Photo: Camp Morningstar on Lake Winnipeg defends water and territory from sand mining. It is one of many sites of resistance on northern Turtle Island.

Peace Brigades International-Canada is beginning the process of identifying active resistance struggles and blockades on northern Turtle Island.

Our hope is to be able to amplify and build awareness of these struggles, extend our solidarity, and (as our capacity grows) to offer accompaniment as PBI field projects in Latin America do with “defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources who find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition.”

We are informed by this quote by Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel who has stated: “I really like what Amnesty International and some of those international organizations do by providing security for Native land defenders in South America. They don’t have that here, but we need to be able to provide it for our own land defenders to be able to have security for women and people, Elders who do want to go out and defend land, but they don’t have the security needed to do it because violence comes to us.”

To move forward with this process, we also plan to hold conversations and build relationships with the defenders engaged in these struggles.

Look for more on this in the coming weeks.

The F-35 can carry 22,000 pounds of bombs and missiles.

Global News reports: “After years of delays and deliberation, Canada is set to finalize a contract to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets in the ‘very short term’, according to Defence Minister Anita Anand.”

Anand says: “We will be concluding that contract in the very short term and moving to ensure that the assets arrive as soon as possible.”

The article continues: “Trudeau’s government appears to be on the cusp of signing a contract for the fleet they promised not to purchase in 2015.”

(His Real Change platform that year stated in bold: “We will not buy the F-35 stealth fighter-bomber.” It then noted: “The primary mission of our fighter aircraft should remain the defence of North America, not stealth first-strike capability. We will reduce the procurement budget for replacing the CF-18s, and will instead purchase one of the many, lower-priced options that better match Canada’s defence needs.”)

Just two days ago, La Presse also reported: “The Trudeau government had set itself the goal of reaching a formal agreement by the end of December.”

While La Presse says the negotiations may not be concluded until early 2023, Anand tells the newspaper news is coming “soon”.

That article also notes: “The Department of Public Services and Procurement has been extremely cautious about the status of negotiations with Lockheed Martin and is clearly refusing to specify a timeline.”

This past week, Skies Magazine also reported: “It is currently anticipated that contracts for Canada’s acquisition of 88 F-35 jets are to be signed by the end of this year, or early 2023, with the first delivery slated for 2025.”

With less than two weeks remaining in this year, the Government of Canada’s Future fighter capability project website still says: “Contract award: 2022”.

And with respect to cost, that website says: “Canada’s defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged estimates the acquisition of the aircraft, associated equipment and setup to enable entry into service will cost $15-19 billion.”

But notably, the Government has not publicly stated how much the fighter jet will cost over its expected 30 year lifespan.

In June of this year, Anne Ngoh Ngando of the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer stated: “At this time, we are not currently planning any further analysis [beyond their March 2011 fiscal report] of the F-35.”

That study (at a time when the Government said it would purchase 65 F-35s for $9 billion) concluded: “Relying on historical trends and applicable cost drivers, the PBO was able to forecast a total ownership cost of approximately US$ 29.3 billion for the 65 aircraft over a 30-year period. This includes both acquisition and long-term sustainment costs and reflects a 75% confidence interval.”

But in their September 2022 study, the No Fighter Jet Coalition estimated the lifecycle cost of 88 F-35s to be $76.8 billion (including the $19 billion acquisition cost).

The Department of National Defence Department has also not disclosed how much it has budgeted or expects to spend on missiles and bombs for the F-35s over the next 30 years. It has also not disclosed the casualty figures from the estimated 1,598 offensive bombing missions against Iraq, Syria, Libya and Serbia conducted by the current fleet of CF-18s over the last 30 years.

And with the news of this imminent contract coming just weeks after the COP27 summit concluded in Egypt, we also note that the Government of Canada has not disclosed any figures in relation to the projected greenhouse gas emissions from these warplanes.

We continue to express our concerns about the consequences and lack of information about the purchase and use of these warplanes.

Anand’s statement also come just days after the Washington Post reported: “A U.S. pilot ejected from a fighter jet after a bizarre slow-moving crash at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth on Dec. 15.”

To see that video, click here.

Wet’suwet’en land defender called on the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to divest from the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now being constructed on Wet’suwet’en territory (yintah) in northern British Columbia without free, prior and informed consent.

Stand.earth has documented: “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.”

PBI-Canada had hoped to travel from Ottawa to Montreal for this mobilization, but heavy snows prevented us from getting there.

We have, however, been following posts about it on social media:

Video: “We had the honour to sit with people from Colombia. We all share the same struggles. We are standing here in front of RBC because RBC has invested $275 million in the destruction of our yintah.”

#KillTheDrill

Photo: Brian Roewe.

There was a Land Back media conference at the UN COP15 biodiversity summit in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) this past Wednesday December 14.

Mohawk land defender Ellen Gabriel stated: “For centuries, Indigenous peoples have been squeezed into smaller and smaller pieces of land. And yet those pieces of land are still being taken and stolen from us.”

Gabriel added: “These parks, they’re great for recreation. Everybody can come snowshoeing. … But for Indigenous people, we don’t have any rights.”

She further noted: “What Land Back means to us is the freedom. It’s democracy. It’s our voices being heard.”

Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’ also stated: “We know that our very existence relies on the biodiversity on our territories. We have the jurisdiction on biodiversity. We have the jurisdiction to control our lands, and to manage them according to our laws.”

And Aamjiwnaang water protector Vanessa Gray highlighted: “When our communities face industrial violence, not only is our health impacted but our ability to practice our culture and ceremony is impacted. Indigenous people stand together across colonial borders to fight the same extractive infrastructures and companies, we speak our own languages and uphold our responsibilities in solidarity with each other.”

To hear their full comments, watch the 43-minute video of the “Biodiversity can only exist with Land Back” media conference.

Tla’amin land defender Ta’Kaiya Blaney has also been at COP15.

Further reading: Indigenous land defenders sing “Trudeau is a colonizer” as prime minister opens the COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal

Blaney says: “These international forums that do not allow space for Indigenous leadership outside of the boxes they put us in, refuse to address colonialism and capitalism as the root causes. It’s very clear that it’s just offsetting the responsibility for future generations to deal with the destruction that is currently taking place.”

For a video of Blaney speaking at COP15, click here.

Dene land defender Melissa Daniels has also commented: “Performative reconciliation is using a global platform to self proclaim leadership in conservation/biodiversity & continuing to authorize militarized violence against the Wetʼsuwetʼen, Secwepemc & all other Indigenous ppl who’ve said no extractive industries on their homelands.”

In this Twitter thread Daniels further notes: “The discussions at #COP15 should have been framed around Free, Prior & Informed Consent, Indigenous Rights and Title, & Indigenous Sovereignty and yet all I heard about was an “indigenous-led”, divide and conquer, colonial conservation rebrand.”

Further reading: Melissa Daniels warned against collecting salt on ancestral lands stolen from the Dene peoples (April 2022).

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) denounces 30×30 initiative as “fortress conservation” and Global Biodiversity Framework to be discussed in Montreal amid concerns about Afro-Colombian ancestral rights and title.

Video still from APTN News.

CTV reports: “The federal government will support an Indigenous-led study looking into the feasibility of searching Winnipeg-area landfills for the remains of missing women, the city’s mayor [Scott Gillingham] announced Thursday [December 15].”

It is believed that the remains of murder victims Marcedes Myran, 26, Morgan Harris, 39, and other missing Indigenous women are in the city’s two landfills, the privately-run Prairie Green landfill and the City-owned Brady Road landfill.

Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran.

The article adds: “Operations at Prairie Green Landfill … have been put on pause while next steps are discussed regarding a search of the facility.”

“Hours after the announcement made by Gillingham that the feds will fund the feasibility study, demonstrators converged on Winnipeg City Hall calling on the city to close Brady Road Landfill ahead of any search for other missing Indigenous women.”

Melissa Normand says: “Shutting down Prairie Green is only half of the job. We know that there’s other women at Brady, so why are we still allowing dumping to be going on over there? Why are we still allowing our city to throw garbage on our women?”

Elle Harris, Morgan’s daughter, says: “They don’t give a shit about us, they don’t!”

She doesn’t believe that the feasibility study will lead to a search of the landfill. She also says that if the women were white the search would already be underway.

CTV adds: “Demonstrators have been blocking access to the landfill and plan to continue doing so until it’s shut down.”

Further reading: Indigenous rights defenders at landfills in Winnipeg as police refuse to search for the bodies of murdered Indigenous women (December 12).

“We want to live free on our lands, without the constant threat of violence by C-IRG, who are illegally occupying Gidimt’en territory.” – land defender Sleydo’

Photo: Still from footage by Michael Toledano.

On November 23, 2021, Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’ emerged from four days in police custody following the RCMP raid on her territory that enabled the continued construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline without free, prior and informed consent.

She said: “C-IRG and the RCMP need to be abolished. Anybody who is not into prison abolition should be after this experience that we’ve had.”

A year later, on November 24, 2022, the BC Federation of Labour unanimously passed a resolution calling for the C-IRG to be disbanded.

What is the C-IRG?

According to the RCMP: “The Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) was created in 2017 to provide strategic oversight addressing energy industry incidents and related public order, national security and crime issues.”

The RCMP adds: “The C-IRG uses a measured approach in facilitating the peaceful resolution of public disorder issues. They proactively engage all stakeholders through open communication and meaningful dialogue.”

In contrast, Michael Toledano, a journalist arrested by the RCMP during their raid on the territory in November 2021, has described them as “the specialized RCMP unit that protects resource extraction in BC.”

Pam Palmater has also described it as “the RCMP’s special brand of private security for the extractive industry.”

Gidimt’en camp media coordinator Jennifer Wickham has commented: “RCMP officers volunteer and request to be on this [C-IRG] team – so we get the gung-ho guys, who have specially requested to come out there and harass us.”

And in this video, Sleydo’s says: “The RCMP, the private mercenaries for industry and governments, the Community-Industry Response Group.”

This year there have been several articles on the C-IRG including: The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally (by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines in Briarpatch magazine), Behind the Thin Blue Line: Meet a secretive arm of the RCMP in B.C. (by Brett Forester for APTN), One-on-one with the leader of a special RCMP unit tasked with policing opposition to industrial projects in B.C. (by Matt Simmons in The Narwhal), and Officer quits RCMP task force over concerns about Fairy Creek enforcement (by Rochelle Baker in the National Observer).

Last year, we wrote What do we know about the RCMP’s resource extraction protection unit? (by Brent Patterson in rabble.ca).

This coming year, PBI-Canada will be supporting the call for the C-IRG to be abolished.

We will be doing so by: consulting with allies that share this objective, organizing webinars to build public awareness and support for this call, and providing ways in which individuals can voice their opposition to the C-IRG.

Stay tuned for more in early-2023!

Video: C-IRG member Staff Sergeant Jason Charney drains water tanks on Wet’suwet’en territory, October 2021.

Postmedia reports: “Foxgate Developments … the company behind a planned housing development near Caledonia [situated 95 kilometres south of Toronto] has won a permanent injunction against Indigenous protesters.”

That article continues: “Superior Court Justice Paul Sweeney released his decision Tuesday [December 13]. The latest round of legal wrangling over the property was heard in Cayuga court in September. The group that has occupied the site since the summer of 2020 has maintained that the land in question is on unceded Haudenosaunee territory.”

“Currently on the property, those protesting have created a gathering place for groups with a large kitchen, individual tiny homes for families, a garden and a fruit tree orchard, which [Haudenosaunee land defender Skyler] Williams said is dedicated to the memory of children who died in residential schools.”

Land defender Skyler Williams.

Responding to the court’s decision, Williams says: “Injunctions are what trigger police violence. The developer can now use this injunction to pressure police to clear us from the land. The Crown has lost its honour of nation-to-nation relationship when they put what should be negotiations into the hands of police.”

Williams also notes the ruling will be appealed.

On their Facebook page, 1492 Land Back Lane says: “Previous enforcement attempts led by police resulted in serious harm to our community; police shot at land defenders in the back with rubber bullets and tasers, and over 50 people were arrested.”

“Given the history of violence unleashed on our community by the use of injunctions, we are taking this as a very serious threat on our safety.”

They further state: “Canada’s colonial legal system is fundamentally designed for this purpose: to deny our inherent connection to our lands, to dispossess us in order to extract resources and develop our territory without our consent. This is exactly how land theft is made legal.”

Their full statement can be read here.

To donate to the 1492 Land Back Lane legal fund, click here.

Background

On July 19, 2020, Haudenosaunee land defenders began a reoccupation of a 25-acre area of land about near the city of Caledonia, located about an hour southwest of Toronto.

Foxgate Developments planned to build at least 218 houses on this land. That was reportedly the first phase of a 1,000 unit housing development.

The Haudenosaunee asserted it was their territory through the Haldimand Treaty of 1784 that granted them an area of 950,000 acres in southern Ontario.

On July 31, 2020, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) escorted a court sheriff who delivered a first court injunction against the reoccupation.

Kate Gunn, a Vancouver-based lawyer with First Peoples Law, has also pointed out that an injunction is not a determination of which party is right, rather it seeks, in principle, to preserve the status quo until the underlying dispute is resolved.

That means, for instance, that a land developer can more easily persuade the court that the economic harm is greater to them than communities seeking to protect their culture and traditions from centuries of land dispossession.

Williams has stated: “This development must be seen as being yet another instance in an ongoing history of colonial land theft and genocide, that it is people from Six Nations who are facing the greater harm if this matter is decided against their interests.”

Solidarity from Honduran environmental defenders: “National and international companies in collusion with state security apparatuses criminalize land and water defenders to silence their legitimate struggle. Our solidarity with the Haudenosaunee people.”

On July 2, 2021, the developer backed down, temporarily at least.

On March 17, 2022, Williams commented: “After a year of relative peace, we have received word from what would have been the developer at Landback Lane. They intend to reapply for their injunction. We are taking this very seriously. We see it as an open threat against our people and our lands.”

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council, the traditional government of the Six Nations of the Grand River, has stated that no development can proceed on their lands without the consent of the Haudenosaunee.

Cayuga Snipe Chief Deyohowe:to (Roger Silversmith) says: “It is time to end the injustice. We want the land that is ours. We are not interested in approving fraudulent dispossessions of the past. We are not interested in selling land.”

Photo by Steve Mongeau/APTN.