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“Making space for peace”: Peace Brigades International-Canada annual review 2025

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson with PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC defenders during an advocacy intervention in Ottawa, September 2025.

Throughout 2025, PBI-Canada worked to communicate the struggles of accompanied defenders, organizations and communities; advocate for specific measures to address the aggressions they face; both research and act on business and human rights concerns that impact defenders; and to be on-the-ground in communities to bring international attention to front line defenders in Canada.

Our communications work included almost daily contextualized articles about accompaniments amplified via our website, social media channels and e-newsletters. We also organized five webinars, including one about COP30 with Indigenous West Papuan environmental defenders, one with Indigenous front line defenders in Honduras and Guatemala, and another about the human rights impacts related to the export-import terminal in Buenaventura, Colombia.

Photo: Webinar about the COP30 climate conference in Brazil, November 2025.

Our advocacy work included bringing defenders from Mexico to Ottawa for meetings with government officials and Members of Parliament from all parties, just days after the Prime Minister visited Mexico and announced a Canada-Mexico Action Plan, to call for a strengthening of the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists.

Photo: Advocacy meeting with Member of Parliament Elizabeth May, September 2025.

Our research work included making the links between the production of “military goods”, the export of weapons and components to the United States, and the need to end the use of those components in human rights violations and aggressions against human rights defenders.

Photo: PBI-Canada continues its long-standing relationship with Quakers that dates back to the founding of PBI in 1981, including on issues of arms exports, May 2025.

And our on-the-ground work included being present in Smithers, British Columbia for the sentencing hearing of three Indigenous land and environmental defenders criminalized for their resistance to the construction of a fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.

Photo: PBI-Canada Board member Ailish Morgan-Welden watches Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’ speak before the sentencing hearing, Smithers, British Columbia, October 2025.

Our work in these four areas brought media coverage including Radio Canada International (about the Protection Mechanism in Mexico), the CBC (about the sentencing hearing in Smithers), the Ottawa Citizen (about military exports and human rights violations), Rabble (about oil companies and threats against human rights defenders in Colombia) and The Tyee (about the emerging risks to land defenders from increased critical mineral mining for weapons production).

Photo: RCI coverage of advocacy tour in Ottawa, September 2025.

Beyond this we also began to document PBI accompaniments of worker movements in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico; did our first “remote observation” to bolster the safety of a bus with community activists travelling from Mexico through Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia en route to the COP30 climate conference in Brazil; soft-launched a new PBI-Research Unit based in Ottawa; monitored and analyzed key moments that impact human rights defenders, including the G7 summit in Kananaskis, the negotiations in Geneva on a Binding Treaty on business and human rights, and the tabling of Budget 2025 in the House of Commons; connected with the Philippines solidarity movement in Canada as PBI prepares to launch a new South East Asia accompaniment project; and worked to shape a transformative PBI-Turtle Island accompaniment project.

Photo: PBI-Canada helped bring together PBI-Colombia accompanied defender Jani Silva and Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, June 2025.

With your support we would like to continue this work in 2026 with a particular focus on strengthening the Protection Mechanism in Mexico (with a field visit in February to coincide with an official Canadian trade delegation there), supporting the protection needs of Gitanyow land defenders as the construction of the PRGT pipeline begins on their territory in northern British Columbia; and collaborating with PBI entities in Guatemala and Spain on a new initiative to address the protection needs of land and environmental defenders in the context of the acceleration of the mining of the critical minerals needed as hundreds of billions of dollars are diverted to military budgets globally.

Photo: PBI-Canada Board member Javier Garate participated in the PBI-USA national gathering to help connect PBI’s work in North America and abroad, May 2025.

This work is done on a limited budget with one PBI-Canada staff person in Ottawa and an eleven member volunteer Board of Directors based in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia who work in collaboration with the PBI International Office in Brussels, ninety-eight staff in twenty countries, and seventy trained protection volunteers on the ground in four countries (Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico). Together we provided protective accompaniment to more than 3,900 defenders this year.

Photo: PBI-Canada participated in the PBI global tri-annual General Assembly along with PBI-UK, PBI-Switzerland, PBI-Colombia and many others in Lisbon, Portugal in November 2024 that produced the Global Strategic Plan that will inform our work in 2025 to 2030.

To support this work, click and donate here.

Photo: PBI-Canada Board members Ed Bianchi and Ailish Morgan-Welden with PBI-Mexico accompanied defenders visiting Ottawa, September 2025.

Indigenous land defenders opposed to Canadian company mining for lithium in Nevada are surveilled by the FBI

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo from People of Red Mountain website. “People of Red Mountain – Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock people from Fort McDermitt Tribe against Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, Nevada.”

On October 1, 2025, CBC News reported: “The U.S. government is taking a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a company that is developing one of the world’s largest lithium mines in northern Nevada. The Department of Energy will take a five per cent equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a five per cent stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors.”

Military applications of lithium

After this investment decision was announced the Nevada Independent reported on the national security element of this decision. Their article notes: “China has increasingly become a power player in the lithium market, controlling about 65 percent of lithium processing… With the world becoming increasingly electric, materials such as lithium are not only crucial for electric vehicles, but also military equipment [says Fred Steinmann at the University of Nevada, Reno].”

The U.S. Department of Defense (since rebranded the Department of War) has also previously awarded $11.8 million to Lithium Nevada Corporation, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp., for the Thacker Pass mine.

Mine violates Indigenous rights

Earlier this year, in February 2025, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published this report that concluded the U.S. government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass violated Indigenous people’s rights.

Human Rights Watch also noted that the construction work related to the mine has prevented Numu/Nuwu and Newe Indigenous peoples from accessing parts of Peehee Mu’huh, the Indigenous name for land in the area.

Just a few weeks later in March 2025, Grist reported Lithium Americas had received a $250 million investment to complete construction of the new mine. Their article notes: “The funding [came] from Orion Resources Partners LP, a global investment firm specializing in metals and materials…”

Bechtel involved

By April 2025, the Reston, Virginia-based company Bechtel celebrated the investment decision. Their statement notes: “Since receiving its original contract award in November of 2022, Bechtel has made significant progress as Lithium Americas’ engineering, procurement, and construction management contractor.”

Their statement adds: “Early works are complete, site grading and excavation is well underway, and long lead equipment has been ordered.”

Bechtel is also overseeing the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories in British Columbia.

FBI surveillance of land defenders

Then this past summer, ProPublica reported: “Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have for years worked alongside private mine security to surveil the largely peaceful protesters who oppose the mine.”

That article adds: “Officers and agents have tracked protesters’ social media, while the mining company has gathered video from a camera above a campsite protesters set up on public land near the mine. An FBI joint terrorism task force in Reno met in June 2022 ‘with a focus on Thacker Pass,’ the records also show, and Lithium Americas — the main company behind the mine — hired a former FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism to develop its security plan.”

Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, a member of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon who advises People of Red Mountain, says: “We’re out there doing ceremony and they’re surveilling us.” Chanda Callao, an organizer with People of Red Mountain, adds: “They treat us like we’re domestic terrorists.” And Gary McKinney, a member of the Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribe who is a spokesperson for People of Red Mountain, says: “We’re being watched, we’re being followed, we’re under the microscope.”

Man camps

Two weeks ago, on November 24, 2025, Yahoo Finance reported there are “around 700 workers now engaged in various phases of development”.

In September 2025, the Watershed Sentinel noted: “Rose Curtis, a member of the Fort McDermitt Shoshone Tribe, …works at Fort McDermitt Wellness Center… and is outspoken about the risks ‘man camps’ pose to the safety and wellbeing of women and children in the area. …The ACLU reports these concerns ‘are backed by documented instances of other extractive industry operations on or near Indigenous land that have been associated with increased violence against women [and] girls.’”

Timeline

Yahoo Finance has reported “as of Sept. 30, 2025, more than 80% of detailed engineering had been completed and the company aims to surpass 90% of design completion by the end of 2025.”

And in March 2025, Grist reported that the funding from Orion Resources Partners LP “will enable the first phase of construction to be completed by late 2027.”

As for future investment decisions on the mine, Grist also noted: “The investment firm is also considering giving an additional $500 million to support later phases of the mine’s development.”

Opposition

People of Red Mountain, also known as Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu, is a Indigenous-led organization representing tribal communities of Paiute and Shoshone people. They oppose the mine at Peehee Mu’huh also known as Thacker Pass.

To find out more about People of Red Mountain, visit their website and Facebook and Instagram pages.

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Brandi Morin: In Nevada, Indigenous land protectors face off with a Canadian mining company (Ricochet, September 14, 2023).

Indigenous Nahua, Nuntajiiyi’, Wet’suwet’en and Gitanyow land defenders challenge TC Energy pipeline plans in Mexico and Canada

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: A National Indigenous Congress (CNI) banner rejects the TC Energy Southeast Gateway pipeline (gasoducto Puerta al Sureste) in Pajapan, Mexico. A second banner remembers the Indigenous Nahua environmental defender Samir Flores Soberanes who was murdered on February 20, 2019, for his opposition to the PIM megaproject. Photo by Lxs Altepee.

In “The Carney Pivot”, University of Calgary professor Anthony M. Sayers comments: “The Carney government has pivoted sharply to economic issues such as trade and fiscal responsibility.”

Mark Carney was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada on March 14, 2025, replacing his predecessor Justin Trudeau. Carney then formed a minority government following the general election that was held on April 28, 2025.

Professor Sayers notes in comparison to the Trudeau government, there has been a “sharp shift” to “economic concerns, including internal and external trade, housing supply and fiscal responsibility” as well as “the centrality of international affairs and emergence of defence as a priority.”

Indicative of this shift in tone that foreign policy is now to be seen primarily through an economic lens, Prime Minister Carney recently commented: “I wouldn’t describe our foreign policy as feminist foreign policy.”

Despite this shift, and furthermore despite Indigenous resistance and the climate crisis, both the Trudeau and Carney governments have supported the expansion of TC Energy pipelines in Mexico and Canada.

This can put Indigenous land defenders in Mexico at risk by the National Guard, the Navy, the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), the State Police, as well as other authorities and actors. Indigenous land defenders in Canada are attentive to repression by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and surveillance by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Indigenous opposition to TC Energy in Mexico

In February 2023, La Jornada Veracruz reported that campesina, Indigenous peoples and environmental groups protested in Sierra de Santa Marta against the Southeast Gateway pipeline “to demand an end to the criminalization and persecution of their leaders.”

On February 15, 2025, several coastal communities of the Indigenous Nahua and Nuntajiiyi’ municipalities of Pajapan, Tatahuicapan and Mecayapan in southern Veracruz also protested against this pipeline.

Video still of protest on February 15, 2025. Conexiones Climáticas noted on Instagram: “15 coastal communities Nahua and Nuntajiiyi’ step up their legal resistance against this mega gas project that threatens their survival.”

And in June 2025, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in Mexico noted: “The coastal Indigenous communities of the municipalities of Pajapan, Tatahuicapan and Mecayapan [have filed] an injunction against the [TC Energy Southeast Gateway] gas pipeline … [an] imposed megaproject, which violates our right to self-determination in our territory, in this case maritime as Nahua and Nuntajiiyi’ indigenous peoples that we are to prevent them from implementing it.”

Construction of the pipeline was reportedly completed in May 2025 and according to the company will be supplying gas to several new Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) power plants by mid-2026.

Canadian government lobbied for Southeast Gateway pipeline

Earlier this year, Carl Meyer of The Narwhal reported: “Briefing notes obtained by The Narwhal, which were prepared for four meetings planned over 2022 and 2023 that centered on the Mexican business of TC Energy, show the government did weigh in on Mexico’s energy policy — in favour of a new pipeline. They include suggested messaging for civil servants, such as telling one senior official they could inform a Mexican governor they were ‘pleased’ to see ‘co-operation’ between TC Energy and the utility to build the Southeast Gateway pipeline.”

TC Energy and the Canada-Mexico strategic partnership

In June 2025, senior executives from TC Energy met with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum during the G7 summit in Canada.

In August 2025, when Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne were in Mexico for high-level meetings, their talks included representatives from TC Energy.

And in September 2025, TC Energy Corp.’s Francois Poirier joined Carney’s delegation to Mexico.

It’s also possible that TC Energy will participate in the Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico that will be led by Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Internal Trade and One Canadian Economy, this coming Sunday, February 15 to Friday, February 20, 2026.

Fracked gas to Mexico

On September 16, 2025, The Globe and Mail reported: “Business Council of Canada chief executive Goldy Hyder [says] natural gas exports are one way Canada and Mexico could deepen two-way trade through the second-phase expansion at the LNG Canada export terminal.”

Toronto Star business columnist David Olive also commented that Alberta is interested in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Mexico and the refining of Trans Mountain pipeline crude oil into diesel and aviation fuels in Mexico.

And after the meeting between Carney and Sheinbaum in September 2025, Natural Gas Intelligence senior analyst Josiah Clinedinst commented: “Since LNG Canada is operational, it is possible for Mexico to import LNG from Canada to supplement what they’re getting from the U.S.-Mexico border via pipeline.”

Wet’suwet’en and Gitanyow land defenders

On November 13, 2025, TC Energy President and Chief Executive Officer, François Poirier welcomed the referral by the Prime Minister of the Ksi Lisims LNG and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project to the Major Projects Office.

Poirier noted: “With Ksi Lisims LNG and LNG Canada Phase 2 elevated to the Major Projects Office, it is clear that natural gas infrastructure and projects are fundamentally aligned with Canada’s broader national interests.”

Wet’suwet’en land defenders oppose the LNG Canada Phase 2 terminal expansion that would require two compressor stations on their yintah (territory) to increase the flow of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline (that was built by TC Energy without the consent of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs).

Video still: Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Watahayetsxw.

Gitanyow land defenders oppose the construction of the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal that would be fed by the yet-to-be-constructed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on their lax’yip (territory).

On the day of the Prime Minister’s announcement that was welcomed by TC Energy, Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Watahayetsxw stated: “I’m blockading because there is not one level of government whether it be British Columbia or Canada that has come to talk to me. I did not give permission, I did not give consent for them to be here.”

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading

TC Energy may have launched “geo-fenced” ad campaign to counter visit of Wet’suwet’en and Otomi land defenders to Toronto and Ottawa (PBI-Canada article, July 3, 2024).

Additional context

Calgary-based TC Energy is the largest Canadian investor in Mexico.

The Southeast Gateway is an extension of TC Energy’s existing Sur de Texas-Tuxpan pipeline. The Tuxpan-Tula pipeline has been opposed by the Otomi, Nahua and Tepehua communities grouped together as the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo.

TC Energy also owns and operates the Topolobampo and Mazatlán pipelines in northwestern Mexico. The pipelines supply power plants and industrial facilities in the states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa. The Rarámuri people in Chihuahua have had longstanding concerns about the Encino-Topolobampo pipeline.

This past November, El Heraldo reported: “The case of the TC Energy gas pipeline in Chihuahua has been a source of dispute for more than ten years. The ruling of the Agrarian Court orders the company to remove the facilities of communal lands in Témoris and compensate the inhabitants for the improper use of the territory. However, so far the Canadian company has refused to comply with the ruling, generating tension and discontent among the inhabitants of the region.”

TC Energy has reportedly encountered delays on the southern section of its Villa de Reyes pipeline in central Mexico due to land acquisition issues. Educa Oaxaca has previously noted that construction on this pipeline had been suspended due to Indigenous resistance.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Peace Community of San José de Apartadó as it faces an intensification of threats against it

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:

“This November, we accompanied the Peace Community in the villages of Mulatos and La Resbalosa, where they cultivated corn, rice, cocoa, and sugar cane, and tended to their livestock. Our accompaniment was also marked by preparations for the construction of a monument in La Resbalosa, as a tribute and memorial to the massacre that took place there in 2005.

On 21 February 2005, in the villages of Mulatos and La Resbalosa, eight members of the Peace Community, including four children, were killed in massacres perpetrated by a group of paramilitaries with the collaboration of the armed forces. Memory and resistance remain fundamental, especially in a context in which, even in recent months, the Community continues to face an intensification of threats against it.”

Intensification of threats

On October 16, 2025, the Community posted an article titled “New death threats, a reigning reality” that documents 23 incidents that occurred between July 24, 2025, to October 16, 2025.

That article notes: “The death, displacement, constant threats and persecutions against our community and its members are just signs of the inability of a state in the face of paramilitary control. The destruction of dignified life is perhaps in the end a future without peasants, without the environment and where the only beneficiaries are the same companies that have financed the war through their economic interests.”

Prior to that, Caracol Radio reported on July 14, 2025: “A little more than a month after the act of pardon led by President Gustavo Petro, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó denounced a serious escalation of threats, harassment and the presence of illegal groups in its territory.”

This article highlights that on July 11, 2025: “The community received new messages of death threats and extermination directed directly against its legal representative, Germán Graciano Posso, and other members of the Internal Council.”

That Caracol Radio report further notes: “Among the most troubling events reported are the repeated presence of paramilitaries on private properties in the community, the use of machinery for illegal exploitation of natural resources, and the imposition of restrictions on land use for peasants, who can now only cultivate on areas of less than two hectares under threat.”

El Espectador has previously explained: “Since 2018, the Ombudsman’s Office has issued several early warnings stating that the Clan del Golfo, which calls itself the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC), has attempted to gain territorial control of that community through ‘conduct that violates human rights, such as threats, murders, forced displacement, land dispossession and exploitation of natural resources.’”

Monument in La Resbalosa

PBI-Colombia has previously explained: “On February 21, 2005, the villages of Mulatos and La Resbalosa (Antioquia), located five hours from La Holandita, the main settlement of the Peace Community, were the scene of a heinous crime that, once again, hit its inhabitants. Among the 8 victims of this massacre, 7 were members of the Peace Community. The massacre was perpetrated by a commando of around 60 paramilitaries from the Heroes of Tolová Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) along with troops attached to the Army’s 17th Brigade.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since 1999.

PBI-Honduras accompanies court hearing for murdered environmental defender Juan López; next hearing on January 8, 2026

By
Brent Patterson
-

On December 5, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on social media:

“This morning, we were present at the National Jurisdiction Sentencing Court in Tegucigalpa for the hearing to present evidence in the case against the alleged perpetrators of the murder of #environmental #activist Juan López of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCPT). However, the hearing was suspended and rescheduled for 8 January 2026 at 8:30 a.m. According to the CMDBCPT, #justice for Juan can only be achieved if the whole truth about the crime is revealed, if the masterminds are captured and prosecuted, and if no delaying tactics are used to obstruct the process: https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/audiencia-de-proposici%C3%B3n-de-pruebas-reprogramada-pero-camino-hacia-la-verdad-por-el-asesinato-de-jua.”

Infobae further reports: “López was killed on September 14, 2024, inside his vehicle after leaving a church in the city of Tocoa, despite having precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). …The defendants are Alexis Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía, accused of the murder of López and association to commit a crime.”

That article adds: “[The Municipal Committee] pointed out that López was killed for his active role in the defense of the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park, a protected area “threatened” by the mining and energy project promoted by Emco/Pinares/Ecotek.”

And Tu Nota explains: “According to Edy Tábora, legal representative of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, an organization led by López, the new rescheduling is at the request of the defense of two of the accused, which once again delays a process considered key to advance towards the oral and public trial.”

That article also notes: “For the Municipal Committee, the constant suspension of hearings constitutes a worrying judicial delay that hinders access to justice and keeps the family of the environmental leader and the communities that accompany his cause in uncertainty.”

Impunity

This statement further notes: “The organizations that make up the Observatory for Justice of the Defenders of the Guapinol River reiterate our call to the Honduran Judiciary: to clarify the full truth about the murder of defender Juan Antonio López, to prosecute all those responsible and to guarantee a transparent trial, without further delay. More than a year after the homicide, the case remains in absolute impunity.”

Emco Holding Group

Criterio.hn has noted that Inversiones Los Pinares is a subsidiary of the Emco Holding Group.

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Photo: On October 30, 2024, PBI-Canada visited Guapinol and saw the pelletizing plant associated with the Los Pinares megaproject.

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Bill C-233 in Canada would complement the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act in the protection of defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video still: At the Building Movements in Defence of Life film festival in 2021, Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, general coordinator of COPINH, expressed her support for the proposed Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act.

The Maple reports: “A leaked Liberal caucus briefing document obtained by The Maple warned that regulating the flow of Canadian-made military goods to the United States might upset the Americans, resulting in economic blows to Canada and damaging geopolitical alliances.”

The briefing document comments on the proposed BILL C-233 An Act to amend the Export and Import Permits Act.

The Maple explains that C-233 attempts to address the situation in which: “Most military exports to the United States currently do not require permits, and researchers have warned that this serves as a backdoor by which Canadian-made military goods are ending up in Israel, which is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

The Maple highlights that the caucus briefing document states:

-“Our general exemption with the U.S. is not a loophole — it reflects a unique geopolitical relationship rooted in shared security commitments, continental defence, and decades of military integration. Imposing the bureaucratic red tape envisioned by this legislation would undermine these efforts and make both countries less secure against threats to sovereignty and stability.”

-“Such retaliation could dismantle trade, strip Canadian firms of near-equal treatment with American counterparts and force the relocation of business lines outside Canada—including by U.S. contractors who dominate our production and export capabilities. Lost business would be nearly impossible to recoup in other markets.”

$1 billion a year in exports

Both the Project Ploughshares peace research institute and the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries have stated that Canadian military exports to the United States are at least $1 billion a year, perhaps more.

US “security assistance” linked to civilian harm

Professor Patricia L. Sullivan at the Department of Public Policy, Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina, has noted: “Between 2002 and 2019, US$300 billion in US security assistance flowed to foreign governments and at least one million foreign nationals received US military training.”

Professor Sullivan adds in her Sage Journals article: “Does American military aid increase the risk of civilian harm? …Until very recently, there have been few systematic attempts to evaluate the effects of security sector assistance. …The results of this study suggest [there] is strong evidence that ‘lethal’ aid—military equipment, weapons, military training, and combat assistance—increases extrajudicial killings by security forces in states without effective institutions to constrain executive authority.”

The Berta Cáceres Act

PBI-Canada has previously highlighted that the “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” proposes: “To suspend United States security assistance with Honduras until such time as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”

The PBI accompanied COPINH supports this arms control legislation.

Section 2 of that legislation states:

“(1) The Honduran military and police are widely established to be deeply corrupt and commit human rights abuses, including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder, with impunity.

(21) In this context of corruption and human rights abuses, trade unionists, journalists, lawyers, Afro-Indigenous activists, Indigenous activists, small-farmer activists, LGBTI activists, human rights defenders, environmental defenders, and critics of the government remain at severe risk; and previous human rights abuses against them remain largely unpunished.

(23) United States agencies allocated approximately $39 million that Congress appropriated through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, to the Honduran police and military for fiscal year 2017.”

Voices at Risk

On November 7, Canada commented on the protection needs of human rights defenders in Honduras during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Honduras at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Speaking on behalf of Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, Joseph Flores Ayala stated:

“Canada recommends that Honduras fully implement the National Protection Mechanism by establishing robust accountability measures for state authorities who fail to provide adequate protection to human rights defenders, including Indigenous rights defenders, environmental rights defenders, and journalists.”

This concern, however, appears to be de-linked from the direct or indirect flow of “military goods” exported to Honduran security forces that have been implicated in violations of human rights defenders.

Currently, there is also no coherent strategy within “Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders”, specific mention in the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA) or evident use of the Defense Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) that specifically provides for the protection of human rights defenders from weapons and military components produced in Canada that are either directly or indirectly exported to countries where the rights of human rights defenders are violated.

New concerns

One week ago, US President Donald Trump backed Tito Asfuro to be the next president of Honduras. CNN has reported that Asfura is a “right-wing businessman [and] construction magnate who is running on a free market platform.”

The outcome of the close vote on November 30 is still to be determined. The new president will be sworn in on January 27, 2026.

Yesterday, this statement by COPINH and other civil society organizations highlighted: “The electoral trends published by the National Electoral Council indicate a power struggle between the National Party and the Liberal Party, historically responsible for the poverty and injustice suffered by Honduras. We warn that these parties’ public alliances with certain business and criminal sectors threaten the struggles of peasant, indigenous, worker, feminist, and environmental movements.”

It is unclear when the next House of Commons vote on C-233 will take place but it will likely be after the House of Commons resumes sitting on January 26, 2026.

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading: The integration of Canadian and US military production puts Canada at risk of complicity in violence against human rights defenders (PBI-Canada article, March 5, 2025).

“We never wanted to go to the police, because it was the police who were chasing us.” The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras has explained that in Honduras 70 per cent of the attacks against women defenders the aggressors are state security forces, especially police or the military.

PBI-Honduras accompanies organizations at press conference in front of the US Embassy on electoral interference

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“Today, we accompany several peasant and indigenous organizations in a press conference, march and stand in front of the United States Embassy in Tegucigalpa. During the activity, the organizations opposed the alleged interference of the United States government in the electoral process of Honduras. Also, they showed concern for the pardon granted to Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras who in the United States was sentenced to 45 years in prison for crimes related to drug trafficking. Meanwhile, counting of votes from the general election last November 30 is still ongoing.”

Yesterday (December 3), the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) also posted:

“Indigenous, peasant and social organizations call press conference to denounce foreign interference in Honduras electoral process.

In the face of the electoral context and political instability, we reaffirm our call to respect the sovereignty of the country and to stop any form of interference in the internal affairs of the Honduran people.”

Today COPINH posted these live video feeds (here and here) on Facebook.

Berta Zúniga Cáceres, the general coordinator of COPINH, says: “The results of this electoral process [reflect] a certain level of fraud that has been denounced, lack of awareness in the country at the time of voting, and part of the fear sown by Donald Trump’s words in the Honduran people.”

The Spanish news agency EFE now reports: “A group of COPINH members protested Thursday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa against the pardon granted by U.S. President Donald Trump to former President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking. ‘We are here condemning this act of Donald Trump who, by the way, contradicts himself because he expresses that he is fighting drug trafficking that has fallen into murdering people in the Caribbean,’ Salvador Edgardo Zúniga Del Cid, ex-husband of the environmentalist murdered Berta Cáceres in 2016, told EFE. ‘Juan Orlando Hernández, a person linked to drug trafficking and the subsequent coup d’état with many crimes that have been committed in this country, where there are many martyrs,’ said Carol Hernández, a member of that committee.”

The presidential election

Earlier this week, The Guardian reported: “A former president of Honduras [Juan Orlando Hernández] who was convicted of drug trafficking has walked free from a US prison after receiving a pardon from Donald Trump, as the country’s presidential election remained on a knife edge with the US-backed candidate leading by 515 votes. The pardon was issued amid extraordinary levels of US interference in the Honduran election. Trump threw his support behind Hernández’s ally Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, saying Washington’s support for the country was conditional on an Asfura victory. On Tuesday [December 2], Trump again intervened, alleging without evidence that electoral officials were “trying to change” the result of Sunday’s vote and said: ‘If they do, there will be hell to pay!’ The virtual vote count had been slow and unstable before it was interrupted at about midday on Monday [December 1]. The electoral council said a technical problem was to blame and insisted the manual count was continuing. When the release of results was suspended, Asfura was on 39.91%, closely followed by Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal party on 39.89%. Rixi Moncada, the candidate for the leftwing ruling party, was trailing in a distant third place with 19.16% of the vote.”

Today, Reuters reports: “On Thursday [December 4], the National Party’s Asfura held 40.27%, about 24,400 votes ahead of the Liberal Party’s Nasralla, who had 39.38%. Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist LIBRE Party remained well behind in third place in the election, which was held on Sunday [November 30].”

COPINH commentary

Just a few moments ago, COPINH posted on social media:

“The Honduran electoral process exposed the influence of external interests and how national power groups can influence democracy.

While media campaigns favored sectors with criminal history, the release of the narco dictator Juan Orlando Hernandez again showed the contradictions of anti-drug policy and the depth of our country’s impunity.

We face a political dispute dominated by historical forces responsible for poverty, inequality and violence.

Today, various sectors demand respect for the will of the people, complete transparency in the screening and clarity on the responsibilities of those who interfered in the electoral process, and reject American interference and its hypocritical “international fight against drug trafficking.”

Canada and Honduras

On December 3, the Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua (located in San Jose, Costa Rica) posted on social media: “Canada is proud to have participated in the EU Electoral Observation Mission and supported the OAS mission in Honduras. We congratulate the Honduran people on a successful election day, observed by international and national missions—a true display of democratic participation.”

Accompaniment

COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres was murdered on March 2, 2016, for her opposition to the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River. COPINH’s coordinators have been accompanied by PBI-Honduras since May 2016.

The Corporation for Judicial Freedom celebrates win against the AngloGold Ashanti Québradona project in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Image from Corporación Jurídica Libertad on Facebook.

Today, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project amplified these social media posts on Instagram.

The Human Conet, Juntos SOMOS post highlights: “Today, December 2, 2025, the National Mining Agency (ANM) denied the application for extension to the mining title of the Québradona copper project in Jericho and Thames (Antioquia). …This means that the exploration stage can’t be extended.”

And the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) post affirms: “This decision doesn’t come out of nowhere, it’s the result of years of resistance, complaints, community studies, assemblies, social mobilization and water advocacy by farmworkers youth, leadership, groups and communities that stood firm even when everything was against. …As long as the title remains in force and extractive pressure continues, the territorial organization will also follow. This is a historic achievement, but it’s not the end.”

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) since 2000.

Background on Quebradona

In July 2025, The Guardian reported: “[Argiro] Tobón, who has spent years harvesting coffee beans, is among 11 local farmers and environmental activists facing a lawsuit initiated by the South African mining company AngloGold Ashanti. Accused of kidnapping, theft and personal injury, they were charged after a series of protests against the company’s proposed Quebradona copper mine, which activists believe poses a serious threat to the environment and agrarian economy.”

“The conflict between the company and regional communities has been escalating since the end of 2023. The kidnapping charge stems from an incident that year, when a group of protesters disrupted an unauthorised excavation by AngloGold, contacting the mayor’s office, police and local ombudsman, and stopping the miners working. A similar incident in 2023 involved more than 150 farmers entering private land where AngloGold was drilling, removing machinery and handing it over to the authorities. This led to charges of theft and later of personal injury, after a miner was bitten by a farmer’s dog.”

“Protesters presume that, with its exploration licence set to expire in December, AngloGold is growing increasingly desperate to get permission to mine with an exploitation licence from Colombia’s National Authority for Environmental Licences (ANLA). A previous application was suspended in 2021 due to a lack of data.”

That article also noted: “So far, AngloGold continues its legal actions against the protesters. On 16 June, Argiro Tobón and his companions left the Jericó court to cheers and applause from a crowd after a judge ruled they would not be placed under house arrest during the trial. Despite this initial victory, a long road lies ahead for the accused farmers. With the full extent of the legal process yet to come, their fate, and that of the land they have worked for decades, remains undecided.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Colombia has previously noted:

“Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) members have been subjected to different forms of threats and attacks throughout the organisation’s existence. These include death threats as a result of their human rights defence work, and attempts to link its members to criminal proceedings as part of judicial setups.

Since mid-2019, the Corporation has detected illegal interceptions and illegal followings, and during the social protests at the end of that year, unjustified actions were taken by the authorities against some lawyers, including false accusations and attempts to detain them.”

Photo: PBI-Colombia with CJL founder Elkin Ramírez.

Canadian mining in Colombia

This past October, Mining.com reported: “Colombia currently hosts only one large-scale copper mine, El Roble, operated by Canada’s Atico Mining (TSX-V: ATY) in Chocó. While at least eight copper projects are in development, regulatory shifts have clouded their future.”

In February 2025, Natural Resources Canada published this chart on “Canadian Mining Assets” in Colombia.

PBI-Colombia has previously explained: “The abundance of natural resources [in northeast Antioquia] and the arrival of multinational companies, such as the Canadian Gran Colombia Gold, has provided the illegal armed groups who are present in the region with an extremely lucrative funding source in mining.”

In December 2024, Lital Khaikin reported in the independent media outlet The Breach: “Gran Colombia Gold merged into Vancouver-based Aris Mining in 2022, and continues to operate the Segovia mine in Antioquia, an underground mine currently being expanded to produce over 300,000 ounces of gold per year.”

She added: “Canadian multinationals like Aris Mining and Quimbaya Gold have entangled themselves in a community already deeply marked by human right abuses, cartel networks, and sustained armed conflict.”

She also noted: “As The Breach previously reported, Gran Colombia has worked with sub-contractors that are implicated in laundering illegal gold into legal markets and have ties to right-wing paramilitaries.”

Khaikin concluded: “Canadian companies are relying on contract mining amid poor regulation, expanding without community consent into unprotected areas, and continuing to source gold in a murky territory run by Colombia’s most powerful cartel—all amid what the UN Refugee Agency has described as a deteriorating humanitarian situation.”

PBI-Canada continues to follow the struggles of accompanied organizations, defenders and communities in Colombia.

Ontario-based company to sell armoured vehicles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: An Abolish ICE march and day of action in Minnesota.

The Canadian Press reports: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has earmarked millions of dollars for a bulk order for 20 armoured vehicles from Canadian defence manufacturer Roshel that are built to resist bullets and bomb blasts.”

“U.S. government procurement records show the department laying out plans for an order worth the equivalent of about C$10 million for 20 Senator vehicles… The procurement document says only Roshel, which is headquartered in Brampton, Ont., meets the department’s requirements and can complete the order within 30 days.”

That article adds: “The department, commonly known as ICE, is awash in controversy and allegations of human rights abuses as U.S. President Donald Trump pursues a campaign to expel vast numbers of immigrants residing in the country illegally.”

The version of this Canadian Press article on the CTV News website specifies that the order is for “Senator STANG emergency response tactical vehicles.”

The Roshel website suggests this might actually be “STANAG”. Popular Science explains that STANAG means “standard agreement” and refers to an established NATO standard indicating “the Senator MRAP is designed to withstand a range of the kinds of attacks that NATO can expect to see in the field.”

Concerns in Canada

The Canadian Press has subsequently reported: “[New Democratic Party Member of Parliament] Jenny Kwan says she’s deeply troubled because the ICE agency has been credibly accused of human rights abuses. …Kelsey Gallagher from Project Ploughshares, a non-governmental organization that promotes peace, says if the vehicles were sold to any other security service in the world with the same documented pattern of abuse, Ottawa likely would step in to stop it.”

Civil liberties

In November 2025, Chandra Bhatnagar, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Southern California, noted: “Over the summer, masked heavily armed federal agents invaded neighborhoods across Southern California abducting residents from their homes, workplaces, and public spaces without warrants or identification.”

He further noted: “Immediately after DHS [Department of Homeland Security] began to increase enforcement, thousands of Southern California residents began rising up to document and protest the raids. Advocacy groups, labor organizations, and civil rights attorneys began organizing emergency legal and humanitarian responses. In the summer and fall, the Southern California community took part in two of the largest mobilizations in U.S. history, protesting the ICE raids and unconstitutional federal response. In response, federal officers and local law enforcement attempted to suppress the protests with force, shooting at press and protesters with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other weapons. They also arrested hundreds of people, almost all of whom were exercising their rights peacefully.”

Unión del Barrio

Last week, the Toronto Star reported about Union del Barrio volunteers who patrol the streets of Los Angeles to protect undocumented residents from ICE raids.

That article notes: “[Lupe] Carrasco is one of many organizers for Union del Barrio, part of the city’s collective that stands watch for those who can’t afford to disappear. The network warns undocumented residents about immigration raids and helps support their constitutional rights. When ICE agents move in, the volunteers follow. They record video, shout out rights over megaphones and make sure no one is taken quietly.”

The article further notes that the volunteers wear “green hoodies and T-shirts stamped with the profile of a Mexican eagle warrior” and their cars have affixed magnetic signs that say in English and Spanish: “Protecting Communities from ICE and Police Terror”.

This past August, The Guardian also reported: “[The] coalition of trained volunteers called Unión del Barrio, patrol the barrios, or neighbourhoods, to look for immigration enforcement, ‘La Migra’. When they spot Ice activity, they post videos that go viral, alerting people to seek shelter.”

United Nations

The ACLU in Southern California has also highlighted: “This month, for the first time, the U.S. refused to participate in the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a process that examines the human rights record of each member state.”

We recall the obligations of companies to the  United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Under those Guiding Principles all companies, including those that produce “military goods”, must assess and address human rights risks and abuses arising in all aspects of their business, including how clients such as national armies and police forces use their weaponry and related services.

Additionally, Amnesty International has highlighted that the legal concepts of “corporate complicity” in and the “aiding and abetting” of international crimes could in the future apply to arms companies that continue supplying weapons in the knowledge that they may be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of human rights.

Other Canadian companies

This past July, the Associated Press reported: “Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under the federal government’s 287(g) program will be taken to the [South Florida Detention Facility, known as Alligator Alcatraz], according to a Trump administration official. The program is led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] and allows police officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.”

In late-November, The Walrus reported: “Among the companies contracted to provide services for Alligator Alcatraz are IRG Global Emergency Management—a US offshoot of ARS Global Emergency Management, a Toronto-based company also known as Access Restoration Services Ltd—and a US-based business unit of Quebec-based security operator GardaWorld.”

That article further noted: “According to the Globe and Mail, the US offshoot of GardaWorld has been shortlisted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with thirty-nine additional companies, to compete for further detention centre contracts.”

Amnesty International has called for the closure of the detention facility.

PBI-USA

PBI-USA has commented: “Every day, we wake to a new assault on our fundamental rights and words or actions by the U.S. President that make us question the extent to which he will follow through on his threats. It can be overwhelming.”

CANSEC 2026

Roshel, the company building the armoured vehicles for ICE, is a regular sponsors and exhibitor at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa.

The next CANSEC takes place on May 27-28, 2026.

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading: Israel reportedly seeks to import about 30 armoured vehicles made by Brampton, Ontario-based Roshel Inc. (PBI-Canada article, March 16, 2024).

The Simigigyet’m Gitanyow call on multiple financial institutions not to finance the Ksi Lisims LNG project

By
Brent Patterson
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Image from the letter.

This letter signed by Simoogit Watakhayetsxw/Deborah Good and Naxginkw/Tara Marsden, Wilp Sustainability Director on behalf of the Simigigyet’m Gitanyow (Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs) is calling on financial institutions “not to provide financing or consider equity investments” in the proposed Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

The financial institutions listed in this letter include banks that are based in the United States (Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo), France (BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale), Spain (BBVA, Santander), Germany (Deutsche Bank), the United Kingdom (HSBC), the Netherlands (ING) and Italy (Intesa Sanpaolo).

It also includes banks based in Canada (BMO, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, RBC, Scotiabank, TD Bank).

The letter highlights:

Recommendations for Financial Institutions

Given the substantial and interlinked legal, financial, and environmental risks related to Ksi Lisims LNG, we strongly recommend that your institution:

  1. Decline to provide project financing for Ksi Lisims LNG given the stated risks above.
  2. Deny general corporate financing to Ksi Lisims LNG’s developers.
  3. Require that clients have obtained the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from all impacted Indigenous communities, as outlined in B.C. law via the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
  4. Develop a comprehensive policy to restrict financing of new and expanded LNG infrastructure as part of your institution’s ESRM and climate policy frameworks.

Image from Reception Chiefs on Facebook.

The full letter can be read here.

It has been endorsed by 128 organizations including Conexiones Climáticas (Mexico), Les Amis de la Terre (France), Parents for Future, Frack Off London (UK), Public Citizen (US), Urgewald and Rettet den Regenwald (Germany).

Further reading: PBI-Canada meets with Simooget Watakhayetsxw, remains attentive to Gitanyow resistance to the PRGT pipeline (October 20, 2025).

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