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Remembering PBI co-founder Henry Wiseman on the 45th anniversary of the formation of Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: “Prime Minister Trudeau outlines personal plans for peace. Prof. Wiseman, centre, and Prof. Boehnert.” Photo by Guelph University News Bulletin, 1983.

This week PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Daniel N. Clark, one of the eleven co-founders of Peace Brigades International. PBI was founded at a meeting that took place from August 31 to September 4, 1981, on Grindstone Island, situated 120 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, Canada.

Wiseman: “We must!”

Clark recounted that on the Greyhound bus ride from Ottawa to Grindstone Island that Henry Wiseman, who would have been 58 years old at the time, said: “I don’t expect much to come of this.” Clark then shared in our conversation that at one of the sessions he, then 38, read a quote from Leo Tolstoy and paraphrased: “You may wonder whether you have any authority to start a world organization without any resources at your disposal, given the overwhelming nature of the problem.”

Clark then noted that a couple sessions later Wiseman said we need to discuss: “Do we really have the resources to go ahead with this?” Clark continued: “The skeptic now converted answered strongly in the affirmative. ‘We must!’”

Henry Wiseman

Henry Wiseman completed his BA in 1947 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After working in Montreal, Quebec, he completed the first academic study of United Nations Peacekeeping while earning his PhD in 1967 at Queen’s.

From there, Wiseman taught undergraduates as a Professor of Political Studies at the University of Guelph while monitoring the first elections as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe (in March 1980), was with the Lester B Pearson International Peacekeeping Training Centre (Cornwallis, Nova Scotia), and taught military and non-military personnel the principles and practice of peacekeeping under the auspices of the United Nations, the International Peace Academy (New York)

Photo: Guelph University News Bulletin, January 17, 1980.

The movement against nuclear weapons

When PBI was formed on Grindstone Island at the historic meeting that took place from August 31 to September 4, 1981, the peace movement was arguably in its ascendancy and the need for it was intense.

In January 1981, Ronald Reagan had  become the President of the United States; on September 5, 1981, the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in the United Kingdom was established; on June 12, 1982, one million people marched in New York City’s Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race; by March 1983, Petra Kelly was one of 27 members of the newly formed Green Party elected to the Bundestag, the West German federal parliament; and by October 1983, more than 400,000 people would march in Bonn, West Germany in opposition to the NATO decision to deploy 572 nuclear missiles in Western Europe.

It is notable that Petra Kelly wrote just a few years later: “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.”

Notable seminars

In November 1981, Wiseman co-directed a seminar on “Peacekeeping: Latin America and the United Nations” in Caracas, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Institute of Higher Studies of National Defense, Venezuela. And in 1984, Wiseman presented a paper “The Parameter of The Process of Conflict Resolution in Central America” at a diplomatic workshop sponsored by the International Peace Academy at Ixtapa, Mexico.

Guelph peace conference

In November 1983, the University of Guelph News Bulletin reported on a conference at the university where then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau spoke at the opening about the “Strategies for Peace and Security in a Nuclear Age”.

The conference was attended by more than 1,000 people and brought together a range of speakers including Dr. Galina Savelyeva, of the Soviet Committee of Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, as well as General Brent Scowcroft, chairman of then US president Ronald Reagan’s MX (intercontinental ballistic missile) Commission in Washington, and Roland Vogt, the first member of the German Green Party to be elected to the Bundestag from Rhineland-Palatinate in 1983.

The News Bulletin highlighted: “The work of Guelph’s Liberal Education Committee and the eminence of Professors Henry Wiseman, Political Studies, and Gunnar Bohnert, History, affirmed the University’s leadership in the academic search for peace and created an irresistible pressure for the University to convene just such a conference.”

The Guelph Mercury Tribune also reported after the conference: “With a focus on disarmament, Gunnar and colleague Henry Wiseman hosted the Strategies for Peace and Security in a Nuclear Age conference in 1983 at the University of Guelph, where Pierre Trudeau gave a keynote speech.”

Photo: “Left to right: History professor Gunnar Boehnert, Political Studies professor Henry Wiseman, Dr. Clark, and Economics professor Gustaaf van Beers” with a report on the 1983 conference. Photo from Guelph University News Bulletin, May 1985.

Photo: “Dr. William Winegard, MP, left, receives a copy of Selected Bibliography of Contemporary Strategic Issues from Prof. Henry Wiseman, Political Studies.” Photo by  Herb Rauscher, Illustration Services, At Guelph, June 1986.

Peace studies at McMaster

By 1990, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, had a Peace Studies Centre, described by Peace Magazine as “a lively committee that organizes lectures, and a popular course on peace” taught by Wiseman.

Remembering Henry Wiseman

Born in 1923, Wiseman passed away on December 29, 2016, at the age of 93.

“The moral disparity of wanton human degradation and butchery occurring in so many bloody conflicts throughout the world challenges the very meaning of civilization. Who are we, the human race, that not only dominates and plunders the world, but also feeds on itself?” – Henry Wiseman, Conflict Quarterly, 1994.

We remember the living legacy of Henry Wiseman through his affirmation at the formation Peace Brigades International and his longtime commitment to peacekeeping, conflict resolution and nuclear disarmament.

Additional reading: THE DYNAMICS OF ARMS CONTROL NEGOTIATIONS by Henry Wiseman; Peace Research Vol. 17, No. 2 (May 1985), pp. 39-49 (11 pages) Published By: Canadian Mennonite University.

PBI-Canada attentive to participatory research consultancy to strengthen decolonial international protection in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI on sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, Canada, November 2021.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has previously promoted on Instagram their search for a consultant to “facilitate a participatory process of research, reflection, and collective development aimed” at “designing a Strategic Roadmap to strengthen Decolonial International Protection”.

Their social media post further highlights: “This consultancy is an opportunity to contribute to rethinking, from a critical and collaborative perspective, how to strengthen international protection and support in Colombia.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada is currently in the process of developing a Turtle Island accompaniment project. The PBI global annual review for 2024 highlighted: “This last year also saw our team in Canada begin developing a framework to extend PBI’s protective accompaniment into a ‘Northern’ territory. This transformative proposition would mark a move away from traditional models and start to recognise and address the human rights abuses that threaten us all.”

As such, PBI-Canada is attentive to the Terms of Reference that PBI-Colombia posted on their website for this decolonial consultancy position.

That posting explains: “Our work focuses on the protection and prevention of attacks against human rights defenders through comprehensive support strategies, international advocacy, monitoring, capacity building, and the development of support and solidarity networks.”

It then notes: “Workers, environmentalists, LGBTQ+ activists, union members, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, peasants, anti-imperialists, anti-racists, and anti-militarists—not only defend rights, but are also producing new ways of understanding them, questioning existing hegemonic frameworks and contributing to their redefinition from their own practices of struggle, organization, and resistance, and from their own territories.”

“In this context, PBI Colombia asks: How can we support global networks among peoples, social movements, and communities so that they can effectively generate (self-)protection and also political costs and deterrence?”

It further emphasizes: “This reflection also invites us to broaden our perspective beyond the State as the sole reference point of international law, recognizing other forms of legitimacy and institutionality built from territories and collective struggles. …We share many of the questions raised by social movements, decolonial thinkers, and critics of the NGO world regarding the risks of professionalization, bureaucratization, depoliticization, and financial dependence.”

Further reading

–Annual review: PBI-Canada’s “transformative proposition” of extending PBI’s protective accompaniment into a “Northern” territory (PBI-Canada, October 29, 2025)

–CRCC report on systemic investigation into the RCMP C-IRG could be released within weeks (PBI-Canada, August 19, 2026)

–PBI notes concern at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva about the digital surveillance of Indigenous land defenders in Canada (PBI-Canada, June 30, 2026)

–How a submarine purchase and arms fairs are worsening security risks for Indigenous land defenders and human rights activists (PBI-Canada, June 13, 2026)

–Canada Investment Summit on September 14-15 could lead to financing for megaprojects opposed by Indigenous land defenders (PBI-Canada, August 25, 2026).

Arms transfers and State violence against human rights defenders: A PBI-Research Unit methodology overview

By
Brent Patterson
-

What is the role played by arms exports from the Global North to countries where the State (the military, police, security forces) are implicated in violations against human rights defenders, organizations and communities?

The Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU), situated within Peace Brigades International-Canada, is currently studying the correlation between arms exports and State violence against human rights defenders.

This is part of our commitment to the preventative accompaniment of human rights defenders, as well as to advocacy and communications in service of strengthening the protection of at-risk human rights defenders.

For documented figures on attacks against human rights defenders we look to the annual Global Analysis report produced by Front Line Defenders, as well as the annual report on attacks against land and environmental defenders published by Global Witness, including the Roots of Resistance report published in September 2025.

With respect to documented exports of “military goods” we look to official annual reports published, for example, by the governments of Canada, as well as France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Key findings from those reports are also visibilized and accessible through articles by mainstream news outlets as well as independent media, including The Maple and The Breach in Canada.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute also produces reports, for example National reports: Canada, and has a SIPRI Arms Transfers Database. Their most recent publication includes Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025.

To correlate findings, we also look to commentary on “irresponsible arms transfers” as well as threats against human rights defenders around the world that are regularly documented by Amnesty International in their annual report, the most recent being The State of the World’s Human Rights: April 2026.

It can also be useful to review reports from the Business and Human Rights Centre, notably including the recent Navigating a global crossroads: Human rights defenders and business in 2025 that documents attacks against human rights defenders protesting weapons companies and arms fairs.

We also look to the report produced by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Corporate Underminers of Democracy 2025 that names the weapons company Northrop Grumman as a concern, as well as the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Responsibility that has created the Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide database.

There are also other numerous individual publications and reports that we access, including those produced by Project Ploughshares, Forensic Architecture investigations, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (that has importantly documented the increased use of military drone attacks against journalists).

Further reading: Activity Update: The first-year of the Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU), June 16, 2026.

United Nations Working Group visit to Guatemala reports concerns about labour rights, the threats against human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Fernanda Hopenhaym and Lyra Jakulevičienė presente their preliminary report in Guatemala City, August 28, 2026.

El Pais reports: “The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Business and Human Rights concluded its 10-day visit to Guatemala on Friday [August 28] with a report on the treatment of those who oppose extractive, energy and agro-industrial projects in the country. In their closing statement, the experts stated that the widespread criminalization of human rights defenders is ‘alarming and must cease immediately’.”

The Working Group was in Guatemala from August 18 to August 28.

The Associated Press adds: “The group led by experts Fernanda Hopenhaym and Lyra Jakulevičienė held meetings with employers, local authorities, workers, trade unions and President Bernardo Arévalo.”

El Pais further notes: “In the labour field, the statement includes testimonies about fatal accidents due to non-compliance with safety regulations, extended hours without adequate rest, child labor on agricultural plantations and cases of workers who had social security contributions withheld that were never transferred to the authorities. The most targeted sectors were oil palm, bananas, sugar cane and mining.”

Labour rights

The Working Group’s “end of mission statement” says: “The Working Group received first-hand testimonies concerning violations of labour rights in the agricultural sector, particularly in palm oil, banana and plantain, and sugar cane plantations, as well as in the mining sector. These reports included allegations of workplace injuries – including fatalities – resulting from failures to comply with basic occupational health and safety standards. We received reports of employers systematically failing to provide adequate protective equipment, particularly for workers handling hazardous chemicals.”

It further notes: “The Working Group noted that many workers, particularly in monoculture fields, are required to work excessively long hours with few, if any, rest breaks, for the minimum wage. Some are reportedly forced to resort to consuming mixtures of energy drinks and painkillers to endure these conditions, causing serious health problems. We are also deeply concerned by reports of child labour in agricultural plantations.”

Human rights defenders

The Working Group also highlighted in their preliminary report: “Throughout the visit, the Working Group repeatedly noted allegations of the criminalisation of human rights defenders, including members of Indigenous communities, representatives of non-governmental organizations, lawyers and journalists, in connection with their legitimate efforts to expose and denounce harmful business activities. Defenders have reportedly faced charges such as terrorism, illegal association, attacks against private property, aggravated usurpation and extortion. The weaponizing of the justice system to target human rights defenders and silence dissent is a matter of deep concern.”

Protection mechanism

This preliminary report also highlights: “Guatemala has a constitutional framework that protects human rights and has ratified key international instruments, including ILO Convention 169. We welcome recent efforts by the Government to address business-related human rights impacts, including the adoption of the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (2025-2035), measures to combat forced labour and trafficking, progress toward protection mechanisms for journalists, and national plans on gender and climate change. The Working Group calls on the Government to expedite the operationalization of the new policy on defenders and to ensure that the associated protection mechanism is provided with adequate resources, technical capacity, and institutional support.”

To read the full report: End of Mission Statement, Country Visit to Guatemala, 18 – 28 August 2026 (United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, August 28, 2026, Guatemala City).

PBI-Canada interview with PBI co-founder Daniel N. Clark on the 45th anniversary of the founding of Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
-

Daniel N. Clark was 38 years old when he took a bus with Henry Wiseman that departed from Ottawa for Grindstone Island about 120 kilometres south-west of the city in late-August 1981 for the founding meeting of Peace Brigades International.

Clark documented that meeting and the formative early years of PBI in his book: Peace Brigades International: Roots and Early Years.

PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson interviewed Daniel Clark from his home in Washington state on August 31, 2026, the 45th anniversary of the first day of that founding meeting on Grindstone Island in 1981.

On the founding meeting

Clark recounted that on the Greyhound bus ride from Ottawa to Grindstone Island that Wiseman said: “I don’t expect much to come of this.” Clark then shared that at one of the sessions he read a quote from Leo Tolstoy and paraphrased: “You may wonder whether you have any authority to start a world organization without any resources at your disposal, given the overwhelming nature of the problem.”

Clark then noted that a couple sessions later Wiseman said we need to discuss: “Do we really have the resources to go ahead with this?” Clark continued: “The skeptic now converted answered strongly in the affirmative. We must!”

On the 45th anniversary

Clark shared: “I’m tremendously thrilled that PBI is still there with all of its vitality… It’s one of the joys of life is watching an idea be in my head and then weeks and months and sometimes years go by seeing it take form and often very important form.”

He added: “PBI is animating more and more continents, more communities involved in the work. It shows me how important the work of a few individuals can be.”

Clark also advised: “If your vision is clear and it seems practical, if it’s a good idea it is going to succeed at some level. Make it flexible so that if others really join, it can grow into something important.”

On the United States today

In response to being asked about PBI in the world today, Clark commented: “We certainly have a unique time in the United States that is affecting the whole world. …While re-reading Upton Sinclair’s eleven-part history of the United States, the Lanny Budd series, I’m thinking about all the parallels between Hitler’s way of doing things, complete exaggeration making it so unlikely that people will have to believe it because no one would make something like that up, now we have Trump.”

“This is a shameful, disturbing time for people in the US and all those affected by them, which is most everyone.”

Clark added: “We’ve got work to do.”

On the complicity of governments

Clark stated: “We were very aware that the US role in Central America which was banana republics for us led by commercial interests, we had no faith in government. That’s why we didn’t want our funding to come from governments.”

But he added: “When we began our accompaniments in Central America, in our networks, we knew US Congressmen who were very sensitive to this and sympathetic to the justice needs. Governments are not monolithic. There are always friends within any hierarchy. We need to cultivate them, nourish them.”

On youth activism

Clark reflected: “Thinking back to when I was a student at Whitman College in Walla Walla, there is certainly much more activism now that there was then, in the early 1960s. Youth have definitely been very active, very aware, very willing to demonstrate, to stand up. There is a lot of variety of clothing and lifestyles and gender affiliations and all kinds of things are happening. Whether this results in more volunteers for international action I don’t know, but they are certainly active now as youth.”

On things getting worse in the world today

Clark commented: “I think real change, when you think of the Great Depression and what came out of it, the New Deal and FDR [US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt], sometimes it really has to be bad before it gets better. We have a whole society to rebuild after Trump. I am looking forward to this. He has dismantled so many social institutions that are very important to community, justice and peace. I am somewhat optimistic in terms of where we are going to go after this political depression.”

On the PBI volunteers in the field today

Clark stated: “Thank you, thank you, for your bravery, for your commitment to your fellow man and woman. You have all my admiration.”

Further reading

–Remembering Peace Brigades International co-founder Narayan Desai on the 10th anniversary of his passing (PBI-Canada, March 26, 2025)

–A celebration of the life of PBI co-founder Hans Sinn (PBI-Canada, September 25, 2023)

–PBI-Canada, friends and family of Murray Thomson gather to remember and celebrate his life (PBI-Canada, October 25, 2019)

–PBI founder Daniel N. Clark: “We are like the street arm of Amnesty International” (PBI-Canada, September 3, 2021).

PBI-Mexico accompanies the ninth march in memory of the victims of enforced disappearance in the city of Puebla

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video still from the Colectivo “Voz de los Desaparecidos en Puebla”.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanied the march in memory of the victims of enforced disappearance in the city of Puebla on Sunday August 30.

Página Negra reports: “The Voice of the Disappeared Collective in Puebla held the ninth march in memory of the victims and to demand the location of the disappeared. During her speech, the founder of the Voice of the Disappeared Collective in Puebla, María Luisa Núñez, pointed out that at least 70 minors have been orphaned after the disappearance of their parents in the last eight years. Other demonstrators belonging to the collective pointed out that in Puebla there are an estimated three thousand missing people. For this reason, they demanded that the state authorities strengthen fieldwork, search and location. They affirm that the dialogue tables are not enough to search for the disappeared.”

That article adds: “The founder of the group, María Luisa Núñez, asserted during her speech that the phenomenon of disappearance has not decreased.”

El Sol de Puebla also reports: “Eight years after 14 families began organizing to search for their loved ones in Puebla, the crisis of disappearances is still ongoing and continues to add victims. Since 2024 alone, 20 new families have joined the Voice of the Disappeared Collective, the first search group formed at the state level, which currently brings together around 100 families.”

That article adds: “Within the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, approximately 200 people marched from Paseo Bravo to the main square of the capital of Puebla to denounce that they continue to face the lack of prevention, investigations without progress and insufficient searches.”

Publimetro further reports: “On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, a group of approximately 500 people marched peacefully from the vicinity of Paseo Bravo toward the Zócalo in Puebla. Amidst drumming, chants, and hundreds of banners bearing the faces of their loved ones, the demonstrators marched to end the erasure of memory. The march concluded at the Tree of Hope, an emblematic site that has become a focal point of remembrance, resistance, and community activism. …During the event, María Luisa Núñez Barojas, founder of the Voice of the Disappeared collective in Puebla, harshly criticized the institutional response and issued a powerful indictment of official ineffectiveness: ‘The blood of a mother searching for her missing loved ones is what the government lacks.’ Members of the group emphasized that there are approximately 3,000 missing persons in Puebla, and urged state authorities to immediately intensify field work, search and location efforts.”

We continue to follow this.

Video still from the Colectivo “Voz de los Desaparecidos en Puebla”.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Cerezo Committee and the 16th March for Truth, Justice and Remembrance in Mexico City (PBI-Canada, August 31, 2026).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the San Francisco Quezaltepeque Indigenous Community on a tour of communal land

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted on social media:

“On 13 August, #PBI accompanied the San Francisco Quezaltepeque Indigenous Community on a tour of the communal land in the village of La Peña. In previous years, attempts have been made to classify this land as municipal land, disregarding the ancestral land titles that legitimize the community’s right to their land. To this day, the residents of the area continue to be attacked and intimidated for defending their communal lands, with parts of their crops being destroyed and verbal threats that they could be evicted at any moment.”

Canadian mining company

PBI-Guatemala has previously noted: “The indigenous community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque is resisting a mining company working in the municipality: Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. This company has five exploration licenses for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. The Ch’orti’ people are concerned about the negative impacts of these mining activities.”

As noted on page 10 of this report, Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vancouver-based Radius Gold.

And as noted on this Gold Group Management Inc. webpage, Radius Gold is part of this group and “has an Option Agreement for a 60/40 earn-in with Volcanic Gold Mines Inc. and includes the Motagua Norte project and the Holly project.” Volcanic Gold is also a part of this group and whose assets in Guatemala include the “Holly Project and the Motagua Norte project through an Option Agreement with Radius Gold.”

Accompaniment

In October 2023 PBI began accompanying the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque, in response to the numerous threats received by those who lead the defence of the rights of the Maya Ch’orti’ people.

PBI-Honduras remembers four disappeared Garifuna defenders on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“On the International Day of the Victims of #EnforcedDisappearance, we remember the names of Alberth Snider Centeno, Suami Aparicio Mejía, Milton Joel Martínez and Gerardo Misael Rochez Cálix.

Would you like to support the #Garifuna people’s struggle? Find three ways to do so on the last slide.”

That last slide says:

“Would you like to support the Garifuna people’s struggle in Honduras?

Read OFRANEH’s open letter to the Supreme Court of Justice (link here)

Share this post on your social media

Follow @OFRANEH-Garifuna/Organización Fraternal Negra Hondurena on Facebook.”

The letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Judiciary of Honduras calls on them to: “Guarantee the immediate and definitive cessation of the illegal judicial persecution against the five defenders who are members of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH): Deinor Osmany Mejía Arzu, Irbin Rene López Cortes, Carlos Enrique Fernández Guzmán, Onil Rigoberto Hernández Zelaya, and Sara Abigail Acosta.”

This letter from OFRANEH shared by PBI-Honduras has been endorsed by the PBI-Honduras accompanied Rainbow LGBT Association of Honduras and National Central of Rural Workers, (CNTC) Progreso, the PBI-Mexico accompanied Zeferino Ladrillero Human Rights Center (through Espacio OSC), the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo CAJAR Lawyers’ Collective, and the Canadian-based organizations Rights Action and Simcoe County Honduras Rights MonItor.

The Garifuna

The Garifuna are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African peoples from the Caribbean region. They resisted European colonization, living independently of the slave labour system on the island of Saint Vincent for over a century, before being exiled to the Honduran island of Roatán by the British in 1797. Many moved to mainland Honduras and re-migrated throughout central America, also settling in Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and later the United States.

OFRANEH emerged in 1978 as a Federation of Garifuna peoples, defining itself as an anti-racist organization that advocates for the identification of the Garifuna as an autonomous (Afro)indigenous people of African descent.

Canadian investors have been linked to the displacement of the Garifuna as noted in these PBI-Canada articles: “OFRANEH denounces Canadian Randy Jorgensen for trafficking archaeological items, usurpation of Garifuna lands” (November 28, 2024) and “PBI-Honduras accompanies meetings that reject ZEDEs, while Canadian investor pursues the Mariposa ZEDE” (September 4, 2021).

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading

–Four Afro-Indigenous Garifuna land defenders kidnapped in Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras (PBI-Canada, July 21, 2020)

–PBI-Honduras observes march in Tegucigalpa demanding the return of four missing Garifuna land defenders (PBI-Canada, July 20, 2021)

–PBI-Honduras observes presentation of amparo appeal in the disappearance of four Garifuna social leaders (PBI-Canada, August 25, 2022)

–PBI-Honduras observes OFRANEH and UN Working Group reconstruction of facts of the disappearance of four men in July 2020 (PBI-Canada, March 31, 2023)

–PBI-Honduras accompanies Garifuna People’s Camp for Life outside the Supreme Court of Justice in Tegucigalpa (PBI-Canada, August 12, 2026).

Photo: On October 31, 2024, PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada visited with Mabel Robledo in Nueva Armenia on Garifuna territory in Honduras.

PBI-Mexico accompanies the Cerezo Committee and the 16th March for Truth, Justice and Remembrance in Mexico City

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo by Comité Cerezo México.

The Cerezo Committee has posted on Facebook about the “16th March for Truth, Justice and Remembrance”in Mexico City that took place on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (August 30).

The march organized by the National Campaign against Enforced Disappearances began at the Angel of Independence in downtown Mexico City and proceeded about four kilometres to the Zócalo (officially named the Plaza de la Constitución), a massive main public square where the National Palace, the official seat of the federal executive branch and the presidential residence, is located.

El Universal had reported: “At 3:00 p.m., the National Campaign against Forced Disappearance in Mexico will lead the 16th edition of the March for Truth, Justice and Memory. The contingent will travel the same route from the Angel to the Zócalo with the aim of demanding the return alive of the victims of disappearance.”

Then Milenio reported: “Collectives, searching mothers and activists took over Paseo de la Reforma Avenue on Sunday, August 30, in the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to demand the location of the more than 132,800 people who, according to the National Search Commission, remain unlocated in the country. …The day culminated with the departure of the ‘16th March for Truth, Justice and Memory’ at 3:00 p.m., convened by the National Campaign against Forced Disappearance. Hundreds of people and human rights organizations finally gathered in the Zócalo square to reiterate the demand for search actions before the authorities.”

Publimetro further noted: “The National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons counted 132,844 people in that condition as of August 29, according to official data cited this Sunday by Amnesty International. The organization also warns of a forensic crisis: more than 72,000 bodies remain unidentified in morgues in the country.”

That article also highlighted: “The day occurs just two days after the Ministry of the Interior presented 10 actions to strengthen the National Search Strategy. The package includes completing the data from the National Registry, ensuring that each report has an investigation folder, reinforcing searches in hospitals and detention centers, implementing a human identification plan with the FGR [the federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico] and expanding the capacities of the National Search Commission. For families, however, the parameter remains different: that the records, alerts and files produce concrete results.”

PBI statement

Peace Brigades International also highlighted in this social media post:

“On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we express our deep concern over the rise in these cases and extend our most heartfelt solidarity to the searchers.

We call upon the authorities to effectively and promptly activate investigation and search protocols.

Furthermore, we urge the implementation of clear safeguards to protect the physical integrity of those who search at all times, ensuring that their legitimate right to find their loved ones is exercised in an environment of protection, care, and absolute respect for their lives and dignity.”

Twenty years since the launch of the “war on drugs”

Ten years ago, The Guardian commented: “On 10 December 2006, the newly inaugurated president, Felipe Calderón, launched Mexico’s war on drugs by sending 6,500 troops into his home state of Michoacán, where rival cartels were engaged in tit-for-tat massacres as they battled over lucrative territory. …Since 2007, almost 200,000 people have been murdered and more than 28,000 reported as disappeared.”

That article further notes: “Since [2006-2007] the US has donated at least $1.5bn [to Mexico’s war on drugs] – but the biggest costs have been human. …Human rights groups have detailed a vast rise in human rights abuses by security forces who are under pressure to make arrests, obtain confessions and justify the war. Reports of torture by security forces increased by 600% between 2003 and 2013… Mexico’s decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the huge injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite growing evidence of serious human rights violations.”

On February 22, 2026, CNN reported: “Violence erupted in several states in Mexico after security forces from multiple federal branches of Mexico’s military carried out the operation [in which Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed] in the western state of Jalisco. …Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense said that US authorities provided ‘complementary information’ that supported the operation. A US defense official confirmed that an interagency US task force ‘played a role’ in the operation.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada present at the Ottawa Dyke March that welcomes Queers for Palestine and Labour for Palestine

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Ottawa Dyke March took place on Saturday August 29.

The promotion on the Ottawa Dyke March Instagram page had highlighted: “The Ottawa Dyke March is a volunteer-based, anti-capitalist grassroots organization run by dykes for dykes. Join dykes and allies to march together against the violence of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, transphobia, transmisogyny, homophobia, racism, ableism and all other forms of oppression.”

Their website adds: “The Ottawa Dyke March first took place July 10, 2004, in solidarity with other dyke marches around the world. Even though the march has grown and evolved since its inception, it still maintains the same values that inspired Ottawa dykes to take to the street in the first place: namely our opposition to the commercialization of queer culture and the discrimination that affects dykes in our society. We are dedicated to ending all forms of oppression.”

Their “Statement on Police Exclusion” further notes: “For the first years of Ottawa Dyke March we did not acquire a permit or ask for a police escort. In 2024, we did not acquire a permit or ask for a police escort. Today, we continue to choose not to get a permit because the Ottawa Dyke March is a peaceful political protest for the visibility of dykes, to demand political change, to protest the corporatization of the Pride Parade and to practice, in community, what it means when we say we keep us safe.”

An alternative to corporate-sponsored Pride

The Ottawa Citizen reports: “For more than two decades, people have gathered downtown for a Pride event with no floats, no large corporate sponsors and no requirement to sign up before joining the event. Instead, Ottawa Dyke March is built around a rally, political speeches and people taking to the streets together, followed by a community gathering. …[In the view of Carleton University professor Patrizia Gentile, who teaches in the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation and Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies], the large, corporate-sponsored Pride festivals familiar today are actually the historical anomaly. Political marches such as Dyke and Trans marches, she said, more closely resemble what Pride was historically.”

Solidarity with Palestine

Also shared on the Ottawa Dyke March Instagram page is a social media post from Labour for Palestine Ottawa that says: “Join the Palestine contingent with Labour for Palestine Ottawa as we march in this year’s Ottawa Dyke March. …We look forward to seeing you there with your flag or keffiyeh in hand! Bring your Palestine flags, keffiyehs, protest signs, and union flags. Bring your joy, your solidarity, your resistance.”

That post also noted: “This year we are encouraging our communities to prioritize events and actions that are in line with our core values. This year’s Ottawa Dyke March theme is: Dykes Just Wanna Have Liberation for All!”

Queers for Palestine

CTV News reports: “On Saturday [August 29], hundreds took part in the annual Dyke March, starting at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street. …The march has supported the LGBTQ+ community for more than 20 years. The group Queers for Palestine was also invited to join the Dyke March this year. In 2025, Queers for Palestine halted the Capital Pride Parade on its route, leading to its cancellation. It came after organizers of Capital Pride issued a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinians but removed it from its website after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and several organizations pulled out of the parade and related events.”

CBC News adds: “In a late July Instagram post, the group wrote, ‘We will not be at Capital Pride.’ Instead, it planned to attend the Ottawa Trans March on Friday [August 28] and the Ottawa Dyke March on Saturday [August 29]. ‘We’ve always been different from Capital Pride because we put our community at the centre and because we don’t accept money from corporations and we don’t answer to politicians,’ said Kaytlyn Nadjiwon, an organizer with the Ottawa Dyke March.”

Queers for Palestine Ottawa can be found on Instagram here.

The Ottawa Dyke March can be found on Instagram here.

Their website is here.

More photos from the Ottawa Dyke March.

Additional reading: PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris and LGBTI+ community at annual Pride march in San Pedro Sula (PBI-Canada, August 14, 2026).

See also: PBI-Canada present at the 2026 March for Trans Rights in Ottawa (August 29, 2026).

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