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Former premier who bears responsibility for the death of an Indigenous land defender to be awarded the Order of Ontario

This commemoration marks the site where Dudley George was killed in September 1995. A provincial inquiry later found former Ontario premier Mike Harris bears responsibility for events that led to George’s death.

On January 1, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (the Queen’s representative), announced that former Ontario premier Mike Harris would receive the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour.

The Order of Ontario website notes: “An Ontarian who has shown outstanding qualities of individual excellence and achievement in any field is eligible to be appointed.”

It adds: “An advisory council reviews the nominations and recommends candidates to the Lieutenant Governor for appointment to the Order of Ontario. The council consists of the Chief Justice of Ontario, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly [Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott], the Secretary of the Cabinet and up to six additional members of the Order of Ontario appointed to the council by the Premier.”

The Toronto Star reports: “[This] is sparking outrage online amid the COVID-19 debacle in long-term-care homes and his current position as board chair of one of the largest operators [Chartwell Retirement Residences].”

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has highlighted: “By mid-June, 93 residents of Chartwell homes had died due to COVID-19.”

On social media, the connection has also been made to the Harris government’s privatization of water services and lax drinking water regulations to the deaths of seven people in the community of Walkerton in 2000; the suicide of Kimberly Rogers in 2001 after her punitive conviction for welfare fraud (for also receiving student loans at the same time); and the killing of an Indigenous land defender in 1995.

The ancestral lands of Aazhoodena land defender Anthony ‘Dudley’ George had been expropriated in 1942 for the construction of a military base.

After this dispossession, George’s family moved back to the area in 1993. Then, after decades of writing letters, meetings and signing petitions, 35 land defenders began a reoccupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park on September 4, 1995.

Notably, the park, also situated on Aazhoodena land, contained burial grounds that the defenders said were not being respected or protected.

On September 5, 1995, then-Premier Mike Harris met with several government officials. The provincial Attorney General later testified that Harris shouted: “I want the fucking Indians out of the park.” A recording also emerged of police officers discussing the premier’s view that the government had “tried to pacify and pander to these people far too long.”

The following day, heavily armed Ontario Provincial Police Officers (OPP) dressed in riot gear launched a nighttime raid against the land defenders.

That is when Dudley George was shot by a police sniper.

In the Ipperwash Inquiry report released in 2007, commissioner Sidney Linden found the government of former Ontario premier Mike Harris, the Canadian government and the OPP all bore responsibility for events that led to George’s death.

Linden stated: “The provincial government could have appointed a mediator or negotiator at any time but did not. The premier could have urged patience, rather than speed.”

At the inquiry, Harris denied that he had said: “I want the fucking Indians out of the park.” Linden found: “After carefully assessing the evidence, it is my view that Michael Harris made the statement” and that it is racist.

Every measure should be taken to ensure that another Indigenous land defender is not killed on the lands and territories within this country.

The impunity that is suggested by the awarding of the province’s highest honour to Mike Harris is a source of deep disappointment and concern to many.

Another year over, and a new one just begun

As 2021 begins, the physical and political accompaniment provided by Peace Brigades International remains crucial.

In less than 48 hours over the holiday period, two Indigenous land defenders were killed in Honduras. We also saw eight defenders who have been unjustly imprisoned for their peaceful defence of the Guapinol River in Honduras denied bail pending their trial.

This year, PBI-Canada will continue to draw attention to the struggles of the defenders who risk their lives by speaking against destructive megaprojects, extractivism, land grabs, state and paramilitary violence, and persecution.

Key priorities for us in 2021 include:

1- strengthening our outreach to find the vitally needed volunteers able to spend a year or more on the frontlines accompanying threatened defenders

2- scaling-up our advocacy by organizing webinars (look for our next webinar on the impact of Canadian mining in Mexico in early February)

3- arranging meetings for defenders with Canadian officials (we expect to be scheduling meetings with Global Affairs soon for Colombian defenders so that they can speak on the impacts of Canadian oil and gas operations in their communities)

4- circulating new urgent action petitions that address systemic human rights issues and amplify calls for protection measures for defenders

5- increasing those we reach with our articles and daily social media posts that build broader public awareness and provide a further measure of safety for those we accompany.

We appreciate the support you have provided to this work throughout 2020 and in particular this past month. Thank you!

If you didn’t have a chance to make a donation in 2020, please consider helping us start 2021 with the financial support needed for our work via our online platform.

Tolupan leader Adán Mejía assassinated, the second Indigenous leader killed in Honduras in less than 48 hours

On December 29, The Guardian reported: “On Tuesday, local media reported the killing of yet another defender, Adán Mejía from the indigenous Tolupán people, who was allegedly attacked on his way back from tending to his corn crops in Candelaria, a rural community in the northern department of Yoro.”

And Sandra Cuffe, a Canadian journalist based in Latin America, has tweeted: “Mejía was killed [on December 29] in Honduras, just 2 days after the murder of Lenca community leader Félix Vásquez. Violence against leaders protecting ancestral territories has increased during the pandemic and 7 have been killed this year.”

The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), a grassroots organization working with Garifuna (Afro-descendant and indigenous) communities, has further drawn attention to this assassination of an Indigenous land defender.

OFRANEH tweeted: “Assassination of Adrian Mejia, from the Calendaria tribe, Yoro, adds to the list of more than a hundred indigenous Tolupanes murdered, their territory being plundered by the illegal exploitation of wood and mining.”

OFRANEH has also noted: “Murders and criminalization of indigenous defenders is an indicator of the absence of a rule of law and respect for prior consultation in Honduras. It is one of the most dangerous countries on the planet for defenders of Mother Earth.”

The Guardian’s New York City-based environmental justice reporter Nina Lakhani further notes: “Honduras became one of the most dangerous countries in the world to defend natural resources and land rights after the 2009 coup ushered in an autocratic government which remains in power despite multiple allegations of corruption, electoral fraud and links to international drug trafficking networks.”

Lakhani adds: “The nexus between political and economic elites means crimes against environmental defenders are rarely prosecuted. Investigations into allegedly corrupt officials who sanction large-scale projects without legally required consultations and environmental impact assessments are also rare.”

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has previously posted: “Since the coup d’état took place in Honduras on June 28, 2009, PBI has followed with growing concern the serious deterioration of space for the defence of human rights faced by organizations, communities and human rights defenders in the country.”

Canada and Indigenous rights in Honduras

PBI-Honduras accompanied journalist and human rights defender Dina Meza has stated: “Giving resources to the Government of Honduras is giving them tools so that they continue to violate the population. The focus of the international community is very important to curb all these human rights violations.”

In 2009, Canada provided $16.4 million in official assistance to Honduras. Between 2010 and 2016, Canada’s bilateral aid disbursements to Honduras totalled $175 million, with average disbursements of $29 million per year.

Notably, on July 30, 2009, about a month after the coup, The Globe and Mail reported: “Canada is still providing training to members of the Honduran army, despite the military coup that sent the Central American country into turmoil late last month.”

By October 2010, Canada also began negotiations towards a free trade agreement with Honduras that includes investment protection provisions that favour mining companies. In August 2011, Canada’s then prime minister Stephen Harper visited Honduras. And by January 2013, the National Congress passed a new General Mining Law that MiningWatch Canada has documented was heavily influenced by Canada.

In March 2014, Cuffe reported that despite Indigenous opposition to oil and gas extractivism, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) financed technical assistance to the hydrocarbon sector in Honduras.

Second Indigenous leader assassinated in less than 48 hours

Violence against Indigenous leaders who protect ancestral territories and common goods has increased in the midst of the pandemic in the face of an offensive by businessmen and state officials who come to dispossess Indigenous peoples. Extractive projects, ZEDEs (zones for employment and economic development), and the control of the territory promoted by organized crime.

Indigenous people murdered in the last year for the defense of ancestral territory:

Enough murders and criminalization of Indigenous leaders!

PBI-Guatemala mourns the murder of Nelson Reyes who had participated in Tz’ikin Network processes

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted: “Yesterday, December 27, 2020 Nelson Reyes was killed by several gunshots, by unknown men in the Nazareth neighborhood of Chisec, Alta Verapaz.”

PBI-Guatemala shared an article by the Tz’ikin Network, “a community communication effort of filmmakers, audiovisual collectives and community video groups from the Mayan and Ladino Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala.”

That network pursues “actions aimed at decentralizing, democratizing and decolonizing the media audiovisual production.”

The Tz’ikin Network says: “The information has not been fully clarified, but what has been known is that Nelson was on a motorbike accompanied by his young son, home to his in-laws, when he was shot.”

“The killers fled on a motorcycle. Nelson passed away, fortunately his young son was unscathed. Nelson leaves two young children in orphanage.”

It adds: “It is intolerable that we live in a country with these levels of violence and impunity.”

Andrea Ixchíu has also tweeted this article along with the comment: “They assassinated Nelson Reyes in Chisec, Alta Verapaz. An enthusiastic young man, he participated in processes of the Tz’ikin Network where he collaborated for a time. Justice for Nelson. Solidarity with your family and loved ones. I repudiate this violence, let this be clarified!”

In 2018, 3,881 people were murdered in Guatemala. That puts the homicide rate at 22 deaths per 100,000 people (down from 45 deaths per 100,000 in 2009).

In comparison, in 2019, the murder rate in Ontario, Canada was 1.69 deaths per 100,000.

While representing an estimated 4.9% of the Canadian population, Indigenous people accounted for 24% of all homicide victims in 2017. The homicide rate for Indigenous people that year was 8.76 homicides per 100,000 Indigenous population.

PBI-Canada expresses our condolences to the friends and family of Nelson Reyes.

PBI-Honduras condemns the murder of Indigenous Lenca environmental defender Félix Vásquez

On December 29, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “We condemn the murder of the defender of human rights, the environment and the Lenca indigenous people, Félix Vásquez.”

“[He was the] secretary general for the Union of Rural Workers (UTC) in the department of La Paz. A few weeks ago, Felix had denounced death threats against him and other defenders.”

PBI-Honduras adds: “We urge an independent, transparent and effective investigation to clarify the facts and find those responsible.”

En La Plaza Honduras further reports: “Vásquez was assassinated by four hitmen who arrived at his house at 8 o’clock [on Saturday December 26].”

That post adds: “Félix had actively participated in the fight against the hydroelectric plants, owned by the nationalist and former vice president of the National Congress, Gladys Aurora López, in addition to being a defender of the peasants and the territories.”

The Committee of Relatives of Missing Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) says Vásquez was “concerned about the occupation of landowners in nature reserve areas, such as the El Jilguero watershed” whose damage would impact more than 300 indigenous families.

He was also a member of the Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz, Honduras (MILPAH).

Vásquez had filed complaints to national authorities starting in 2017 about persecution related to his environmental activism.

Telesur notes: “On several occasions he was persecuted and threatened with death, thus reporting this situation to the relevant authorities. Despite his repeated complaint, he had no protection. The murder occurred at his home, and he was witnessed by various people including his children.”

The Coalition against Impunity (CCI) says: “The state is directly responsible for his murder due to its omissions in the face of the serious risks of which it was duly aware.”

Deutsche Welle reports: “For the time being, police have indicated that there are no persons detained for the case and that the motive for the crime has not been determined.”

The US Embassy in Honduras has tweeted: “We condemn the assassination of peasant leader and environmentalist Felix Vasquez.” There has been no mention yet on the Embassy of Canada to Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua Twitter account.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Vasquez was the eighth human rights defender killed in Honduras in 2020.

Reuters adds: “Honduras is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for activists, with 14 land and environmental defenders killed last year, up from 4 people in 2018, according to data made available by advocacy group Global Witness.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanied Indigenous defenders on the need for mutual aid and the defence of territory against extractivism

Lesbia Artola, María Josefina Caal Xol, Sandra Calel.

On December 23, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted this article that highlights the need for mutual aid and the importance of defending territory against extractivism given the consequences of Hurricane Eta and Tropical Storm Iota on Indigenous communities in Guatemala.

Dispossession, extractivism and climate change

PBI-Guatemala notes: “Guatemala is located on an isthmus, this and its topography, making it highly vulnerable to both an excess and lack of precipitation, a risk which will only increase with human activity-induced global warming.”

Their article adds: “Guatemala’s main defense against natural disasters is to maintain its ecosystems in a good condition [however] the country is undergoing a process of destruction of nature, rooted in the implementation of an economic policy based on extractive activities and industries which involve major changes in land use and loss of forest cover.”

Q’eqchi leader Lesbia Artola, coordinator of the Community Council of the Highlands (CCDA) – Las Verapaces, comments on the impacts of the storms.

She says: “We cannot fight against nature. These are the consequences of the dispossession of land that our peoples have suffered, due to the expansion of monocultures, the diversion of rivers by hydroelectric companies and the destruction of all our natural resources.”

Q’eqchi leader María Josefina Caal Xol has further noted the hydroelectric dams built on the Oxec and Cahabón rivers released water during the storms, further impacting the communities in the municipality of Santa María Cahabón.

These dams are opposed by the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón and its leader (and Maria’s brother) Bernardo Caal Xol, who is now unjustly in prison.

And part of the land secured by the Poqomchí families of the La Primavera community with the support of the Verapaz Union of Campesino Organizations (UVOC) is now buried under a landslide that came with the storms.

PBI-Guatemala notes: “For years the families of La Primavera have been denouncing illegal logging in the area. Because of these reports, community leader Justino Ilom has been suffering a process of criminalization and judicialization since 2018, which has continued in the court of Cobán.”

The article adds: “These are two examples of communities affected by the impacts of the recent tropical storms, demonstrating how by defending their territory and protesting against the economic model that is at the root of these so-called natural disasters in Guatemala, they become victims of attacks and persecutions.”

“It is because of these attacks that Peace Brigades International have provided accompaniment to these communities for years.”

Mutual aid mobilized for communities in need

PBI-Guatemala adds: “The CCDA-Las Verapaces and the UVOC have reported that the government has not provided quick responses to communities who are at risk and without food. Rather, solidarity has been shown from families who have not been affected by the tropical phenomena, and the communities from other departments across the country.”

“Furthermore, it is the campesino and indigenous organizations who have mobilized to support the people affected.”

Lesbia Artola of CCDA-Las Verapaces says: “In Guatemala only the people save the people… it is not by chance that the government does not reach the communities, it is a way of punishing us for our struggle in defense of the land and natural resources.”

She adds: “The government only reaches the communities to repress and criminalize.”

And Poqomchí leader Sandra Calel of UVOC says: “We are making plans to support communities in recovering food production through the implementation of family gardens that use organic fertilizers and native seeds, as well as mixing and crop diversification to strengthen food sovereignty.”

The PBI-Guatemala article concludes: “The indigenous peoples’ struggles in defense of the territory and natural resources is the same struggle to prevent the tropical phenomena, such as Eta and Iota, from becoming disastrous. It is the struggle to counteract the effects of the climate crisis; in short, it is the struggle for life.”

To read the full article, please see Tropical Storms in Guatemala: “Only the people can save the people.” It can also be read in Spanish at: Tormentas tropicales en Guatemala: “solo el pueblo salva al pueblo”

PBI-Colombia accompanies MOVICE-Valle del Cauca chapter in self-care as a political project process

On December 23, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted on its Instagram page: “Do you know the area of our work: Support for the Reconstruction of the Social Tissue (Apoyo a la Reconstrucción del Tejido Social)?”

“Yesterday we were in Buenaventura doing the last session of the year of a process that we carry out with a group of incredible women from the Valle del Cauca chapter of MOVICE (Movement of Victims of State Crime).”

PBI-Colombia adds: “They were given copies of our new psychosocially focused exercise book ‘Stories of Defence and Resistance’.”

MOVICE pursues strategies for truth, historical memory, reparations and non-repetition.

As noted on its website: “MOVICE is a movement in which organized groups of victims of State crime converge. From our experience we consider that state crimes are mainly those perpetrated by State agents, or by non-State agents (such as paramilitary groups) acting in complicity with, or whose crimes are tolerated by, the State.”

“We consider that the majority of the crimes against social and popular movements in Colombia are the result of political and economic interests. In this context, this sociopolitical and State violence was not born as a result of the internal armed conflict but is rather a root cause of the conflict.”

And it notes: “MOVICE has adopted a clear political posture that emerged from the crimes committed against the popular and social movement in Colombia, crimes that are the result of a social, political, financial and ideological intention promoted or allowed by the Colombian State and its agents and implemented by paramilitaries groups in favor of the interests of the dominant classes and transnational companies.”

“MOVICE demands the restoration of the right to truth, justice, full compensation and guarantee of non-repetition and the right to remember the thousands of women and men who wished to build a Colombia in peace and with social justice.”

A report produced by the National Centre of Historical Memory found that 220,000 Colombians had been killed in the war between 1958 and 2013.

More than 177,300 people, or 80 per cent of those killed, were civilians.

By 2018, the National Centre of Historical Memory stated that more than 260,000 people had died over the 50 years of armed conflict.

Overall, it has been estimated that there were 7.9 million victims of the armed conflict.

Peace Brigades International has been present in Colombia since 1994. Along with accompaniment and advocacy, PBI-Colombia supports the work done by accompanied organizations to rebuild the social fabric torn by the armed conflict.

For more on PBI-Colombia’s accompaniment process of the MOVICE-Valle del Cauca chapter that began in 2017, please see Self-care as a political project.

PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS holds press conference about Calgary-based Parex Resources Inc. tutela challenge

On December 21, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted a video with the text: “CREDHOS presents the situation of environmental leaders in Bajo Simacota, Santander after the tutelage filed by the Canadian company PAREX. There are already two rulings in recent months in favor of environmental leaders.”

That 22-minute video can be seen here.

Parex Resources Inc. is a Calgary-based company. Its website notes: “Parex holds interests in approximately 2.5 million gross acres over 24 onshore blocks in Colombia’s Llanos and Magdalena Basins.”

Parex operates the Aguas Blancas oil field in the municipality of Simacota, Santander in northeastern Colombia.

A tutela is an injunction that aims to protect constitutional rights when they are violated or threatened by the action or omission of any public authority.

The mechanism is incorporated in Article 86 of the Constitution and a tutela can proceed under several circumstances including when the actor (plaintiff) is in a situation of defenselessness in relation to the individual (defendant) against whom the tutela is brought.

As noted in the PBI-Colombia tweet, there have been two court rulings in recent months in favour of environmental leaders in this case.

More on this soon!

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.

In November 2019, CREDHOS president Ivan Madero (who speaks in the video noted above) visited Canada as part of a PBI organized advocacy tour.

 

PBI-Honduras accompanied CEHPRODEC lawyer Donald Hernández on the risks faced by environmental defenders

On December 8, Nueva Tribunas reported on the work of Manos Unidas, the Spanish Catholic Church Organization “for the aid, promotion and development of the most disfavoured and developing countries.”

Manos Unidas partners with the Honduran Centre for Community Development Promotion (CEHPRODEC).

The article begins with a quote from Donald Hernández of CEHPRODEC who says: “I feel just like a number; someone who could easily be eliminated if we did not have the accompaniment of Peace Brigades International.”

From 2016 to 2019 alone, Frontline Defenders has documented that 79 human rights defenders have been killed in Honduras.

Hernández is a Honduran lawyer who specializes in criminal and environmental law, with a particular focus on mining in Latin America. He is a member of the Latin American Lawyers’ Network, a network that works against the negative impacts of transnational extractive companies in Latin America. He also facilitates the National Coalition of Environmental Organizations and Networks (CONROA), an organization that represents more than 40 environmental organizations.

CEHPRODEC has been accompanied by PBI-Honduras since May 2014.

The article further quotes Hernández who says:

“We inform communities of the illegal concessions that the State grants to extractive projects in indigenous territories and we also train them on their rights.

When communities react and mobilize, threats, attacks, and then the criminalization and persecution of community leaders begin. There are currently more than a hundred people retaliated against in the country for issues related to the defense of the territory.

The villagers are accused of usurpers and sometimes terrorism or sedition, so they are sent to jail for three or four years until trial, long enough for companies to install the extractive project in the territory.

For defenders it is very hard not to know if the motorcycle behind it is the one they said they were going to send to kill them… but this doesn’t stop us.

If we have certain security measures, imagine the unprotection felt by a Lenca indigenous leader – such as Berta Cáceres, who was killed in 2016 – who lives in remote rural areas and opposes a major project that aims to move the riverbed that has been cared for by indigenous communities since time immemorial and which is essential to their survival.“

A PBI-United Kingdom webinar this past June included actors Juliet Stevenson and Christopher Colquhoun reading the words of Kevin Ramirez Vasquez, an environmental activist from Honduras, who said:

“Donald Hernandez points out that since the 2009 coup Honduras has declared itself open to business and encouraged foreign companies to take up mining concessions. Powerful Honduran families who supported the coup have also been granted to concessions to rivers for hydroelectric developments for periods of 50 years. A Canadian company that has been operating in the region for ten years has brought environmental devastation. More than 60 families have been diagnosed with metal contamination in their bodies.”

To read the full article that is also on the Manos Unidas website, please click here.

Women human rights defenders building solidarity across borders

Thank you for registering and hopefully being able to participate in our webinar marking International Women Human Rights Defenders Day.

If you missed it, you can watch the one-hour video of it here.

The gathering on November 29th enabled us to hear from Kenyan community activist Maryanne Kasina, Colombian lawyer Tatiana Triana and Mi’kmaq land defender Sophia Sidarous.

As we learned, woman human rights defenders face tremendous risks under normal circumstances, but the context of a global pandemic made 2020 even more challenging.

Militarized lockdown conditions have heightened the risks of state violence and police brutality for impoverished, racialized and Indigenous communities; corporations have used the economic crisis to push for weaker regulations; and expanded government powers have criminalized human rights defenders.

Maryanne highlighted the gendered nature of violence faced by women human rights defenders fighting the feminization of poverty in a context where police brutality and extra-judicial killings by the police  are commonplace. 64 local organizers were arrested earlier this year while protesting the lack of clean drinking water and other basic services in informal settlements during the pandemic. The majority of them were women.

Sophia noted that women are leading the frontline struggles for land and resource rights on Wet’suwet’en, Secwepemc, Algonquin, and Mi’kmaq territories. She emphasized that while Canada presents itself as an environmental champion around the world, it is important for the international community to know about the ongoing genocide against Indigenous women in this country. She also highlighted the violence that is experienced by Indigenous women due to the camps that house men working on megaprojects on Indigenous territories without consent.

Tatiana discussed the tremendous dangers faced by human rights defenders and social movements in Colombia at the hands of a right-wing state and paramilitary forces who are complicit with extractive industries that have benefited from this context. She further highlighted that women human rights defenders  play an important role in observing and  documenting violence and human rights violations.

The three speakers also highlighted ways to support frontline efforts including making donations directly to those struggles (including for resources for rapid responses to threats), sharing the inquiry report on missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, learning about what is happening on other territories, visibilizing struggles, building solidarity, recognizing emotional wellbeing as part of the struggle, and the need for more resources to support women organizing together on the ground.

Again, you can watch their full presentations here.

Moving forward, we hope to continue to build on this webinar by accompanying these struggles, amplifying the voices of frontline women defenders, affirming that a dignified life is a fundamental human right, and supporting the call for mutual liberation.

Peace Brigades International volunteers, of whom 70 per cent are women, accompany hundreds of women human rights defenders around the world who face threats, harassment, criminalization, judicialization and even death for their activism.

If you are able to make a donation to support the webinars we are planning for in early 2021 as well as our outreach efforts to find field brigadistas able to spend a year or more away from home accompanying human rights defenders, please click here.

In solidarity, Meera Karunananthan and Brent Patterson