The CBC reports Canada’s top soldier says defence industry needs to ramp up production to ‘wartime footing’.

General Wayne Eyre, Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, says: “Given the deteriorating world situation, we need the defence industry to go onto a wartime footing and increase their production lines to be able to support the requirements that are out there, whether its ammunition, artillery, rockets, you name it.”

CANSEC arms show

It’s likely that Lieutenant-General Frances Allen, the Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, will bring this message as a keynote speaker at the CANSEC arms show.

CANSEC, taking place on Wednesday June 1 and Thursday June 2, is organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

CADSI “is the national industry voice of more than 900 Canadian defence and security companies that produce world-class goods … sought the world over [and that] generate $10 billion in annual revenues, roughly 60 per cent of which come from exports.”

The exhibitors list this year includes Bell Textron Canada Limited (that has manufactured helicopters used by the Colombian and Mexican armed forces); L3Harris Technologies (now bidding to sell armed drones to Canada); and Lockheed Martin Canada (now in final negotiations with Canada to sell 88 of their F-35 warplanes).

Lockheed Martin, one of the sponsors of CANSEC, had $67.0 billion in sales in 2021 (up $1.6 billion from 2020), and reported a profit (net earnings) of $1.7 billion for just the first three months of this year.

Mobilization against CANSEC

A protest against CANSEC is now being organized. The Facebook event page for that is at Against All Wars: Protest the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa.

That page highlights: “ALL OUT for a rotating picket on Wednesday June 1 starting at 7:00am at the EY Centre (4899 Uplands Drive by the airport) in Ottawa.”

There will also be a march against Canadian imperialism and militarism on Thursday June 2 starting at 4:00 pm starting at City Hall followed by a teach-in at McNabb Park.

Webinar, May 31

The day prior to the start of CANSEC, PBI-Canada will also be organizing a webinar on Arms exports and the militarization of territory.

Confirmed speakers include Quetzalli Villanueva Vergara (Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, Mexico), Rachel Small (World Beyond War, Canada) and Ni Dene Uldai (Denesuline land defender, Tluo Chok Tue). A speaker from Colombia will be confirmed soon.

The webinar will be moderated by Seb Bonet, a PBI-Canada Board member.

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

To register for this webinar, please click here.

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PBI-Canada first raised concerns about this arms show in 1993 just after it had been rebranded from ARMX to Peacekeeping ’93. The arms show became CANSEC in 1998.

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

Related reading: PBI-Switzerland supports Ostermarsch (Easter March) that opposes Swiss arms exports.

Beechcraft King Air 350ER. Photo by Department of National Defence.

Are social protests increasingly being surveilled by the police and military by air? If so, what are the human rights implications?

Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese reports: “Canadian special forces are preparing to receive their own King Air aircraft outfitted with surveillance equipment and have been conducting training leading up to the delivery of those planes.”

Department of National Defence spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande says these three surveillance airplanes represent a new capability for the Canadian Armed Forces operations “at home and abroad.”

Pugliese further explains: “The modified small passenger planes are outfitted with surveillance equipment allowing for the interception of cellphone calls, radio transmissions and other communications. Electro-optical sensors would also allow crews onboard the aircraft to track the movement of individuals and vehicles on the ground.”

Specifically, the aircraft will be equipped with “three WESCAM MX-15D electro-optical and infrared imaging sensors” according to according to defensenews.com.

The Globe and Mail has also reported the $247 million purchase – brokered by the US government – “will give the military new tools to snoop from the sky.”

Surveillance of social protests

The Ottawa Citizen article highlights: “Canadian special forces were operating [a U.S.-registered King Air aircraft] that flew over Ottawa during the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in late January and February, this newspaper has confirmed.”

Black Lives Matter

Two years ago, surveillance aircraft also flew over the protests in Portland, Oregon against the police murder of George Floyd.

At that time, NBC affiliate KGW8 reported: “A small airplane registered to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security flew over protesters in downtown Portland on [July 22, 2020]. The Beechcraft Super King Air 350 made wide, counter-clockwise circles over demonstrators for almost three hours.”

That appears to be the same type of aircraft the Canadian military is buying.

The Intercept has also reported: “While anonymous federal agents have thrown protesters into unmarked vans and fired tear gas at Portland’s mayor in recent days, an Air Force surveillance plane designed to carry state-of-the-art sensors typically reserved for war zones has circled the Oregon city’s outskirts from above.”

In that case, the airplane was a Dornier Do-328 Cougar.

Senator Ron Wyden commented: “The Air Force should know better than to fly circles over American cities when armed federal troops are beating and gassing protesters below. Even if this was a test flight arranged months ago, the Air Force’s decision to continue as planned, rather than delaying the flight, raises serious questions about the judgement of the military leaders who approved the flight.”

Wet’suwet’en land defenders

In January 2020, Vice reported: “[RCMP Corporal Madonna] Saunderson confirmed that an RCMP aircraft ‘did conduct patrol over the area … as part of our commitment to monitor the situation.’ The admission came one day after a photo of what appeared to be an RCMP plane above a Wet’suwet’en camp made the rounds on social media.”

Photo: RCMP airplane seen flying over Wet’suwet’en territory, January 2020.

Stop Line 3 protests

There are also reports of helicopters, airplanes and drones used to surveil land defenders and water protectors opposed to the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota.

In July 2021, Big Wind, a Northern Arapaho land defender, told The Intercept: “A DHS [Department of Homeland Security] helicopter flew over camp yesterday. You could tell it was intentional and it was to intimidate us and to surveil us.”

Unicorn Riot also reported on a Minnesota State Patrol Cirrus SR22 aircraft circling a Stop Line 3 protest outside the Governor’s residence in Saint Paul.

Significantly, it has also been widely reported that Calgary-based Enbridge, the company that built the Line 3 pipeline, set up a special fund to reimburse Minnesota police responding to pipeline protests. That could have included air surveillance.

National strike in Colombia

In November 2019, when the national strike mobilizations first began in Colombia, Webinfomil.com reported that the 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.”

Semana further noted: “The aircraft, normally, carries four policemen (two pilots) and sends the images it takes to the police command, in real time, so that they are implemented in chases, padlock operations and all kinds of operations.”

Colombian human rights defenders have repeatedly raised concerns about police violence during the national strike protests that extended into 2021.

In its 2013-14 annual report, the Canadian Commercial Corporation describes the delivery of “four Bell 407 helicopters to the Colombian National Police” as a “success story.”

We continue to follow this issue.

“A red dress worn by the mountain weather & dust from an industry road in Wet’suwet’en territories. A symbol of the genocide of Indigenous females who are targeted for violence & murder. CGL pipeline guarded by RCMP is being constructed without hereditary leaders consent nearby.” – Photo by Brandi Morin.

In her latest dispatch from Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, journalist Brandi Morin writes: “Gaylene Morris of the Likhsamasyu Clan, says she was threatened with rape over a CB radio on April 18.”

Morin adds: “Morris, who visits her ancestral territory regularly, says it happened after she stopped to check on Hereditary Chief Gisday’wa’s hunting cabin at around 8:30 p.m. …After returning to [her] vehicle, she heard a ‘creepy, eerie’ voice address her on the radio. She had seen a Coastal GasLink work truck ahead of her just before she had stopped.”

And Morin notes: “[Morris is] used to being followed closely by marked Coastal GasLink vehicles and RCMP, sometimes while her young children are with her. The verbal rape threat confirmed the dangers she faces in her homelands.”

Morris reported the threat to the RCMP.

Morris’ aunt, elder Janet Williams, has told the RCMP: “I’d appreciate it if you’d try to look it up and to investigate one of our girls who was assaulted on the radio with a threat of rape. We don’t trust the CGL here.”

But Williams says: “The RCMP aren’t protecting us — they’re protecting CGL. They’re working for CGL.” 

The article continues: “Coastal GasLink spokesperson Natasha Westover told Ricochet in an email that the company has not received any complaints and has not been informed by the RCMP of any reports of the threat.”

“When asked about the status of the investigation of the rape threat reported by Morris, RCMP spokesperson Manseau advised Ricochet to direct Morris to the Houston RCMP. Morris then told Ricochet she has not yet heard back from them.”

The full article by Morin can be read at Wet’suwet’en report round-the-clock surveillance and harassment by RCMP and pipeline security.

Other incidents

Mohawk land defender Layla Staats has also spoken about the “humiliation and degradation” that she felt when an RCMP officer winked at her as she was handcuffed in the back of his police cruiser after she was arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory for peacefully resisting the CGL pipeline on November 18, 2021.

In this interview with Morin, Gidimt’en land defender Sleydo’ describes how police forcibly cut a cedar bracelet and medicine bag from her at an RCMP detachment the following day. Sleydo’ says four or five RCMP officers physically restrained her and cut the medicine bag off her body as about ten officers watched.

Just a few weeks earlier, Wet’suwet’en land defender Delee Nikal highlighted: “Femicide is directly linked to the ecocide … there needs to be more awareness that these extractive industries, all that is affecting our climate and destroying our territories, is intertwined with violence against our women and girls.”

A global threat

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has reported: “Common experiences of WHRDs [women human rights defenders] across regions reflect global trends of repression and gender-specific violence [GBV] perpetrated by corporate, state and non-state actors: corporations and private companies, state and local authorities, military and police forces, [and] private security services.”

AWID adds: “States are obliged by national, regional and international human rights standards to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of women human rights defenders and their communities, and provide an enabling environment for the peaceful defense of their lands and territories. If violations occur, states have an obligation to provide victims with access to effective judicial remedies and reparation.”

In January 2020, The Guardian also reported on a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and noted: “There have been numerous examples of gender-based violence directed against environmental defenders and activists, who try to stop the destruction or degradation of their land, natural resources and communities. Sexual violence is used to suppress them, undermine their status within the community and discourage others from coming forward.”

The IUCN report says: “The violence and intimidation employed to exert control over individuals’ and local communities’ territories and natural resources can also instigate, magnify and reinforce incidences of GBV.”

The report also notes: “The GBV experienced by WEHRDs [women environmental human rights defenders] can often be exacerbated when it intersects with racial and ethnic discrimination. In Guatemala, indigenous communities, which make up 60 per cent of the national population, often find themselves in defence of their territories against extractive interests. The country has also experienced a startling rise in GBV, particularly against indigenous women.”

Video: “By being women in the public space, and as guardians of our Indigenous and local communities and resources, we face marginalization, discrimination and racism, patriarchy and gender-based violence.” – Sara Mux, Ixpop Collective (Guatemala)

Why did 1,000 people just march on the streets of Puerto Wilches?

Join us on Sunday May 8 at 2:30 pm ET to hear environmental defenders Yuvelis Morales and Carolina Agon talk about the popular resistance to fracking in Colombia.

Edmonton-based Bronwen Tucker from Oil Change International will also talk about the Canadian corporate connections to this situation.

The webinar will be moderated by Luis van Isschot.

For the Spanish-English live transmission, please register now here.

Among the other questions that will be asked of our panelists:

– Do you expect the fracking pilot projects to advance this year?

– How would these fracking projects affect the climate and water?

– What are the dangers now being faced by anti-fracking activists in Colombia?

– What role has Scotiabank financing of Ecopetrol played in this situation?

– What can the international community do?

To register for this discussion, register here.

Brent