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Canada secures $418 million sale of 55 light armoured vehicles to the Colombian army

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: An armored combat support vehicle (ACSV) variant of the GDLS LAV on display at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 2022.

During last year’s election in Colombia, presidential-candidate Gustavo Petro promised: “I am not going to waste resources on weapons and bombs.”

Just a year later, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), Canada’s government-to-government (G2G) contracting arm, announced a CAD $418-million contract to sell 55 Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) to the Colombian Ministry of National Defence.

What happened?

It’s not clear.

It does seem that both General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) and the CCC pushed for this sale to happen.

In January, Tecnologia & Defesa reported GDLS-Canada had been “lobbying officials and senators for more than two years” on this sale. Pucará Defensa also reported “the Canadian government has followed and monitored this process, also supporting it through the Canadian Commercial Corporation…”

Photo: Canada also sold 32 LAV III vehicles to Colombia in 2013.

LAVs to be equipped with remote weapon system

It is also being reported that the LAVs will be equipped with “a remote weapons station of the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems RWS [remote weapon system] Dual Samson type, which will use a 30x113mm Orbital ATK type cannon and a machine gun Browning M2A2 QCB COAX 12.7×99 mm.”

Photo: Samson MK I Remote Weapon Station.

This will also reportedly require the purchase of 26,000 30mm bullets.

This remote weapon system will be supplied by the Israeli weapons company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

LAVs to be deployed in predominantly Indigenous department

Infodefensa.com reports: “The objective of this project [purchase of LAVs] is to be able to reinforce the operational and mobility capabilities (transport of troops) of the Army, particularly in the border department of La Guajira and within the process of renewal and modernization of its cavalry that this force advances and that includes the incorporation of Textron M1117 vehicles and the interest in the GDLS M1A2 main battle tank.”

Photo: GDLS M1A2 battle tank.

Photo: Textron M1117 armoured vehicle.

Most of the population of La Guajira, where the LAVs are expected to be deployed, are Indigenous peoples, including the Wayuu who have experienced more than 30 years of coal mining polluting their rivers and drinking water.

The El Cerrejon open-pit coal mine in La Guajira that consumes 30 million litres of water a day directly contributes to the immiseration of the Wayuu.

Numerous groups in Canada including the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network and MiningWatch Canada have also drawn attention to the fact that NB (New Brunswick) Power has been buying approximately 500,000 tonnes of coal from Cerrejón since the mid-1990s. Nova Scotia Power also imports coal from Cerrejón.

While many, including the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), have called for the suspension or closure of the mine, President Petro has pledged his opposition to the expansion of the mine.

GDLS says sale contributes to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples

Notably, and somewhat incredibly, General Dynamics has highlighted: “This new G2G contract with CCC will help GDLS-Canada sustain domestic production and contribute to the fulfillment of Canadian public policy priorities, including the essential work of economic reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.”

This presumably refers to job opportunities for Indigenous peoples at the GDLS plant in London, Ontario, rather than the Indigenous peoples of Colombia.

We will continue to follow this sale particularly with respect to concerns about militarization of territory, coal mining extractivism, the abuse of water, lobbying and the prioritization of military spending over social needs.

Promised fossil fuel subsidy phase-out allows RCMP C-IRG violence against Indigenous land defenders to continue

By
Brent Patterson
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Video: Sleydo’ and Gitxsan land defender Shaylynn Sampson arrested at gunpoint by the RCMP C-IRG unit on Wet’suwet’en territory on November 19, 2021.

On Monday July 24, environment minister Steven Guilbeault announced that the Canadian government would be phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

CTV reports: “A government official, speaking on background, said government programs that could be affected by the guidelines control about $1 billion in public money.”

While “about $1 billion” is a significant amount of financing that “could be affected”, proportionally it is about one-twentieth of current support.

Environmental Defence has calculated that Export Development Canada (EDC) provided about $19 billion in financing for fossil fuels in 2022.

Significantly, CBC reports: “Much of that support comes in the form of commercially viable loans. The current policy doesn’t consider those loans a subsidy.”

Notably, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has also reported: “Canadian governments have provided [to three pipelines] over CAD 23 billion in government support [from 2018 to 2021]. Of this, over CAD 11 billion is in loans, and at least CAD 10 billion is loan guarantees or liabilities.”

The report notes that $500 million went to the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline, $15.4 billion to the Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, and $7.5 billion to the Keystone XL pipeline.

In response to yesterday’s announcement, Greenpeace Canada senior energy strategist Keith Stewart comments: “We’d like to remind the federal government that there are no ‘efficient’ subsidies for fossil fuels in an era of both record-breaking climate disasters and oil industry profits, and especially not for unproven technologies like carbon capture.”

Environmental Defence national climate associate director Julia Levin adds: “These new rules have a glaring omission: they won’t apply to public financing funded through Export Development Canada and other crown corporations.”

Her organization has previously argued that the funding of the RCMP community-industry response group (C-IRG) is a fossil subsidy.

The RCMP C-IRG as a fossil fuel subsidy

The Environmental Defence report PAYING POLLUTERS: Federal Financial Support to Oil and Gas in 2020 (April 2021) highlighted: “A particularly egregious form of fossil fuel subsidy are investments made into policing Indigenous land defenders opposing fossil fuel infrastructure. For example, over $13 million was spent last year on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to ‘protect’ the Coastal GasLink pipeline – which took the form of harassing Wet’suwet’en Nation community members who oppose the pipeline.”

In January 2023, CBC News journalist Brett Forester reported that RCMP C-IRG spending totalled $3,535,542.00 in relation to the Trans Mountain pipeline (on Secwepemc territory) and $27,645,711.00 on policing related to the Coastal GasLink pipeline (on Wet’suwet’en territory) between April 1, 2017, and July 31, 2022.

Even though the C-IRG disproportionately (and explicitly) benefits the fossil fuel sector and could be considered a “financial contribution” that benefits “the recipient” (thus arguably meeting the two criteria to be deemed a fossil fuel subsidy), it is unlikely to have been one of the 129 potential subsidies the environment minister says the government reviewed.

Yesterday, the Canadian government listed six exceptions to the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies, including if the subsidy supports “Indigenous economic participation in fossil fuel activities”. As such it would appear that while Indigenous participation may be subsidized, Indigenous resistance will continue to be repressed.

As the Government of Canada now promises to “identify current public financing by 2024 and announce by fall 2024 the implementation plan to phase out public financing of the fossil fuel sector”, we support the call by the Abolish C-IRG coalition to immediately suspend and then abolish this controversial police unit.

PBI-Kenya concerned by the burning of the Nyando Social Justice Centre in the western city of Kisumu

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The Nyando Social Justice Centre says: “Nyando social justice center has been a target by Ahero police officers so this time round they decided to fire several teargas canisters into our offices till they caught fire.”

PBI-Kenya has tweeted: “Yesterday [Wednesday July 19], the Nyando Social Justice Centre in Kisumu was burned down. In June, we visited @CboNyando and learned about the wonderful work of the WHRDs [women human rights defenders] there.”

For almost ten years, the centre has provided sanctuary and support for women survivors of gender-based violence and human rights defenders.

Photo: PBI-Kenya at the Nyando Social Justice Centre in June 2023. Kisumu is situated about 350 kilometres north-west of Nairobi.

They further shared a tweet from the Defenders Coalition that says: “The centre was allegedly set ablaze by police officers.”

And they have tweeted: “The Social Justice Centres Working Group alerts about [human rights defender] Boniface Ogutu Akach in Kisumu and demands information concerning his whereabouts.” There are concerns that Akach was abducted by the police due to his documenting of police violence during the ongoing protests in Kenya.

Photo: The social justice centre this morning.

Context

Yesterday CNN reported: “A wave of deadly protests has hit Kenya as anger over tax hikes and the cost of living spilled into the streets.”

And this morning The Guardian notes: “Teargas and live ammunition were used against demonstrators as pockets of violence broke out in Kenya during a second day of protests against tax increases and rising living costs. Despite relative calm in Nairobi on Thursday morning, there were clashes in the informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare in the capital, and in the western city of Kisumu.”

The Associated Press (via CTV) adds: “Police in Kenya say they have been ordered not to report deaths amid demonstrations against the rising cost of living, but an independent watchdog [the Independent Medico-Legal Unit] says at least six people were shot dead by police on Wednesday and 27 were shot dead in such protests earlier this year.”

That article also notes: “While police in Kenya have long been accused by rights groups of using excessive force, there is growing concern about tactics used under the government of President William Ruto, elected last year. One police officer also was seen posing as a journalist in Wednesday’s protest, which the Media Council of Kenya called dangerous.”

Role of the IMF

While the tax hikes by President Ruto are deeply unpopular, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says they are a “crucial” step toward reducing Kenya’s debt vulnerabilities.

In February 2021, Kenya agreed to a 38-month IMF program to reduce debt vulnerabilities. That program was extended in May 2023 to April 2025.

On Monday July 17, the IMF executive board signed off on nearly $1 billion in new funding for Kenya. IMF Deputy Managing Directory Antoinette Sayeh said approval of Kenya’s fiscal 2023-2024 budget and the 2023 Finance Act were “crucial steps”.

Sayeh adds that tighter financing conditions also required a “prudent debt policy” and continued efforts to prioritize concessional loans.

Killings by the police highlighted at the UN

On June 26, 2023, Peace Brigades International stated at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva: “In Kenya we would like to express our concerns about the number of assassinations by police in 2022 documented by Missing Voices. Human rights defenders that deal with these cases are facing threats and witnesses are not ready to speak because they are afraid of reprisals. Also, we would like to express our concerns about the 12 assassinations committed by the police during the protests in March.”

Video: Yannick Wild of PBI-Switzerland.

On July 20, Amnesty International Kenya issued this statement that highlights: “Preliminary investigations have revealed that the police have used beatings, arbitrary arrests and detention of protestors, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of tear gas and water cannons, and other serious rights violations to police the protests. We call for an immediate stop to violent policing and criminalising of protests by the state. We demand urgent investigations and prosecution of police officers and their commanders for excessive use of force by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

The High Commission of Canada in Kenya has also tweeted this statement:

We continue to follow this with concern.

Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Guatemala accompanied organizations, defenders and communities

By
Brent Patterson
-

Visit with the “15 de febrero” community accompanied by the the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR), May 4, 2023.

This past spring, PBI-Canada visited organizations, defenders and communities accompanied by PBI-Guatemala.

SUNDAY APRIL 30

MONDAY MAY 1

TUESDAY MAY 2

WEDNESDAY MAY 3

THURSDAY MAY 4

FRIDAY MAY 5

SATURDAY MAY 6

SUNDAY MAY 7

MONDAY MAY 8

TUESDAY MAY 9

WEDNESDAY MAY 10

 

In the coming weeks and months, look for our follow-up from this visit which will include articles, research, webinars, solidarity letters, and more.

To read our first article, please see PBI-Canada observes march in Guatemala City against Oxec III dam designed by Toronto-based engineering company (May 10, 2023).

PBI-Canada delegation meets with Olivia of the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV); May 5, 2023 in Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

Our delegation meets with Chinautla Multisector; May 1, 2023.

Activists block the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa, call on companies to stop profiting from war and repression

By
Brent Patterson
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A “Lockheed Martin, Stop Selling War Machines” banner helps block arms dealers, government officials and the military from CANSEC. Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

As more than 100 activists blocked the entrances to the parking lots of the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa on May 31, traffic was snarled for a distance on Uplands Avenue and the Airport Parkway delaying many attendees getting inside the EY Centre.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand, who was scheduled to speak at 7:50 am, tweeted at 9:51 am that she had “just delivered [her] remarks”. There was also a tweet at 9:17 am that suggests she was just then “officially open[ing] the event”.

After Anand’s speech, U.S. Ambassador David L. Cohen visited the booth of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons company.

Twitter photo of Ambassador Cohen (right) at the Lockheed Martin booth.

In the article 20 companies profiting the most from war, USA Today ranked the Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin at the top of their list with $2 billion in profit from $44.9 billion in arms sales in 2017.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

And in an “earnings call” in January 2022, just prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said expectantly that the “renewed great power competition” would lead to inflated defense budgets and additional sales.

The company’s stock soared nearly 25 per cent in the first quarter of that year. By the end of 2022, Lockheed Martin had recorded $5.7 billion in profit.

This creates the concern that there is an economic incentive for Lockheed Martin for the war to continue despite the deaths of more than 240,000 people in Ukraine and Russia.

“An apparent war crime”

Human Rights Watch has also described the Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike that killed 40 children and wounded another 56 children in Yemen in August 2018 as “an apparent war crime”. CNN has established that it was a Lockheed Martin-made 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb that killed the children.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Defund warplanes

Minister Anand also announced in February 2022 that Canada had signed a contract to pay $19 billion to Lockheed Martin for 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

The actual overall cost to Canadians of this purchase has been estimated to be $76.8 billion (diverting crucial funds from needed social programs).

And while the Government of Canada announced in April 2022 that it would increase its military budget by $8 billion, Ambassador Cohen commented the following month: “It’s fair to say that though $8 billion is more money, it was a little disappointing as matched against the rhetoric that we heard leading into the release of the budget.”

Photo from CADSI Twitter of Ambassador Cohen (right) and Minister Anand.

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizers of the CANSEC weapons show, have additionally argued against export permits for the sale of Canadian “military goods” to the United States, stating that “would put at risk at least $1 billion per year in Canadian defence industry business.”

Given the lack of transparency in these sales and the likelihood of Canadian-made weapons and components then being exported by the U.S. as “security assistance” to countries implicated in serious human rights violations, there is cause for further concern.

For instance, despite well-documented human rights violations, the U.S. provides $40 million in “security assistance” annually to Peru.

While Canada has sold more than $2.4 million in military goods to Peru over the past five years, we don’t know how much more may have been sent via the “security assistance” provided through the United States.

Photo by World Beyond War.

Peace Brigades International has previously stated that “the dominant security discourse associated with the militarization of societies is a setback. Billions more spent on weapons will not make the world safer.”

Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed by Israel Defence Forces to be remembered at Stop CANSEC protest in Ottawa (May 28, 2023)

For more, please also see this World Beyond War report and The Breach barred from weapons show for ‘critical anti-war journalism’.

To help amplify on social media, click here.

PBI-Colombia accompanied CSPP and social leaders raise concerns about Frontera Energy with shareholders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Oscar Ramirez, Ferney Salcedo, Gustavo Torres.

As Calgary-based Frontera Energy holds its virtual annual meeting of shareholders on May 18, three Colombian human rights defenders are raising concerns about the company’s operations in San Luis de Palenque and Orocué, Casanare.

Their short videos (spoken in Spanish with English subtitles) can be seen here:

Click to watch Video 1

Click to watch Video 2 

Click to watch Video 3 

For context on the third video, Troachando Sin Fronteras has reported: “On Thursday, February 14, 2019, in the municipality of Yopal Casanare, its inhabitants and communities from other municipalities held three marches along the main roads, for the defense of water, the environment and the rejection of the judicialization of social leaders. …The marchers in the municipality of Yopal were joined by the population of Orocue, reaffirming their rejection of the environmental damage caused by the oil company Frontera Energy, in the Matemarrano estuary. Gustavo Torres, environmental leader from Orocue, Casanare, said, ‘The right to water is a fundamental right that is enshrined in human rights.’ He explained that the environmental problem in the municipality is serious: ‘Seismic events were made within an estuary rich in flora and fauna, and from where several water tributaries are born.’”

Background from UN Special Rapporteur 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.

Source: Visit to Colombia, 26 December 2019, page 9.

News articles 

This situation has also been reported on (in Spanish) in various news articles. A partial compilation of those articles (presented chronologically) can be found below:

Frontera Energy suspendió las actividades en el Bloque Cubiro, Violeta Stereo FM Casanare, February 6, 2018

Protestas en San Luis de Palenque, en medio de agresiones de la Policía Militar, Trochando sin fronteras, February 27, 2018

Vuelve y juega: comunidad de San Luis de Palenque volverá a las protestas contra Frontera Energy, Violeta Stereo FM Casanare, April 24, 2018

Hoy se realizaría las audiencias a líder social Ferney Salcedo y otros siete capturados en San Luis de Palenque, Violeta Stereo FM Casanare, November 28, 2018

Familia de líder social judicializado Ferney Salcedo afronta difícil situación, Prensa Libre Casanare, January 24, 2019

Los convenios del Ministerio de Defensa en un caso contra líderes sociales en Casanare, El Espectador, September 15, 2019

Denuncian al Estado Colombiano por detención arbitraria de 8 líderes ambientales ante la ONU, Defender la Libertad, September 16, 2019

Caso San Luis de Palenque: Comunidades, movilización, empresas petroleras y judicialización, Trochando Sin Fronteras, September 17, 2019

Caso San Luis de Palenque: Fiscalía, Fuerza Pública y empresas, una alianza criminal, Redacción Trochand, September 21, 2019

Guerra jurídica y falsos positivos en Casanare: el precio de la protesta social en Colombia, AraInfo, October 11, 2019

Esta es la situación de los ocho líderes ambientales judicializados en Casanare, Colombia Informa, October 31, 2019

Líder social Ferney Salcedo afronta un juicio sin equilibrio: Jorge Cortés, abogado defensor, Radio Noticias de Casanare, March 4, 2020

En libertad 2 de los líderes de San Luis de Palenque, que estaban detenidos por protesta contra petrolera, La Reporteria, August 11, 2020

Líderes sociales de San Luis de Palenque, Casanare, serán libres, pese a la Fiscalía, Frontera Energy y Ecopetrol, Martha Cifuentes, September 16, 2020

FERNEY SALCEDO: EL LÍDER QUE ENFRENTA A UNA PETROLERA AFERRADO AL SANTO ROSARIO, El Nuevo Oriente, September 22, 2020

La disputa legal entre una comunidad y una petrolera en el corazón del Casanare, El Espectador, November 10, 2022

PBI-Canada visit to San Luis de Palenque

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

Webinar

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 the Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training (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).

We continue to follow this situation with concern.

Peace Brigades International co-founder Hans Sinn passes away at 94 years of age

By
Brent Patterson
-

Peace Brigades International mourns the passing of PBI co-founder Hans Sinn on June 29 in Perth, Ontario at 94 years of age.

Hans was born in Hamburg, Germany on February 16, 1929.

His childhood was shaped by World War II. In 1943, at the age of 14, Hans lived through a week-long bombing campaign in which Allied forces dropped 9,000 tons of bombs on his home city. More than 42,600 civilians were killed at that time.

By 1945, in the final months of the war, Hans, at the age of 16, was conscripted and sent to an SS training camp in Denmark. In April-May of that year, he managed to escape from the camp and over the course of a week walk 400 kilometres back to Hamburg. Given the level of wartime destruction he witnessed, Hans did not know if his home would still be there. When he arrived home, he saw an unexploded bomb on his front yard.

Several years later, in 1952, Hans emigrated to Canada.

At the age of 33, Hans took part in a walk for peace from Vancouver to Berlin to publicize the need for nuclear disarmament.

On August 22, 1962, the Prince George Citizen reported on its front-page, “Two B.C. men plan to walk from Vancouver to Berlin — in the cause of peace. Hans Sinn, 33, of White Rock, intends to start the jaunt October 1.”

That “jaunt” would take two years to complete.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spied on this march. One of their memos on it stated: “The trio left Vancouver on September 30, 1962, driving an older model car painted with ‘Ban the Bomb’ slogans. During their tour of Canada, they stopped in numerous towns and cities and spoke at several meetings of ‘pacifist’ groups, handing out the usual ‘Peace and Disarmament’ leaflets.”

With an ideological lens, the RCMP memo added: “We have no information indicating their membership in any communist organization.”

It was during that peace walk, in January 1963, that Hans met Marian Bedoukian in Montreal. They would later marry in England and have two sons, Anthony and Nicholas. They would lose daughter Rachel to cancer when she was 15 years old. He would also raise Samantha.

Photo: Hans in 1965.

Photo: Hans and Samantha.

By 1970, Hans joined a land co-op and built his home in Brooke Valley, near Perth, Ontario (just outside Ottawa). It is the home that he would live in for over 50 years.

Then in late August 1981, Hans, now 52 years of age, travelled about 40 kilometres south of Perth to Grindstone Island for the founding meeting of Peace Brigades International.

That meeting began on the evening of Monday, August 31, with Hans chairing the session that started with a reading from Gandhi by Raymond Magee from the San Francisco-based Peaceworkers, an organization committed to nurturing peace and nonviolence.

The mission statement agreed upon at the conclusion of this meeting on September 4 stated: “We are forming an organization with the capability to mobilize and provide trained units of volunteers. These units may be assigned to areas of high tension to avert violent outbreaks. If hostile clashes occur, a brigade may establish and monitor a cease-fire, offer mediatory services, or carry on works of reconstruction and reconciliation.”

Photo: The lodge on Grindstone Island where Peace Brigades International was founded on September 4, 1981.

Less than a year later, on August 23-27, 1982, at the Second International Consultation on Peace Brigades held in Bergen, The Netherlands, the first meeting of the PBI International Council welcomed the news of the founding of PBI-Canada by Hans and Ottawa-based peace activist Murray Thomson as PBI’s first country group.

Hans would stay involved in PBI for many years. He eventually retired from the PBI International Council in 2005 at the age of 76.

Photo: In 2009, Hans received the Friends of Peace Award.

Photo: Hans in 2015.

Photo: Hans with Lyn Adamson on Parliament Hill, Ottawa.

Outside of PBI, Hans was involved in many activities related to peace.

Civilian Peace Service and Department of Peace

In 1959, Hans returned to Germany to speak about his vision for a Ziviler Friedensdienst, a civil peace service (CPS).

Peace Magazine notes: “In the early 1990s, he spoke in Berlin, at the Evangelical Academy in Berlin, which had developed its own proposal for a CPS. By 1999, Ziviler Friedensdienst had become the first fully operational Civilian Peace Service in the world.”

Since its formation, more than 1,200 experts have supported peacebuilding efforts in 60 countries around the world. It is also a significant funder of the human rights work done by Peace Brigades International.

In 2004, Hans became the Co-Chair of Civilian Peace Service Canada.

His friend Bill Bhaneja adds: “In 2003, Hans realized that to reach its full potential, a Civilian Peace Service would need a Department of Peace in the federal government. This led to the creation of a Canadian Department of Peace movement” that by 2010 had twelve chapters across the country.

Petra Kelly and the demilitarization of Germany

In 1989, Hans supported the work of Bundestag member Petra Kelly, who advocated demilitarization when Germany was reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In Nonviolent Social Defense, Petra wrote: “The ending of the cold war has brought little change in our militaristic outlook. As old weapons systems are dismantled, they are replaced by new, more sophisticated ones.”

She would further highlight: “We spend billions on weapons research and millions training our young people at military academies. Why not invest in peace studies and peace actions? We need training centers, public campaigns, and educational materials. We need to support groups like Peace Brigades International that intervene nonviolently in situations of conflict. We need to work concretely to realize peace and nonviolence in our time.”

Photo: Petra Kelly (1947-1992).

In the summer of 2005, Hans also spoke about the need for a negotiated peace settlement in Afghanistan (the U.S. invasion that began in October 2001 claimed the lives of 243,000 people over a 20-year period).

In his later years, he was particularly interested in the global issue of child soldiers (he himself having been forcibly conscripted at the age of 16), the removal U.S. nuclear missiles from Germany, and the continued to call for a demilitarized Germany (as he saw its military spending escalate to USD $56 billion in 2021).

Photo: Hans, December 2022. The title of the book Hans is holding is “At the last hour: Call for peace”. It is a collection of essays on the peace movement, NATO and nuclear weapons.

The legacy of Hans includes the continued work of Peace Brigades International that accompanies and supports human rights defenders in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia, Nicaragua/Costa Rica and beyond.

We are grateful for the lifelong work of Hans and honour his commitment to peace through our continuing work for a just and peaceful world.

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

Wet’suwet’en leaders highlight RCMP C-IRG violence in presentation to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 10, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and Sleydo’, Wing Chief of the Cas Yikh House (Grizzly Bear House), Gidimt’en Clan, presented at a virtual hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

The video of their presentation can be seen on YouTube.

The presentation by Sleydo’ begins at 11:22.

She stated:

“Since living at Gidimt’en Checkpoint in 2018 I have witnessed a specialized unit of police called the Community-Industry Response Group or C-IRG erect a detachment on Gidimt’en territory 29 kilometres from the nearest town. I have experienced our home sites destroyed by [the pipeline company] CGL as C-IRG threatened arrest of anyone who would intervene.

The C-IRG’s unique structure and mandate raises serious concerns about the protection of Indigenous rights in Canada. C-IRG is currently under review by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. The exercising of our rights are being treated as threats and emergencies rather than as political issues to negotiate and are delegated to militarized police forces.

Often I’m asked if I see any alternatives to the conflicts that have arisen and I always say this is a political issue that must be addressed by the state and not by state sanctioned militarized police. Instead Canada has given C-IRG $27 million to police us on our own sovereign lands in the past several years.

In 2019 weeks after the province [of British Columbia] adopted UNDRIP I was arrested and removed from my territory at gunpoint while snipers initiated lethal overwatch at Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Our Chiefs were denied access to us during the raid and land defenders sustained serious injuries.

Our Chiefs continued to assert their jurisdiction and uphold our laws resulting in another raid in 2020 where I was surrounded by C-IRG officers in the dark and threatened with arrest when I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest child.

In 2021 I was occupying a tiny house alongside the road to CGL’s proposed drill site when we were surrounded by militarized police in green fatigues with assault rifles who were dropped out of helicopters all around us. They cut the internet, trained their snipers on us from behind buildings and heavy machinery and used an axe and then a chainsaw to illegally break down the door without an arrest or search warrant.

After 56 days of upholding our law and defending our sacred headwaters I stared down the barrel of a semi-automatic weapon while the dogs snarled and whined and was once again removed from my territory, spent 5 days in 7 different jail cells in 3 different towns.

Down the hill our Chief’s daughter experienced the same use of violence against her and the log cabin that was built for her was burnt to the ground under the watch of C-IRG. Today I cannot live at the village site because of the heavy surveillance, threat of violence and arrest from police and the harassment of CGL’s private security firm Forsythe.

The police regularly patrol my home which is nowhere near the pipeline right of way. I wake up some mornings and they are sitting in my driveway.

The police have teamed up with private industry to make it unbearable live on our territories and practice our way of life.“

The presentation by Chief Na’Moks begins at 18:52.

He highlighted:

“We see that Canada is vying for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. This should not even be considered until the human rights in Canada are addressed and commitments made are completed. Canada can no longer continue to tell the world that they are a free and democratic country until they’ve proved to the world that they truly are.”

The presentation by Hugh Adsett, Canada’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), begins at 26:35.

He noted: “My goal in participating today is primarily to gain a better understanding of the petitioners’ concerns and provide some general and initial context that may help inform the commission’s own analysis.”

Adsett made these general comments despite having advance access to the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s written submission.

Chief Na’Moks later commented: “Canada’s unwillingness to explain its actions shows an embarrassing disrespect for our Nation’s rights and the rights of all Indigenous Peoples in so-called Canada. Over and over, international human rights watchdogs and civil society groups have condemned Canada for violating our right to defend our territory, our laws, and our way of life. The government should have no trouble speaking to the attacks on our people that they have committed in the light of day.”

We continue to follow this with concern.

Further reading: Canada fails to respond to Wet’suwet’en Nation’s claims in hearing at Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Amnesty International, July 11, 2023).

Video: Sleydo’ and Gitxsan land defender Shaylynn Sampson arrested at gunpoint by the RCMP C-IRG unit on Wet’suwet’en territory on November 19, 2021.

MP Leah Gazan writes UN Expert Mechanism calling for international oversight of Canada’s failure to search landfills

By
Brent Patterson
-

Member of Parliament Leah Gazan has written the United Nations as demands grow for two Winnipeg landfills to be searched for the remains of three murdered Indigenous women. The Winnipeg Police Service and Government of Manitoba have refused to conduct a search citing costs and the hazards of doing so.

Gazan tells APTN News:

“I wrote a submission to the Special Rapporteur back in February about the failure of all levels of government in responding to the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. This is a follow-up to the submission I made in February to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to review the need for a study for international oversight of the search of the landfills because of examples of ongoing systemic violence.

Certainly, the women that were victims that we are currently searching for – Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris and Buffalo Woman – were all victims of failures of systems, systemic racism and now this is another example and I think it requires international oversight to make sure families and Indigenous communities are protected from this ongoing systemic racism that persists in Canada.”

 Gazan further highlights:

“The government passed Bill C-15 to fully adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Winnipeg has signed up as a human rights city. And that means they need to uphold the basic human rights that are articulated in articles in UNDRIP.

That includes Article 7, Articles 21 and 22 that certainly apply in this case, and I would argue as well Article 12. The feds have judiciary obligations here, but also the City and Province have obligations here.”

Photo: Morgan Harris (39), Marcedes Myran (26) and Rebecca Contois (24). It is believed that the remains of Morgan and Marcedes, who were murdered in May 2022, are in the Prairie Green landfill. The partial remains of Rebecca were found in the Brady Road landfill in June 2022. The remains of a fourth woman in her mid-20s, known as Buffalo Woman, who was killed in March 2022 are also believed to be in one of the landfills.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, visited Canada this past March 1-10. He will present his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in September.

The Human Rights Council will also be reviewing Canada’s human rights record this coming Friday November 10 through its universal periodic review process.

Canada is also currently seeking a seat on the Human Rights Council. In May, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced that Canada will be vying for a seat for the 2028 to 2030 term. In this bid, Canada has articulated six priorities, notably: “Advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples and reconciliation”. The vote for this seat on the Human Rights Council is expected to take place in 2026 at the UN General Assembly.

Earlier this week, PBI-Canada attended a vigil in Ottawa in support of the search of the landfills. You can read more about that in our article: Families of Sisters in Spirit holds gathering on Parliament Hill in support of the call to search the landfills in Winnipeg.

We continue to follow this with concern.

Families of Sisters in Spirit holds gathering on Parliament Hill in support of the call to search the landfills in Winnipeg

By
Brent Patterson
-

There were red dresses on Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday (July 17) to help amplify the call to search the privately-run Prairie Green landfill (garbage dump) north of Winnipeg for the remains of two murdered Indigenous women.

The landfill is where the remains of Long Plain First Nation members Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, are believed to be.

They were killed in May 2022.

Bridget Tolley, the founder of the advocacy group Families of Sisters in Spirit and the organizer of the gathering on Parliament Hill, says: “This hurts every day.”

Video: Bridget Tolley.

The Winnipeg Police Service and the Government of Manitoba have refused to conduct a search for the landfill for the two women, citing the expense and the hazards of doing so (despite forensic experts saying the risks of the search could be mitigated).

Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says: “Governments cannot allow Morgan and Marcedes to just be added to the staggering statistics of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in this country. They are not garbage, yet they are being treated like garbage – left at a landfill site.”

Journalist Brandi Morin has also challenged Winnipeg police on this, commenting: “Don’t say it isn’t feasible. Don’t say the feds don’t have resources. Cause they sure come up w the resources in a hurry when they send their armies of police in 2 sovereign Indigenous lands like the Wet’suwet’en to restrain them from protecting their territories from a pipeline.”

Seven months ago, in -25C weather, a first blockade was established at the City-run Brady Road landfill. The partial remains of 24-year-old O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi nation member Rebecca Contois had been found there in June 2022.

That blockade transitioned into Camp Morgan, an ongoing presence at the landfill.

On July 6 of this year, family members and supporters set up a second blockade at the landfill. By Friday July 14 a court injunction was issued requiring the blockade to come down later that same day. The blockade was maintained until the morning of Tuesday July 18 when the police moved in and City staff cleared the roadway.

It is now being reported that a second camp will be set-up at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. It will be called Camp Marcedes.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied organizations and family members search for the remains of forcibly disappeared loved ones in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala.

In Guatemala, the searches include the exhumation of the remains of Indigenous peoples disappeared by state security forces during the civil war.

In Mexico, the number of forcibly disappeared is more than 112,000 people, a figure that has sharply increased since 2006 and the War on Drugs.

In Colombia, more than 110,000 people were forcibly disappeared during the sixty-year civil war. In the city of Buenaventura, the searches also include looking for family members forcibly disappeared by criminal gangs.

Further reading: Red dresses became a symbol in Canada for missing and murdered Indigenous women after artist Jaime Black saw a demonstration in Bogotá, Colombia in 2010 of women who had experienced people in their families go missing.

Despite recent significant advances in Colombia – including a Comprehensive Bill on the Rights of Women Seekers of the Disappeared – a common theme has been that the state has not done enough to find the remains of those disappeared.

And while the tens of thousands of missing in Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia have been attributed to armed conflict or gangs, the situation on the lands known as Canada have been linked to colonialism.

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.”

More than 4,000 Indigenous women and girls have been killed or gone missing over the past 30 years in Canada – although the actual number could be much higher. Morin says: “That works out to about 133 a year, or three a week. [But this has] been happening since 1492.”

We continue to follow this.

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