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PBI-Canada joins Canadian Foreign Policy Institute international solidarity webinar for a more just foreign policy

By
Brent Patterson
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To register for tonight’s webinar, click here. We look forward to hearing all the speakers  andare scheduled to speak for two-minutes at about 7:48 pm ET.

Thank you to the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute for convening this gathering of more than 450 people and to all the organizations that are presenting.

The solidarity of accompaniment

Peace Brigades International accompanies human rights defenders, social leaders, Indigenous land defenders and organizations and communities resisting extractivism and other forms of violence in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

We also support human rights work in Kenya (notably against police violence in the informal settlements in Nairobi), Indonesia and Nepal, as well as to Nicaraguan human rights defenders who have are in exile in Costa Rica.

The need for that support is immense. Last year, 234 human rights defenders were killed in the countries where we are present.

Our work primarily involves the physical accompaniment of defenders. That means we are physically present with them to diminish the risk of violence against them when they are at marches, blockades, court hearings and meetings.

In 2020, PBI carried out 505 physical accompaniments of at-risk defenders.

We also provide political accompaniment to defenders by organizing advocacy tours and webinars as well as meetings with various officials from embassies and foreign ministries, as well as human rights organizations, unions and civil society allies.

PBI also has an advocacy presence at the United Nations in Geneva and regularly presents to the Human Rights Council.

And we provide some psychological and support in recognition of the emotional toll faced by defenders who have been threatened, criminalized and who have experienced violence over years due to their activism.

PBI-Canada provides daily updates on this work via social media, produces a weekly e-newsletter, organizes webinars and advocacy meetings, helps to find volunteers to do 1-year placements accompanying defenders in Latin America, as well as fundraise to keep those frontline projects functioning.

Canadian foreign policy

PBI-Canada has noted the role Canada plays in human rights violations through its companies and arms exports. We have also highlighted that just as Indigenous land defenders are threatened, criminalized and judicialized in Latin America for their opposition to extractive megaprojects, so too are Indigenous land defenders in this country.

In terms of Canadian foreign policy, we have:

1- Drawn attention to the export of Canadian manufactured light armoured vehicles to both the Colombian police and the national army, particularly as similar vehicles are being used to violently repress the national strike and social protests.

2- Called on the Canadian government to publicly express its support for the Escazu Agreement, a key treaty in Latin America that includes binding provisions for the protection of environmental defenders.

3- Highlighted the impact of Canadian mining companies on Indigenous communities in Mexico where at least 65 per cent of foreign mining companies are listed in Canada.

4- Drawn attention to the Canadian oil and gas companies that have expressed interest in fracking in Colombia as communities overwhelmingly reject fracking and environmental defenders receive death threats for speaking out against fracking.

5- Called on Canada to include language on the essential role of environmental and land defenders in meeting the commitments in the Paris Agreement (on average, four environmental and land defenders have been killed each week since COP21 in Paris).

6- Supported international efforts for a United Nations Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights (that Canada is seen as obstructing).

7- Noted the impact of “free trade” agreements on human rights, including the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, as well as the implications of legislation Canada has pushed, including the Honduran Mining Law, implemented after the coup, that favours companies over the rights of communities.

8- Drawn attention to the Export Development Canada (EDC) funding of Calgary-based Parex Resources Inc. as a Colombian community raises concerns about the impacts of its oil extraction operations on their water.

9- Tried to find out if Canada has a position on returning land to a community in Guatemala displaced by a military base (where mass graves of Indigenous peoples have been found) that became a peacekeeping training base financially supported by Canada.

10- Begun to note that Canada is the largest importer of Guatemalan sugar (and that communities mobilizing against the environmental and right to water impacts of sugar plantations have been criminalized).

We have also highlighted that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to stop the Site C, Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink megaprojects until free, prior and informed consent is obtained and to remove police forces from those territories.

More about PBI

Last year, PBI’s work internationally was supported by 173 volunteers, 77 per cent of whom are women, from 18 countries.

PBI is a decentralized global organization comprised of eight field projects (in the countries noted above), eleven country groups (including Canada, Spain and Germany) and an international coordination office in Brussels.

PBI entities are semi-autonomous (united by a common mission statement and shared work), non-hierarchical in structure, and decisions are made through consensus. We are non-partisan (we don’t endorse political parties) and we have a policy of non-interference with the organizations we accompany (meaning we don’t fund them nor interfere in their decision-making processes).

We encourage you to connect with us via social media (@PBIcanada on Twitter) or with me directly at brent@pbicanada.org to find out more.

PBI-Guatemala to accompany hearing of 21 Maya Q’eqchi’ defenders arrested at military base that displaced them

By
Brent Patterson
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The survivors and relatives of the displaced families continue to ask that their lands be returned to them and that their dispossession by the military comes to an end. PBI-Guatemala accompanied the community at a ceremony on July 28, 2019, at the Creompaz base to commemorate the anniversary of their eviction.

On June 17, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Tomorrow, PBI will accompany the first statement hearing of 21 compañeros from the Chicoyogüito community.”

Telesur has reported:

“These are 21 defenders of the indigenous territory captured in Cobán when they demanded the return of their lands.

Guatemalan human rights organizations on Monday [June 14] demanded the immediate release of 21 people from the Chicoyogüito community, captured a week ago, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, when they began a peaceful demonstration in defense of their territory.

The defenders of the indigenous territory demanded that the Guatemalan State return to them their ancestral lands, which were dispossessed 53 years ago by the national army, when it installed Military Zone 21, where today the so-called Regional Peacekeeping Operations Training Command (Creompaz) is located.

According to the Center for The Legal Action of Human Rights (CALDH), the 21 defenders were arrested for the crime of aggravated usurpation while starting a peaceful demonstration in the Chicoyogüito community, Cobán, in central Guatemala.

According to CALDH, the National Civil Police used excessive force, injuring some of the demonstrators and violating the right to freedom of demonstration.

It indicates that those captured were taken to the Cobán Penal Center without being heard by a competent judge or being treated for their injuries.”

Canada at Creompaz

Military Zone 21, now known as Creompaz, was the site of extreme violence against men, women and children in the 1980s. It was there that 84 mass graves containing 565 bodies were found. Hundreds of victims have been identified as Indigenous Maya Poqomchi, Q’eqchi’, Achi, Ixil and K’iche peoples.

The military base is considered the largest clandestine cemetery in Latin America.

In Creompaz: Guatemala’s ‘Little School of the Americas’, Canadian journalist Dawn Paley writes: “Evidence uncovered by forensic anthropologists shows that people disappeared from various regions were later brought to the base at Coban by soldiers for interrogation and torture, followed by extrajudicial execution and secret burial.”

Indigenous people were targeted during the internal armed conflict that began in 1960 and formally ended in 1996.

An estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed with 93 per cent of the executions of civilians carried out by government forces. Of the 42,275 individual cases of killing and disappearances documented by the Commission for Historical Clarification, 83 per cent of the victims of the armed conflict were Indigenous Maya.

In November 2012, Paley commented: “Regardless of the mass graves at the base, military and police training continues there, supported by countries like the US and Canada.” The support from Canada has included a CAD$250,000 grant in 2009 and the purchase of specialized equipment in 2014 for a training program at Creompaz.

We have asked Global Affairs Canada for its position on this dispossession and any current support or Canadian military involvement at the Creompaz base.

The arrest of the 21 defenders in Guatemala comes after remains of 215 Indigenous children were recently found in a mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School on Secwepmec territory in British Columbia. Between 1867 and 1997, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were taken from their parents and sent to at least 139 residential schools as part of a campaign of forced assimilation. Official records say 3,213 children died at these schools, but the actual total may be as many as 12,000 children. 

PBI-Guatemala accompanies CCDA at hearing on the criminalization of the Indigenous community of Santa Elena Samanzana II

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 17, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “Yesterday, PBI accompanied CCDA Verapaz in a hearing to present evidence for the case of criminalization to communities of Santa Elena Samanzana II.”

The CCDA accompanies 150 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities who have been repressed and stripped of their land or who are immersed in conflicts regarding land tenure. PBI-Guatemala has accompanied CCDA-Verapaz since July 2018.

This past April, PBI-Guatemala had also posted: “PBI accompanies CCDA Verapaz and Indigenous authorities Lorenzo Pop and Pedro Cajbon of the Indigenous community Santa Elena Samanzana II.” Pop, a spiritual and legal representative of the community, has stated: “We come to demand that our rights as indigenous peoples of Guatemala.”

The PBI-Guatemala report We Defend Life! The Social Struggles in Alta Verapaz provides the historical context: “The indigenous peoples and campesinos of AV have been subjected to continuous dispossession dating back to the Spanish conquest, when the looting of natural wealth in the region began through the exploitation of raw materials.”

It adds: “Faced with this history of dispossession, the indigenous and campesino population has organized multiple resistances throughout history. …The State’s response to these resistances has been characterized by repression.”

The Guardian has reported: “A peace agreement in 1996 should have led to land redistribution, but a handful of powerful families still dominates the economy, and Guatemala remains one of the world’s least equal and most violent countries, with the largest 2.5% of farms occupying more than 65% of the land.”

That article further notes that foreign-backed mining, dams and other extractive industries have meant the continued evictions of Indigenous peoples from their lands.

Lesbia Artola of the CCDA-Verapaz in her office with PBI-Guatemala accompaniment.

PBI-Honduras highlights that land and territory defenders contribute to the global fight against climate change

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 17, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “The defence of forests, water sources and access to land as a livelihood contributes to the global fight against climate change. The work of land and territory defenders must be recognized, protected and supported.”

PBI-Honduras has also cited an article in El Pais and commented: “The fact that Honduras is one of the areas most affected by the climate change within Latin America shows once again the importance of the work provided by land and territory defenders, criminalized for their work in defense of common goods.”

Front Line Defenders has reported that 331 human rights defenders were killed around the world in 2020. 69 per cent of those killed worked on land, environmental or indigenous peoples’ rights, while 26 per cent were working specifically on Indigenous peoples’ rights.

And Global Witness has noted that 14 land and environmental defenders were killed in Honduras in 2019. Their report released in July 2020 highlighted: “In Honduras killings rose from 4 in 2018 to 14 last year, making it the most dangerous country per capita for land and environmental defenders in 2019. It is the country with the greatest percentage increase in lethal attacks against activists.”

COP26 and environmental defenders

The UN COP26 climate summit is scheduled for November 1-12 in Glasgow, Scotland. Peace Brigades International continues to follow this with particular concern for the risks faced by human rights defenders challenging environmental breakdown.

On average 4 land and environmental defenders have been killed every week since the Paris climate agreement was reached at COP21 in Paris in December 2015.

In the lead-up to COP26, PBI-Canada is highlighting this UN Human Rights Council resolution that affirms: “Human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

Please follow us in the coming weeks and months for more on the relationship between climate change and human rights.

Two Canadian groups call for ex-Guatemalan soldier accused in the Dos Erres massacre to be prosecuted for war crimes

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 16, the Associated Press reported: “Two activist groups called for Canada’s government to prosecute a man believed to be living in Canada who they say was involved in the massacre of more than 200 people in Guatemala in 1982.”

“Lawyers Without Borders Canada (ASFC) and the Canadian Partnership for International Justice (PCJI) said at a news conference that Canada shouldn’t become a retirement destination for alleged war criminals and that he should be prosecuted [in Canada] for crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

That article adds: “The Canadian government has said in court filings it believes Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a military special forces unit and directed other soldiers as they tortured, raped and killed villagers. It also alleges he threw a grenade and fired a gun into a well where victims, some still alive, had been thrown.”

The Canadian Press adds: “Pascal Paradis, the executive director of Lawyers Without Borders Canada, told a virtual news conference that by prosecuting Sosa Orantes under its Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, Canada would demonstrate its commitment to fighting impunity for war criminals.”

Fannie Lafontaine, the executive director of the Canadian Partnership for International Justice, has further noted that if the Canadian government doesn’t act it’s unlikely Sosa Orantes will face justice for his alleged crimes.

The Lawyers Without Borders Canada and Canadian Partnership for International Justice media conference can be seen here. Their media release is here.

Massacre at Dos Erres village

Sosa Orantes is accused of participating in the massacre in Dos Erres. The BBC has previously reported: “More than 200 people were killed in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, one of the most violent episodes in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year conflict.”

That BBC article explains: “The Kaibiles [were] a US-trained counter-insurgency force fighting left-wing guerrillas. …The special unit of the Guatemalan army stormed the village in the north of the country on 6 December 1982.”

Last month, the Associated Press reported: “The slaughter went unpunished for years — even after Guatemalan authorities issued 17 arrest warrants. In 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights demanded the country prosecute the perpetrators.”

While five former soldiers have been sentenced in this crime, ProPublica has noted: “Six others have eluded capture, some of them aided by Guatemalan security forces whose power has impeded the quest for justice, according to Guatemalan and U.S. investigators.”

Current trial in Guatemala

On June 16, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in the first statement hearing against ex-Kaibil José Mardoqueo Ortiz Morales for the massacre at Dos Erres in 1982 in the municipality of Libertad, Petén.”

Ortiz Morales was deported by the United States to face trial in Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany BDH lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila in August 2010 due to several security incidents. In 2013, PBI-Guatemala extended the accompaniment to the other lawyers of the BDH who work on high-profile trials.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied human rights lawyers to a hearing on June 16 for an ex-soldier accused of participating in the Dos Erres massacre.

German, Swedish and Norwegian ambassadors call on Colombia to ratify the Escazu Agreement for environmental defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Infobae reports: “After months of debate, this Thursday, June 17, the second committees of the Senate and the House, in charge of voting on bills related to international treaties, will finally decide whether Colombia enters the Escazú Agreement.”

That article adds: “Senators from the ruling party have spoken out against the agreement. Recently, Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal launched a social media campaign in which she rejects Colombia’s subscription to the pact.”

Germany, Sweden, Norway

Yesterday, El Tiempo published this opinion piece by the German, Swedish and Norwegian ambassadors to Colombia.

Peter Ptassek (Germany), John Petter Opdahl (Norway) and Helena Storm (Sweden) write: “At this time, Colombia has the opportunity to move towards strengthening peace and environmental democracy, and Colombia’s ratification of the Escazú Agreement would send a very important political signal.”

Their statement concludes: “We support the President and the National Government in the ratification of the Escazú Agreement.”

Canada

PBI-Canada has shared this online petition calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to express support for the Escazu Agreement.

To date, Canada has not publicly called on the Colombian government to ratify Escazu.

That said, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Leslie E. Norton, told the UN Human Rights Council this past March: “Some states have established specific protection mechanisms to prevent risks and attacks against HRDs and to intervene when need be. Canada wants to stress these important milestones such as the Escazu Regional Agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

At the G7 summit earlier this month, Canada also affirmed: “The importance of civic space and partnership with diverse, independent and pluralistic civil societies, including human rights defenders, in promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Peace Brigades International

In September 2018, Peace Brigades International endorsed the Escazú Agreement as “a means to guarantee a safe environment in which individuals, groups and organizations that promote and defend human rights related to the environment can act without facing threats, restrictions, attacks or danger.”

We will watch with interest today.

PBI-Colombia thanks Canadian Embassy for meeting with Justice and Peace Commission and Canal 2 TV journalist

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 16, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Thank you to the European Union Delegation in Colombia and to the Norwegian, Canadian and UK embassies in Colombia, for holding a meeting with the Justice and Peace Commission and Jose Alberto Tejada from Canal 2 TV to address the situation of attacks on press freedom in Cali and direct work with young people in the framework of the national strike.”

The interview with Danilo Rueda from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace begins at the 24:13 mark here.

The situation in Cali

On May 30, the Financial Times reported: “Of the 66 people killed nationwide, 38 were in Cali and a further 11 in the region, according to Indepaz.”

Sebastián Lanz of Temblores says: “Cali has become the epicentre of the discontent. We’ve seen members of the security forces armed to the teeth attacking civilians who are exercising their legitimate right to demonstrate.”

Press freedom

The Foundation for Press Freedom, a non-governmental organization that defends press freedom in Colombia, has documented 122 attacks suffered by 141 journalists and media in the coverage of the national strike (in the period April 28 to May 9 alone).

Youth in Colombia

The Associated Press has reported: “Thousands of young people and college students have been at the forefront of Colombia’s antigovernment protests, armed with improvised shields made from garbage cans and umbrellas. They have taken the brunt of the tear gas and gunshots from security forces, and dozens have paid for it with their lives.”

The percentage of youth in Colombia who neither work nor study (“ni-nis”) has risen from 19 percent to 33 percent in mid-2020 and is likely even higher in 2021. Many are not in school because they do not have a computer or internet service at home to study remotely. A reported 3 million out of 11 million young people in Colombia neither study nor work.

ABC News has reported: “Demonstrators are now pressing demands that include reforming the police, implementing a basic income plan for 10 million people and providing free tuition at public universities.”

PBI webinar on the social protests

On June 3, Danilo also participated in a PBI-Canada convened webinar about the national strike and ongoing social protests that can be seen here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies lawyers at first statement hearing of ex-soldier accused in the Dos Erres massacre

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 16, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in the first statement hearing against ex-Kaibil José Mardoqueo Ortiz Morales for the massacre at Dos Erres in 1982 in the municipality of Libertad, Petén.”

The BBC has previously reported: “More than 200 people were killed in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, one of the most violent episodes in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year conflict.”

That article explains: “The Kaibiles [were] a US-trained counter-insurgency force fighting left-wing guerrillas. …The special unit of the Guatemalan army stormed the village in the north of the country on 6 December 1982.”

“The Kaibiles suspected the villagers of sympathizing with left-wing guerrillas who had two months earlier carried out an ambush on a nearby army patrol, leaving 21 soldiers dead. Even though the soldiers’ search of the village did not uncover any of the weapons the guerrillas had seized during the ambush, the Kaibiles proceeded to kill the village’s inhabitants.”

“Over several days, the soldiers systematically shot or bludgeoned to death hundreds of men, women and children. They disposed of most of the bodies by throwing them down a well.”

That BBC article also provides this context: “The massacre happened during the brief rule of military strongman Efraín Ríos Montt, who was accused of ordering the killing of more than 1,700 ethnic Mayans during a civil war.”

Last month, the Associated Press reported: “The slaughter [at Dos Erres] went unpunished for years — even after Guatemalan authorities issued 17 arrest warrants. In 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights demanded the country prosecute the perpetrators.”

It adds: “José Mardoqueo Ortiz Morales is the fourth ex-Guatemalan soldier deported by U.S. authorities since 2010. …Four former soldiers were sentenced in 2011 [and] another suspect deported by the U.S. was sentenced.”

ProPublica further notes: “Ortiz becomes the fifth suspect arrested in the United States… But six others have eluded capture, some of them aided by Guatemalan security forces whose power has impeded the quest for justice, according to Guatemalan and U.S. investigators.”

That article adds: “Witnesses identified Ortiz as one of the soldiers who blindfolded the victims, interrogated them, hit them with a sledgehammer and dumped them into a well in the center of the village, according to Guatemalan and U.S. court documents.”

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany BDH lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila in August 2010 due to several security incidents. In 2013, PBI-Guatemala extended the accompaniment to the other lawyers of the BDH who work on high-profile trials.

Famdegua photo.

Colombian Congress debates ban on fracking as Canadian companies express interest in unconventional resources

By
Brent Patterson
-

Ivan Madero (on the left) of the PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS recently spoke in opposition to fracking on a webinar organized by PBI-Canada and Above Ground.

The Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking has tweeted: “Today, Wednesday, June 16, all of Colombia with its attention focused on the debate in Congress of the bill to prohibit fracking in the country.”

It has also retweeted: “Today, a bill that seeks to ban fracking is being debated in Congress. Its contribution to climate change and its potential damage to the environment and health are sufficient reasons for its prohibition.”

There are at least three Canadian companies supportive or interested in fracking in Colombia.

Calgary-based Canacol Energy

On April 21, Valora Analitik reported: “Canacol Energy announced today the first results of an independent prospective evaluation of resources in the VMM 2 and VMM 3 blocks prepared by [Calgary-based] Boury Global Energy Consultants (BGEC) in the Magdalena Medio basin, one of the main areas identified to develop fracking pilots in Colombia.”

Canacol CEO Charle Gamba stated: “BGEC’s independent assessment of the prospective unconventional resources reaffirms the materiality and significant potential of Canacol’s unconventional shale oil blocks.”

Canacol holds a 20 per cent stake in the VMM-2/Plata and VMM-3/Piranga projects. ConocoPhillips holds the remaining 80 per cent stake.

Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc.

On April 16, Sintana stated: “Sintana Energy Inc. is pleased to comment on the ExxonMobil Exploration Colombia Limited bid for a Comprehensive Research Pilot Project (CEPI) in the unconventional formations of Block VMM-37 (Project Platero) and its acceptance and award by Colombia’s National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).”

It added: “CEPI process should now provide an effective path forward for the testing and production of source rock hydrocarbons in future operations.”

Calgary-based Parex Resources Inc.

On March 18, 2019, Reuters reported: “Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Parex and state-run oil company Ecopetrol are among those [interested in six fracking blocs in Colombia], Mines and Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez said in an interview.”

This past January, Canadian lawyer David Boyd, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights on the environment, spoke at a Congressional public hearing in favour of a law to prohibit fracking in Colombia.

PBI-Canada has highlighted the human rights implications of fracking in Colombia and will follow today’s debate in the Colombian Congress.

PBI-Colombia accompanied CCAJAR lawyers back proposed junk food law in Colombia to advance the right to health, decry industry opposition

By
Brent Patterson
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CCAJAR lawyer Yessika Hoyos: “The interference of the ultra-processed and sweetened beverages industry in the scheduling and approval of the [Junk Food Law] is an attack against the public interest, democracy and human rights.”

El Espectador reports: “Bill 347 of 2020 – #LeyComidaChatarra [Junk Food Law] seeks to establish that ultra-processed beverages and edibles have front warning seals that inform us if the product contains sweeteners or excess sugar, sodium or saturated fats.”

That article adds: “This law, which seeks to put clearer labelling on ultra-processed foods and thus prevent their consumption, may sink in its final stretch. …If it is not discussed [in the Senate] before June 20, it will be shelved for lack of formalities.”

El Pais also reports: “The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ collective sent a letter to the President of the Senate, Arturo Char, stating that ‘we consider that the adoption of public health measures aimed at preventing non-communicable diseases is a necessary measure to advance in the level of guarantee of the right to health’.”

And Semana further notes: “The José Alvear Restrepo group of lawyers also made the call to the Senate. ‘Apparently, our Senate congressmen care little or nothing about public health and many legislate in favor of their particular interests or legislate for contributors to their political campaigns’, said Yessika Hoyos, a lawyer for the group.”

Industry lobbying defeated Canada’s Junk Food Law

In September 2016, Senator Nancy Greene Raine introduced the Child Health Protection Act (Bill S-228) that would have placed restrictions on advertising foods high in salt, sugar or fat to children under 12 years of age.

The legislation stalled in the Senate and died in June 2019.

A University of Toronto study earlier this year found that industry lobbied heavily against the proposed legislation.

Their study, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), “analyzed 139 meetings, 65 lobbying registrants, 215 lobbying registrations and 3418 communications related to children’s marketing and Bill S-228.”

It found that: “Most interactions were from industry stakeholders, including 84.2% of meetings (117/139), 81.5% of lobbying registrants (53/65), 83.3% of lobbying registrations (179/215) and 83.9% of communications (2866/3418). Most interactions (> 80%) in the highest-ranking government offices were by industry.”

PBI accompaniment

PBI has accompanied the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) since 1995. Over 400 lawyers have been killed in Colombia since 1991. Alirio Uribe of CCAJAR has stated: “The death sentences against each and every one of us have not been carried out because we are not alone, we have the accompaniment of PBI.”

CCAJAR: “Colombia cannot continue to be a victim of industry interference…”

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