The Canadian Press reports that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says having an Indigenous person serve as the next commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is “an excellent idea” but that it “is not just about putting the right person at the top.”

Trudeau added: “There is a huge amount of work on structures within our institutions, including the RCMP, to ensure that the entire force, the entire system, is fully respectful of Indigenous people, respectful of diversity, inclusive in everything it does, and responsive to the real needs on the ground.”

One step would be for the Canadian government to abolish the RCMP’s community-industry response group (C-IRG).

The controversial unit was formed in 2017 to police Indigenous and community resistance to resource extraction projects in British Columbia.

They have been implicated in multiple human rights violations.

There appears to be at least three challenges against the C-IRG now.

1-Complaint to the CRCC on C-IRG actions at Fairy Creek

On January 23, CBC reported: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

“The complaints contain unproven allegations and were released by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) with names, genders and identifying information censored following an access-to-information request by CBC News.”

CRCC communications director Kate McDerby says: “The CRCC is aware of the systemic issues raised by many of these complaints and is exploring options to determine how best to address these issues within our mandate.”

2-An application to the BC Supreme Court on C-IRG violence

On March 2, Global News reported: “Twelve Wet’suwet’en land defenders have applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to have criminal contempt charges stayed following RCMP raids in 2021.”

Gidimt’en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham) says: “Society is rightly concerned with how a special unit of RCMP (C-IRG) acts with impunity, using racist language and violence against unarmed Indigenous women. Now it’s in the court’s hands to decide if this is still acceptable in 2023.”

3-Statement of claim alleging C-IRG collusion with Coastal GasLink (CGL)

The CBC has also reported that Sleydo’, Janet Williams and Lawrence Bazil allege that the RCMP used intimidation, harassment, invasions of privacy, seizure of private property and unlawful detention against Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

Their notice of claim further alleges that the C-IRG carried out the alleged intimidation campaign “with the full knowledge, co-operation, and assistance of [the private security company] Forsythe and CGL.”

They filed their claim in June 2022, but it wasn’t until January 2023 that BC’s Minister of Public Safety, Mike Farnsworth, responded through another court filing. That response says their enforcement, led by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), was “commensurate with the circumstances” and not “unlawful or overzealous”.

Campaign to abolish the C-IRG

Peace Brigades International-Canada has recently joined an informal network of activists, academics, lawyers and organizations that is calling for the abolition of C-IRG.

Leadnow has an online petition calling on federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino and BC Solicitor General Mike Farnworth to Dismantle the C-IRG and conduct a public inquiry into its actions. To add your name alongside the 2,182 people who have already demanded action, please click here.

For an in-depth read, please also see The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (January 5, 2022).

It appears that the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has made three complaints to Facebook about a local Ottawa group’s Decolonial Solidarity page.

“Decolonial Solidarity – RBC at Bank St and First” has organized a series of protests since its formation last summer highlighting the bank’s financing of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline being built without consent on Wet’suwet’en territory and the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders.

“Decolonial Solidarity – RBC at Bank St and First” received no direct communication from RBC, only notifications from Facebook like this one:

RBC appears to have filed two complaints on February 24 and a third on February 27. It’s not clear what RBC specifically saw as a trademark infringement.

It’s also unclear why a bank – that reported a net income of $3.2 billion for the three months ending January 31, 2023 – saw it necessary to report a Facebook page with about 100 followers, which now appears to have been disabled by Facebook.

Over the past year, this Decolonial Solidarity chapter has organized weekly leafleting and numerous actions including:

January 31, 2023: Supporting students from the University of Ottawa’s Climate Justice group calling on the university to kick the RBC kiosk off campus.

December 9, 2022: Wet’suwet’en land defender Eve Saint (via cellphone) and Horizon Ottawa activist Sam Hersh spoke outside the RBC branch in the Glebe.

November 10, 2022: Painting “RBC STOP THE DRILLING” and “RBC, DEFUND CGL” outside the RBC branch on Rideau Street.

November 5, 2022: Screening videos of Wet’suwet’en land defenders on the side of an RBC branch on Wellington Street.

October 21, 2022: Painting salmon on the sidewalk in front of the RBC branch in the Glebe to highlight the impact of CGL drilling under Wedzin Kwa.

September 23, 2022: Bringing the message to Parliament Hill during a climate justice mobilization.

July 2022: Leafleting on a regular basis in front of the RBC branch in the Glebe beginning last summer.

Stand.earth has noted: “RBC is among top commercial banks providing the CGL project with working capital, including CAD $275 million in project finance, a co-financed $6.5 billion loan, a $40 million corporate loan, and $200 million in co-financed working capital – while acting as financial advisor for the pipeline.”

Stand.earth is now mobilizing to widen the call for RBC to divest from CGL at the time of the bank’s shareholders meeting in Saskatoon on April 6.

The RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) raid on Wet’suwet’en territory on November 19, 2021, included Emergency Response Team officers.

Twelve land defenders are alleging an “abuse of process” and highlighting the RCMP’s “disproportionate and excessive use of force” during a militarized police raid on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia on November 18-19, 2021.

CBC reports: “Several people arrested when RCMP raided a blockade on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021 are asking to have their charges stayed, alleging the police abused their power and used excessive force, according to court documents.”

The CBC report adds: “Twelve people filed proceedings Feb. 6 in B.C. Supreme Court to have charges stayed. …The stay applications will go before the court on March 8 in Smithers, B.C. to see if they will move forward, said Mahon.”

The applicants include land defenders Sleydo’ Molly Wickham and Shaylynn Sampson.

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

Their lawyer Frances Mahon says: “The police conduct here was so egregious that the prosecution should come to an end.

Photo: Frances Mahon.

The Gidimt’en media release on the application highlights that the tactics used by the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), a controversial unit formed in 2017 to police resource extraction conflicts in British Columbia, displayed “a systemic disregard for Indigenous rights and sovereignty and the Charter more generally.”

Sleydo’ says: “Society is rightly concerned with how a special unit of RCMP (C-IRG) acts with impunity, using racist language and violence against unarmed indigenous women. Now it’s in the courts hands to decide if this is still acceptable in 2023.”

If the charges are not stayed following the March 8 hearing, it is expected that a trial will take place in the fall (September-October) of this year.

#AbolishCIRG

On November 23, 2021, after four days in custody following the RCMP/C-IRG raid on her territory, stated: “C-IRG and the RCMP need to be abolished.”

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also repeatedly called on Canada to remove the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en and Secwepemc territories.

The Committee’s most recent letter, dated April 29, 2022, to Leslie Norton, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva, requested Canada “to provide information on the measures taken to … prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms.”

On November 24, 2022, the British Columbia Federation of Labour unanimously passed a resolution calling for the C-IRG to be disbanded.

On February 21 of this year, we organized a webinar titled “Dismantle the C-IRG, end violence against land defenders” featuring Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks, international human rights lawyer Shivangi Misra, activist-academic Keith Cherry and PBI-Canada Board member Seb Bonet. To watch the video of that webinar, please click here.

Now, we are part of an informal network of activists, academics, lawyers and organizations who are also calling for the abolition of C-IRG.

For an in-depth read, please also see The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (January 5, 2022).

Photo: UN Special Rapporteur José Francisco Calí Tzay

The United Nations has announced: “The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, will conduct an official visit to Canada from 1 to 10 March 2023.”

Cali Tzay, an Indigenous Maya Kaqchikel from Guatemala, began his term as Special Rapporteur in May 2020.

Their statement adds:

“The UN expert will examine a diverse range of issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, including the implementation of the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the right to self-determination and the rights to land, territories and resources.”

“He will also focus on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls,  residential schools and unmarked burial sites, indigenous education, language and culture, business and human rights, including the extraterritorial obligations of Canadian companies, free prior and informed consent.”

The Special Rapporteur will visit Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Colombia then present his preliminary findings on March 10 in Ottawa. He will then present his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in September.

The RCMP “community-industry response group”

On a recent PBI-Canada webinar on the abolition of the RCMP C-IRG unit, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks mentioned that he would be meeting with the Special Rapporteur. To watch the video of that webinar, please click here.

Notably, Cali Tzay was previously the President of the Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. It appears that he was a member of that Committee in December 2019.

That Committee has repeatedly called on Canada to halt construction on three megaprojects in British Columbia: the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline on Secwepemc territory, and the Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River on Treaty 8 territory.

The first resolution from the UN Committee, dated December 13, 2019, urged Canada to: guarantee that no force will be used against Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands; [and] to prohibit the use of lethal weapons, notably by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, against indigenous peoples.”

RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, November 19, 2021. Photo by Amber Bracken.

The Committee’s most recent letter, dated April 29, 2022, to Leslie Norton, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva, requested Canada “to provide information on the measures taken to … prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms.”

On September 28, 2022, Kim-Mai Vu of Peace Brigades International presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva during the Interactive Dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She stated: “The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to stop construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. Canada ratified this International Convention in 1970 and said in 2016 that it supported the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, however, the construction of this gas pipeline without consent continues as does the criminalization of land defenders.”

Yesterday, Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’, commenting on an application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to have criminal contempt charges stayed in light of widespread Charter violations stemming from police misconduct, stated: “Society is rightly concerned with how a special unit of RCMP (C-IRG) acts with impunity, using racist language and violence against unarmed indigenous women. Now it’s in the courts hands to decide if this is still acceptable in 2023.”

Video: When Sleydo’ was released on November 23, 2021, from the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre she also stated: “CIRG and the RCMP need to be abolished.”

We are following the Special Rapporteur’s visit with interest.

This Gidimt’en Checkpoint media release notes:

“A dozen Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters have applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to have criminal contempt charges stayed in light of widespread Charter violations stemming from police misconduct.”

It continues:

“Alleging an “abuse of process,” the court applications highlight the RCMP’s “disproportionate and excessive use of force” against peaceful land defenders during a series of militarized police raids in November of 2021.

In violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the applications allege that arrestees were variously denied their right to security of person, subjected to unreasonable search and seizure, arbitrarily detained and imprisoned, and denied reasonable bail without just cause.

“The RCMP/CIRG’s enforcement tactics impaired the Applicant’s individual Charter rights, but the police misconduct also displays a systemic disregard for Indigenous rights and sovereignty and the Charter more generally,” the court filings state.

The applications are grounded in Wet’suwet’en law and sovereignty, situating the arrests within a larger context of Wet’suwet’en-Canadian relations.

In a 2020 Memorandum of Understanding, the governments of Canada and British Columbia recognized the Wet’suwet’en hereditary system as “a legitimate government with title” to 22,000km2 of unceded land.

Despite this, the RCMP have repeatedly undertaken large scale, violent invasions of Wet’suwet’en traditional territories and have established a sustained campaign of surveillance, intimidation, and harassment, which is currently the subject of a separate lawsuit by Wet’suwet’en members.

“Society is rightly concerned with how a special unit of RCMP (C-IRG) acts with impunity, using racist language and violence against unarmed indigenous women. Now it’s in the courts hands to decide if this is still acceptable in 2023,” says Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint and one of the twelve defendants seeking a stay of criminal contempt charges.”

To read the full media release, go to: Wet’suwet’en defendants allege Charter violations, seek stay of court proceedings (February 28, 2023).

Dismantle the C-IRG webinar

On February 21, Peace Brigades International-Canada organized a webinar titled “Dismantle the C-IRG, end violence against land defenders” featuring Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks, international human rights lawyer Shivangi Misra, activist-academic Keith Cherry and PBI-Canada Board member Seb Bonet.

To watch the video of that webinar, please click here.

Christyn Cianfarani, the president of CADSI, “the national voice of more than 900 Canadian defence and security companies” and the organizer of the annual CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, has previously addressed a Senate committee noting arms exports and human rights.

She commented: “Our companies – 90 per cent of which are SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] – are not experts in foreign policy or human rights practices. They do not have the resources to make judgments in this arena, particularly as practices and policies vary widely around the world and seem to be changing more quickly than ever.”

Notably though, Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) members also include massive companies like BAE Systems, Bell Textron, Boeing, Elbit Systems, General Dynamics, Irving Shipbuilding and Lockheed Martin.

In that same presentation, Cianfarani cautioned about new legislation that would prevent the granting of export permits for controlled goods if there is a “substantial risk” that the good could be used to commit human rights violations.

Rather than welcoming this safeguard, she highlighted: “We hope this does not mean lengthier permit approval times and we urge the government to ensure that the department is properly resourced to carry out these functions.”

And Cianfarani told Senators that CADSI is opposed to permits for the export of “controlled goods” to the United States. She stated: “Requiring export permits for Canadian defence goods purchased by the U.S. government would put at risk at least $1 billion per year in Canadian defence industry business.”

Project Ploughshares highlighted: “Canada only partially reports on military exports to the United States—Canada’s largest customer. The data in the latest report includes export values for only four of the 22 categories of the munitions list. Thus huge amounts of data remain off the public record, despite Canada’s obligation under the [Arms Trade Treaty] to be both transparent and universal in reporting foreign arms exports.”

Colombian state forces, particularly the anti-riot police ESMAD, responded to National Strike protests with excessive violence. WOLA noted that “many of the ESMAD’s weapons, including tear gas and ‘bean bags’, are purchased with the Colombian government’s own funds through U.S. arms sales programs.” On November 23, 2019, members of the ESMAD shot 18-year-old Dilan Cruz in the back of the head with a “bean bag” weapon. The high school student died two days later. He was at the protest in Bogota because of the difficulties students like him have accessing higher education in Colombia.

Cianfarani has also argued: “We must remember that these goods cannot leave the United States without passing through the American export regime — International Traffic in Arms — which, like ours, is one of the world’s toughest.”

The US export regime that Cianfarani describes as “one of the world’s toughest” has allowed for $237 billion in arms sales between 2016 and 2020 to countries including Colombia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt and the Philippines.

Calls to end US military exports to Colombia

On May 14, 2021, US Representative James McGovern sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that called “for a suspension of U.S. direct assistance to Colombian National Police; an end to U.S. commercial sales of weapons, equipment, services, or training to ESMAD riot police; and a freeze on any grants or sales of riot or crowd control equipment to all Colombian public security forces, police, and special units until concrete and clear human rights benchmarks are established and met.”

Given Canada exports $1 billion annually in “defence goods” to the US, and the lack of transparency that Project Ploughshares has highlighted about these exports, it’s important to also situate Canada in calls to ban the sale of US weapons to Colombia.

Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanies Berenice Celeita of the Association of Research and Social Action (Nomadesc) at a meeting with US Representative McGovern in Washington, DC in December 2021.

Canadian military sales and impacts on human rights in Colombia

In several articles, we have highlighted the impacts of the export of Canadian “military goods” including armoured vehicles and helicopters to the Colombian military.

In June 2017, the Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturer INKAS exhibited at CANSEC. In July 2021, the Colombian National Police used an INKAS Huron armoured carrier to stop delegations travelling to Cali for a National Strike popular assembly.

 SITU Research and Amnesty International have also detailed how Colombian security forces assaulted a peaceful protest in the Siloé neighbourhood of the city of Cali on May 2, 2021. They confirmed the presence of two helicopters in the area during Operation Siloé. Witness testimony said the National Police helicopters fired at demonstrators seeking refuge in houses in the neighbourhood. Given this testimony, we remain concerned that Canada has sold Bell CH-135 and Bell 212 helicopters to the Colombian military and police.

In November 2019, when the national strike first began, Webinfomil.com also reported that the Colombian National Police would “deploy its entire fleet of Bell 407 Halcón surveillance helicopters in the main cities of the country, where the most important concentrations are expected to occur.”

Those “main cities” would include Cali where Nomadesc is based.

Photo: A Colombian national police Bell 407 helicopter.

In its 2013-14 annual report, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, also a member of CADSI, described the sale of these helicopters to Colombia as a “success story”.

They stated: “As per the CCC contract with Ministry of Defense, four Bell 407 helicopters were delivered to the National Police; and two Bell 412 helicopters were delivered to the Naval Aviation Group [the Colombian navy]. The aircraft were manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. of Mirabel, QC.”

Nomadesc has tweeted: “Colombians do not want more weapons, no more massacres, no more disappearances, no more threats, no more fear. #StopTheGenocide. We demand truth, justice and guarantees of non-repetition. Don’t send us any more weapons. That has made them accomplices of Barbarism.”

CANSEC arms show, May 31-June 1

This year, Peace Brigades International-Canada will be present as activists, organizations and communities protest the CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre in Ottawa.

Last year, PBI-Canada also organized a webinar just prior to CANSEC that highlighted concerns about Canadian arms exports and militarization of territory featuring Celeita (Nomadesc) and speakers from Mexico and Denesuline lands in northern Alberta.

The video of that webinar can be seen here.

This year, we will be organizing another webinar the day prior to CANSEC that will explore similar themes and concerns. Stay tuned for more on this!

Murray Thomson, who helped to found Peace Brigades International as a global organization in 1981, was a regular presence at protests against CANSEC, including the one below in May 2018. He passed away in May 2019 at 96 years of age.