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PBI-Colombia accompanies COSPACC and BHRRC in Casanare to receive testimonies about impacts of oil companies

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, PBI-Colombia posted:

“We accompany @CospaccOficial [Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training] and @CIEDHes [Information Center on Business and Human Rights/BHRRC] in #Casanare listening to testimonies from those who experience environmental impacts caused by oil companies. Testimonies to record a documentary on the environmental and social effects suffered by communities in the region.”

PBI-Colombia also posted in English:

Notably, Calgary-based Frontera Energy is one of the companies that operates in Casanare. Concerns have been raised about Frontera that the company denies.

Michel Forst report

Following his visit to Colombia in 2019, then-UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst wrote in this report to the Human Rights Council:

  1. In the context of efforts to defend land and environmental rights, at least 202 defenders have been prosecuted since 2012. By way of example, during the Special Rapporteur’s visit, eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque were arrested and accused of collusion to commit an offence, violence against a public servant and obstructing a public road, and two of them with attempted homicide in connection with their participation in and leadership of the social protests between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads. These human rights defenders remain deprived of their liberty, three of them in prison and five on house arrest.
  2. The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation. In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$ 1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities. On 4 December 2018, the army and the police accused the aforementioned leaders of being members of “Los Jinetes con Careta”, an illegal armed group whose existence has yet to be recognized by the competent authorities. Furthermore, since 2015, Ecopetrol, the main Colombian hydrocarbon exploitation company, has signed five cooperation agreements with the Attorney General’s Office for a total of US$ 24,698,485 to strengthen the investigative and prosecutorial capacity of the Attorney General’s Support Office to deal – inter alia – with crimes of obstruction of public roads during social protests that affect the functioning of Ecopetrol and/or its associated companies, such as Frontera Energy.

PBI-Canada visit to Casanare, July 2022

On July 1, 2022, PBI-Canada visited with the social leaders in San Luis de Palenque, Casanare to hear their testimonies of their experiences with Frontera Energy.

The following morning we met with lawyer Reymundo Velasquez to further discuss the situation and then spent the afternoon with Ninfa Cruz at the COSPACC office in Yopal.

Webinar, October 2022

On October 11, 2022, PBI-Canada and PBI-Colombia collaborated on a webinar featuring Ferney Salcedo and Yulivel Leal, as well as Reymundo Velasquez from the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) and Ninfa Cruz from COSPACC.

To watch the webinar in original English/Spanish audio, click here.

Key excerpts from the webinar can be read at PBI-Canada webinar: Frontera Energy vs San Luis de Palenque, Colombia (October 11, 2022).

Shareholders meeting, May 2023

We also amplified the testimonies of Oscar Ramirez (CSPP), Ferney Salcedo (social leader from San Luis de Palenque, Casanare) and Gustavo Torres (social leader from Orocue, Casanare) at the time of Frontera Energy’s virtual shareholders meeting in Toronto.

Click to watch Video 1

Click to watch Video 2 

Click to watch Video 3

We continue to follow this situation with concern.

RCMP C-IRG conduct raid on Pacheedaht territory despite systemic investigation, calls for this unit to be suspended

By
Brent Patterson
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Still from video by Brandi Morin.

We draw the attention of the international community to the raid by the controversial Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) on Pacheedaht territory in British Columbia (BC), Canada.

Here are key reports from Ricochet Media, Ethan Cox and Brandi Morin:

1:12 pm. Ricochet Media: “BREAKING: The BC RCMP have launched a raid on an Indigenous-led blockade seeking to protect Old Growth in the #FairyCreek watershed. Award-winning journalists @Songstress28 [Brandi Morin] & @photobracken [Amber Bracken] are behind police lines to report from inside the raid.”

2:06 pm. Ricochet Media: “BREAKING: The raid on Savage Patch is over. The blockade is down. – Blockade & camp entirely removed using heavy machinery in ~1.5 hours. – *At least* three arrests. That number may grow. Brandi & Amber are following detainees to [the city of] Cowichan.”

2:12 pm. Ethan Cox: “During today’s raid at #FairyCreek Mounties once again tried to enforce a media exclusion zone, and threatened @Songstress28 [Brandi Morin] with arrest, before an Indigenous DLT [Division Liaison Team] officer stepped in. RCMP have no policy on media access, yet continue to disregard the courts & oversight advice.”

2:56 pm. Ricochet Media: “We should also note that Brandi was threatened with arrest, and the RCMP again tried to enforce a media exclusion zone that the courts have found to be unlawful.”

4:21 pm. Brandi Morin: “RCMP CIRG unit raided & dismantled the Savage Patch blockade to protect old growth forests from being logged this morning. Three land defenders arrested including Uncle Ricco, Cree Matriarch & two settler supporters. WATCH FULL 12 MIN COVERAGE ON MY INSTA @bmorinstories”

4:23 pm. Brandi Morin: “All three land defenders arrested during RCMP CIRG Unit take down at Savage Patch resistance camp this morning were released without charges in [the town of] Lake Cowichan.”

4:33 pm. Brandi Morin: “RCMP SGT Charney grabbed me after him and others threatened me with arrest when I refused to follow their media exclusion zones during the CIRG Unit raid of the Savage Patch blockade against old growth logging. I did, however, inform them that I knew of my rights as a journalist & their exclusion zones are illegal.”

To support the work of frontline reporting by Brandi and Amber, please click here.

This RCMP C-IRG raid took place even though this controversial unit is now under “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

Earlier this year, CBC reported: “The RCMP’s federal watchdog agency [received] nearly 500 formal complaints about a unit tasked with policing resistance to major resource extraction projects in British Columbia. … Most of the complaints stem from [the C-IRG operations at Fairy Creek in 2021], with allegations about exclusion zones, unsafe protester extractions, arbitrary detention, excessive force, intrusive searches, aggression, destruction of property, dishonesty, neglect of duty and more.”

The Abolish C-IRG coalition has stated: “Given the nature of the complaints and substantial evidence supporting them, we argue for the suspension of all C-IRG deployment in BC pending investigation and resolution of all complaints currently before the CRCC. The CRCC reviews can take years to complete, and it is irresponsible to have this unit continue operations during that time, enabling the continuation of unlawful use of force, arrests, detentions, and assaults that have sparked such an investigation.”

Abolish C-IRG on Instagram:

 

 

#AbolishCIRG

Will $200 million for expansion of Rogers Sugar plant in Montreal have implications on the right to water in Guatemala?

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press.

The Canadian Press reports: “Rogers Sugar Inc. has announced plans to spend $200 million to grow its production capacity at its plant in Montreal to help meet increased demand in Eastern Canada. The company said Monday [August 14] the plan will increase production capacity at the plant by about 20 per cent or 100,000 tonnes a year.”

The Lantic Rogers media release on this can be read here.

The Canadian Press article adds: “The company will also expand its logistics and storage capacity in the Greater Toronto Area.”

And it notes: “The announcement came as Rogers Sugar reported a third-quarter profit of $14.2 million or 12 cents per diluted share, up from $3.1 million or three cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter ended July 1 totalled $262.3 million, up from $254.6 million in the same period a year earlier.”

Implications for Guatemala

The news article and media release do not specifically mention the source of sugar to feed the increased capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year.

But we would highlight at this point that between 2015 and 2022, Canada imported 1.46 million metric tons of sugar from Guatemala.

Given this US Department of Agriculture report notes that “the sugarcane crop system [in Guatemala] only requires 100 cubic meters of water per ton”, we can generally estimate that the 1,460,833 metric tons of sugar that Canada has imported since 2015, has required approximately 146,083,300 cubic meters of water.

On our recent visit to the South Coast of Guatemala, PBI-Canada saw diminished and polluted rivers attributed to sugar production and visited numerous communities that shared stories about how the water required for sugar mills had dried wells and gardens.

As noted in the US Department of Agriculture report: “Guatemala’s main export channel continues to be Port Quetzal. The sugar industry’s exporter terminal – EXPOGRANEL – maintains its installed capacity to receive 800 MT of sugar per hour bulk vessel filling at a speed of 2,164 MT of sugar per hour.”

That sugar enters Canada at ports in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We are currently in the process of trying to determine if the increased production capacity in Montreal will have implications for communities in Guatemala that are already struggling with the impacts of sugar production on their right to water.

Join us this Friday to meet Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc

By
Brent Patterson
-

Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc is scheduled to be in a Guatemalan court on Monday August 21. He will be facing charges related to his reporting on the police repression of a protest against a nickel mine first established by a Canadian company.

You can meet him on Friday August 18 at 1 pm ET and hear about the situation he has experiencing since filming the police killing of a 27-year-old Maya Q’eqchi’ fisherperson who was protesting the mine that is polluting Lake Izabal, the largest freshwater lake in Guatemala.

To join this webinar with simultaneous Spanish-English translation, register here now.

When you tune in, you will hear more about the criminalization of this Indigenous journalist, the history of the Fenix nickel mine dating back to its ownership by Toronto-based INCO Ltd., and what we as an international community can do to support Carlos.

While the mine is now owned by a Swiss-based Russian-owned company, Newsweek recently reported that a Montreal-based company could soon buy the company.

To join us this Friday, click here.

PBI-Canada speaks at Prisoners’ Justice Day vigil in Ottawa/ Algonquin territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

An abbreviated version of this speech was presented by PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson at the Prisoners’ Justice Day vigil on August 10:

Thank you to the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) for the opportunity to be with you today.

Prisoners’ Justice Day emerged as a prisoner-initiated day of non-violent resistance to carceral repression and is now an internationally recognized day of solidarity and action.

It’s important, as CPEP seeks to do, to draw attention to the harms of incarceration, including abuse, deaths and inhumane treatment; the need to support those who are incarcerated; and the imperative to work for transformative change.

Over the next few moments, I would like to try to connect Prisoners’ Justice Day with the criminalization and imprisonment of the human rights defenders in Latin America who are accompanied by Peace Brigades International (PBI).

I would also highlight that three of the founders of PBI – Gene Keyes, Lee Stern and Charles Walker – were themselves imprisoned in the United States for their anti-war activities (Gene for one year, Lee for three years).

PBI supports social leaders, environmental defenders, Indigenous land defenders and human rights defenders who have been imprisoned for their defence of fundamental rights.

In Guatemala, we accompany Maya Q’eqchi’ environmental defender Bernardo Caal Xol who spent four years in prison for his resistance to the construction of hydroelectric dams on ancestral lands.

In Honduras, we visited in prison eight Guapinol River defenders, who were jailed for 914 days pending trial for their resistance to an open-pit iron oxide mine polluting their drinking water.

In Mexico, we have accompanied the Cerezo Committee that was formed after the arrest, torture and detention of three brothers in maximum-security penitentiaries. Alejandro was in prison for almost four years, while Héctor and Antonio were in prison for almost eight years.

And in Colombia we accompany the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Along with advocating for political prisoners, they have denounced overcrowding, the lack of medical care, restricted access to water, the differentiated risks faced by women in prison, and the systemic discrimination faced by the LGBTQI+ community in prison.

Criminalization of land defenders in Canada

In the lands and territories of Canada, we also work to draw attention to the violence of the RCMP C-IRG unit, a specialized, militarized unit formed specifically to repress Indigenous land defenders opposed to logging and pipelines, including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.

Thirteen Wet’suwet’en water protectors and supporters are now facing criminal contempt charges for upholding their laws that predate Canada and their right to free, prior and informed consent.

Gidimt’en land defender Molly Wickham, also known as Sleydo’, says the message behind the criminalization she is experiencing is: “follow colonial laws or else you’re gonna go to jail.”

On November 23, 2021, Gidimt’en Checkpoint posted this video of Gidimt’en land defender Sleydo’ speaking after four days in police custody. In it Sleydo’ says: “C-IRG and the RCMP need to be abolished. Anybody who is not into prison abolition should be after this experience that we’ve had.”

Jail terms for human rights defenders

Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, says: “Targeting human rights defenders with long jail terms destroys lives, families and communities.”

As we are hearing today, the same, of course, can be said about the impact of prison on everyone.

What we see is the criminalization, judicialization and imprisonment of those resisting corporate and state violence.

500 days in prison for Ferney Salcedo

I want to share just briefly the story of the imprisonment of social leaders from the community of San Luis de Palenque, Casanare.

Last summer, I met with Ferney Salcedo, a farmer, who raised concerns about the impacts of a Canadian oil company, Frontera Energy, on his community. This included the company’s heavy trucks damaging the roads, the lack of local employment provided by the company, and water pollution.

Meanwhile the company signed two “protection agreements” with the Colombian Ministry of Defence.

Just days after the signing of these agreements, the police and military arrested Ferney and his neighbours in a massive operation including the landing of Black Hawk helicopters on their farmyards.

Following this, Ferny spent 500 days in prison without trial. First in the local Yopal jail, then to the maximum security La Picota prison.

Ferney, his wife Yulivel, and six neighbours are accused of being part of a terrorist group, conspiracy to commit crimes, blocking public roads, and violence against public servants – all of which they deny.

They still face a prolonged trial on this and face the possibility of more time in prison for their social activism.

Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Choc faces jail time

I would also like to share with you the story of Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc.

Carlos will be on trial later this month, and faces time in jail, for trumped-up charges related to his filming of the police murder of a Maya Q’eqchi’ fisherperson protesting against the pollution of Lake Izabal by the Fenix nickel mine (first established by a Canadian company).

There will be the opportunity to hear from him directly on Friday August 18 at 1 pm ET via this webinar.

Solidarity

We join with you today to reject state violence, economic violence, and repression by state institutions, including prisons, the police and military – and in support of economic and social justice.

Photo: Farhat Rehman of Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS) speaks at the vigil. For more on what she shared, please see From Grieving Mother to Prisoner Advocate.

RCMP delays in providing documents on the C-IRG for systemic investigation being conducted by federal watchdog

By
Brent Patterson
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Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks says the C-IRG must be abolished. Video still: Chief Na’Moks speaks on a PBI-Canada webinar, February 21, 2023.

The federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) watchdog agency launched a systemic investigation into the activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) on March 8 of this year.

Five months after this launch, the CRCC now says: “Progress is coming along well although delays in receiving the relevant material is a concern.”

That’s from an email dated August 3 seen by CBC News.

CBC News further reports: “Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale) was not surprised by reports of delays, pointing to understaffing and underfunding at the CRCC. ‘I believe they’re trying their best with what they got,’ he said. ‘But it is the tactics of the RCMP and C-IRG itself to stall, stall. [The C-IRG] must be abolished.’”

Photo of Noah Ross by Jerome Turner.

The article also notes: “Some complainants wanted the investigation to have more teeth, like the potential to recommend disbandment, said lawyer Noah Ross, counsel to Fairy Creek arrestees and counsel on two CRCC group complaints.”

Ross says: “The complaints speak to systemic, organized violations of charter rights and that’s what their experiences are. It just doesn’t appear the concerns are being responded to with alacrity or a kind of urgency that my clients feel is needed.”

6-week timeframe for RCMP to produce files

The CBC also reports: “The CRCC said via statement the investigation was comprehensive and covered a a five-year span, with thousands of documents already disclosed and more coming. But the commission has a deal with the Mounties, spelling out timeframes for the production of documents, which, in this case, is six weeks.”

Delays in receiving files from the RCMP

When PBI-Canada contacted the CRCC this past June, three-months after the investigation had been launched, the CRCC responded: “We have received some of that information so far, and are awaiting confirmation on when the RCMP will be able to compile and provide the remainder.”

They added: “The CRCC strives to complete its systemic investigations within 12-18 months; however, the timely provision of requested information and access to RCMP personnel will largely determine when the CRCC’s report will be available.”

Upcoming

The six-month mark of the systemic investigation will be September 8.

If the RCMP committed in early-August to producing the documents the CRCC has requested that timeframe would be about September 15.

Meanwhile there are concerns that the C-IRG could be imminently deployed against Pacheedaht land defenders and allies at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island.

In an Open Letter to the CRCC (March 22, 2023), the Abolish C-IRG coalition stated:

“While we welcome the CRCC’s investigation, the current Terms of Reference (TOR) for this process fails to create a meaningful forum for accountability. Given the nature of the complaints and substantial evidence supporting them, we argue for the suspension of all C-IRG deployment in BC pending investigation and resolution of all complaints currently before the CRCC. The CRCC reviews can take years to complete, and it is irresponsible to have this unit continue operations during that time, enabling the continuation of unlawful use of force, arrests, detentions, and assaults that have sparked such an investigation.”

The full article by Brett Forester can be read at RCMP watchdog concerned with delays in B.C. C-IRG probe (August 14, 2023).

Former PBI-Guatemala field volunteer testifies at trial on the arbitrary detention by police of journalist Norma Sancir at Indigenous protest

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Katharina Ochsendorf testified via videoconference from the Guatemalan consulate in Germany. Photo by Prensa Comunitaria/ Simón Antonio.

Norma Sancir is a Maya Kaqchikel journalist, social communicator and human rights defender of the Ch’orti ’people in Chiquimula, Guatemala. She was arrested on September 18, 2014, by the National Civil Police (PNC) at a Maya Ch’orti’ protest opposed to mining activities and laws that criminalize opponents of mines and related infrastructure.

(In 1997, Guatemala passed the Mining Law, which was drafted with the assistance of executives working for a Canadian mining company. The Canadian Embassy also met with Otto Pérez Molina, Guatemala’s president from January 2012 to September 2015, to create a favourable environment for Canadian companies, despite Pérez Molina’s alleged involvement in “scorched earth campaigns” against Indigenous peoples. In 2014, Canadian mining assets abroad totalled $72.4 billion. Half of those assets were in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2021, Canadian mining assets in Guatemala totalled $398 million.)

Sancir was arbitrarily detained for five days at the Los Jocotes prison in Zacapa.

Prensa Comunitaria reports: “On Wednesday, August 9, the fifth hearing of the oral and public trial for the illegal detention of journalist Norma Sancir was held. Katharina Ochsendorf, who at the time of the journalist’s arrest, on 18 September 2014, was a volunteer with Peace Brigades International (PBI), testified as a witness.”

The article continues:

“The witness said that she was in the region at the request of the Nuevo Día [New Day] Ch’orti’ Indigenous Association, because on September 17 and 18 there would be nationwide demonstrations.

The Mayan Ch’orti’ people made the call at the Jupilingo bridge. So, when she showed up on September 17, she looked for the head of police contingency operations who was at the scene to identify herself. The next day at 7:30 a.m. she arrived near the Jupilingo bridge, Ochsendorf says she stayed about 1.5 kilometers away, because tear gas shots were heard. At that moment next to the Tuctuc in which she was traveling, a stone fell, then a policeman grabbed her arm to leave the place. ‘There were people dressed as police throwing the stones down,’ the witness said.

Ochsendorf said she was already in a safe place when she became aware of the arrest of Prensa Comunitaria journalist Norma Sancir, who had her hands shackled forward. ‘We already saw that Norma arrives handcuffed with police officers on the sides,’ she told the court judge. ‘As I recall, she didn’t have her backpack, nor did she have her press card that she was carrying the day before,’ she said.

Subsequently, according to the witness, they went to the PNC police station in Chiquimula, where the journalist was being held, to verify her physical condition and the reason for her detention. Four other people were arrested at the scene that morning. In the conversation according to Ochsendorf she told them what had happened. ‘She also failed to reach the place, they stopped her almost when she got off the Tuctuc. They had taken out their press equipment, their camera and that’s it,’ she said.

According to the witness, the police repression that day was the most violent she had seen during her stay in Guatemala, despite the fact that her job is to make observations so that the rights of the demonstrators are not violated. The testimony of the witness was given by videoconference from the Guatemalan consulate in Germany.”

The trial continues this Wednesday August 16.

Further reading: RCMP has no national policy on policing media at protest sites: FOI (The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2023). This article highlights: “The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] says it has no clear-cut policy on how to handle journalists when Mounties [notably the controversial C-IRG unit] are breaking up protests such as those at remote resource sites, despite court decisions guiding the need to respect the freedom of Canada’s press in these tense situations. A freedom-of-information request filed after the November 2021, arrest of photojournalist Amber Bracken at the Wet’suwet’en pipeline standoff in northern B.C., was recently returned by the federal police force with the acknowledgment that it did not have a protocol on this issue.”

Photo of Norma Sancir.

PBI-Canada webinar with criminalized Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Choc, August 18

By
Brent Patterson
-

Join us on Friday August 18 at 1 pm ET to hear Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Choc talk about the criminalization he has experienced for reporting on the Fenix mine in Guatemala.

To register for the webinar, click here.

This webinar will occur on the Friday before the Monday that Choc is scheduled to be in court to face charges dating back to 2017.

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), and there are reports that it could be owned again by a Montreal-based company (Central America Nickel).

Choc photographed 27-year-old Maya Q’eqchi’ fisher Carlos Maaz who was shot dead on May 27, 2017, by police at a protest against the pollution of Lake Izabal by the mine. Choc also took part in an investigation published by Forbidden Stories about the relationship between Solway and the National Civil Police in Guatemala.

Learn more about this situation, Choc’s upcoming trial date, and what the international community can do to support this journalist, by joining this webinar.

Concerns that RCMP C-IRG could raid Savage Patch blockade against logging of old-growth forest on Pacheedaht territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video of Tla’amin Elder Grandma Losah, a land defender and water protector now at the resistance camp.

A blockade of a road to stop logging on Pacheedaht territory in British Columbia has been announced on Instagram.

The Times Colonist also reports: “Advocates against old-growth logging have been blocking a bridge over the Gordon River with a large wooden statue of a screech owl for the past week. A camp was set up north of Port Renfrew last Saturday [July 30] to prevent forestry company Teal Jones from accessing cut blocks 7265 and 7263 on Edinburgh Mountain, organizers said on social media.”

The blockade has been organized by Savage Patch, who describe themselves as led by “local Indigenous peoples, accomplices and allies”.

Video: CHEK News.

This online fundraiser launched two days ago to send journalist Brandi Morin and photojournalist Amber Bracken to the site also notes: “A new blockade, led by Indigenous youth and supported by non-Indigenous allies, has just been erected on a key bridge crossing an arterial logging road.”

It then notes: “The RCMP’s specialized tactical team that responds to land defence actions is present and surveilling the camp. A raid could come any day, and having media on the ground is of crucial importance to keep tabs on police and document the latest developments as land defenders seek to protect their unceded territories from old-growth logging.”

Morin and Bracken are now on-site.

In this Twitter video report, Morin says: “[The land defenders have] been served with the injunction three times and suspect that a raid and arrests by the C-IRG unit could happen at any time. The land defenders here have told us they’ve been subjected to harassment, surveillance by personnel staked out in various areas in the forest. Over the last several days there has been RCMP helicopters that have showed up.”

The C-IRG unit is now under “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) including with respect to its past actions.

Earlier this year, CBC reported: “The RCMP’s federal watchdog agency is weighing its options after receiving nearly 500 formal complaints about a unit tasked with policing resistance to major resource extraction projects in British Columbia. … Most of the complaints stem from [the C-IRG operations at Fairy Creek in 2021], with allegations about exclusion zones, unsafe protester extractions, arbitrary detention, excessive force, intrusive searches, aggression, destruction of property, dishonesty, neglect of duty and more.”

Video: RCMP used pepper-spray against land defenders, August 21, 2021.

The Abolish C-IRG coalition has stated: “We demand that deployment of C-IRG in BC be immediately suspended pending full and fair resolution (review, determination and remediation) of each and all of the hundreds of complaints to CRCC alleging C-IRG use of force to unlawfully arrest, detain and assault people.”

It further notes: “Failure by the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General to call for a halt to C-IRG deployment in BC pending determination of the complaints is a tacit admission that the CRCC process is capable of recording complaints but not of remedying their damage.”

For more about the CRCC investigation of the C-IRG, click here.

For more on the calls for the abolition of the C-IRG, click here.

To donate to the fundraiser to support on-the-ground reporting by Morin and Bracken, please click here.

RCMP cited Indigenous opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline as “evidence” to create the C-IRG

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock.

CBC journalist Brett Forester reports: “The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] used the anti-pipeline resistance at the Standing Rock reservation [in the United States] in 2016 to justify creating a unit in British Columbia to police similar opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, newly released documents show.”

“Internal files, recently released to CBC News through access to information laws, show the RCMP cited the Sioux-led opposition as ‘supporting evidence’ when creating the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

Documents obtained by CBC News.

Forester adds: “Then-Inspector Chuck McDonald’s proposal, called a ‘business case,’ offers the earliest look at why the B.C. RCMP felt it needed the new squad tasked specifically for the Trans Mountain project [then owned by Texas-based Kinder Morgan].”

The Standing Rock resistance in North Dakota in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline began in April 2016 with the concern that the fracked oil pipeline would put at risk the Missouri River, the reservation’s main source of drinking water, as well as ancient burial grounds and sacred cultural sites.

In September 2016, at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed by company security guards and six people were bitten by dogs when land defenders tried to stop construction crews and bulldozers from destroying sacred burial grounds.

Photo: On October 27, 2016, about 200 police in riot gear along with soldiers with the National Guard carried out a mid-day raid against water protectors.

On November 2, 2016, police in riot gear shot rubber bullets and used pepper spray against water protectors at Cantapeta Creek.

Then on November 21, 2016, police deployed water hoses in freezing temperatures against hundreds of water protectors. The Indigenous Environmental Network said that more than 160 people were injured by this police violence.

This was the context when the RCMP Inspector described the largely peaceful water protection struggle as a “sometimes violent protest” and made the case for the C-IRG on January 17, 2017.

The on-the-ground resistance to the fracked oil pipeline ended on February 23, 2017, when about 200 police officers entered the Oceti Sakowin camp in armoured cars, carrying weapons, and arrested about 46 people.

The C-IRG was established that same year.

Now, after nearly 500 complaints against the C-IRG, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission is conducting a systemic review of the unit to determine if its “relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and training … are consistent with applicable jurisprudence/case law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

To read the full article by Brett Forester, go to RCMP cited Standing Rock protests as ‘evidence’ to create controversial B.C. unit (August 3, 2023).

For more about the C-IRG, please see the Abolish C-IRG website.

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