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Gitanyow and Gitxsan resistance to the PRGT pipeline continues as decision on fate of megaproject expected in March 2025

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Gitanyow Simgiget (Hereditary Chiefs) burn a “benefits agreement” on the PRGT pipeline as they close their territories to all traffic related to the megaproject, August 22, 2024.

The National Observer reports that the fate of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline is now in limbo after its decade-old provincial environmental assessment certificate expired on Monday November 25.

Next up, the British Columbia Minister of Environment and Parks Tamara Davidson will either decide to make that certificate permanent and allow the megaproject to proceed, or require a new environmental assessment that would slow down the continuation of the project by two or three years, but not definitively end it.

That decision is expected by March 2025.

Photo: Gitxsan land defenders and supporters disrupt the swearing-in of the new British Columbia provincial government cabinet to say they do not consent to the PRGT pipeline on their lands, November 18, 2024. Photo by Mike Graeme.

Gitanyow and Gitxsan resistance to PRGT

We are following the resistance of Gitanyow land defenders, “Simgiget” (Hereditary Chiefs), and the “Huwilp” (Houses or governing units, the plural of “Wilp”) to defend the Gitanyow “Lax’yip” (territory) from the PRGT megaproject.

A statement from Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Deborah Good/ Simooget Watakhayetswx following the expiry of the certificate says: “We have stood on the territory since August, denying access for PRGT construction vehicles and monitoring to ensure that no construction activity occurs in the Lax’yip. We will continue our on the ground presence with new cabins, a new Indigenous Protected Area, and ongoing monitoring conducted by Wilp members and the Lax’yip Guardians. We thank everyone from around the globe who has offered support in the past 3 months for our effort, it is a true testament to a widespread concern regarding the PRGT and growing opposition to it proceeding.”

Back on August 22, Good said in this video statement: “As of tonight, I am closing the Cranberry Connector from 11 kilometers to 31 kilometres. …I am closing the road and I will keep it closed. There will be no trucks permitted through the territory. No LNG equipment will be permitted through the territory.”

Photo: Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs: “As we stand our ground and turn back LNG trucks, the love and support you are all showing us at the Genada [Frog Clan] Injunction is overwhelming!” August 30, 2024.

The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs have also explained: “The Gitanyow Lax’yip Stewardship Guardians are the ‘eyes and ears’ on the Lax’yip (Territory) and provide a critical role in environmental and cultural monitoring. The Gitanyow Lax’yip Guardians work closely and share an office space with the Gitanyow Fisheries Authority.”

The PRGT pipeline would also impact Gitxsan territory. Mike Graeme has posted (as part of an upcoming IndigiNews article): “Maas Gwitkunuxws Teresa Brown, a Gitxsan woman who’s chosen to make her home for the winter in an uninsulated school bus parked near the pipeline right-of-way, says she will do what it takes to make sure the project is kiboshed.”

Gitxsan land defender Kolin Sutherland-Wilson has also posted this video: “Land Defence + Dog Sanctuary Update with Maasxw Gutgwinuuxw. Home and Dog Sanctuary located on PRGT Pipeline right-of-way on Gitxsan lax’yip.”

And Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’/ Molly Wickham has also posted on Instagram: “Please share widely and support grassroots Indigenous resistance to the PRGT pipeline. We know what’s coming and they need all the support to get ahead of this!”

Calls for the C-IRG to be disbanded

There are continuing concerns about the role the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), now named the Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC), could have in the criminalization and repression of Indigenous on-the-ground resistance to the PRGT megaproject.

Photo: RCMP C-IRG officers during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo by Michael Toledano.

A year ago, in November 2023, the Gitxsan Huwilp Government stated: “Industry-led injunctions ordered by the BC Supreme Court Chief Justice to allow the looting of indigenous lands must stop. Further, the RCMP volunteering to deploy the [C-IRG] – which is under investigation for corruption – as a military solution to perpetrate industry greed must stop. For the RCMP to extinguish indigenous peoples’ fulsome rights on their lands, threaten our lives, terrorize our women and children, weaponize our land defense is indefensible.”

Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Gamlakyeltxw/ Wil Marsden has also previously commented: “We saw years and years of fighting [on Wet’suwet’en territory], the [RCMP C-IRG] police violence, and even the company [TC Energy/Coastal GasLink] with harassment and surveillance of land defenders. We don’t want none of that to happen here. We have a plan for everything we’re doing and we prefer to reconcile with B.C. and Canada.”

On a PBI-Canada webinar this past March, Tara Marsden, Wilp sustainability director for Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, noted: “Our learning is that consent only works when we say yes, if we say no, even if we say no with science behind us, and our knowledge and our laws behind us, then we will be met with force from the C-IRG, from militarized invasion and occupation and intimidation and harassment.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada continues to monitor the situation of eight community members criminalized for their opposition to Frontera Energy

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: A military helicopter takes Ferney Salcedo, Yulivel Leal and four other social leaders from the villages of Venturosa and Platanales following their arrest on November 27, 2018. Video by Prensa Libre Casanare.

Today is the 6th anniversary of the arrest of eight community members who were protesting the Canadian oil company Frontera Energy Ltd. in Colombia.

El Espectador has reported: “On November 27, 2018, at 2:45 in the morning, an operation of 200 men, between members of the Police and the National Army, who landed in two helicopters, captured them in San Luis de Palenque.”

Significantly, as has been highlighted at the United Nations by Special Rapporteur Michel Forst, just a few days before that operation, on November 16 and November 19, 2018, “Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities.”

Yulivel Leal shared on a webinar organized by PBI-Canada: “On November 27, 2018, I was captured in my home, the judge ordered house arrest. I lived under the control of an electronic device for 22 months.”

Photo: Yulivel Leal under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle, October 2019. Photo by Comité de Solidaridad Internacionalista de Zaragoza.

Her husband Ferney Salcedo was held in prison for 500 days without trial (first at a prison in Yopal then in La Picota almost 500 kilometres away after he demanded more dignified conditions for prisoners).

Forst has expressed concern “at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade [a unit that protects oil operations] and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation.”

PBI-Canada met in-person with Ferney, Yulivel and other community members on July 1, 2022; organized a webinar with them on October 11, 2022; helped amplify video-messages to the Frontera virtual annual meeting of shareholders on May 18, 2023; organized meetings with Canadian civil society and a Member of Parliament; and have posted numerous articles and updates about their ongoing situation.

We have also been trying for more than a year to get the necessary visas to bring community members and their PBI-Colombia accompanied defenders to Canada to help share the story of their criminalization with Canadians.

As of July 2024, the judicial process against the community members was in the oral trial stage with six witnesses having testified and 40 more still pending. Of the more than 100 proposed pieces of evidence, only four had been incorporated. Six years after the arrests, the judicialization continues with no immediate end in sight.

We remain concerned about the past arbitrary detention of the community members and their prolonged judicialization, call on Canadian companies not to enter into “cooperation agreements” with Colombian security forces, support calls for domestic and international mechanisms that would mean greater accountability for transnational corporations to the communities they impact, and advocate for a credible Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) that would have legally enforceable powers to compel evidence and testimony from corporations.

We will continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada meets with Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras and the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Honduras accompanies LGTBI+ organizations at the Pride March in San Pedro Sula, August 6, 2024.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project accompanies the Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras and the Centre for LGTBI Development and Cooperation – SOMOS CDC.

In June 2021, The Guardian reported that Cattrachas, a Honduran LGTBQ+ advocacy organization, “recorded a total of 20 deaths of LGBTQ+ people in the 15 years leading up to the 2009 coup d’etat. In the eight months afterwards, it recorded 31 deaths of LGBTQ+ people, 15 of whom were trans women.”

That article further notes: “In the 12 years since the coup, Cattrachas has recorded 117 killings of trans women.”

Arcoiris coordinator Donny Reyes has stated: “The biggest problem that we face is the violence of the state security forces towards the LGBT+ community: the armed forces, the police, the criminal investigation police, military police, municipal police.”

Reyes adds: “The research studies that Arcoiris and other organizations have done reflect the same pattern — more than 60 per cent of hate crimes have been committed against us by those forces who should be guaranteeing our safety.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Reyes and Jlo Córdoba of the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls [Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris] at their office in Tegucigalpa on November 1.

Photo: Jlo Córdoba and Donny Reyes.

Reyes has previously stated: “I’ve been imprisoned on many occasions. I’ve suffered torture and sexual violence because of my activism, and I’ve survived many assassination attempts.” Córdoba was shot by a Honduran soldier in 2014, and survived three more assassination attempts in 2016.

Canadian security assistance to Honduras

In 2009, Canada provided $16.4 million in official assistance to Honduras. 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.”

After the coup, Canadian aid to Honduras increased to an average of $29 million per year between 2010 to 2016.

That likely includes some of the $5 million Canada provided to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2011 in surveillance and criminal investigation equipment and training. In April 2012, Global Affairs Canada also signed a memorandum of understanding for $1 million in security cooperation in Honduras and Guatemala.

That support is not provided entirely uncritically.

In November 2020, during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in Honduras, Canada called on Honduras to: “Investigate and bring to justice cases of human rights violations implicating military forces and create a well-defined plan to complete the reform of the police and remove the military from civilian security duties.”

Support for HRDs

The Global Affairs Canada document Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders notes (on pages 27 to 28) as “best practices” that missions (embassies, consulates and high commissions) “should collaborate with like-minded missions in responding to requests for assistance from LGBTI HRDs, recognizing that missions may be able to offer varying forms of assistance and as such may complement each other in providing support to defenders.”

Speaking more generally about Voices at Risk and Canadian mining, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, commented this past summer that “it hasn’t been properly implemented.”

LGBTQI+ migration to Canada

The Government of Canada has noted with respect to “LGBTQI+ refugees”: “Canada has a proud history of providing protection to and helping resettle those most in need. That includes those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQI+) community.”

The Ottawa-based Capital Rainbow Refuge is one of the organizations that supports this resettlement. Their website notes: “Capital Rainbow Refuge is a registered non-profit organization founded in 2010 to support and sponsor LGBTQI+ refugees. Through volunteer-led sponsor groups, advocacy, community building and outreach, we help LGBTQI+ refugees and newcomers arrive and thrive in Eastern Ontario.”

That said, journalist Julia Israel has commented in The Upstream Journal: “Canada is one of the countries that allow people to claim asylum from persecution of their sexual orientation and gender identity but, for most of these refugees, their path is highly uncertain, lengthy, and extremely demanding both physically and mentally.”

She highlights: “LGBTQ+ refugees face a unique set of challenges and vulnerability in terms of travel to Canada, a lack of community-specific resources upon arrival, and a refugee claims process that is intimate by nature.”

Charts: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada refugee claim statistics.

We continue to follow this.

Ottawa Police Service escalates criminalization of Palestinian human rights defenders, arrests PYM organizer

By
Brent Patterson
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An organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) was arrested in Ottawa on the morning of Sunday November 24.

Instagram video of arrest and reading of charges.

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) media release states: “She has been charged with public mischief X2, obstruction of police, counsel an uncommitted indictable offence of mischief and unlawful assembly.”

For more, see the Criminal Code of Canada sections on public mischief (140), offences relating to public or peace officer (129), counselling offence that is not committed (464), mischief (430) and unlawful assembly (63).

Additional reading: A fifth person charged following downtown pro-Palestinian protest on Nov. 18 (Ottawa Citizen, November 24, 2024).

CCLA: “Protests are intended to cause disruption”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has previously commented: “It’s worth remembering that protests are intended to cause disruption and this is protected activity in a democracy. Strong protections for the right to protest are essential to meaningful and informed political debate and discussion.”

Internationally, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (Harvard Law School graduate Maina Kiai) has also previously commented: “’The free flow of traffic should not automatically take precedence over freedom of peaceful assembly’. In this regard, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has indicated that ‘the competent institutions of the State have a duty to design operating plans and procedures that will facilitate the exercise of the right of assembly … [including] rerouting pedestrian and vehicular traffic in a certain area’.”

In this broader respect, the OPS has only stated: “We recognize the concerns raised by members of the community regarding these arrests. The OPS is committed to ensuring community safety and respecting the lawful right to protest. Any charges related to demonstrations are carefully considered with this balance, and we are focused on balancing the need for public safety with fostering trust and understanding.”

What is criminalization?

Lawyers Without Borders Canada has explained: “Simply put, criminalization is the wrongful use of criminal law. Based on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ interpretation, this means the ‘adoption and misapplication of the law to the detriment of HRDs [human rights defenders] in order to obstruct their activities’ (IACHR, Criminalization of the Work of Human Rights Defenders, 2015, para. 11). It manipulates the punitive power of the State and ultimately, this undermines the rule of law and democracy as it wrongfully persecutes dissidents of the State both legally and politically.”

Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom has also noted: “Criminalisation carries an implicit warning to any defender working on politically or economically sensitive issues that they too might be targeted. Others might think twice before speaking out. Vulnerable groups and individuals who depend on HRDs may also be less inclined to stand up for their rights, fearing legal or violent reprisals to their actions.”

International court decisions

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention in the context of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

On July 19, 2024, the ICJ also ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources.

And on November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Given international court rulings back the concerns made by the Palestinian Youth Movement at their weekly mobilizations, that these mobilizations have been allowed to be on the streets for more than a year, and the ICC arrest warrants were issued just three days before the OPS arrested the PYM organizer, it is unclear why the OPS has escalated so dramatically and restrictively its policing of PYM mobilizations.

Escalation

The planned march on Monday November 18 to the offices of weapons companies (that arguably are violating the Genocide Convention and Arms Trade Treaty) and the march of Saturday November 23, saw a significant increase in the number of police present, including Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) brought in from out of town.

Questions remain for community members as to why this apparently premeditated and planned escalation has taken place, and whether there are state and corporate actors (with ideological motivations or economic interests) involved in directing this escalation.

There may also be questions about regulations regarding the OPS use of drones, the filming of the protest by OPS officers, and the deployment of an OPP officer who appeared to be armed with an Anti-Riot Weapon Enfield (ARWEN) that is capable of firing tear-gas canisters and large, 37-millimetre plastic bullets.

In 2020, Michelle Bachelet, then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote: “To be clear, and as the Human Rights Committee has indicated in its general comment on the right to life, even less-lethal weapons [that would include the ARWEN, a supposedly “less-lethal launcher” developed in the UK)] must be employed only when they are subject to strict requirements of necessity and proportionality, in situations in which other less harmful measures have proven to be or are clearly ineffective to address the threat.”

While the ARWEN was not employed/fired, it was deployed (made visible) in a situation that arguably did not meet “necessity and proportionality”.

Police horses by April

As the Palestinian solidarity mobilizations continue, the imminent use of police horses by the OPS is also a concern.

This week, CTV News reported: “Ottawa’s police chief [Eric Stubbs] says the new Mounted Patrol Unit will be a ‘game changer’ for the service in 2025… The Ottawa Police Service expects the first four horses to arrive in the spring [by April 1], with four more horses joining the unit in late 2025 or early 2026.”

That article also notes: “Stubbs says there have been recent protests in Ottawa where he thought a Mounted Patrol Unit would help provide a ‘wedge to separate groups’ or assist with the movement of people.”

The Manchester, UK-based Omega Research Foundation has stated: “Any decision to deploy mounted police must be in-line with the international human rights standards of proportionality and necessity and it must be remembered that horses can react unpredictably when frightened or over stimulated, which may lead to nearby protesters or bystanders being injured. Certain groups may be particularly vulnerable when horses are used to disperse a crowd, particularly those with limited mobility, slow reaction times, or impaired sight (including persons with disabilities, elderly persons, children, pregnant people, for example).”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has also expressed this same concern: “People with limited mobility or slow reaction time, including children, may be particularly vulnerable when horses are used to disperse a crowd.”

Video shared by Horizon Ottawa.

This past week, in response to related concerns expressed at the Ottawa Police Service finance and audit committee, Ottawa City Councillor Cathy Curry stated: “I guess I could argue that people could just move out of the way.”

We continue to follow this.

Video and photo: Solidarity rally outside the OPS Elgin station after the arrest of the PYM organizer.

PYM post.

Further reading: Arrest of Palestinian solidarity activists in Ottawa raises concerns about repression of protests against weapons companies (November 21, 2024).

Palestinian environmental defender Abeer Butmeh calls for “global energy embargo against Israel” at COP29

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Abeer Butmeh at COP29, November 14, 2024.

The coordinator of the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON)-Friends of the Earth Palestine, Abeer Butmeh, is calling for a fuel embargo on Israel given “Israeli operations” violate the “right to a healthy environment”.

She has previously noted that the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network works “on four main campaigns: the fight against all types of pollution, advocacy of rights concerning land, water and natural resources, energy transition, and, finally, the protection of biodiversity.” She has also highlighted that Palestinian “women suffer and resist all types of Israeli aggressions and are at the forefront of the defence of the land.”

Butmeh has been highlighting the demand of a fuel embargo at the United Nations COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan. She says: “What we need is a total global energy embargo against Israel. Rich countries must fund climate justice, not genocide.”

From October 21, 2023, to July 12, 2024, Azerbaijan, the host of COP29, supplied Israel with 28 per cent of its fuel imports, while Brazil, the host of COP30 to be held in November 2025, provided 9 per cent of the supply.

ICJ ruling and jet fuel exports

Almost one year ago, on January 26, 2024, the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague, the Netherlands ruled that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention.

A statement by UN human rights experts, endorsed by Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, has further highlighted that the ICJ ruling and Genocide Convention require States to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide in another state as far as possible.

The Amsterdam-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) has commented in its report Fuelling the flames in Gaza: “An embargo on the sale or transfer of jet fuel and crude oil to Israel, given the prominent use of air strikes on Gaza, may also … be considered relevant to the requirement to ‘employ all means reasonably available to them’ to prevent genocide in Gaza ‘so far as possible’.”

Photo: Climate activists, including Edmonton-based Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, at COP29 express support for the Palestinian people, November 11, 2024. Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP.

The US supplies jet fuel to Israel

The SOMO report documents: “The United States (U.S.) is a primary supplier of military provisions, including military jet fuel (known as ‘JP-8’), to Israel. U.S. company Valero has been a long-time and key supplier of JP-8 to Israel under contracts with the U.S. government. The JP-8 supplied by Valero is shipped from Corpus Christi port in Texas (U.S.) to Ashkelon (Israel) by vessels belonging to Overseas Shipholding Group. This shipping company is contracted directly by the Israeli government.”

Progressive International has also highlighted: “A report by Oil Change International and Data Desk revealed that three deliveries of JP-8 military jet fuel took place between October 2023 and March 2024 using the US-flagged tankers Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast. Each shipment contains around 300,000 barrels of jet fuel, enough for around 12,000 flights of Israel’s F-16 and F-35 aircraft.”

Mondoweiss adds: “The fuel is used by Israel’s Apache attack helicopters, F-15s, F-16s, and Merkava tanks.”

The Guardian has specified: “The third left Texas on 9 February 2024 – two weeks after the international court of justice’s interim ruling that Israel could plausibly be committing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in occupied Gaza”

On July 29, 2024, The Guardian reported on another shipment by the tanker Overseas Santorini of 300,000 barrels of military-grade JP-8 fuel for use by Israel in Gaza. Oil Change International notes that ship docked in Israel in early August.

Video still: One tanker provides jet fuel for 12,000 flights of F-35s. Ottawa-based Gastops is the sole-source supplier of engine sensors for the F-35.

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Canadian oil exports could be re-exported by the US as jet fuel

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) notes: “Canada is now the largest single source of U.S. total petroleum and crude oil imports. In 2022, Canada was the source of 52% of U.S. gross total petroleum imports and 60% of gross crude oil imports.”

Significantly, it further notes: “Some of the crude oil that the U.S. imports is refined by U.S. refineries into petroleum products—such as gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, and jet fuel—that the U.S. later exports.”

The Canadian Energy Centre also says: “While Canadian oil and gas exports currently go almost exclusively to the U.S., once they enter the integrated pipeline system, they can become so-called ‘re-exports’ from U.S. Gulf Coast to overseas markets.”

The JP-8 jet fuel exported to Israel originates from Valero’s Bill Greehey refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Furthermore, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) industry association also confirmed in May 2021: “In 2020, U.S. imports of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products from Canada averaged more than half a million barrels per day, or more than 8 billion gallons in total for the year.”

Overall, the United States imported 4.36 million barrels of crude oil per day from Canada in November 2023. In 2021, the province of Alberta produced more than three million barrels of oil per day from the tar sands region that encompasses the lands and waters of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN).

Valero in Canada

SOMO and Oil Change International have noted Valero’s role in supplying jet fuel to Israel. We further note that Valero has an office in Montreal (1801, McGill College Avenue), operates the Jean Gaulin Refinery in Lévis (165, chemin des Îles), and supplies fuel to independently owned gas stations including Ultramar in Canada.

We continue to follow this.

Video

Butmeh: “We need to analyze soil, water, and air samples to assess the current and long-term environmental impact of the current war and environmental crimes in the Gaza Strip.”

As the UN COP29 climate conference concludes, Peace Brigades International turns its attention to COP30 in Brazil

By
Brent Patterson
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Image: Logo of COP30 in Brazil.

The United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) 29 climate conference is scheduled later today (November 22) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

On September 10, 2024, Global Witness highlighted: “At least 1,500 defenders have been killed since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015” at the conclusion of the COP21 climate conference.

More than five years ago the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed: “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 this 42-word sentence has still not made its way into the final text of any of the subsequent COP climate conference final texts.

An article by Cape Town, South Africa-based Natural Justice on a COP29 side event held on November 20 titled “Recognizing, Protecting, and Empowering Environmental Defenders” seems to suggest there may have been a moment of progress.

That article notes: “This is the first time in COP history that the COP has included language on defenders, but regrettably the reference in the gender text is bracketed along with other refences to human rights.”

The “draft negotiating texts”, including on “COP agenda item 14 Gender and climate change”, released yesterday (November 21) do not appear to include any reference to environmental defenders.

Center for International Environmental Law tweeted on November 21: “The new text of the Gender Work Program at #COP29 is glaringly incomplete without … protection of women environmental human rights defenders. This is unacceptable!”

On November 16, Camilla Pollera of the Center for International Environmental Law had commented: “The blatant attempts to eliminate reference to the protection of environmental human rights defenders and human rights is especially alarming.” Floridea Di Como of CambiaMO also noted that references to land and environmental human rights defenders were being taken out of the text.

At the PBI-Canada-organized webinar on the COP16 biodiversity conference a month ago, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst suggested that there are States that block the inclusion of this reference.

Forst stated: “There are people who are willing to push for good results and at the same time we know that we also have people who are not our allies who are pushing also for counter-results and trying to delete paragraphs and good wording that some of us, some of them, would like to introduce.”

He further noted: “[Many participants] feel not respected and their voices are not heard when they try to introduce new language in the outcome document, when they are meeting with delegations to try to push for wording, then we have the same usual suspects who block the discussions.” 

Despite these very real obstacles, Peace Brigades International is committing to intervene in collaboration with the defenders we accompany at the United Nations COP30 climate conference that will take place from November 10 to 21, 2025 in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Stay tuned for updates on this work.

Arrest of Palestinian solidarity activists in Ottawa raises concerns about repression of protests against weapons companies

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Ottawa Citizen reports: “Ottawa police have arrested four pro-Palestinian protesters for allegedly blocking a downtown street during a demonstration on [the evening of Monday November 18].”

The article quotes Sarah Abdul-Karim, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, who said: “We didn’t do anything different from what we do in the usual protest. But the response from police was different. From the second we showed up at the human rights monument there were massive amounts of police. They refused to let us take the streets to march, although we were too many people to fit on the sidewalk.”

The article also notes that the four arrested “appeared in court Tuesday afternoon. They each face charges of mischief, obstructing a peace officer, and participating in an unlawful assembly.” It also quotes Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee who alleged their actions the previous evening “exceeded the bounds of lawful protest.”

PBI-Canada observed the protest on Monday November 18 and was present at the courthouse on Tuesday November 19.

Weapons companies in Ottawa

The CTV news article on this also quotes the Palestinian Youth Movement Ottawa and Labour for Palestine Ottawa who stated: “What we saw yesterday [November 18] leads us to believe that the Ottawa Police Service is more concerned with protecting weapons companies and those who facilitate the sale of arms, than keeping our community safe as we exercise our right to participate in peaceful assembly per the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  We are continuing to support those arrested and will not take this disproportionate reaction by the police to a peaceful walk as an indication that we should stop protesting a genocide.”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has documented the following on these corporations with offices in downtown Ottawa:

Leonardo Canada (55 Metcalfe Street): “Italy’s largest weapons manufacturer, Leonardo makes the Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid 76mm naval guns installed on the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar warships. Israel’s newest warship, the Sa’ar 6, was used operationally for the first time on Oct. 16, 2023, firing at targets in Gaza using Leonardo’s gun.”

Lockheed Martin (45 O’Connor Street, Suite 870): “The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company’s C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza.”

L3Harris (255 Albert Street, Suite 804): “The world’s ninth largest weapons manufacturer, L3Harris manufactures components that are integrated into multiple weapons systems used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including Boeing’s JDAM kits, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 warplane, Northrop Grumman’s Sa’ar 5 warships, ThyssenKrupp’s Sa’ar 6 warships, and Israel’s Merkava battle tanks.”

RTX-Raytheon Canada Ltd. (360 Albert Street): “The world’s second largest weapons manufacturer and largest producer of guided missiles, RTX supplies the Israeli Air Force with guided air-to-surface missiles for its F-16 fighter jets… RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney manufactures engines for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.”

BAE Systems (220 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 1200): “The world’s seventh largest weapons manufacturer, U.K. company BAE Systems manufactures the M109 howitzer, a 155mm mobile artillery system that the Israeli military has been using extensively, firing tens of thousands of 155mm shells into the Gaza Strip. Some of these shells are white phosphorus bombs, the use of which is forbidden in densely populated civilian areas and potentially amounts to a war crime.”

On September 18, 2024, PBI-Canada and the Canadian Friends Service of Canada (Quakers) held a webinar featuring World Beyond War, Project Ploughshares and the American Friends Service Committee commenting on international obligations, Canadian arms exports to Israel and the call for an arms embargo.

Legal obligations re: weapons exports

Toronto-based university law school professors Heidi Matthews, Faisal A. Bhabha and Mohammad Fadel have argued: “Because the [International Court of Justice] found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada’s obligation to prevent genocide and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.”

Provincial “hate crime working group”

It remains unclear what informed the Ottawa police action on November 18.

Earlier this year, The Breach reported: “A secretive committee within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has given ‘politically-motivated’ backing to the Toronto police’s targeting of pro-Palestine activism… Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.”

And in the days leading up to the protest this week, Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and former Ontario provincial government cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod described Palestinian solidarity activists as “the pro Hamas mob”. On the day of the arrests of those walking to the weapons companies, MacLeod retweeted: “Several arrests of Pro-Hamas rally Marshalls taking place in Ottawa, the place where the least amount of action has taken place over 13 months. Better late than never, right?”

“Excessive use of force” in Vancouver

We also note that on September 18, 2024, this media release highlighted: “Lawyers with Pivot Legal Society and the BC [British Columbia] Civil Liberties Association have filed three complaints against the Vancouver Police Department’s [VPD] excessive use of force, targeting, and surveillance of Palestine protests.”

The complaints include the deployment by the VPD of “military grade pepper spray” at a protest on May 31, 2024, and the “illegal use of Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (drones) and unauthorized filming by VPD officers.”

Palestinian human rights defenders

Mary Lawlor, the United Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders has written: “There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights.”

Lawlor adds: “Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on such sales, given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.”

Peace Brigades International called for a ceasefire in November 2023 and in March 2024 asked the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel.

We continue to follow this including by drawing attention to the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa (this coming May 28-29, 2025) and the DSEI arms show in London, UK (this coming September 9-12, 2025) and the export of “military goods” used to commit human rights violations and repress organizations, defenders and communities.

The protest planned for this Saturday.

PBI-United Kingdom report: “human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence”

By
Brent Patterson
-

Our colleagues at Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom have produced a 40-page investigative report titled: The Case For Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence.

The six examples in the report (the Cerrejón coal mine and Amerisur oilfields in Colombia, the Eólica del Sur wind farm and Soledad-Dipolos gold mine in Mexico, the Grasberg gold and copper mine in Indonesia, and the Los Pinares iron oxide mine in Honduras) implicate Anglo American PLC, Fresnillo PLC and Amerisur PLC, as well as the Australian company BHP and the Swiss company Glencore, all of which are listed on the London Stock Exchange; financing by the British bank HSBC; the British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto; as well as the opaque supply chain that makes it hard to know if iron and steel from the controversial Los Pinares megaproject could enter the UK.

COLOMBIA/ the Cerrejón coal mine: Anglo American, BHP, and Glencore

“One of the world’s largest coal mines, Carbones del Cerrejón (Cerrejón), has been found to have violated environmental and human rights repeatedly, including through air pollution, water contamination, and a failure to respect the land and cultural rights of Indigenous Wayúu and Afro-Colombian communities. Human rights defenders have been threatened and attacked after raising awareness of these abuses and campaigning against the mine. From the year 2000 to 2022, Cerrejón was owned by mining companies on the UK stock exchange: Anglo American, BHP and Glencore.”

Note: Coal from the Cerrejon mine is still imported to the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. NB Power has been buying approximately 500,000 tonnes of coal per year from Cerrejón since the mid 1990s.Coal exports from Colombia to Canada reportedly increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Photo: In July 2022, PBI-Canada met with Rosa Maria Mateus Parra, a lawyer with the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), a PBI-Colombia accompanied organization that launched a constitutional challenge against the Cerrejon mine.

MEXICO/ the Eólica del Sur wind farm: HSBC

“Mexico’s biggest wind farm, Eólica del Sur, exemplifies why even supposedly ‘green’ business projects require effective regulation, and why any law on due diligence needs to cover the financial sector. Indigenous communities affected by the wind farm allege their right to free, prior and informed consent was violated and that the country’s inadequate administrative and judicial systems failed to uphold this right. Project opponents and human rights defenders have faced violence and intimidation – raising serious questions about whether conditions were in place to ensure effective participation and consultation. British bank HSBC was one of the original lenders to Mareña Renovables, and remained so once this wind project evolved to become Eólica del Sur.”

Note: HSBC Bank Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of HSBC, was the seventh largest bank in Canada with corporate headquarters in Vancouver. In March 2024, the Royal Bank of Canada acquired HSBC Canada.

COLOMBIA/ oilfields in the Putumayo Amazon basin: Amerisur

“Amerisur’s oil exploitation has reportedly caused pollution and spills in the fragile ecosystem of the Colombian Amazon. Forcibly displaced communities allege collusion between the company and illegal armed groups, while human rights defenders have been subject to assassination attempts and the government has been forced to provide emergency protection for activists. Amerisur is a UK-listed PLC.”

Note: Partners of Amerisur have included the Canadian companies Canacol Energy Ltd. and Pacific Exploration & Production (now Frontera Energy). Amerisur also has a longstanding relationship with the Royal Bank of Canada.

Photo: Amazon basin defender Jani Silva is accompanied by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, which in turn is accompanied by PBI-Colombia.

MEXICO/ the Soledad-Dipolos gold mine: Fresnillo PLC/ Minera Penmont

“Minera Penmont operated the Soledad-Dipolos open-pit gold mine located in the territory of the El Bajío Ejido in Mexico, between 2010 and 2013. When mining exploration began on communal lands, local communities began to defend their rights. Agrarian Courts have ruled that Penmont were operating on the land illegally without the community’s permission, ordering Penmont to leave the land and compensate the residents. However, land and environmental defenders calling for accountability have faced a series of reprisals including arbitrary detention, criminalisation, and killings. Minera Penmont is a subsidiary of Fresnillo PLC, a UK-incorporated company listed on the London Stock Exchange.”

Note: Vanguard is one of the top institutional investors in Fresnillo. Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. has an office in Toronto.

INDONESIA/ the Grasberg gold and copper mine: Rio Tinto

“The Grasberg Mine in West Papua, Indonesia, has been subject to allegations of major environmental devastation and severe human rights violations. Indigenous communities accuse the mine of polluting rivers and causing health issues. Human rights defenders and Indigenous communities protesting the mine’s operations since the 1970s have faced repression including torture, displacement and threats, amid ongoing militarisation. British-Australian multinational mining company Rio Tinto was involved with the Grasberg mine from 1996-2018.”

Note: The Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada are institutional holders of shares in Rio Tinto. The company also operates mines in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador.

HONDURAS/ the Los Pinares iron oxide mine: opaque supply chains make it hard to know if this iron and steel imported into the UK

“Communities have opposed the Los Pinares mine for more than a decade, concerned at the environmental impact of open pit iron oxide extraction in the heart of a national park. The reprisals faced by these human rights defenders have been brutal: as well as threats, smears and the imprisonment of eight activists for more than two years in a high security prison, four project opponents paid the ultimate price when they were murdered in 2023 and 2024. …In 2020, a collaboration between Contracorriente, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) and the Univision Investigative Unit exposed links between the Honduran companies [involved in the megaproject] and the largest steel producer in the United States, the Nucor Corporation. The current lack of mandatory supply chain transparency means that it is not clear which markets this steel is reaching, including whether it is ending up in the UK. If this were the case, then UK companies could very well be contributing to these harms, or they could be directly linked to them.”

Note: Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Photo: PBI-Honduras has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and the Guapinol River defenders since January 2019. PBI-Canada visited Guapinol on October 30, 2024.

The Honduran company EMCO has specified: “After 8 years of work, Phase 1 of raw iron production as a raw material began in Los Pinares and at the end of 2021 Phase 2 will start to export semi-processed iron to the United States.” In 2022, Canada imported $723 million worth of iron ore from the United States. Canada is also a large exporter of petroleum coke, the energy source that will power this megaproject.

Photo: PBI-Canada observes the construction of the iron oxide pelletizing plant in Guapinol, October 2024.

Due diligence in the UK and Canada

While Toronto-based BMO Asset Management is one of the companies that has called on the British government to “urgently bring forward” a new UK law ensuring that human rights and environmental due diligence is carried out, its relationship to and management of Bank of Montreal exchange traded funds raises concerns.

The Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) has called for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. The CNCA’s model law provides a blueprint for this legislation. PBI-Canada is a member of the CNCA. PBI-Canada has also supported the call for a United Nations Binding Treaty on business and human rights (opposed by the Government of Canada).

To read the full report by PBI-UK, go to The Case For Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence.

Article in The Guardian.

PBI-Canada attends PBI General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal

By
Brent Patterson
-

Peace Brigades International-Canada attended the Peace Brigades International General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal this past November 11-13.

The assembly brought together 35+ people to discuss a Global Strategic Plan that will inform our work through to 2030 and to debate and reach consensus on numerous proposals, including our proposal to explore the formation of a PBI-Turtle Island initiative to accompany Indigenous land defenders.

The meeting brought together representatives of the teams who physically accompany defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras.

There were also representatives of the Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua and Indonesia teams that support defenders.

Along with PBI-Canada, there were also representatives from the PBI teams in Germany, Spain, Catalonia, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland, Norway and Italy.

And along with staff from the International Office in Brussels there were key members of the International Council, essentially PBI’s global Board.

While the assembly was a forum to discuss the Global Strategic Plan noted above and organizational and administrative issues, and to connect in-person to further enable the online meeting spaces that occur throughout the year, it all remained very much grounded in our shared purpose of ensuring the protection of human rights defenders who face tremendous risks because of the work they do.

At PBI-Canada our next step now is to write an operational plan for 2025 based on the approved Global Strategic Plan and to further develop the concept of a new Peace Brigades International-Turtle Island initiative.

Stay tuned!

UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor calls for a strengthening of the CORE to provide redress for human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: PBI-Canada meets with Mary Lawlor and Michael Phoenix, her Head of Research and Campaigns, in Ottawa, June 26, 2024.

On February 5, The Globe and Mail reported: “Starting this year, over a six-month period, the government said it will assess the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise’s ‘effectiveness and progress to date.’”

Then on May 6 of this year, the CBC reported: “The first ombudsperson, Sheri Meyerhoffer, completed her five-year term on schedule last week. Last Tuesday [April 30], Trade Minister Mary Ng announced that Global Affairs Canada staff lawyer Masud Husain would be Meyerhoffer’s full successor.”

Photo: Interim ombudsperson Masud Husain.

On November 14, Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, posted comments she made earlier in the month “calling for the significant strengthening of the CORE.”

Lawlor highlights: “The establishment of the CORE was a pioneering step to make good on this commitment, and I acknowledge the work done by the first Ombudsperson. Ms. Sheri Meyerhoffer, to build the institution. I have long-standing concerns, however, as to the adequacy of the CORE, in its current form, to provide any adequate form of redress for human rights defenders and the communities they represent when their rights have been violated or been put at risk by Canadian companies operating abroad. This has been reflected in conversations I have had with human rights defenders since taking up my mandate, who, where aware of the CORE, have repeatedly told me they have no confidence in its effectiveness.”

Among her four recommendations, Lawlor calls on the Government of Canada to: “Provide the CORE with legally enforceable powers to compel evidence and testimony from companies, in line with international standards and best practice on ombudspersons’ offices, to enable effective investigations of all cases and overcome the barriers presented when companies refuse to meaningfully engage with the CORE.”

Canadian embassies and Voices at Risk guidelines

In July of this year, Lawlor also told The Globe and Mail: “[Canada] parades itself on the world stage as being the good guys … But when it comes to the conduct of companies in the context of business and human rights, the UN guiding principles and the obligations of Canadian embassies themselves abroad, they’re really found wanting.”

That article further noted: “[Lawlor] also singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad. Canada introduced ‘Voices at Risk’ guidelines in 2019, aimed at supporting human-rights defenders and giving advice to Canadian diplomats working overseas, but she says it hasn’t been properly implemented.”

PBI-Canada

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to document violations by Canadian companies notably in the countries where PBI physically accompanies land and environmental defenders, including Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico where 119 defenders were killed last year.

Our initial research, utilizing the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) database, found that 21 Canadian companies have been implicated in 88 attacks against human rights defenders over the past nine years.

We are additionally concerned that Lawlor’s office has registered 15 cases between June 2019 and March 2022 of retaliation against human rights defenders that she alleges can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining companies.

It is not clear when the review of the CORE will be published, and what if any recommendations will be meaningfully implemented, but we will continue to follow this.

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