Today, Sunday August 30, is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

The United Nations has explained: “On 21 December 2010, by its resolution 65/209 the UN General Assembly … decided to declare 30 August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to be observed beginning in 2011.”

Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The crime of enforced disappearance is rife across the world. We see new cases almost daily, including the disappearance of defenders of the environment, who are often indigenous peoples.”

Guterres adds: “Meanwhile the excruciating pain of old cases is still acute, as the fate of thousands of disappeared people remains unknown, making the crime a continuous presence in the lives of the loved ones of the lost.”

Today, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Today #DíaVíctimasDesapariciónForzada We recognize the family members who with strength and dignity continue in the search for truth, justice and reparation for their loved ones.”

PBI-Kenya tweeted: “Today it is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. @MissingVoicesKE invites you to sign the petition to criminalize enforced disappearances.”

On Facebook, PBI-Honduras posted: “Today we unite in solidarity with those missing people. To those mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, friends, friends, colleagues and colleagues who in one way or another have been impacted by an enforced disappearance. We also join that cry and admire the bravery of those people who do not lose hope and day after day continue in pursuit of truth and justice! #DesaparicionForzada”

And PBI-Mexico posted: “This day in addition to remembering the victims of this global scourge, it also aims to recognize the existence of it and to visibilize the tireless struggle of thousands of families in their quest for truth, justice, comprehensive reparation and measures of no replay. From PBI we support organizations of both the Movimiento por Nuestros Desaparecidos en México and the National Campaign against Enforced Disappearance, who fight to recognize the problem of enforced disappearance in Mexico and to make the voices of the victims be heard and included in the design of public policies on the subject. We stress the need for their recognition and protection as human rights defenders and express our solidarity with the important work they do every day.”

PBI-Mexico also notes: “Re-watch ‘The Search’ video that shows the situation of both families and defenders who work for the missing in Mexico.”

Peace Brigades International marks this day and accompanies human rights defenders working toward a world without enforced disappearances.

Photo: Treaty 8 Elder Jack Askoty stands on an old growth logged tree stump on the Site C construction site in January 2016. Photo by Yvonne Tupper.

The Peace River on Treaty 8 territory (in northern British Columbia) is expected to be diverted at some point between September 1 and October 1 to allow work crews to start building the kilometre-long, 60-metre high Site C hydroelectric dam.

Diverting the river will create a 500-metre stretch of dry riverbed, where construction on the mega-project can take place on dry ground.

Chief Roland Willson of the West Moberly First Nations says: “It’s just a continuing quagmire of ugliness going on down there. It’s devastating to watch.”

There has been ongoing opposition to the dam.

Around December 15, 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 29, 2016, the B.C. Supreme Court 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.”

By January 2018, the Prophet River First Nation and the West Moberly First Nations began civil actions in court alleging the dam violated the terms of Treaty 8 and that it would have a significant effect on their traditional way of life.

Then on August 6 of this year, the Prophet River First Nation settled out of court. Beverly Stager of the Prophet River First Nation said Site C has “painfully impacted” Treaty 8 nations and that this settlement “can’t undo the past”.

The Lawyer’s Daily has reported: “Tim Thielmann of Sage Legal, who represents both Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations, said the settlement is not an endorsement of the project [but rather an attempt to] see if they could negotiate an agreement to protect other areas in their territory to prevent the same thing from happening elsewhere.”

West Moberly’s civil action is set to go trial by March 2022 and is expected to last 6 months. The legal challenge seeks compensation or an order to shut down Site C and return the Peace River Valley to its natural state.

The diversion of the Peace River that is set to begin in coming weeks will continue until construction of the dam (now priced at $10.7 billion) is completed, which is expected to be in late 2023 or 2024.

If it becomes operational, the dam would flood 128 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries, destroying Indigenous burial sites, traditional hunting and fishing grounds and dozens of cultural and spiritual sites.

Aware of the damage to come to the territories, Chief Willson lamented several years ago: “The era of destroying rivers should be over.”

Peace Brigades International accompanies defenders at-risk for opposing hydroelectric dams in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. You can read about one such struggle, the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, a collective of 38 Maya Q’eqchi communities in Guatemala, here.

Photo by Zoe Todd/CBC.

If the Canadian government proceeds to spend $19 billion on 88 new fighter jets, a significant number of them will be stationed at 4 Wing / Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake, one of the two air force bases for tactical fighter squadrons in this country

Today, a Canadian Armed Forces statement noted: “The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, announced a $9.2-million contract award to EllisDon Construction Services Inc., of Edmonton, Alta., for the design of a new fighter jet facility at 4 Wing Cold Lake, one of two main operating bases for Canada’s future fighter aircraft.”

Dene Su’lene’ land defenders have stated: “In 1952, we were forcibly evicted from our homelands [so that the base could be constructed]. In Suckerville [on the shores of Primrose Lake], our people had a 7-day sit-in, refusing to leave. Reluctantly, after heavy coercion from the government, a deal was made.”

They add: “Our people left peacefully under the understanding that this was to be a short-term lease purely for military use, and that the 4,490 square miles of land was to be returned or re-negotiated after 20 years.”

On June 3, 2001, Dene Su’lene’ Warriors established a Peace Camp blockade 300 metres from the gate to the military base that also includes the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR) where live fire training exercises are conducted.

Also known as the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range, it includes “an instrumented aerospace testing and evaluation range, a manned air-to-ground range (including a high explosive range), and an air-to-air gunnery range.”

Land defender Brian Grandbois was one of the opponents of the military base at that time. In an interview, he told The Dominion: “My great-great-great-grandfather is buried there on a point on that lake where they bomb.”

The Dene Warriors who set up the blockade stated: “They play with their air weapons and their fighter jets and all of their killing machines right on the homeland of the Dene who have confronted the giant military range by an unarmed peace camp.”

By October 2001, the Band Council of the Cold Lake First Nation signed a $25.5 million that would allow the military base and weapons range to continue. This amounted to $35 for each acre of the weapons range and $2,500 for each band member.

Even after a December 2001 referendum in which 625 band members voted in favour of the agreement, Warrior Publications noted: “Around 20 people are still at the camp regularly (despite bitter Winter cold), and they recently finished building their first permanent cabin and are in the process of building more.”

In November 2012, Sandra Cuffe wrote: “The construction of the Cold Lake air force base and the million-hectare Cold Lake Air Weapons Range … resulted in the displacement of many Indigenous people from their traditional territories. “

She highlighted: “Aside from a land claim settlement concerning the military base, the Cold Lake First Nation band council has also signed agreements with hydrocarbon corporations and owns a number of contracting companies serving the military and oil and gas industries.”

Cuffe quotes Grandbois who said: “They’re extracting huge amounts of resources, both in gas and oil. …If you look in the Air Weapons Range today in 2012, you’ll find the Denesuline are cleaning toilets for executives.”

And in another article Cuffe noted: “In April 2013, people got together to defy the military restrictions and began making trips into the northeastern part of the CLAWR. They began preparations to build cabins, openly engaging in traditional land use activities and actively asserting their rights to their territory.”

By July 2015, Al Jazeera reported that the eastern part of the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range was also the site of operations for five major oil companies.

Grandbois passed on to the spirit world on February 14, 2019. This 7-minute video posted after his death features Grandbois speaking at the Unist’ot’en Action Camp in 2015 about the ongoing struggles on his territory, including against the air weapons range.

If the Canadian government proceeds as planned, a transnational corporation will begin manufacturing fighter jets in 2022 that will start to be deployed at Cold Lake in 2025. Those are the warplanes that will continue to fly over the traditional territories of Dene, Cree and Métis peoples on Treaty 6, Treaty 8 and Treaty 10 lands.

A special thank you to Colin Stuart who sparked the idea for this article.

Photo: A protest at the Goose Bay air force base in 1988 in opposition to NATO low level flight training over Nitassinan.

Low level flight training can involve military aircraft flying as low as 100 feet above terrain level and dropping non-explosive practice bombs on a target range.

Flight training over Nitassinan, the ancestral homeland of the Innu, began in the 1950s with the Royal Air Force flying out of Goose Bay, Labrador.

By 1981, the German Air Force began low level flight training there, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1986, and the Netherlands in 1987.

In 1996, the Multinational Memorandum of Understanding with the UK, Germany and the Netherlands was renewed for a 10-year period that allowed for up to 15,000 low level and 3,000 medium/high level training flights annually.

Italy signed the memorandum in 2000.

These military training operations happened despite opposition from the Innu.

Innu Elder Tshuakuesh Elizabeth Penashue has stated: “Canada sees our land as uninhabited land. It is inhabited by the Innu, and it is inhabited by wildlife. This is hunting territory, nomadic territory. It is not for war games.”

Penashue has also noted: “Innu women never used to go out to meetings, but it was time to wake up and do something to stop the destruction caused by low-level flying and weapons testing. …I went to the bombing range with other activists. We put tents on the base to protest. We were jailed many times, in Goose Bay and Stephenville. We walked from Toronto to Ottawa and they put us in jail there, too… I went to Europe twice to speak.”

And she has remarked: “When we go on the base, even when we are close to the jets, none of our children or elders go up to smash the jets. We never do that…. We tell the children, don’t touch anything. Don’t break anything. Don’t be rude.”

In October 1994, the Peace Brigades International-North America Project commented: “A continuing issue for the Innu of both Labrador and Quebec is low-level flight training over their hunting territory by Canada and other NATO countries.”

PBI-NAP highlighted: “The training began without any prior consultation with the Innu.”

By March 1995, PBI-NAP noted that an Environmental Assessment Panel that had chosen to proceed with hearings, despite the decision of the Innu to boycott the process, and while “admitting their data was inadequate for determining the environmental impacts of the flights, had nevertheless approved [continued low level flight training].”

It wasn’t until 2005 that the 50+ years of low-level flying operations by NATO member countries over Nitassinan finally ended.

Photo: Innu Elder Tshuakuesh Elizabeth Penashue and Peace Brigades International-North America Project activist Anne Harrison in 1995.

Peace Brigades International-Canada mourns the passing of Phyllis Fischer.

Phyllis passed away at 91 years of age on August 21 in Alliston, Ontario.

Her obituary notes: “Phyllis grew up in New Brunswick, Canada (St. John and Campobello Island). She graduated from McGill Medical School (Montreal, Canada) in 1955, interned in Vancouver [and] practiced pathology in Toronto for 18 years and then thoroughly enjoyed doing pathology locums across Canada for 10 years.”

It also highlights: “She was devoted to work on peace and social justice issues, supporting several organizations involved in these activities.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada Board member Marianna Tzabiras tells us: “Phyllis was a big supporter of PBI, always allowing us the space of her house for our meeting in the late 90s and sharing her wisdom with us.”

She also shared that: “Phyllis did a lot of solidarity work with Indigenous communities throughout her life, including being an associate member of the Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee of the Canadian Friends Service Committee and for a long period of time supporting Indigenous men in the prison system.”

Marianna adds that Phyllis was brought into PBI by Alaine Hawkins, one of the founders of PBI-Canada and a Toronto-based coordinator of PBI’s Central American Project.

And long-time PBI activist Joan Edenburg has posted on a tribute wall: “Her energy and love are now in the cosmos. I have loved her life and was allowed to enjoy it. I will continue this now while her energy free and independent is in cosmos. Phyllis showed me her compassion and concern for all living things. [She was] my mentor in Indigenous rights and stories. May Phyllis’ wisdom, energy, love, kindness, compassion and patience always remain in the hearts from all who have known her.”

PBI-Canada extends our condolences to her family and friends.

Photo: Erin O’Toole leadership campaign video.

On August 24, Erin O’Toole was elected the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and in turn the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

With 121 seats in Canada’s current minority Parliament, and a general election conceivably on the near horizon, it’s worth delving into the new Opposition Leader’s positions on Indigenous land defence struggles against energy megaprojects.

First, some context.

As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst highlighted the relationship between resource extraction and the growing number of threats faced by human rights defenders around the world.

At a UN session on strategies by States to prevent attacks on human rights defenders, Forst noted: “States must go to the root of environmental conflicts, such as imbalance of power, making nature into a commodity, impunity and the current development model in order to ensure long-term solutions.”

The recent report by 350.org titled Human Rights Abuses by Fossil Fuel Companies further stated: “The UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights and the environment have noted that those who work to protect the environment on which the enjoyment of human rights depends are among the human rights defenders most at risk, and the risks are particularly acute for Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities.”

And a recent report by Global Witness highlighted that some of the measures that governments should take to reduce the risks faced by defenders include: “Ensure national policies safeguard the rights of defenders and protesters to free assembly and speech, as well as potential recourse to civil disobedience.”

As such, these are some of the possible measures we can use to evaluate the policies of political parties with respect to land rights and measures to ensure the safety of human rights defenders, including Indigenous land defenders.

Notably, the current Liberal government bought the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline (now under construction on Secwepemc territory in British Columbia) and approved the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia (that will be fed fracked gas by the Coastal GasLink pipeline that crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia).

It was also the current NDP government in British Columbia that authorized the deployment of “sufficient resources to deal with” the “provincial emergency” of Wet’suwet’en opposition to the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline earlier this year.

That authorization helped to facilitate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) enforcing a court injunction against Indigenous land defenders opposed to the pipeline on their unceded territories without their free, prior and informed consent.

In his previous leadership bid in 2017, the new Conservative leader stated: “We will not allow First Nations to have a veto [on major energy projects]. That language is already creeping in with Mr. Trudeau. Consultation is not a veto.”

In his platform, O’Toole now pledges to: “Finish the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Pass a National Strategic Pipelines Act. This would allow the government to declare a pipeline to be nationally strategic and subject it to an expedited review process.”

He also notes: “Projects like LNG Canada build our economy while benefiting the world and show how Canadians can work together.”

Furthermore, O’Toole promises in his platform to: “Pass a Freedom of Movement Act to prevent radicals from shutting down the economy [and] strengthen the legal penalties provided for in the criminal code for persons hindering the proper functioning of energy transportation infrastructure.”

This in part refers to the railway blockades across this country that were organized earlier this year in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

The National Post has commented: “For such legislation to stand up, the courts would have to find it is compatible with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It would also still ultimately rely on the police making an operational decision to take down the blockade. Currently, many of the blockades are already considered illegal and the courts have quickly granted injunctions to remove them. Despite the injunctions, police in some jurisdictions have been hesitant to do so, not wanting to escalate the situation.”

Significantly, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network noted this past February “an uptick in online calls for vigilante action against Wet’suwet’en solidarity protests among hate groups and far-right activists”. One of O’Toole’s leadership campaign videos released at that time appears to show one such dismantling of a road blockade.

In terms of the other federal parties, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has stated “There’s a lot of complexity to the situation” with the Wet’suwet’en, while Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May has commented “You cannot say you respect [the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] and then send in the RCMP to remove hereditary chiefs from their own land when they have not provided consent.”

Peace Brigades International observes with growing concern the fatal attacks against Indigenous land defenders around the world.

Last month, Global Witness noted: “Indigenous peoples are at a disproportionate risk of reprisals. Last year, 40% of murdered defenders belonged to indigenous communities. 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.”

No country is immune to this.

Peace Brigades International-Canada calls on all federal parties to be aware of the importance of peacefully addressing the land rights issues at the core of land conflicts in this country and to affirm the important role of Indigenous land and environmental rights defenders in upholding internationally recognized human rights.

Indigenous land defence struggles on unceded and Treaty lands in Canada can face police repression, criminalization and judicialization, settler vigilantism, dangerous misrepresentations in the media, gendered threats and violence, and other risks.

A key public policy consideration should be how to guarantee that the rights of defenders are protected and that they can carry out their activism safely.

While there are various international declarations that seek to protect defenders, and several national guidelines focused on defenders in other countries, there may not be existing legislation or guidelines at the provincial level in Canada.

A recent report by Global Witness highlights that some of the measures that governments should take to reduce the risks faced by defenders include:

1- Resolve outstanding land claims and formally secure, including through legal means, the land rights of communities and indigenous peoples;

2- Legally legitimize the role of land and environmental defenders and publicly condemn any threats against them, with specific attention to gender-based violence and attacks;

3- Ensure national policies safeguard the rights of defenders and protesters to free assembly and speech, as well as potential recourse to civil disobedience.

Some of the existing resources that could potentially be used to help inform and shape provincial legislation in this country include:

1- Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders (Global Affairs Canada)

2- Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (United Nations)

3- Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, the Activities of Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises (draft, United Nations)

4- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

5- Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Escazú Agreement)

Other sources that could be drawn on to develop legislation include: Swiss Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders; Action Plan for Human Rights Defenders (the Netherlands); EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders; Protecting and Supporting Human Rights Defenders (Finland); UK Support for Human Rights Defenders; and other such guidelines and initiatives in countries including France, Germany and Ireland.

Peace Brigades International (PBI) accompanies Indigenous land defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

We have noted: “Defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Some have approached PBI for protection after they have been attacked or their colleagues assassinated. Many others have been subjected to criminal prosecutions based on spurious charges.”

As we see land defence struggles in this country, including notably by the Secwepemc, Wet’suwet’en, Sipekne’katik, and Haudenosaunee, Peace Brigades International-Canada will be reaching out to defenders, communities and allies on the advisability, potential and need for legislative protection here.

Photo by Rainforest Action Network.