Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to water and sanitation, presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this morning. He speaks about his visit to Canada here (starting at 2:09:54). While in Canada this past April 8 to 19, Arrojo-Agudo journeyed to Wet’suwet’en territory.

Among his recommendations to the Canadian state, the UN Special Rapporteur highlighted “stop criminalization of those who oppose large-scale industries in their territories.”

He also called on Canada to “enact legal reforms to guarantee throughout the country Indigenous peoples right to free, prior and informed consent” and “First Nations jurisdiction over the water sources on which they depend even if they are off reserve.”

In her 5-minute response (starting at 2:13:17), Minister-Counsellor Patricia Lyn McCullagh, Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, does not directly comment on the recommendation to stop the criminalization of water defenders.

Instead, the Deputy Permanent Representative only notes: “Canada will take into account the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur in the implementation of its action plan on the law on the Declaration of the United Nations on the rights of Indigenous peoples… [and] …Canada will continue to study the recommendations contained in the report…”

Militarized RCMP raids against water defenders

Amnesty International has documented: “Injunctions have been used by the government of Canada and the Province of [British Columbia] to undertake constant surveillance, harassment, and the forceful removal and jailing of Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Hereditary Chiefs, and matriarchs were arrested and jailed using a highly militarized police force on their territories. In three large-scale police raids (January 2019, February 2020 and November 2021), a total of 74 people were arrested and detained, including among others, legal observers and members of the media. These raids were highly militarized with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) using helicopters, dog units and assault weapons not to mention involvement by CGL’s private security company. In such raids they bulldozed and burned down buildings and desecrated ceremonial spaces.”

Watch the trailer from Yintah (on CBC Gem as of September 17 and Netflix on October 18).

Now, representatives from Amnesty International (France, Germany, the United States, Canada) and Front Line Defenders (Ireland) are monitoring an ongoing abuse of process court hearing in Smithers, British Columbia in which three Indigenous water defenders arrested by the RCMP in the above-mentioned November 2021 raid are alleging the “disproportionate and excessive use of force” against them in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The application also alleges that the three water defenders were “variously denied their right to security of person, subjected to unreasonable search and seizure, arbitrarily detained and imprisoned, and denied reasonable bail without just cause.”

Front Line Defenders has further explained:

“The human rights defenders are being prosecuted for their rights as indigenous peoples, as well as their freedom of assembly in peacefully protesting the human rights impacts of the construction of TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, which does not have the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.

In 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a decision to the Canadian State, urging them to halt the construction and to suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the ancestral land of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, as well as to cease any forced evictions against them.

Although the letter was sent to Canadian authorities, and the construction of a pipeline blatantly disregards the Wet’suwet’en laws and traditions, the project continued and the injunction remained in force during the following years, which caused indigenous human rights defenders to peacefully block access to their territory.

Front Line Defenders expresses its concern with the misuse of criminal law against these human rights defenders, as it believes they are being targeted as a reprisal for their legitimate human rights work in defence of their environment and their ancestral land, in an attempt to refrain them in their work. Indigenous rights defenders, especially those working against the negative effects of the implementation of extractive and infrastructure projects on their lands, have been living in a high-risk situation, with many of them being threatened, attacked and criminalized. Indigenous Peoples in Canada have also faced restrictions on their lands, with the use of injunctions against them by corporations.”

Gitanyow water defenders oppose pipeline

The concerns expressed by Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders, and the inattention of Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the specific concerns about criminalization and RCMP violence, is particularly worrisome as Gitanyow water protectors in northern British Columbia have now set up a checkpoint on a highway in peaceful resistance to the PRGT fracked gas pipeline being built on their territory. This proposed pipeline will span more than 1,000 waterways, including major salmon-bearing rivers.

We continue to follow this situation and echo the UN Special Rapporteur’s recommendation to stop the criminalization of water defenders in Canada.

Further reading: UN Special Rapporteur comments on the “repression and persecution” faced by Indigenous water protectors in Canada (PBI-Canada, April 19, 2024).

The Breach reports: “According to a Breach investigation, Gastops is the only company in the world that produces engine sensors that go into U.S.-made F-35 combat jets—including the ones dropping 2,000 pound bombs in Gaza.”

That article adds: “ To make the F-35 warplanes sold to Israel, Lockheed Martin has relied on a global supply chain for components, with critical contributors from Canada, the UK, and Australia. Their manufacturing operates on a vulnerable ‘just-in-time supply chain’, with parts intended to arrive as needed. Gastops makes unique sensors that are designed to detect engine wear and tear and ‘keep aircraft in the air’, resulting in ‘less downtime, more flight time’, according to the company. Approximately two dozen employees are responsible for making the sensors at the company, which produced at least 3,500 of them over the past decade.”

What else do we know?

The relationship between Gastops and the Lockheed Martin F-35 program goes back more than 10 years.

In December 2012, Industry Canada noted in its Canadian Industrial Participation in The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program report that: “GasTOPS Limited of Ottawa developed the debris monitoring sensors for use on the F135 engine that powers the F-35 JSF.”

Journalist David Pugliese also noted in the Ottawa Citizen the relationship between Gastops and the F-35 program in January 2014.

MetalSCAN Oil Debris Monitoring sensors

A March 2021 media release from Gastops further notes: “Gastops, a company located in Ottawa, Canada that specializes in equipment intelligence technology, provides up to 4 engine sensors on the F-35A, B and C variants and is proud to announce that it has recently delivered its 3,500th engine sensor to the F-35 program.”

It adds: “At the forefront of these sensing technologies is Gastops’ MetalSCAN Oil Debris Monitoring sensors. MetalSCAN sensing technology offers a real-time condition indication of the health of critical components in the engine by enabling condition-based maintenance decisions rather than the outdated time-based methods.”

Image by Gastops.

Manufactured in Ottawa

In January 2024, Canadian Defence Review highlighted: “The company’s products, MetalSCAN and ChipCHECK … are designed, manufactured, and supported from its headquarters in Ottawa… With some 230 employees, Gastops now has offices in Halifax N.S, and Mount Pearl, NL, and a U.S. affiliate which services the U.S. DoD [Department of Defense].”

Government of Canada funding

In September 2005, Research Money reported: “GasTOPS Ltd, Ottawa, has received $1.4 million from Technology Partnerships Canada to undertake a $3.5-million project to further develop its MetalSCAN sensor technology to detect metallic debris in lubricating oil systems. The technology is being developed for specific applications related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.”

Gastops Ltd. also confirmed in May 2018 that “they are part of the Bell-led aerospace consortium to receive a $49.5 million Government of Canada investment” noting that “Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Minister Navdeep Baines announced the federal investment at the Aerospace Innovation Forum in Montreal” earlier that month.

Relationship with Carleton University

A December 2021 Ottawa Life article also notes: “Rooted in Ottawa, Gastops supports Carleton University’s Women in Engineering and Information Technology program, one of the first industry and government-sponsored programs of its kind in Canada.”

At CANSEC

Gastops has also highlighted that it participated in the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa this year.

CADSI member

Gastops is also listed as a member of the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), a business lobby group and the organizer of the annual CANSEC arms show.

The full article from The Breach can be read at Ottawa-based company is key to keeping Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza (September 12, 2024).

Further reading: 1,358 Palestinian human rights defenders may have been killed over the last 10 months (PBI-Canada, August 17, 2024).

Still from documentary: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) on Wet’suwet’en territory, November 2021.

Variety reports: “Netflix has acquired feature documentary Yintah for U.S., U.K. and Canadian distribution. Yintah will open in select theaters in the U.S. and U.K. and will stream on Netflix starting Oct. 18.”

The film was co-directed by Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano and Jennifer Wickham.

They say: “Mirroring the scope and ambition of the Wet’suwet’en fight to protect unsurrendered lands from theft, Yintah offers the definitive account of a historic wave of Indigenous resistance to Canadian colonialism. Drawing from more than a decade of verité footage, the film shadows two Wet’suwet’en leaders (Freda Huson and Molly Wickham) as they reoccupy and protect their homelands in the face of state violence.”

Michell notes: “The world needs to know the truth of what took place on Wet’suwet’en territory – how a determined community stood at gunpoint to protect Wet’suwet’en lands from theft.”

And Toledano adds: “As filmmakers, we found that Canada protects its image through force. Throughout the years our camera operators were held at gunpoint, repeatedly arrested and detained, subject to illegal police exclusion zones, surveillance, harassment, and even incarceration. Despite this repression, Yintah is a film where every consequential moment was captured, providing a remarkably cohesive account of a story that police worked hard to suppress.”

The trailer for the film can be seen here.