Photo: (left to right) Audrey Thayer, Tim Mynett, Ilhan Omar, Lorna Hanes and Tara Houska meet at a Line 3 opposition camp. Photo by Hannah Olson/Bemidji Pioneer.

On January 30, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar met with Indigenous land defenders and water protectors opposed to the Line 3 pipeline.

Omar, the member of Congress for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, tweeted: “I am in Northern Minnesota meeting with indigenous leaders organizing to #StopLine3. We owe it to future generations, to the indigenous communities we’ve signed treaties with, and to every living being on this planet to stop building fossil fuel infrastructure.”

The Giniw Collective, an Indigenous-women, 2-spirit led frontline resistance movement, also posted about Omar’s visit.

“Today, Giniw Collective hosted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a longtime ally of Indigenous peoples. We visited the proposed crossing of Line 3 tar sands under the Mississippi River headwaters. We visited a Line 3 pipe yard. Sheriffs followed and threatened to intervene the entire trip, but Congresswoman Omar is committed to uplifting our voices and the voice of our Mother. This is what solidarity looks like.”

The Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. 760,000 barrel per day Line 3 tar sands pipeline would run from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. It would be 1,659 kilometres in length, of which about 585 kilometres would be in the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the construction of the Line 3 pipeline in Canada in November 2016. Enbridge has reported that the Canadian portion of the pipeline is complete and began commercial service in December 2019.

The Rainforest Action Network has documented that the top five financiers of Enbridge are Canadian banks: TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, RBC and CIBC. Collectively they have provided billions of dollars in financing to Enbridge.

RAN has further noted: “The [542 kilometre] Minnesota stretch of the pipeline is all that remains to be built. In November 2020, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approved the final permits for the pipeline.”

Work on the pipeline began in Minnesota on December 1 and is expected to take 6 to 9 months to complete.

On January 12, Resist Line 3 tweeted: “The good news is, resistance to the pipeline is growing. On-the-ground action to stop construction is led by Indigenous womxn and Two-Spirit folks at @GiniwCollective, with @nfld_al3, @MN_350, and @SunriseMvmtTC all working together with them to #StopLine3.”

Resist Line 3 also highlighted: “There’s a new Indigenous-led Line 3 resistance camp on the map – Camp Miigizi! Follow them on Facebook to support Miigizi as it takes flight.”

On January 14, the Giniw Collective tweeted: “[This morning] water protectors locked to each other inside a Line 3 pipe segment, halting construction at an Enbridge worksite as dozens more held space.”

That action was preceded by another on January 9 in which water protectors and Anishinaabe jingle dress dancers walked onto a Line 3 worksite.

Eight people were arrested at that action.

Tara Houska, founder of Giniw Collective, commented: “We saw Minnesota’s police officers protecting a Canadian tar sands pipeline.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada, which supports the accompaniment of Indigenous land defenders and environmental human rights defenders in Latin America, is following this situation with great concern.

Photo by Dara Mac Dónaill/ Irish Times.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor has released a new 23-page report titled: Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders.

The report was prepared for the 46^th session of the Human Rights Council that will take place from February 22-March 19.

Among the key points in her report:

(5) According to information gathered by OHCHR and supplemented by credible sources, at least 281 human rights defenders were killed in 2019. Since 2015, a total of 1,323 have been killed. Latin America is consistently the most affected region, and environmental human rights defenders are the most targeted. Those collecting data agree that underreporting is a common problem and that killings are fuelled by widespread impunity.

(16) Human rights defenders working on some issues appear to be particularly vulnerable to attack. They include environmental human rights defenders, those protesting land grabs or those defending the rights of people, including indigenous peoples, by objecting to Governments that are imposing business projects on communities without free, prior and informed consent. One in two victims of killings recorded in 2019 by OHCHR had been working with communities around issues of land, environment, impacts of business activities, poverty and rights of indigenous peoples, Afrodescendants and other minorities.

(34) The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights clearly establish that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights and to address any adverse impact on rights arising from acts or omissions of their own or of their business relationships (principle 11), including the rights of human rights defenders. In order to meet their responsibility to respect human rights, they should carry out human rights due diligence. This should be an ongoing process, which includes assessments of actual and potential human rights impacts (principle 17) and involves meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups (principle 18 (b)). Where businesses identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse effects to human rights, they have a responsibility to actively engage in remediation, which does not displace the responsibility of States to ensure access to effective remedy for those affected (principle 22).

Her report also notes several examples of death threats against defenders, including:

(77) Many defenders experience multiple threats. Jani Silva is a woman and environmental human rights defender in Colombia. In January 2020, an unidentified person followed her home and to her workplace. In May 2020, it was revealed that she was among at least 130 people under illegal digital surveillance by army cyberintelligence. In July 2020, the organization Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz received information that an armed group was planning to kill Ms. Silva. Because of the threats, dating back to 2017, Ms. Silva has personal protection provided by the State, which includes a conventional vehicle and two security people. In addition, she has been assigned a mobile telephone and a bulletproof vest.

Jani is accompanied by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, which in turn has been accompanied by PBI-Colombia since 1994.

The report concludes with more than two pages of recommendations. Among those recommendations:

(108) Foreign embassies, in consultation with human rights defenders who receive threats, should publicly denounce the threats.

(109) Businesses and international financial institutions should: (a) Develop and publish human rights defender-specific policies, in consultation with human rights defenders, in order to better protect defenders; (b) Commit to mandatory human rights standards and environmental due diligence.

(113) Businesses and international financial institutions should: (a) Invest in additional capacity to strengthen support for human rights defenders; (b) Acknowledge that land and environmental defenders and those defending indigenous peoples’ rights are at specific risk.

The full report can be read here.

Please also see:

Mary Lawlor on her priorities as the Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders and the role of PBI (June 2020)

“Governments are not doing enough to protect human rights defenders”: Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur (October 2020)

Photo: Land defender Helen Knott and West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson.

The Vancouver Sun reports: “West Moberly [First Nations] will be in court next year, claiming infringement of its treaty rights and damage to its traditional territories from construction of Site C and other BC Hydro dams on the Peace River.”

“The case is set down for 120 days of court time, starting March 14, 2022.”

The reservoir is scheduled to be filled in 2023.

Chief Roland Willson has highlighted: “[The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] commits to the obtaining of the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous persons before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”

The article notes: “Willson [has now] also called on the government to suspend work on Site C pending a final decision by the cabinet on outright cancellation.”

This is because of the violation of Indigenous rights and the destruction of Indigenous cultural and spiritual sites that would come with the flooding caused by the dam, but now also because of geotechnical and safety issues.

In July 2020, the British Columbia government noted there were geotechnical problems with the dam and appointed Peter Milburn to write an independent report on the project.

Then earlier this month, the BC Premier John Horgan said the government had appointed two international dam safety experts to assess a solution to the geotechnical problems and would release Milburn’s report once that assessment had been done.

Now, the West Moberly First Nations is seeking the release of all documents related to the geotechnical problems, the Milburn report, and all documents shared with the two international dam safety experts.

Land defence and more from the United Nations

In December 2015, Treaty 8 land defenders and allies set up a camp at Rocky Mountain Fort on the south bank of the Peace River to protest the dam. But by February 2016, the Supreme Court of British Columbia had granted an injunction to BC Hydro ordering the land defenders to be removed from the area.

At that time, land defender Helen Knott of the Prophet River First Nation stated: “We do not wish to be arrested. We wish to see Canada respect the rights of indigenous people in accordance with its international obligations.  We remain strong, united and firm in our opposition to this unnecessary project. We will do everything in our power to ensure Canada lives up to its commitments to indigenous peoples.”

The legal proceedings against the dam began in January 2018.

In December 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Canada “to immediately suspend the construction of the Site C dam, until free, prior and informed consent is obtained from West Moberly and Prophet River Nations, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

In a follow-up letter dated November 2020, the Committee further states: “The Committee regrets that the State party has provided no information on measures taken to address the concerns [about the development of the Site C dam project, as well as the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines] raised by the Committee in its decision of 13 December 2019.”

We follow this situation with interest.

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Peace Brigades International has accompanied opponent to hydroelectric dams including: ASODEBICOQ vs the Santa Lucia dam, the Pajuiles community vs the Los Planes dam, and COPINH vs the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras; the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón vs the Renace and Oxec dams in Guatemala; Totonac communities vs the Puebla 1 dam in Mexico; and the CCALCP legal collective vs the Sogamoso dam in Colombia.

Photo by Ryan Vizzions.

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) carries 557,000 barrels per day of fracked oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois. There it connects with the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline (ETCOP) that carries the oil to Texas.

The Indigenous Environmental Network has further noted that the Bayou Bridge Pipeline would be the final link from DAPL and ETCOP to refineries and ports in Louisiana.

In April 2016, Indigenous land defenders established the Sacred Stone Camp at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation (which is situated in North and South Dakota) as a focal point of opposition and resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that threatened cultural sites and their drinking water.

Sylvia McAdam (Saysewahum), who is from the nēhīyaw Nation and now a member of the PBI-Canada Board of Directors, visited the camp.

McAdam says: “It was tense and frightening. Even during the day, there was the airplane and the helicopter that was circling and circling. You couldn’t even rest. I was shocked. I came away from there shocked and astounded at how much military were there. I don’t think people realize how much military activity was directed against that camp.”

After months of resistance, and the criminalization and arrest of many Indigenous land defenders, that camp was cleared by police in February 2017.

Around that time, the then-United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz wrote: “While the actions taking place have been almost completely non-violent and peaceful, there has been a militarized, at times violent, escalation of force by local law enforcement and private security forces.”

After then-US President Donald Trump approved a permit allowing construction of the pipeline to be completed under Lake Oahe, the pipeline began operation in June 2017.

In July 2020, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg order the pipeline to be shut down and drained pending a review of its impact on land and water.

But Dakota Access has appealed the ruling and, as of November 2020, a court decision on the shutdown order was expected within the next couple months.

If the review is approved, the pipeline could be shut down for about 13 months.

With the election of US President Joe Biden, the Indigenous Environmental Network and others are calling on the president to put an end to DAPL.

While the pipeline is entirely within the United States, there are Canadian corporate interests involved in it.

Toronto-based TD Securities provided $360 million in financing for the US$3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline project. And Calgary-based Enbridge owns a $1.5 billion/30 per cent interest in the Bakken pipeline system, that includes DAPL.

It has been repeatedly highlighted that the Dakota Access Pipeline has not secured the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous peoples impacted by it.

PBI-Canada continues to watch this situation, particularly in relation to the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders defending their territories, the right to free, prior and informed consent, and the involvement of two Canadian corporations – TD Securities and Enbridge Inc. – in the financing and operation of this pipeline.