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PBI-Honduras meets with MADJ to talk about threat posed to Indigenous Tolupan community in Yoro by extractivism

By
Brent Patterson
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On December 15, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “Yesterday we met with @MovAmplioHn [the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice/MADJ] to talk about the situation of #ddhh in the Tolupan indigenous community of San Francisco de Locomapa (Yoro). At PBI, we are concerned about the constant pressure on the community’s land for the extractive industry.”

On Facebook, PBI-Honduras adds: “The Tolupán people are one of the nine indigenous peoples of Honduras, during their process of struggle against dispossession and looting they have been one of the most martyred, from 1990 to date approximately 120 of their members have been murdered, most of them linked to the defense of the territory. ”

Last year, Tierra de Resistentes reported: “The Tolupan San Francisco de Locomapa Tribe, in Yoro, Honduras, has suffered murders, judicial harassment and attacks due to its opposition to power generation projects.”

“Within the best Honduran Pine forests and a land rich in minerals such as iron oxide, silver and antimony, over 40 murders have occurred in indigenous communities in the last 20 years, according to a report submitted by the Working Group on Mining and Human Rights in Latin America before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).”

It also notes: “In San Francisco de Locomapa, murders linked to the mining conflict started in 2013. From that moment, the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ, in Spanish) has recorded 10 murders not only linked to the wood conflict but also to an antimony mine.”

Front Line Defenders has also reported: “On 25 August 2013, environmental and indigenous people’s rights defenders María Enriqueta Matute, Armando Fúnez Medina and Ricardo Soto were killed in the village of San Francisco de Locomapa (Yoro) in Honduras.”

“All three defenders belonged to tribes of the Tolupán indigenous people, who have faced centuries of discrimination and violence – from Spanish colonizers in the 1500s to mining companies in 2016. Before their assassination, María, Armando and Ricardo were peacefully protesting against a mining operation and the construction of a hydroelectric dam on their indigenous land.”

That article adds: “Their killing followed years of threats and attacks by sicarios, people hired by mining companies, loggers and landowners to intimidate the local community.”

The context is also documented in Honduras: The cry of the forests in the land of the Tolupanes | Future Planet (March 2021) and “We came back to Struggle” by Sandra Cuffe (Summer 2014).

This past July, PBI-Honduras accompanied CEHPRODEC on a visit with the Tolupan community in Las Vegas de Tepemechín, Yoro. At that time, PBI-Honduras commented: “The Tolupan community lives a constant struggle to protect ancestral lands from extractive projects.”

The Conversation has reported: “In the early 2000s, Canadian investment [in Honduras] surpassed $100 million, much of it concentrated in mining and exploration.” And MiningWatch Canada has stated: “The General Mining Law [in Honduras] was developed with technical assistance paid for with Canadian overseas development aid. Its passage in 2013 lifted a seven-year moratorium on any new mining projects.”

We continue to follow the situation in Yoro.

PBI-Honduras accompanies filing of habeas corpus writ on the illegal detention of the Guapinol River defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Guapinol Resiste.

Criterio reports: “On the morning of Tuesday, December 14, the legal team representing Guapinol’s defenders filed a writ of habeas corpus based on the illegality of the detention of the eight environmentalists who have been imprisoned for more than 27 months, following the extension to six more months of ‘preventive’ detention.”

In short, a writ of habeas corpus is a legal petition that can be used to secure a person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention. It is a fundamental right that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.

The article continues: “The lawyer of the law firm Justice for the Peoples, Edy Tabora, gave voice to the demand that the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) not vacation until it resolves the writ of habeas corpus, this under the imperative that indicates the Constitution of the Republic through article 182 in which it proposes ‘to proceed immediately to cease the violation of freedom’.”

“[Tabora] pointed out that the ‘Criminal Chamber with eleven words justifies an extension of six months of preventive detention against eight citizens of this country who have also been declared nationally and internationally as human rights defenders.’”

In a hopeful development, the article highlights that the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has responded to the habeas corpus appeal by appointing an executing judge who is to request and receive within 24 hours a report on the status of the accused and then present conclusions to the court.

The Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods Legal Defence Team further explains: “According to the Criminal Procedural Code, the constitutional action of Habeas Corpus must be resolved immediately, regardless of the upcoming vacation period of the Judiciary.”

It then highlights: “The Plenary must meet immediately and issue a resolution to release Guapinol’s defenders so that they can finally spend this Christmas with their families after more than 27 months of arbitrary detention.”

We continue to follow this closely from Canada.

Photo by Heidy Alachán.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc meeting with US Representative Jim McGovern in Washington, DC

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Nomadesc.

On December 13, Nomadesc tweeted: “In order to demonstrate the deterioration of the human rights situation in Colombia, Nomadesc, accompanied by @WOLA_org and @pbiusa, met with the House representative @RepMcGovern and his advisers whom they requested to raise to the highest-level follow-up actions…”

Their tweet continues:

“…to the criminalization of the 2021 National Strike and the responsibility of the State, as well as to accelerate the Urgent search of the two leaders of the Yurumangui River, Abencio Caicedo and Edison Valencia who have disappeared since last November 28.”

CoDevelopment Canada has further explained: “Abencio Caicedo and Edinson Valencia have been missing since November 28 when they left their homes in the community of Yurumanguí in Buenaventura, southwestern Colombia.”

They add: “Caicedo is a member of the village council, while Valencia is a representative of APONURY, an Afro-Colombian rights organization active in communities along the Yurumanguí river. Both also work with the local Committee for Collective Reparations, seeking redress for communities affected by Colombia’s armed conflict.”

Edinson Valencia and Abencio Caicedo

Nomadesc is based in the city of Cali.

WOLA has noted: “In Cali, Colombia’s third largest city with a high number of Afro-descendant residents, the disproportionate use of force employed by security forces [during the national strike] was particularly acute, as the government deployed troops to quell the unrest.”

“Social media networks were flooded with disturbing videos of the violence and abuses. In one egregious instance, an Indigenous Nasa caravan that entered the city in early May to peacefully support protestors at the University of Cali was attacked by armed civilians, who, in the presence of police officers, shot their guns at protestors.”

“When the violence broke out, human rights defender Berenice Celeita and her team at the Association for Research and Social Action (Asociación para la Investigación y la Acción Social, Nomadesc) were out in the streets of Cali monitoring and assisting the victims of police violence.”

“Currently, Nomadesc represents over twenty cases of victims of this recent police violence. Among these cases are the parents of youth killed by the police, women subjected to sexual abuse, torture survivors, and individuals who have permanent ocular injuries due to the actions taken by security forces.”

WOLA adds: “Invaluable efforts to secure justice for these cases have unfortunately led to death threats, persecution, monitoring, and surveillance against Celeita.”

The call to suspend weapons exports to Colombia

On May 14, Representative McGovern helped lead 59 members of the House in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing grave concern over the political and human rights situation in Colombia and urging the US Government to clearly and unambiguously denounce police brutality in Colombia.

The media release on that letter highlighted: “The lawmakers also call 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 (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios) 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.”

This is a call that has been echoed by Amnesty International Canada.

In June, they stated: “Amidst profound concern about the deepening human rights crisis in Colombia and militarized repression of ongoing demonstrations across the country, Amnesty International Canada is calling on the Canadian government to suspend weapons exports to the South American country.”

Military exports from Canada to Colombia have included Bell CH-135 helicopters, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) for the army and INKAS Huron Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) for the national police.

And just weeks after the Colombian Air Force conducted an airstrike that killed twelve people, including 16-year-old Danna Lizeth Montilla, in March of this year, two Beechcraft T-6C Texan II turboprop trainer aircraft were delivered to the Colombian Air Force powered by Montreal, Québec-made Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 engines.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied Nomadesc since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

PBI-Colombia accompanies dhColombia as it continues to seek justice for the killings by police on September 9-10, 2020

By
Brent Patterson
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Twitter photo: On September 9, PBI-Colombia accompanied dhColombia in its demands for justice and guarantees for social protest 1 year after the violence and police massacre in the Verbenal Park, Bogotá.

On December 14, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted a Washington Post article about a massacre committed by the Colombian police.

That Washington Post article reported: “Colombia’s national police were responsible for the deaths of 11 people during two days of protests of police brutality last year, according to an independent investigation requested by the mayor of Bogotá and supported by the United Nations.”

It further explains:

“The violence happened on Sept. 9, 2020, as thousands of people poured onto the streets of Bogotá and vandalized police stations to protest the death of Javier Ordóñez.

A video shared on social media that day showed him pinned to the ground, pleading for relief as two police officers shocked him repeatedly with a stun gun. “Please,” he begged. “No more.” He later died of a blow to the head suffered while in police custody.

An estimated 12,000 people took to the streets on Sept. 9 and 10 to protest. Fourteen died, 11 of them at the hands of the police. Seventy-five more suffered gunshot wounds, and hundreds of civilians and police officers were injured. Seventy-six police stations were damaged or destroyed.

At least two of the victims were killed by armed individuals dressed in civilian clothing, the investigators said. It remains unclear whether the armed people were civilians or police in plainclothes.

More than a year after the violence, [researchers] found, fewer than 44 percent of criminal cases connected to the protests and brought before the attorney general’s office are being investigated. Of the 427 active investigations, only 2.5 percent have reached the trial phase.”

This past summer, in relation to the police violence against the national strike protests this year, Canada’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau called on Colombia “to keep its commitment to fully investigate and hold anyone who has violated human rights to account for their actions.”

The evidence continues to suggest that is not happening.

On April 9 of this year, PBI-Colombia accompanied dhColombia along with the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) at a sit-in in front of the Consulate of the European Union in Colombia that called on the international community to speak out against the massacre that happened in September 2020.

At that time, dhColombia tweeted: “Never forget, the Massacre of September 9, 2020, was a massacre committed by the State at the hands of the Colombian Police.”

Announcing the results of the investigation this Monday, Chief investigator Carlos Negret accused the Colombian National Police of committing a “massacre.”

We continue to follow this with concern.

PBI-Colombia has been accompanying the Associated Network of Human Rights Defenders (dhColombia) since its founding in 2016.

On September 13, 2020, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “PBI accompanies @dhColombia in an act of solidarity for Manuel Acevedo Fernández, victim of two gunshot wounds during the protests of the last week.”

Ten Indigenous Zapotec communities reject Canadian San José mine in Oaxaca, Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
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Two regional assemblies representing ten Zapotec communities have now rejected the San Jose silver and gold mine owned and operated by Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines through its Mexican subsidiary Cuzcatlán.

Educa Oaxaca reports: “During the Regional Assemblies of December 10 and 12 held in the Zapotec communities of Santa Catarina Minas, Ocotlán; and San Dionisio Ocotepec, Tlacolula, respectively; and before more than 2500 citizens, authorities of ten indigenous communities that are members of the No to Mining Front for a Future of All ratified their position of prohibiting mining in their territories and demanded that the Mexican State deny any environmental permit for mining exploitation, specifically the San José project of the Cuzcatlán mining company.”

At the first assembly, the communities of Monte del Toro, San Matías Chilazoa, San Martín de los Cansecos, Magdalena Ocotlán, Santa Catarina Minas formally rejected the mine. At the second assembly, the communities of El Vergel, Los Ocotes, San José del Progreso, San Nicolás Yaxe and San Dionisio Ocotepec also rejected the mine.

The statement from the second regional assembly highlights that: “Citizens were informed about the 10 years of mining exploitation, the environmental and social effects that Cuzcatlán/Fortuna has brought to Zapotec communities specifically in San José del Progreso and Magdalena Ocotlán.”

It further notes: “The first community being the place where the company was installed without any information or consultation and where it has caused the greatest damage with the murder of opponents and the breakdown of the social fabric; while in the second, the damage caused by the spill of the tailings dams that have contaminated the wells that supply drinking water to the community has been resented.”

Background

In March 2009, residents protested the lack of consultation and consent for the mine by setting up an encampment at the site of the mine. By May of that year, 1,000 state and federal police evicted that encampment using helicopters, tear gas and dogs.

The mine began operating in September 2011. The permit for it expired on October 23 of this year. But on October 25, Fortuna stated it had obtained a provisional injunction from a Mexican federal court that allows for the continued operation of the mine.

We continue to follow this situation with great concern.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project began accompanying Services for an Alternative Education (Educa Oaxaca) in May 2013.

“In the 2nd Regional Assembly, municipal and agrarian authorities of El Vergel, Los Ocotes, San José del Progreso-COPUVO, San Nicolás Yaxe and San Dionisio Ocotepec deliver minutes of the Assembly that ratify their position of not allowing mining activity in their territories.”

Listen to Wet’suwet’en land defenders Eve Saint and Jocey Alec on Rabble Radio

By
Brent Patterson
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Wet’suwet’en land defenders Eve Saint and Jocey Alec were recently interviewed by rabble.ca contributor and PBI-Canada director Brent Patterson.

To listen to that interview, click the play button below.

To listen to the fuller rabble radio podcast – hosted by Chelsea Nash and produced by Breanne Doyle – click here.

For updates on this land defence struggle, please see Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter and Yintah Access on Instagram. For a recently posted Instagram video of the RCMP raid on the cabin Jocey was in, click here.

To support rabble.ca, click here.

What would Canada’s F-35 stealth fighter-bomber be used to do?

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: US Marines load guided bombs onto an F-35.

Canada’s CF-18s intercept 6-7 aircraft each year 100-200 nautical miles from its coastline, but have conducted approximately 1,598 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria and Libya. This raises the question: What would be the primary mission of Canada’s F-35s?

It is widely expected that the Canadian government will select the Lockheed Martin F-35 in March/April 2022 to replace its current fleet of CF-18s.

It has been noted that this purchase would break a promise the Liberals made in 2015. Their election platform that year stated in bold: “We will not buy the F-35 stealth fighter-bomber.” But perhaps more significantly beyond the issue of a broken election promise is their acknowledgement of the F-35 as a “fighter-bomber”.

Forbes senior contributor Loren Thompson has highlighted: “In its fighter role it can clear the skies of opposing aircraft that threaten U.S. forces.” However, in the same paragraph he adds: “In its strike role, it can precisely destroy a vast array of targets on the ground (or at sea) with a dozen different smart bombs and missiles.”

For instance, the F-35 can carry GBU-12/Mk 82 laser-guided bombs.

The Characterisation of Explosive Weapons Project (CEW) says: “A standard Mk 82 bomb body produces a lethal area of approximately 80 m (across) by 30 m (along), giving a lethal area of approximately 2,400 m2.”

Also, when Reuters reported earlier this month that Finland had chosen to buy F-35s, it noted that “824 million euros [CAD $1.2 billion] will be reserved for the final optimised weapons package and to control future contract amendments”.

(It’s not clear how much Canada would spend on weapons for its F-35s or the intended use of its recently purchased 50 Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Tactical missiles that have an explosive force of nearly 200 titanium fragmentation rods outward in all directions.)

Peter Chow has also commented: “The F-35 was never designed as an air-supremacy fighter. …The F-35’s forte is not air-to-air combat, but rather as a Stealth Fighter-Bomber.” Chow adds: “In a damning report in 2015, the F-35 was defeated in aerial combat by the 1970s vintage F-16, which it is supposed to replace.”

While defence of the Arctic is highlighted as the reason Canada needs fighter jets, there is the question about what the F-35 would primarily be used to do.

In August 2019, the National Report quoted a NORAD statement that said: “NORAD has intercepted an average of approximately six to seven Russian sorties annually entering its ADIZ since Russia resumed long range aviation patrols in 2007.”

(Former NORAD Deputy Commander General Thomas J. Lawson has stated that Canada’s Air Defence Identification Zone/ADIZ “stretches anywhere from a hundred to a couple of hundred nautical miles off shore”, in other words, in international airspace, compared to Canada’s territorial airspace which is 12 nautical miles from its coastline.)

By comparison, Canada’s current fleet of CF-18s has conducted an estimated 1,598 offensive bombing missions over the past 30 years.

Numerically this approximate 16:1 ratio suggests the predominant role of the F-35 could be as a stealth bomber on overseas deployments.

Additionally concerning is that Murray Brewster of CBC News has reported on the refusal by the Department of National Defence to disclose the casualty figures from CF-18 bombing missions in Iraq and Syria. We have asked that these figures be made public before billions of dollars are spent on new fighter jets.

Greater clarification on Canada’s intended use of its new fighter jets would assist in the public and parliamentary debate on this $76.8 billion expenditure.

The 45-word public rationale for Canada buying new fighter jets:

Calgary-based Parex Resources bids on 18 oil exploration blocks in Colombia, as concerns continue in Bajo Simacota

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Canada and PBI-Colombia visited the El Diviso village in Bajo Simacota to hear community concerns about Parex Resources; July 13, 2021.

On December 2, Offshore Engineer reported: “Colombia received bids for 30 blocks from seven companies during its latest oil and gas auction.”

“Parex Resources placed more than half of the bids during [the December 1] meeting, while Colombia’s majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol and its own subsidiary, Hocol, bid on five blocks. Other companies that placed bids included Lewis Energy, Maurel & Prom, Frontera Energy, and CNE Oil & Gas, which is owned by Canacol Energy.”

Then on December 8, Upstream Online reported: “Canada’s Parex Resources was in the thick of the action [last week], making highest bids for 18 areas. Fellow Canadians Canacol Energy and Frontera Energy also submitted winning bids, while Colombia’s own Ecopetrol and its Hocol subsidiary bid on five blocks.”

Offshore Engineer adds: “The next stage of the licensing round will take place on Dec. 16, when companies can present counter-offers for blocks that have received bids.”

Parex and Aguas Blancas

On July 13, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted: “Heather Neun from @PBIcanada with the support of @Credhos_Paz saw in person the environmental effects, including on water sources, produced by the Canadian company Parex Resources in the El Diviso village in Bajo Simacota.”

Timeline

In January 2017, CRY-GEAM posted this video on Facebook noting that Parex Resources did not have the needed environmental documents for the Aguas Blancas field.

Then in April 2017, CRY-GEAM posted this photo on Facebook of a truck with concerns about runoff into the Colorada River.

Also in April 2017, CRY-GEAM posted this video on Twitter with the text: “Parex in Simacota, Campo Aguas Blancas, without archaeological management plan, without environmental permit, above the law and communities. Who responds?”

When CREDHOS president Ivan Madero visited Ottawa in November 2019 on a PBI-Canada organized advocacy tour, he raised his concerns about Parex at a meeting with Export Development Canada (EDC).

CREDHOS has highlighted that community members undertook a blockade of the Parex oil field in Simacota in March 2020.

By September 2020, Parex had taken two social leaders to court over this protest claiming it had harmed their good name. Adolfo Salinas Coba, one of the social leaders taken to court by Parex, says: “We defend water, because water is life, and I would not exchange a glass of water for a glass of oil.”

By October 2020, a municipal court had dismissed the company’s challenge against the two social leaders.

In March 2021, CREDHOS tweeted: “For a healthy environment, CREDHOS accompanies and supports the processes in defense of water in the territory. We highlight the struggle of the Bajo Simacota community against contamination by oil spills, caused by Parex.”

Beyond these concerns, Parex may also be interested in fracking in Colombia. In March 2019, Colombian energy minister Maria Fernanda Suarez named Parex as one of the companies interested in the fracking pilot projects.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.

Vancouver resident Wendy Méndez to testify at #CasoDiarioMilitar trial in Guatemala

By
Brent Patterson
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Vancouver resident Wendy Mendez holds a photo of her mother, Luz Haydee Méndez Calderón, who was disappeared in Guatemala in 1984. Photo by Mike Bell/PNG.

On December 12, the Vancouver Sun reported: “Wendy Méndez will be a material witness at the trial of 12 members of a Guatemalan death squad accused of torturing and disappearing her mother Luz Haydee Méndez Calderón in 1984.”

The article continues:

“Two years [after her mother was disappeared], Méndez and her father came to Canada as political refugees.

In 1999, Méndez returned to Guatemala to search for her mother. Weeks before her arrival, a military dossier, the Diario Militar, better known as the Death Squad Diary, was leaked to human rights groups. The dossier held crucial information on the fates of 183 of Guatemala’s disappeared. Luz Haydee Méndez Calderón was entry 83.

Méndez, who co-founded an international organization for the children of the disappeared, HIJOS , remained in Guatemala for several years, advocating justice.

In June, a Guatemalan judge indicted the former military officers for crimes related in the dossier, including the disappearance of Méndez’s mother.

Amyn Sajoo, a lecturer in international studies at SFU [Simon Fraser University in Vancouver] said it’s critical for the Canadian government to speak up.

Grantly Franklin, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said Canadian officials have met prosecutors in Guatemala to hear their concerns and the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala [FAMDEGUA], and continues to support victims of the Diario Militar case.

Grantly Franklin, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson

Méndez is urging Canadians to write their MPs and the Canadian ambassador in Guatemala so prosecutors and witnesses are protected.”

We are currently awaiting the appointment of a new Canadian ambassador to Guatemala, but the Embassy can be contacted at gtmla@international.gc.ca.

The full article can be read at Faces she never forgot: B.C. woman to testify against men accused of torturing her mother.

The CBC has also reported on Hull, Quebec-resident Maria Consueleo Pérez (whose husband Dr. Orencio Sosa Calderon was disappeared in 1983) and Montreal-resident Annabella Jiménez, Montreal (whose husband Hector Rolando Valdez Guzmán was also disappeared in 1983). That article by Erin Ellis can be read at Still missing.

Maria Consueleo Pérez, Annabella Jiménez

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has been accompanying the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at these hearings.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied the seven days of hearings that resulted in the indictment of six defendants on June 9.

It also accompanied the four days of hearings that resulted in the indictment of former Defense Minister Marco Antonio González Taracena on June 25.

On October 7, Prensa Comunitaria reported: “Currently, the first statement hearings have concluded and the lawyers believe that until next year will be the next stage of the process, in which the judge decides whether they are sent to trial or not.”

And on November 22, La Prensa reported that Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras dismissed prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval on July 23 and removed Hilda Pineda from the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office on October 11 in reprisal for the hearings.

It is unclear from media reports when the #CasoDiarioMilitar trial will resume.

Alternative Federal Budget 2022 calls on Canadian government to cancel its planned procurement of new fighter jets

By
Brent Patterson
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The opening day of Parliament, November 22, 2021. Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Pages 133-134 of the Alternative Federal Budget, produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, state:

“Ending planned procurement of new fighter jets, withdrawing Canada’s participation in the U.S.-led F-35 fighter consortium, and cancelling the Aegis Combat Systems missile defence contract with Lockheed Martin would free up enough public funding to cover much of the new spending in this AFB [Alternative Federal Budget].”

This passage further details:

“The lifespan cost (over about 30 years) of new jets was recently estimated to be in the range of $77 billion, while the initial price of the missile defence system is US$1.7 billion (CAD $2.14 billion). Canada has spent an average of $24 million per year since 1997 to remain part of the F35 consortium, which ensures a discount on eventual purchases of the long-delayed fighter jet and the chance to bid on potentially lucrative contracts to build and maintain them.”

It then highlights:

“This AFB cancels the new fighter jet procurement and missile defence purchase, for an estimated saving of $3.1 billion a year for 30 years (in accrual terms). This includes the initial purchase cost, the lifespan costs of the jets, and estimated upkeep of the missile defence system.”

And it notes:

“Military spending will be decreased annually by the same rate that official development assistance (ODA) is increased, which averages just over $2 billion per year. Military savings will be redirected to education, health care, human rights, environmental protection, housing, and future-proofing the Canadian workforce through industrial development strategies and skills development, among other initiatives that promote real human security.”

It has been reported that the Canadian government will select a new fighter jet (from the remaining two bids) in March/April 2022.

It is not clear if the contract will be signed at that time or whether there will be the space for public and parliamentary debate following the selection process.

We continue to follow this issue and have listed these Questions about the fighter jet procurement process for Defence Minister Anita Anand and Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi to answer.

We also highlight with concern the $5 billion the Canadian government intends to spend on armed drones for the military. That contract is expected to be awarded in 2022-23 with the first delivery of armed drones in 2024-25.

Link to Alternative Federal Budget 2022 / Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

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