Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

On March 27, a White House statement announced: “President Biden invited 40 world leaders to the Leaders Summit on Climate he will host on April 22 and 23.”

The statement adds: “The Summit will reconvene the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP.”

It also notes: “The President also invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net-zero economy.”

Those invited to the meeting include Colombian president Iván Duque Márquez and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau will also participate along with the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.

This meeting will take place in the lead up to the United Nations COP26 climate summit on November 1-12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Global Witness has documented: “On average, four defenders have been killed every week since December 2015 – the month the Paris Climate agreement was signed, amid hopes of a new era of climate progress. Countless more are silenced by violent attacks, arrests, death threats, sexual violence or lawsuits.”

Global Witness further notes: “Between 2015 and 2019 over a third of all fatal attacks have targeted indigenous people – even though indigenous communities make up only 5% of the world’s population.”

Front Line Defenders recently documented that 177 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2020 and that 19 were killed in Mexico.

Overall, that report highlights: “69% of those killed worked on land, environmental or indigenous peoples’ rights. 26% [were] working specifically on Indigenous peoples’ rights.”

Given this reality, particularly in Latin America, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed this 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.”

And yet it has been a challenge to have human rights fully acknowledged at UN COP climate summit talks and at present language referencing human rights is only in the preamble rather than the operative provisions of the Paris Agreement.

We call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to acknowledge on April 22 the crucial role of environmental human rights defenders and amplify the UN Resolution on their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

Similarly, PBI-USA recently called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to: “[Elevate] the need for protection of environmental and land defenders, and ensuring justice for attacks against them, as a core part of the Biden Administration’s overall climate strategy, including in its engagement at the UN Climate Change Conference [this November in Glasgow].”

Those interested can watch to see if this happens. The White House statement notes: “The virtual Leaders Summit will be live streamed for public viewing.”

As Peace Brigades International (PBI) marks its 40^th anniversary this year, we acknowledge the key role Quakers have played in our formation and ongoing work.

Significantly, six of the eleven people who founded PBI at the Peace Education Centre (that had been operated by the Canadian Friends Service Committee) were Quakers. They included Murray Thomson, Lee Stern and Charles Walker.

George Willoughby (a New Jersey-based Quaker) was one of the signatories to the invitation letter for that gathering and was involved in PBI for many years afterwards (including helping to draft our Principles and Mandate statement in 1992).

The Canadian Friends Service Committee has posted: “Founded by Friends, PBI places volunteers in communities where support and protective accompaniment is requested by local human rights defenders.”

Quakers in the World has also noted: “It is not a Quaker organisation, but its work is grounded in Quaker and Gandhian principles, Quakers were instrumental in its establishment, and many Quakers still work with the organisation today.”

As we look back at our history, the first PBI intervention (in Nicaragua in 1983) was led by Jack Schultz, a Quaker from Lomond, California.

Significantly, Hazel Tulecke, a Quaker, was part of the first three-person team in Guatemala in April 1985 where the concept of physical accompaniment first took shape after the killing of Mutual Support Group activist Maria Rosario Godoy de Cuevas.

George Lakey, a well-known American Quaker activist, was also an early volunteer with PBI. He has written: “In 1989 I joined the first PBI team in Sri Lanka. Our job was to act as unarmed bodyguards for lawyers who were threatened with assassination because they were standing up for activists’ human rights.”

Other notable Quakers in those early years include: JoLeigh Commandant (the first staff person for PBI’s Central American program based in Toronto), Alaine Hawkins (the coordinator of the PBI Central America Project from 1986 to 1991) and Lyn Adamson who was involved in PBI’s work in both Canada and Indonesia.

Additionally, Karen Ridd, a member of the Quaker community in Winnipeg, was a PBI volunteer in Guatemala in 1988 and in El Salvador in 1989. Maclean’s magazine reported that when she was abducted by the National Guard in El Salvador: “Ridd showed remarkable courage throughout the ordeal: at one point, she even refused to leave jail unless a female colleague from Colombia was also freed.”

We also recall that PBI’s Principles and Mandate statement were first adopted in June 1992 at Camp NeeKauNis, a Quaker camp north of Toronto operated under the direction of a committee of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

The PBI webpage has also noted if you are a Quaker or attend Friends Meetings: “The Friends Peace Teams Project can provide you with support (logistical, training, and financial) for your service with Peace Brigades International.”

It is also remembered that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) nominated Peace Brigades International for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Presently, Peter Cross (a Quaker in Hamilton) and Heather Neun (with connections to Quakers on Vancouver Island) are on the PBI-Canada Board of Directors. We would also like to acknowledge that the Toronto Monthly Meeting and the Thousand Islands Monthly Meeting have been consistent donors to PBI-Canada’s work.

Forty years after its founding by Quakers, Peace Brigades International continues to reflect their commitment to the Friends peace testimony of social justice, reconciliation, mediation, disarmament and ending militarism.

George Willoughby and Steve Kaal (from Montreal) at the PBI General Assembly meeting at Camp NeeKauNis in Waubaushene, Ontario in June 1992.

Alaine Hawkins, Lyn Adamson and Jennifer Dennison in the PBI Central America Project Office at 345 Adelaide Street West, Suite 606 in Toronto in December 1988.

PBI’s founding statement was adopted at the Quaker Peace Education Centre on Grindstone Island, Ontario on September 4, 1981.

Ojibwe land defender Taysha Martineau at Camp Migizi near the Line 3 pipeline construction site in Cloquet, Minnesota. Photo by Mary Annette Pember.

In March 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed that human rights defenders play an important role in fulfilling the Paris Agreement. And in July 2020, Global Witness documented: “On average, four defenders have been killed every week since the creation of the Paris Climate agreement in December 2015.”

Now the just released Banking on Climate Chaos 2021 report documents: “In the 5 years since the Paris Agreement was adopted, the world’s 60 largest private sector banks financed fossil fuels with $3.8 trillion.”

It highlights Canadian banks have financed fossil fuels as follows: RBC ($160 billion), TD ($121 billion), Scotiabank ($114 billion), Bank of Montreal ($97 billion) and CIBC ($67 billion). That totals: $559 million, more than half-a-trillion dollars.

The report further notes that three Canadian banks are among the “dirty dozen” of fossil fuel financiers: RBC (#5), TD (#9), and Scotiabank (#11).

Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline

The case studies in the report include the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline.

It notes: “As of March 2021, there are at least 29 banks acting as lenders to seven Enbridge credit facilities totaling $12.9 billion, with participation from banks such as Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, MUFG, and TD.”

RAN has also previously noted that TD has provided $13.59 billion in financing to Enbridge between 2016 and 2020.

Earlier this week, Ojibwe land defender Tara Houska tweeted: “200+ folks face criminal charges for protecting our territory from Line 3.”

TC Energy Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline

The report also notes the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline.

It notes: “In May 2020, TC Energy secured a $4.7 billion loan to build Coastal GasLink. Twenty-six banks signed up to directly fund this pipeline’s construction. In October, the banks upped Coastal GasLink’s allowance by an additional $122 million.”

It then lists the Canadian banks supporting the Coastal GasLink pipeline: Bank of Montreal, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, TD.

On January 7, 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested 14 Wet’suwet’en land defenders blocking construction of this pipeline and upholding their right of free, prior and informed consent. A second police raid on February 6-10, 2020 resulted in the arrest of an additional 22 land defenders.

The demand that banks fully respect human rights

One of the key demands made in the report is that banks must: “Fully respect all human rights, particularly the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their rights to their water and lands and the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

It adds, banks must: “Prohibit all financing for projects and companies that abuse human rights, including Indigenous rights.”

To read the full 157-page report, please click here.

The report was produced by these organizations: