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Indigenous concerns grow as Ontario pursues mining in the ‘Ring of Fire’ area for electric car batteries

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 9, CBC reported: “Premier Doug Ford’s government … want to lure the big automakers to produce electric vehicles in southern Ontario. A key part of that strategy involves opening up the so-called Ring of Fire mineral deposit, located more than 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay in an area home to Indigenous people.”

The area is rich in the minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems, including cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel, graphite and copper.

But Chief Wayne Moonias of the Neskantaga First Nation says: “There is going to be opposition, if this continues the way it is and the Ford government or any future government doesn’t recognize the rights of our people, it’s going to be a strong stance.”

And Kate Kempton, a partner with the law firm OKT that has represented the Attawapiskat First Nation in a recent court challenge, says: “This situation with the Ring of Fire is, in my view, explosive, and the public is probably going to see that in 2022.”

In April of this year, the Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, and Neskantaga First Nations in the James Bay lowlands declared a moratorium “on any development in or to facilitate access to the Ring of Fire area” saying mining would permanently desecrate the land.

This media statement notes: “This MORATORIUM is declared because Canada … has breached the honour of the Crown [laws including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] and the project of reconciliation and decolonization by acting with duplicity behind our backs in collaboration with Ontario.”

The Ring of Fire area is roughly 100 kilometres in diameter, and 85 per cent of the mineral claims staked on the Crown land are held by Toronto-based Noront Resources.

The CBC further notes: “Noront Resources is currently the focus of a bidding war between two Australian mining firms, BHP Group and Wyloo Metals.”

Another CBC article highlights: “A group of organizations — including Osgoode Hall Law School’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic, Greenpeace Canada, the Council of Canadians and MiningWatch Canada — asked the Ontario Securities Commission in August 2021 to investigate whether the extent of Indigenous opposition to Ring of Fire development has been reported by Noront Resources.”

Lawyer Ali Naraghi says: “Greenpeace Canada stands in solidarity with Neskantaga First Nation and supports its inherent right to land, resources, self-determination and governance. This includes the right to oppose any mining development on Neskantaga land that poses a threat to the community’s way of life and culture.”

We will continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Authorities of Olopa in the defence of their territory against mining

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 11, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted:

“PBI accompanies the Council of Indigenous Authorities of Olopa during its meeting with the organizations Centre for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH) and Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of Guatemala (UDEFEGUA) in the context of criminalization that they face in the defense of the territory against mining activity.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained: “The Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Authorities of Olopa and Quezaltepeque are fighting for recognition as indigenous communities, the recovery of their spirituality, the defense of their territory and the right to free, prior and informed consultation before the entry of mining projects into their territory.”

“They also seek to minimize the negative impacts of mining activities on the health of the people in their communities, denounce illegal logging and fight against gender violence in their communities.”

“The communities of Olopa are confronting the company American Minerals S.A., which was granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities.”

“In 2016, when mining activities began, the communities became aware of the negative impacts of these activities on water and the environment and demanded the closure of the project.”

In November 2019, Prensa Comunitaria reported: “The company Cantera Los Manantiales, owned by Ovidio Guzmán, a well-known businessman in Esquipulas, has been operating for 7 years between the mountains of Olopa. Its activity has a direct impact on four communities: El Amatillo, Carrizal and La Prensa de Olopa and Carboneras de Chiquimula.”

“On July 9, 2021, the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) granted an injunction to these communities, recognizing their right to consultation, as provided for in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), had been violated. The mining license has thus been suspended, which should result in the cessation of their work.”

PBI-Guatemala adds: “PBI began accompanying the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Authorities of Olopa and Quezaltepeque in June 2021.”

COP26 draft text fails land and environmental rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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In the lead-up to COP26, Fridays for Future demanded: “Stop the violence and criminalization against indigenous peoples, small farmers, small fisherfolk, and other environmental and land defenders. Support the work they do.  Respect and listen to our defenders.”

“It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure.” – Greta Thunberg

A draft of a summit agreement was published on November 10 by the COP26 presidency.

The 71-point document can be read here.

Overall, while the document reaffirms the goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the current policies of governments would mean a 2.7C temperature increase and pledges in the lead-up to COP26 would mean a 2.4C increase.

This is a look at six of the points in the draft text that either do not mention or do not adequately reflect the dangers faced by frontline defenders.

Point 20: “Emphasizes the critical importance of nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches, including protecting and restoring forests, in reducing emissions, enhancing removals and protecting biodiversity.”

While protecting forests is a laudable aspiration, there are concerns that nature-based solutions such as the 30×30 initiative could see the militarization of conservation and the criminalization and forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands.

Point 30: “Urges the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism, multilateral development banks and other financial institutions to further scale-up investments in climate action and calls for continued increase in the scale and effectiveness of climate finance from all sources globally.”

This point does not reflect that multilateral development banks and other financial institutions often finance climate destructive megaprojects (like the Coastal GasLink and Line 3 pipelines) that result in the criminalization and violence against land defenders.

Point 51: “Also recognizes the important role of non-Party stakeholders, including civil society, indigenous peoples, youth and other stakeholders in contributing to progress towards the objective of the Convention and the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

This line does not recognize the significant role played by land and environmental rights defenders. More than 1,005 of these defenders have been murdered since the COP21 summit in December 2015. There is no call for that violence to stop.

Point 62: “Urges Parties to swiftly begin implementing the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment, taking into consideration human rights and gender.”

On November 6, David R. Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, tweeted: “How on Earth can there be no mention of #HumanRights in the COP26 work programme on public participation in climate action?”

Point 66: “Emphasizes the important role that indigenous peoples’ knowledge and experience can play in effective action on climate change and urges Parties to actively involve indigenous peoples in implementing climate action.”

This point does not adequately reflect the significant role played by Indigenous land defenders on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Over one-third of the 1,005 land defenders killed since COP21 were Indigenous land defenders.

Point 68: “Encourages Parties to increase the full, meaningful and equal participation of women in climate action, and to ensure gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation, which is vital for raising ambition and achieving climate goals.”

This point does not adequately reflect the issue of gender-based violence against Indigenous women environmental human rights defenders on the frontlines defending their territories, resources and rights from extractive projects and corporate interests.

PBI webinar on COP26

At the Peace Brigades International webinar on November 6, Boyd stated: “We need more defenders of the right to a healthy environment, Indigenous rights, the rights of the child and other human rights. And yet in far too many states today standing up for the environment is a dangerous and even deadly activity.”

To watch the video of the webinar with Boyd and six frontline environmental defenders from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Mexico and Nicaragua who are accompanied by PBI, please click here.

Wet’suwet’en land defender Delee Nikal at COP26: “Femicide is directly linked to ecocide”

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from Aljazeera.

On November 9, a gathering for murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people was held near the COP26 summit site in Glasgow, Scotland.

At that gathering, Wet’suwet’en land defender Delee Nikal said:

“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.”

The Guardian reports: “In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are targeted for violence more than any other group and are 12 times more likely to go missing or be killed [according to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls].”

The article adds: “In 2019, [that MMIWG inquiry] accepted the link between ‘boomtown’ and ‘man camp’ environments that emerged around resource extraction projects and violence against Indigenous women and girls.”

Jackie Hansen, a gender-rights campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, has also stated: “It is critical to note that whether you’re in Guatemala or Canada or the Philippines, we are seeing similar impacts when industry comes to town.”

The TC Energy Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline is currently being constructed on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia without the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

Two militarized RCMP raids have been launched in support of this megaproject. The first was on January 8, 2019, when 14 land defenders were arrested. And the second on February 6, 2020, in which another 22 land defenders were arrested.

Peace Brigades International-Canada will be present on Wet’suwet’en territory this month to observe and report on this continuing land defence struggle.

At the gathering in Glasgow, Sto:lo and Nuučaan̓uł land defender Si-am Hamilton also stated: “Remember my face. Remember because it’s not if, it’s when you will go missing, if you are involved in land rights.”

She adds: “This year alone I’ve watched so much violence, towards specifically young Indigenous women and girls, at the hands of the police. I’ve watched so many people have their bones broken, their hair ripped out, their eyes gouged.”

Over the past year, Hamilton has been at the Ada’itsx / Fairy Creek blockades against old growth logging on Pacheedaht and Dididaht territories on Vancouver Island.

As PBI-Canada has amplified: “There have been reports of sexual assaults by RCMP [at the Ada’itsx blockades], continued media suppression and repeated targeting and mistreatment of Indigenous women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ and 2 spirit land defenders.”

Hamilton has previously commented: “This is Canada. This is the legacy Canadians inherit. Violence is at the heart of the settler state.”

On COP26, Hamilton says: “At larger international events like this one and even at home, I don’t think that people understand just how dangerous the lives of Indigenous women have gotten. Our conversations shift towards catchy phrases like ‘net zero’ or ‘1.5’, which don’t represent just how violent the experience of growing up in an extractive world has become.”

And Hamilton emphasizes: “It’s not just in Canada, and it’s not just in Mexico, it’s all over the world. Wherever you find people that are struggling for the land, you will find missing women.”

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report Gender-based violence and environment linkages further notes: “Women environmental human rights defenders (WEHRDs) endure gender-differentiated violence … by state or non-state actors … over the degradation of the environment and natural resources.”

That report cites the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras) finding that a total of 609 aggressions against WEHRDs were recorded between 2015 and 2016 in Mexico and Central America alone. In this same region, between 2012 and 2016, at least 42 WEHRDs were killed.

The IUCN report also notes that Guatemala, where Indigenous communities often find themselves in defence of their territories against extractive industries, has also experienced a startling rise in gender-based violence, particularly against indigenous women.

The full article by Libby Brooks in The Guardian can be read at: Indigenous women speak out at Cop26 rally: ‘Femicide is linked to ecocide’.

Escuche de las defensorxs acompañadas de PBI sobre la cumbre climática COP26

By
Brent Patterson
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Hannah Matthews (coordinadora de comunicaciones internacionales de PBI) moderó este panel con David R. Boyd (Relator Especial de la ONU), Juana Ramona Zuñiga (Honduras), Amaru Ruiz (Nicaragua), Nelly Madegwa (Kenia), Valeria Villalobos (México), Sandra Calel (Guatemala) y Danilo Rueda (Colombia).

El 6 de noviembre, Peace Brigades International organizó un seminario web en el que participaron seis defensorxs de los derechos a la tierra y el medio ambiente de primera línea y David R. Boyd, al Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos humanos y el medio ambiente.

Para ver el video del seminario web, haga clic aquí.

“Necesitamos más defensorxs del derecho a un medio ambiente sano, los derechos indígenas, los derechos del niño y otros derechos humanos. Y, sin embargo, en demasiados estados hoy en día defender el medio ambiente es una actividad peligrosa e incluso mortal “. – David R. Boyd

Siga a David en @SREnvironment.

“Es lamentable cuando en otros países nos han premiado por la defensa de este río, por la defensa de este parque nacional, y que en Honduras nos estén criminalizando”. – Juana Ramona Zúñiga

Siga esta lucha en @GuapinolResiste.

“Por denunciar esa incoherencia [del gobierno de Nicaragua que promete proteger los bosques mientras criminaliza a los protectorxs forestales] nos han criminalizado”. – Amaru Ruiz

Sigue a Amaru en @AmaruRuiz.

 “En Kenia existe una ley que establece que las mujeres pueden poseer tierras, pero en la práctica este no es el caso. La comunidad no entiende eso “. -Nelly Madegwa

Sigue a Nelly en @chamadui.

“Los poderes políticos y económicos están decididos a manipular y devaluar el patrimonio ambiental y cultural que representan nuestros cerros y cuerpos de agua, puntos clave para las estrategias de cambio climático”. – Valeria Villalobos

Sigue esta lucha en @ salvemoscerros1.

“Estamos haciendo todo lo posible para seguir luchando por defender la naturaleza, todo para denunciar la deforestación, porque ellos tapan sus pozos de donde sacan el agua. La región norte todavía es donde hay ríos, donde hay bosque, donde hay grandes barrancos, pero hay muchas vidas que ya se han dado por defender la naturaleza ”. – Sandra Calel

Siga a UVOC en @UVOCGUATE.

“Solo el pueblo, la sociedad organizada, salva a la sociedad organizada. Sólo en la medida en que el poder ciudadano consciente, el poder del pueblo, sea el poder consciente, la sociedad se transformará ”. – Danilo Rueda

Siga a la Comisión de Justicia y Paz en @Justiciaypazcol.

Una vez más, para ver el video del webinar, haga clic aquí.

PBI-Canada welcomes Beatriz and Tessa to the PBI-Colombia accompaniment team

By
Brent Patterson
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Beatriz (from France), Tessa (from Ireland).

On November 10, PBI-Colombia posted: “We warmly welcome our two new colleagues from France and Ireland.”

Beatriz says: “Until now, the work of accompanying threatened human rights defenders has been the fairest way I have found to use my privileges and put them at the service of the protection of spaces of resistance, struggle and defense of the rights of all, for the construction of a world in which life prevails over the rest.”

And Tessa comments: “I have great admiration for human rights defenders in Colombia and look forward to accompanying them as they carry out their essential work.”

On October 24, PBI-Canada and PBI-USA recently collaborated on a PBI information webinar featuring brigadistas from Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala.

To watch the video of that webinar, click here.

PBI-Honduras accompanies organizations presenting complaint about National Protection Mechanism for defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 10, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “Yesterday, PBI accompanied social, peasant and indigenous organizations in filing complaints with the #Public Ministry regarding the negligence and ineffectiveness of the National Protection Mechanism of the Honduran Human Rights Secretariat.”

“Specifically, they denounce an intervention strategy that includes the principles of voluntariness and secrecy of the processes.”

“We denounce the Protection Mechanism for exposing the integrity of the people who defend the #DDHH [human rights].”

Radio America reports:

“Social Organizations with precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounce officials of the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders before the Public Ministry.

The lawyer Víctor Fernández said that seven organizations are the complainants, this for the crimes of abuse of authority, crimes of violations of constitutional guarantees and violation of the duties of officials.

The officials who would be under a complaint is the current director of the National Protection System and another employee who has implemented operations that would put people under protection at risk, he said.

He recalled that the protection system was created to protect defenders at risk.

He explained that these officials would be developing a policy of intervention to the organizations, and this would put many defenders at risk, because they have tried to address the problem and situations without consultation, just as extractivist companies do, he criticized.

“We have met with the Human Rights Secretariat to remove these officials,” he revealed.

He regretted that many of the beneficiaries of the protection mechanism have not only been threatened, but also killed.”

Conexihon adds:

“Upon arriving at the facilities of the Public Ministry (MP), the organizations held a press conference and denounced through a press release, which they described as the “implementation of an intervention strategy by the National Mechanism to the groups of beneficiaries and beneficiaries, which includes the violation of the principles of voluntariness and secrecy of our processes, which consequently has placed us in a greater situation of risk and vulnerability since the information of our measures has been shared with the different actors that promote and execute the aggressions”.”

The statement from the seven organizations, including PBI-Honduras accompanied COPINH, making this complaint, can be read here.

Photo by Radio America.

PBI-Colombia accompanies NOMADESC at meeting with ONU Derechos Humanos Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 9, UN Human Rights in Colombia tweeted: “Today we meet with the human rights defenders of the association @Nomadesc, finalist in @PremioNalDDHH from #DDHH [human rights]. The work of defense of #DDHH must be guaranteed.”

The website for the award notes, “Annually, and since 2012, the National Human Rights Defence Award celebrates the lives of women and men who work in the defence and promotion of human rights in Colombia.”

Those who are nominated “are leaders because they are defenders of life, of women, of children, of water, of territory, of natural resources, of common interest.”

The award is presented by Diakonia (an international, faith-based cooperation organization founded by Protestant churches in Sweden that is active in 30 countries around the world) and the Church of Sweden (an Evangelical Lutheran church with 6.1 million members, 3,500 churches and 13 dioceses in Sweden).

NOMADESC is noted among the 2021 listed here.

Ongoing work

PBI-Colombia also tweeted: “NOMADESC and Berenice Celeita receive a visit from @ONUHumanRights at their office. They recently denounced serious irregular acts by police officers for defending human rights in Colombia.”

The Amnesty International report Cali: In the Epicenter of Repression released on July 30 of this year noted: “Since 28 April 2021, in the city of Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca in western Colombia, there have been mass demonstrations. At the same time, the gravest human rights violations and crimes under international law committed in the country in this period have been concentrated in this city.”

It further highlights: “Hundreds of reports and urgent appeals from local human rights organizations and complaints from victims and their families, many of which Amnesty International has been able to verify, detail the violent repression of young protesters on the streets of Cali at the hands of the security forces and armed civilians.”

Earlier this month, El Espectador reported: “[NOMADESC] director, Berenice Celeita, maintains that there was a coordinated plan from the institutionality [the Colombian state and the ESMAD riot police] for armed civilians to attack the different points of protest. None of the people who shot and blinded the lives of 82 young people in the Valley have been prosecuted or are in detention, she says.”

More context on that is at NOMADESC says police surveilled meeting with national strike participants victimized by state violence.

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

Nahua land defender Miryam Vargas Teutle at COP26 to resist colonialism and carbon offsetting

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by CNN.

On November 9, CNN reported on Nahua land defender Miryam Vargas Teutle at the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Miryam is a member of the Peoples Front in Defence of Land and Water in Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala (FPDTA), which has been accompanied by PBI-Mexico since 2020.

Miryam says: “We’re here to show that Indigenous peoples still exist and are still resisting colonialism.”

She adds: “They’ve never taken us into account, they’ve never listened to us and this is particularly ironic because these negotiations are all about taking over our land and our territories for [carbon offsetting] and we’re not even at the table. We’re not listened to. We don’t even exist for these negotiators.”

The Peoples Front is opposed to the Morelos Integral Project (PIM).

A member of the Peoples Front, Nahua land defender Samir Flores Soberanes, was killed on February 20, 2019 for his opposition to the PIM.

The PIM consists of an aqueduct that would take 50 million litres of water a day from the Cuautla River, a 171-kilometre gas pipeline that crosses three states, and a thermoelectric plant located in Huexca, Morelos.

Teresa Castellanos Ruiz, another member of the Peoples Front, said that when workers tried to operate the plant this past July it emitted “very black smoke”.

She adds: “It is one of the thermoelectric plants that Europe discarded because of the serious pollution they do to the environment and that these further aggravate the problem of climate change.”

You can find the Peoples Front on Twitter and Facebook.

COP26 and estimating the carbon pollution from Canada’s new fleet of fighter jets

By
Brent Patterson
-

World Beyond War has made the call at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow for governments to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.

Author Jonathan Cook has also commented: “Western armed forces are the most polluting on the planet – and the goal at COP26 is to keep that fact a closely guarded secret.”

He adds: “Washington insisted on an exemption from reporting on, and reducing, its military emissions at the Kyoto summit, 24 years ago. Unsurprisingly, everyone else jumped on that bandwagon.”

Under the Paris Agreement reached at the COP21 climate summit in Paris in 2015, militaries lost their automatic exemption, but were not obligated to cut their emissions and reporting on those emissions was left to the discretion of individual states.

Cook further notes: “All too often the figures are disguised – lumped in with emissions from other sectors, such as transport.”

For instance, this article in The Conversation notes: “Canada reports its emissions under multiple IPCC categories, reporting military flights under general transport, and energy for bases under commercial/institutional emissions.”

Canada’s military emissions

This past August, the Ottawa Citizen reported: “National security organizations such as the Canadian Forces and the RCMP now produce 45 per cent of all of the federal government’s greenhouse gases, a new report says.”

That article adds: “DND spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said National Defence was working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.” It further notes that Lamirande says DND is on track to achieve this goal by 2025.

And yet the Department of National Defence has not publicly made available the amount of carbon pollution produced by Canada’s existing fleet of CF-18s.

Canada’s new fighter jets

It is expected that the Canadian government will announce in March 2022 the fighter jet it intends to purchase.

It is widely presumed that the Lockheed Martin F-35 will be chosen.

The article by Cook highlights: “The latest fighter jet developed by the US, the F-35, is reported to burn 5,600 litres of fuel an hour.”

Each F-35 is supposed to have a service lifetime of 8,000 hours, though operational tests suggest the number could be as low as 2,100 hours (which raises another set of questions given the estimated $76.8 billion overall cost to Canada of purchasing and maintaining these fighter jets).

A simple calculation of 88 fighter jets (the number Canada intends to purchase) x 8,000 hours x 5,600 litres of fuel an hour amounts to 3,942,400,000 litres of fuel.

PBO analysis on interim F-18 aircraft

The Fiscal Analysis of the Interim F-18 Aircraft produced by the Parliamentary Budget Officer states: “Petroleum, oil and lubricant costs are calculated by combining historical burn rates per flying hour with costs per litre and projecting total costs over the assumed flight profile of 160 hours per aircraft per year.”

This report from February 2019 notes: “The Operations and Sustainment phase has not yet begun and will have a duration of over 12 years, ending with the planned withdrawal from service of the CF-18 fleet in 2032-2033.”

It calculates: “On a non-risk-adjusted basis, …petroleum, oil and lubricant costs are estimated at $102.5 million before accounting for price risk.”

While it calculates the dollar cost, it does not calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of these interim F-18 aircraft.

New report needed from the PBO

Before the Canadian government signs a contract with Lockheed Martin or another manufacturer in early-2022, it would be advisable for the sake of transparency and public debate for an official calculation to be done on the carbon pollution that would be generated by these fighter jets.

Stephen Kretzmann of Oil Change International has stated: “The atmosphere certainly counts the carbon from the military. Therefore we must as well.”

Further reading: Transnational Institute report highlights Canada spends 15 times more on border militarization than climate financing.

On November 9, Democracy Now! reported on the issue of military emissions in the context of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow at: War Helps Fuel the Climate Crisis as U.S. Military Carbon Emissions Exceed 140+ Nations.

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