinar that will look at the connections of TC Energy and CPKC Rail to the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject, click here.

Following the participation of PBI-Mexico in the Civilian Observation Mission to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, PBI-Canada is looking at the role of Calgary-based CPKC Rail in the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus megaproject and Calgary-based TC Energy in the Southeast Gateway pipeline that would take fracked gas to the Isthmus.

Proceso has reported: “During its three-day tour [July 25-27], the Civilian Observation Mission recorded human rights violations, framed in the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus megaproject, against members of indigenous peoples and communities, most of which involve the Navy and the National Guard.”

First of all, what is the Interoceanic Corridor?

Mexico News Daily has explained: “The so-called Interoceanic Corridor will include 10 new industrial parks across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — the narrow ‘waist’ of southern Mexico between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.”

That article adds: “Another key component of [Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador] AMLO’s industrial strategy for southern Mexico is a 300-km transoceanic freight rail line that would link the proposed industrial parks. The ports of Coatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz would be expanded, and a new gas pipeline would be constructed in the oil-rich region. There are also plans for four new wind farms across the region to support the boom in industry that the government hopes will follow investment.”

Photo: The Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus (CIIT).

How are Canadian corporations implicated in this megaproject?

Let’s take it step by step, project by project:

Sur de Texas pipeline

This TC Energy pipeline takes fracked gas from the city of Brownsville in southern Texas to the city of Tuxpan in the Mexican state of Veracruz. This pipeline is currently in operation.

Tula pipeline

The Sur de Texas pipeline in Tuxpan would connect with the Tula pipeline (now under construction) that is being opposed by the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo. Notably, the Regional Council has reached out to the Wet’suwet’en in Canada who oppose the TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline (also now under construction). More on this soon!

Southeast Gateway pipeline

The TC Energy Southeast Gateway (aka Puerta al Sureste) pipeline would also begin on land in Tuxpan and continue across the ocean and flow to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz and the refinery in Dos Bocas, Paraiso, Tabasco. Greenpeace Mexico confirms that “this new pipeline would be the extension of the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan gas pipeline”.

This pipeline is opposed by the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI).

This past February, La Jornada Veracruz reported that campesinas, Indigenous peoples and environmental groups protested in Sierra de Santa Marta against this pipeline “to demand an end to the criminalization and persecution of their leaders. …The activists [also expressed concern that] a great campaign has been deployed to militarize the towns that are within the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT).”

Greenpeace Mexico has also explained that the Southeast Gateway pipeline “will seek to connect this infrastructure [the Sur de Texas pipeline] with megaprojects such as the Dos Bocas refinery, the Mayan Train, two combined cycle plants in the Yucatan Peninsula, the liquefaction terminals of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos, all this with the aim of exporting liquefied gas to the Trans-Isthmus industrial corridor, as well as to Europe and Asia.”

Mayan Train

Bnamericas reports: “Following a meeting between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, US officials and CPKC executives in Mexico City [in May of this year], the government unveiled that it invited the company to participate in the 1,500 kilometre Maya train.”

The Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER) has further noted: “The main source of income for the Mayan Train will be the transportation of fuels.” They list two Canadian companies, Vancouver-based Renaissance Oil Corp. and Regina-based provincial Crown corporation Sask Energy Incorporated, among the companies that would benefit from the building of the Mayan Train megaproject.

The Interoceanic Corridor

How does this all connect to the Interoceanic Corridor and the Civilian Observation Mission that PBI-Mexico took part in?

The Sur de Texas pipeline concludes in Tuxpan, Veracruz, which is situated just north of the Isthmus. The Tula pipeline begins in Tuxpan.

The Southeast Gateway pipeline begins in Tuxpan and flows to the city of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, a key location for the Interoceanic Corridor.

This pipeline also connects to the Dos Bocas refinery located on the Isthmus.

Expansion also reports that the Southeast Gateway pipeline connects with the Trans-Isthmus pipeline that would flow from Jáltipan, Veracruz to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca.

Lastly, Bnamericas reports Mexican president López Obrador has invited CPKC to participate in the “the rehabilitation of the 300 kilometre Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor between Oaxaca and Veracruz states.” And Radio Fórmula has reported: “AMLO has confirmed that the Interoceanic Corridor would connect with the Mayan Train.”

Webinar, September 21

PBI-Canada will try to further understand these connections in an upcoming webinar with Carlos Beas Torres of the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) and Margherita Forni of PBI-Mexico.

Frontline Defenders has highlighted: “In the early hours of 24 March 2023, a protest-camp of UCIZONI [that had been blocking for 24 days the modernization works of the railroad of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec] was attacked by civilians and police from the State of Oaxaca, leaving two people injured.”

On TC Energy beginning construction of the Southeast Gateway pipeline this past May, Beas says: “We are witnessing this Canadian company threaten the Laguna del Ostion estuary, in the south of the state of Veracruz.”

To register for this webinar, click here.

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CPKC and TC Energy in Canada

In Uncovered tracks: The bloody legacy of Canada’s railways (National Observer, December 2020), Joe Bongiorno commented: “Although the railway has always been a private corporation, it was — and remains — a wrought iron symbol of Confederation. But for First Nations peoples, Canada’s railways are vehicles for expropriation.”

Photo: The Last Spike completed the CPR railroad in Canada in 1885. Photo: The “final spike” ceremony in April 2023 celebrated the merger of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railway companies into CPKC.

TC Energy is building the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, Canada. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to stop the building of this pipeline until it gains the consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

Photo: The controversial Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) arrest Wet’suwet’en land defenders opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in February 2020.

Accompaniment update

By
Brent Patterson
-

This summer, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project participated in a Civilian Observation Mission that documented human rights violations against Indigenous peoples by state security forces in the context of the Interoceanic Corridor.

A key component of this Corridor, which is essentially a land-based version of the Panama Canal, is a 300 kilometre railway line.

The company involved in this railway line that would join two coasts in southern Mexico? Calgary-based CPKC, formerly Canadian Pacific Railway.

Furthermore, there is growing concern about the Southeast Gateway offshore gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico with its terminus point in Veracruz, not far from another pipeline that would cross Interoceanic Corridor across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Pacific Ocean.

The company building the Southeast Gateway pipeline? Calgary-based TC Energy.

On Thursday September 21 at 1 pm ET, join us to hear more about CPKC and the Interoceanic Corridor and TC Energy and the Southeast Gateway pipeline.

Our speakers will be Margherita Forni of PBI-Mexico who participated in the Civilian Observation Mission on the Corridor, and Carlos Beas Torres of the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) who has spoken against the pipeline.

To hear them, register here.

Other accompaniment updates:

– RCMP C-IRG spent $11 million in 2022 patrolling the Morice Forest Service Road on Wet’suwet’en territory (September 11)

– PBI-Mexico accompanies relatives of victims of enforced disappearance at ceremony in Chihuahua (August 31)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation at protest in front of the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) in Bogota (August 31)

– PBI-Honduras accompanies LGBTQI+ defenders at Pride March in Tegucigalpa where car hit transgender activist Megan Kerr (August 28)

– PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya and their ongoing struggle against extractivism (September 11)

We hope that you will register here and be able to join us to hear Margherita and Carlos on Thursday September 21.

And, as always, if you can support this work with a donation of any amount, please click here.

Brent

Coordinator, PBI-Canada

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya and their ongoing struggle against extractivism

By
Brent Patterson
-

On September 3, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya at their monthly mass. The Resistance is currently beginning the pre-consultation process to decide the future of mining extractivism in the region.”

On Sunday May 7, PBI-Canada and PBI-Guatemala visited with the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya at a roadside site that it has maintained for more than ten years at the entrance to the “El Tambor” Progreso VII Derivada gold mine.

A mass took place while we were there too.

Notably, this story of 10 years of resistance begins with Radius Gold (whose office is at Suite 650, 200 Burrard Street in Vancouver, British Columbia) securing an exploitation licence from the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines in 2011.

On March 2, 2012, area residents, who had not been consulted about this mine, set up a 24-hour a day blockade at the entrance to the mine site. Within weeks, on May 8, 2012, the women of the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya laid on the ground, sang and prayed to stop bulldozers from entering the mine.

Doña Licha, who we met when there this past May, has previously commented: “In 2012, when we saw the machines arriving at the mine and after being informed of the contamination of the water it was going to generate, we blocked the way.”

A few months later, in August 2012, Radius Gold sold the mine to KCA. Significantly though, the Canadian company retained an economic interest in the mine, including quarterly royalty payments on the gold production from the mine.

More specifically, Radius Gold noted in its first quarter Financial Review in 2015: “KCA agreed to repay approximately US$400,000 owing to the Company (US$100,000 paid upon signing and approximately US$300,000 to be paid once KCA has commenced shipment of gold produced from the property). Also, upon commercial production, KCA agreed to make quarterly payments to the Company based on the then price of gold and the number of ounces produced from the property.”

Shortly after the sale, then-Radius Gold president Ralph Rushton told La Hora: “Radius continues to feel optimistic that commercial production will be achieved at El Tambor and the company will be paid back for the investment it has made in the region since the discovery of gold in El Tambor in 2000.”

In February 2016, the Peaceful Resistance won a Guatemalan Supreme Court ruling to provisionally suspend the mine. By that point, the mine had operated for almost two years. On May 21, 2021, the court lifted that suspension, but the authorization for the mine to begin operation has not yet been granted.

That authorization is subject to a consultation process (as noted in the PBI-Guatemala post, it’s now in the pre-consultation stage).

For more on our visit to Guatemala, please see Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Guatemala accompanied organizations, defenders and communities.

Report & webinar – Colombia Confronting Impunity: Protect Lawyers and Judicial Independence

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The delegation (including Heather Neun) meets with the PBI-Colombia accompanied Luis Carlos Pérez Collective Lawyers Corporation (CCALCP) and the Campesina Association of Catatumbo (ASCAMCAT).

Peace Brigades International-Canada Board member and lawyer Heather Neun participated in the International Caravana of Jurists delegation to Colombia in August 2022.

Earlier this year, the Caravana report on that visit was posted in English here.

Among the recommendations in the report, the delegation called on the Colombian government to ensure “effective protection for judges and other justice operators, those who defend human rights, civilians in areas of high territorial violence, and security guarantees for participants in social and political movements and leaders, ensuring there are independent, effective investigations and prosecutions of human rights violations.”

Now, on this coming Wednesday September 20 at 11:00 am Bogota time, the Spanish version of the report will be released. That launch in conjunction with the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) will be virtual with simultaneous translation in Spanish and English.

To register for that webinar, click here.

RCMP C-IRG spent $11 million in 2022 patrolling the Morice Forest Service Road on Wet’suwet’en territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video excerpt from The Juice Media honest government ad.

The Tyee reports: “The RCMP’s costs for patrolling a remote resource road on Wet’suwet’en territory to protect a pipeline project rose almost 60 per cent last year to $11 million, despite no significant police actions in the area.”

The article adds: “It’s the most the RCMP has spent on the Morice [Forest Service Road] in a single year since Wet’suwet’en opposition to the pipeline first boiled over in January 2019, and it brings total costs of policing the conflict to almost $37 million in just over four years.”

Video.

Notably, the article also highlights that while the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) deployments involve officers from various detachments, “the first two full-time C-IRG officers were hired last November, internal RCMP records show.”

In January 2023, CBC journalist Brett Forester reported: “An RCMP squad charged with policing resistance to resource extraction in British Columbia spent nearly $50 million enforcing injunctions obtained by the petroleum and forestry sectors in its first five years, an internal accounting shows.”

Those figures showed the C-IRG had spent $27,645,711 between 2018-19 and July 31, 2022.

These public funds (70 per cent paid by the Government of British Columbia, 30 per cent by the Government of Canada) continue to be spent despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination first calling on Canada to remove the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en territory in December 2019.

Photo: PBI-Canada accompanies Dene youth on the Morice Forest Service Road on their way to the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre on Wet’suwet’en territory on November 20, 2021. The youth feared being stopped by the RCMP and asked to be accompanied.

On March 8, 2023, the federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) launched a systemic investigation of the RCMP C-IRG unit. The Abolish C-IRG coalition has called for the activities of the C-IRG to be suspended during this investigation.

The full article by Amanda Follett Hosgood can be read at RCMP Spent Record Amount to Protect CGL Pipeline Last Year (The Tyee, September 11, 2023).

Carmen Aguirre on Canadian foreign policy and the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo of Carmen Aguirre by Tim Fraser/The Globe and Mail.

Carmen Aguirre’s family fled Chile after the coup in 1973 when she was five years old, eventually making their way to Vancouver.

In 1979, Carmen, her younger sister Ale, her mother Mami and Canadian activist step-father Bob Everton returned to Chile to join the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria – MIR, known in English as the Movement of the Revolutionary Left.

She moved back to Canada after more than ten years in the resistance.

This week she wrote in The Globe and Mail:

“Sept. 11 marks the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile. Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president, was overthrown by the U.S.-backed general, Augusto Pinochet.

I was five years old at the time. Three months later, my family went into exile, ending up in Vancouver. We thought we’d be here for six months, at which point a transitional government would be installed, and we would return to Chile. The dictatorship lasted for 17 years.

Allende’s peaceful road to socialism through the Popular Unity government included the nationalization of Chuquicamata (the world’s biggest copper mine), agrarian reform, returning land to the indigenous Mapuche people, and literacy campaigns.

When Allende nationalized the country’s resources, the United States implemented sanctions. ‘Make the economy scream,’ U.S. president Richard Nixon infamously said. Canada, under Pierre Trudeau, participated, suspending bilateral assistance, and voting to cut off all money Chile received from the International Monetary Fund; Canadian mining corporation Noranda had been part owner of the nationalized Chuquicamata copper mine. Canadian banks left the country.

Pierre Trudeau expressed diplomatic support for Mr. Pinochet. Within a month of the coup, Canada voted for Inter-American Development Bank loans to Chile, and endorsed International Monetary Fund loans. By 1978, Canadian banks had given 20 loans to Chile and direct investments by Canadian companies were at almost $1-billion. Although Mr. Pinochet kept Chile’s three largest copper mines in state hands, using some of their earnings to fund his military, Noranda reclaimed its 49-per-cent share in its subsidiary Chile Canadian Mines.

Given all of this, why and how did Canada give asylum to almost 7,000 refugees fleeing the dictatorship?

Leftists across Canada were appalled by their government’s response to the ultra-right-wing fascist coup, demanding that doors be opened to Chilean refugees. They rallied, occupied government offices and wrote letters until, in 1974, Canada agreed to offer asylum to Chileans.

In order to be accepted as a Chilean asylum seeker, you agreed to renounce your leftist political activity in Canada. Almost no one followed that directive.”

Her full article can be read at Allende’s dream, Pinochet’s coup and Chile’s present (The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2023).

You can also read more about her experiences in her book Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (April 2011) as well as in the article A childhood on the run (The Guardian, November 2011).

—

To register for the webinar noted below, click here.

Further reading: Remembering Canada’s support for the right wing coup in Chile (Yves Engler, September 2018).

Also, the documentary Nae Pasaran tells the story of Bob, Robert, Stuart and John, workers at a Rolls Royce plant in Scotland, who refused to service the engines of Chilean Air Force Hunter Hawker fighter jets that had been used in the coup.

Matthew Behrens has written that 3,000 people rallied in Ottawa against the AMRX ‘89 weapons show (now called CANSEC) that facilitated the sale of weapons to Chile.

On May 18, 1999, the group Kissinger out of Canada attempted a citizens’ arrest of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – for crimes against humanity and his role in the 1973 coup – at the Sheraton Centre hotel in downtown Toronto.

The New York Times reported in November 2019 that Chilean security forces were implicated in 6 deaths, arrested 6,300 people, and that there were 2,400 hospitalizations of protesters, including at least 285 people who suffered eye trauma, during the anti-austerity protests against Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. In 2019-2020, Canada exported $5.6 million of “military goods” to Chile.

There will also be a commemorative gathering in Ottawa. More on that here.

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