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A Tyendinaga Land Defenders Legal Fund is accepting donations for the legal costs of the 20 Mohawk land defenders and water protectors criminalized for standing with Wet’suwet’en land defenders this past February in opposition to the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on their unceded lands.

You can read more about this on this Facebook page, in this tweet, and in this Instagram post. Donations can be e-transferred to tyendinagalanddefenders@maatlegal.ca.

Ma’at Legal Services is a Scarborough, Ontario-based social justice law firm that provides representation in areas such as human rights law.

This past February, solidarity actions were organized across the country when heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers raided unceded Wet’suwet’en territory to remove unarmed land defenders opposed to the construction without consent of the TC Energy Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on their lands.

Twenty-eight land defenders were arrested on Wet’suwet’en lands despite this resolution from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination weeks earlier that called for construction on the pipeline to be stopped and the RCMP to be withdrawn.

On February 25, Global News reported: “Ontario Provincial Police [OPP] arrested ‘several’ people at a railway [protest] in Tyendinaga, which was set up nearly three weeks ago in solidarity with anti-pipeline protests in northern British Columbia.”

CTV also noted: “All ten people were charged with mischief over $5000 and disobeying a court order, as well as a Railway Safety Act charge of entering land where line work is situated. Three people are additionally charged with resisting arrest. One person is also facing a charge of obstructing police.”

Then on July 9, the OPP arrested Kanenhariyo, the main Mohawk liaison with the police during the Tyendinaga rail shutdown in February.

It was also reported at that time: “OPP Detective Karin Richer, who arrested Kanenhariyo, informed him that the OPP was looking to charge another ‘9 or 10’ people that they hadn’t yet reached because of Covid-19.”

The Unist’ot’en have stated: “We acknowledge that many still face charges for courageously standing in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en, and that this fight is far from over. We are forever grateful for the solidarity and support from our relatives and allies.”

Defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Some in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico have approached Peace Brigades International field projects for protection after they have been attacked or their colleagues assassinated. Many others have been subjected to criminal prosecutions based on spurious charges.

Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. We remember that on December 6, 1989, fourteen women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal were murdered because of their gender.

Author-activist Judy Rebick has commented: “I think [what happened on December 6, 1989] was both an act of terrorism and an extreme form of the violence women face every day. The best way to remember these fourteen women is recommit ourselves, women and men, to the fight for women’s liberation and an end to violence against women.”

About 238 women are murdered every day around the world.

United Nations human rights expert Dubravka Šimonović recently called for the universal establishment of national initiatives to monitor and prevent femicide.

In Canada, direct federal funding to women’s organizations is less than 0.01% of total federal program spending and lack the secure, multi-year core operational funding needed to work for the protection of all women.

Šimonović made her call for national initiatives just prior to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.

Peace Brigades International projects in Colombia and Mexico accompanied marches that took place that day in Yondó, Antioquia and Mexico City.

PBI-Mexico commented: “We express concern over the current crisis of femicides and disappearances and remember the obligation of the authorities to ensure the safety of women, journalists and defenders.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the TzK’at Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism which was formed in the context of political risk for Mayan and Xinca women who came from experiences of territorial defence opposing mining licenses, the logging of forests, the presence of hydroelectric dams on rivers, and cement plants.

TzK’at says: “When a megaproject is implanted in a territory, it is as if they penetrate your body in a sexual violation. This is how we feel. …In addition, we run the risk of being sexually abused by the company’s workers.”

We also remember that the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls determined that “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies” are in part responsible for the thousands of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing in Canada.

That report described this as a Canadian genocide.

Sharon McIvor, Pamela Palmater and Shelagh Day have written: “Discrimination against Indigenous women is as old as Canada. It is a marker that defines Canada as a colonial, patriarchal nation-state.”

It is within this context that we recognize the risks faced by Indigenous women land defenders within this country opposed to megaprojects including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, the Trans Mountain tar sand pipeline on Secwepemc territory, and the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam on Innu lands.

PBI-Canada is committed to a vision of a world free of violence. We stand in solidarity with women impacted by gender-based violence and with all who strive to end femicide, discrimination, harassment, and hate.

Proceso Digital reports that human rights defenders Dina Meza and Reinaldo Villalba Vargas will receive the Sir Henry Brooke Award on December 7.

The awards, presented by Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom and the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, are an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of Sir Henry Brooke and the lawyers and other human rights defenders we protect to the rule of law.

The article notes that Dina Meza is a journalist, the director of the Association for Democracy and Human Rights of Honduras (ASOPODEUH), the founder of PEN-Honduras, and the director of the digital newspaper Pasos de Animal Grande.

Reinaldo Villalba Vargas is a lawyer with the Colectivo Jose Alvear Restrepo (CCAJAR) in Colombia. He is currently representing Senator Iván Cepeda in legal proceedings against a former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

Meza has been accompanied by PBI-Honduras since 2014 and CCAJAR has been accompanied by PBI-Colombia since 1995.

Sir Henry Brooke, who passed away in January 2018, was the founder of the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk and a sponsor of PBI-UK.

He stated: “PBI is a unique institution. When I meet the lawyers from Colombia and other countries, I am very struck by how single-minded they are. They put their clients’ interest first and foremost, long before their own safety. PBI provides them with accompaniment without which they could not do their work… they save them from being killed.”

The Alliance website further notes: “The Alliance was founded in 2010 by Peace Brigades International UK patron, the late Sir Henry Brooke, and has since then been collaborating closely with PBI in providing legal expertise to the human rights defenders PBI accompanies.”

To watch the one-hour ceremony of the third annual Sir Henry Brooke Awards for Human Rights Defenders, fill out this PBI-UK webinar registration form.

The impartiality of state institutions and the upholding of human rights obligations towards Indigenous land defenders are crucial elements in making space for peace both globally and on Indigenous territories within Canada.

In February 2015, The Globe and Mail reported on an RCMP intelligence assessment—dated January 24, 2014—obtained by Greenpeace Canada.

That article notes: “The report extolls the value of the oil and gas sector to the Canadian economy, and adds that many environmentalists ‘claim’ that climate change is the most serious global environmental threat, and ‘claim’ it is a direct consequence of human activity and is ‘reportedly’ linked to the use of fossil fuels.”

Earlier this year, the Canadian Press also reported that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had called for the RCMP and other security and police to withdraw from Wet’suwet’en traditional lands.

The UN further stated that the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on those lands should be stopped until the megaproject had the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

At that time, the RCMP stated: “We want to emphasize that we are impartial in this dispute and our priority is to facilitate a dialogue between the various stakeholders involved.” And yet within weeks, 22 Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters had been arrested during a militarized RCMP invasion of their unceded territories.

And now, APTN reporter Angel Moore reports: “A former criminal intelligence analyst for the RCMP who reported that an energy project in New Brunswick was up against ‘violent Aboriginal extremists’ was also the administrator of a Facebook group which featured current and former Mounties, at times, making racist and disparaging remarks about Indigenous Peoples. For six years Tim O’Neil’s duties included putting together reports for the top brass at the RCMP on issues including threats to energy projects in Canada by Indigenous groups or environmental organizations.”

One of the reports written by this RCMP analyst was titled: Criminal Threats to the Canadian Petroleum Industry.

In reference to that report, Elsipogtog land and water protector Lorraine Clair says: “Criminal threats to the Canadian petroleum industry. Criminal threats… and we were criminals now because we are defending our land, we’re protecting our water we’re you know defending our children’s and grandchildren’s inherent right, really?”

Clair adds: “This guy is smearing pretty well every Aboriginal movement that has occurred to defend land, water and what do you call it, treaty rights they are not even stating this is why we are doing it you know we are defending our rights.”

Furthermore, former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache told a House of Commons committee yesterday about his ‘Broken Dreams, Broken Lives’ report that documented a toxic, misogynistic culture in the RCMP.

Bastarache wrote in his report: “The level of violence and sexual assault that was reported was shocking. Indeed, over 130 claimants disclosed penetrative sexual assaults. Other claimants described a sexualized environment in RCMP workplaces. This was characterized by the frequent use of swear words and highly degrading expressions that reference women’s bodies, sexual jokes, innuendoes, discriminatory comments with respect to the abilities of women and unwelcome sexual touching.”

Mi’kmaq lawyer Pam Palmater has also noted: “The report details how the RCMP treated Indigenous women even more poorly than other women. In addition to the humiliating and degrading behaviours experienced by other women in the RCMP, Indigenous women were also referred to as ‘squaw’ and ‘smoked meat’ and ‘were, at times, forced to watch RCMP members treat other Indigenous people brutally’.”

Palmater has also written: “The only way we are ever going to stop RCMP racism and brutality against Indigenous peoples is to declassify, deconstruct and defund the institution itself. … Anything less will result in continued police racism and brutality and the loss of more Black and Indigenous lives.”

Globally, violence by state security forces against environmental human rights defenders is recognized as a serious impediment to their work and safety.

For instance, a recent PBI-Honduras report noted: “The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras explains that in Honduras 70% of the attacks against women defenders the aggressors are state security forces, especially police or the military.”

PBI-Canada supports the call for an end to state violence and stands with land defenders, water protectors and environmental human rights defenders.