BAYAN Canada Calls for Justice in the Philippines

September 21st was the 37th anniversary of former Philippine dictator Marcos introduced a state of martial law in 1972.

A memorial was organized by BAYAN Canada to honour the memories of the thousands of victims who were disappeared, detained, tortured and killed during the Marcos dictatorship. The memorial was also used to remember over 1000 people who have been the victims of extrajudicial killings since current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001.

For more information:

http://bayan-canada-in-toronto.blogspot.com/

http://www.bayan.ph/

http://www.karapatan.org/

http://migrante.ca/

http://migranteontarioyouth.wordpress.com/

Sep 24, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Residents of Mankayan Evacuated

I was in Mankayan, in the Philippines, about a year and a half ago and one of the issues I reported on was the sinking and ground subsistence in the area as a result of irrisponsible underground mining practices. I recently recieved a message from the Cordillera People’s Alliance reporting that:

“Residents of Brgy* Aurora in Mankayan, Benguet province are now evacuating as a result of the continuing massive land subsidence in Mankayan, Benguet. Long years of Lepanto Mining’s underground large mining operations has created mazes of tunnels underground has been causing land subsidence as early as the 1970′s, the worse cases were in 2009. The disastrous land subsidence in 1999 buried alive a local resident whose body was never found.”

*[Brgy=Barangay=Municipality]

You can see more recent photos from Mankayan HERE

More information at the Cordillera People’s Alliance

Sep 02, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 1 Comment »

Tracking the Tar Sands Toxic Tour

The Polaris Institute and the Sierra Youth Coalition organized a tri-city toxic tour to track the tar sands oil, visiting communities surrounded by oil refineries in Sarnia, Detriot, and Windsor. According to TarSandsWatch, refineries pose a serious concern for human and ecosystem health causing increases in toxic air emissions, acid rain, and greenhouse gas emissions. The following are some photos of these toxic neighbors:

According to the 2006 census, Sarnia has a population of 71,419 making it the largest city located on Lake Huron. It has been involved in the oil industry since 1850 and is home to the second busiest US/Canada border crossing.

There are four refineries in Sarnia that use tar sands oil, including Imperial Oil, Shell, Suncor, and Nova Chemicals.

The Aamjiwnaang First Nation is surrounded with the Imperial, Shell, and Suncor refineries. The community has seen twice as many females born as males, and have reported feminization in turtles in the St. Clair River. Suncor refinery is ranked number one for releasing pollutants that are known or suspected to cause reproductive and developmental toxicants.

An Ecojustice report titled Exposing Canada’s Chemical Valley shows that in 2005, facilities within 25km of Sarnia released more than 131,000 tonnes of air pollution. That much air pollution (consisting of mercury, dioxins and other toxins) equates to a toxic load of more than 1,800 kilograms per Sarnia and Aamjiwnaang resident.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, employment in the Windsor-Sarnia region decreased by 6%. The number of unemployed rose by 15,400 increasing the unemployment rate up to 12.8% – the highest rate in Ontario’s economic regions.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has described Windsor as “the most polluted city in North America,” explaining that “[With] a lot of the industries in Detroit, the air emissions make their way to Windsor. Windsor has high cancer rates, particularly thyroid cancer. Many other respiratory illnesses that are associated with pollution are more prevalent here than elsewhere in Canada as Windsor is downwind from several strong polluters.”

The Weather Network has designated Windsor the “Smog Capital of Canada.”

People living around the Marathon refinery in Detroit, Michigan, “suffer disproportionally in terms of asthmatic rates, their sleep patterns are disrupted, and they have to contend with all the dirt generated by truck traffic in the area.” (Michigan Chronicle)

Many Detroit area residents, despite the economic opportunity, are weary of plans to expand the Marathon oil refinery. Detroit resident Lucille Campbell states: “I have a list of the chemicals that Marathon spews out and what cancers it causes. People are dying. People are sick … we want to have jobs and all these kinds of things, but we need for it to be done right. As far as I’m concerned, Marathon can go someplace else.”

Check out more photos from the Tracking the Tar Sands Tour, courtesy of Kathleen Black.

Aug 27, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 10 Comments »

Group Stages Mock Death Outside RBC Branches

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) organized a die-in outside two Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branches to protest the bank’s involvement in the tar sands. The following text is from a press release put out by RAN:

Group Stages Mock Death Outside RBC Branches in Protest of Bank’s Involvement in Dirty Oil

Feigned Collapses Represent Real Impacts of Tar Sands Destruction and Water Pollution of First Nations Throughout Athabasca Delta

 

 

Toronto - Customers visiting RBC’s newly opened downtown banking centre today were met with the sight of motionless bodies strewn along the pavement in front of the bank entrance. The bodies were those of approximately 15 Rainforest Action Network (RAN) activists who, in protest against RBC’s continued financing of Alberta tar sands production, feigned death after symbolically drinking contaminated tar sands water.

 

 

Leading all other Canadian banks, over the past four years RBC has provided $8.9 billion in financial support to companies operating in the tar sands. The tar sands, which are devastating the regional environment, contaminating water sources, undermining local First Nation’s people’s health and preventing Canada from meeting its climate commitments, have become a source of global shame for Canada. RAN is asking RBC to cease financing tar sands production and instead, provide financing for the production of renewable energy. 

 

 

“RBC, as Canada’s largest bank, is positioned to lead the country towards a future of energy sustainability and environmental stewardship,” says RAN activist Kimia Ghomeshi. “Instead, RBC has chosen to become the ‘ATM’ for companies seeking financing for dirty tar sands production. I think RBC’s customers would like to know what their bank is doing with the money in their savings and chequing accounts.”

 

 

Tar sands projects, which extract and process bitumen, a type of crude oil, have become the leading cause of CO2 emissions growth in Canada. A water intensive process, production has resulted in the creation of over 130 km2 of toxic tailing ponds, which are now estimated to leak 11 million litres of polluted water into the Athabasca watershed daily. Downstream from the tar sands, a Government of Alberta health study has confirmed that First Nations’ communities are now experiencing elevated levels of rare cancers.

 

 

The protesters emphasized that RBC’s support of tar sands production is not consistent with its public commitments to leadership in the areas of corporate environmental sustainability and water conservation. As Melina Laboucan-Massimo, who is a member of the Lubicon Cree Nation, asked at the recent RBC annual shareholders meeting, “If RBC is serious about supporting clean water, why are they financing projects that are contaminating the lakes and rivers around my community?”

 

 

RBC’s “Create” PR campaign touts RBC’s environmental credentials. In one TV ad publicizing the RBC ‘s Blue Water Project, we are asked to:

“Think of all the water in the world … oceans, rivers, lakes. It may seem like a lot but only a small fraction is fresh water, and there’s only so much to go around, which is why it is so important to protect it.”

In a November 2008 speech to an environmental group, CEO Gordon Nixon proclaimed that “water is the problem of the ages” and that “life depends on water. It’s high time we remembered that.”

 

 

Yet, in contrast to the $3 million in donations under the Blue Water Project in 2008, RBC in the same year financed an estimated minimum of $641 million with oil and gas companies operating in the Alberta tar sands. An estimate of RBC’s total fossil fuel financing based on public records shows over $50 billion financed across all business lines in 2007 (see: www.climatefriendlybanking.org) And since 2002, RBC has directly invested over $63 billion in tar sands companies such as Encana, Suncor, and Canadian Natural Resources.

 

 

According to industry information, toxic lakes in the tar sands stretching over 50 km leak over 11 million litres a day of contaminated water into the environment. First Nations downstream are growing increasingly concerned about water quality and elevated cancer levels and have sued the Province of Alberta over adverse environmental impacts. Tar sands are also Canada’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. (more at: www.ran.org/tarsands)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information:

Rainforest Action Network

www.tarsandswatch.org

Aug 27, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 1 Comment »

Picture(s) of the Day: Oil Refineries in Sarnia, Ontario

Today’s pictures of the day are of two of the many oil refineries in Sarnia, Ontario, taken during the Tri-city Tar Sands Youth Tour, organized by the Polaris Institute and the Sierra Youth Coalition.  I’ll be posting more from that tour and more over the next few days.

 

 

 

Aug 24, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 2 Comments »

2,545 Days: Bring Omar Khadr Home

A rally was organized outside the citizenship office in Toronto to keep Omar Khadr’s case in the media spotlight, and ensure that he is not forgotten.

Canadian citizen Omar Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured on July 27, 2002, by US forces in Ayub Khey, Afghanistan. Now 21 years old, Omar has been in US custody ever since.

Omar Khadr’s case is unique for the following reasons:

1) Omar is the first person in modern history to face a military commission for alleged crimes committed as a child.

2) He is the youngest prisoner held in extrajudicial detention by the United States.

3) Canada has refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of Amnesty International, UNICEF, Lawyers Against the War, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, the Canadian Bar Association and many Canadian jurists, social justice advocates and Members of Parliament.

4) Omar is the only Western citizen who still remains in Guantanamo Bay.

Source: www.BringOmarHome.ca

At Guantanamo Bay prison US officials have held Omar “virtually incommunicado” — no access to outsiders and in solitary confinement for over 3 years. Omar was not permitted any contact with a lawyer until November 2004, more than two years after being captured.

US Armed Forces personnel have subjected Omar, throughout his imprisonment to a variety of illegal treatments. Reported abuses to which he has been subjected include:

• not informed of his rights
• short shackled — wrists and ankles tied together and the cuffs bolted to the floor
• his hands tied above a door frame for hours
• had cold water thrown on him
• had a bag placed over his head and was threatened with military dogs
• forced to perform painful exercises while short shackled
• threatened with forced nakedness
• forced to urinate on himself while in stress positions
• detained illegally and illegally held incommunicado, except for the November 2004 visit from a lawyer
• kept in solitary confinement
• forced into stress positions for periods of hours, e.g. forced to lie on his stomach with hands and feet cuffed together behind his back
• forced to provide involuntary statements
• forced to sit, during interrogations, on an extremely cold floor
• had his body dragged back and forth, while short shackled, through the urine and pine oil in order to clean the floor with his body
• repeatedly lifted and dropped while short shackled as a punishment for ‘poor performance’
• threatened with rape/sexual violence
• refused opportunity to say prayers
• held in a cell that is ‘freezing cold’ 24 hours a day that Omar says is causing him shortness of breath and the sensation of not being able to get enough oxygen
• exposed to continuous electric light in his cell
• he has found partially dissolved tablets and/or powder at the bottom of a glass given to him by his captors. He says the pills produce various effects such as sleepiness, dizziness, alertness
• being denied adequate medical treatment
• left bound in uncomfortable stress positions until he soiled himself

source: Omar Khadr: The Continuing Scandal of Illegal Detention and Torture by US Forces in Guantanamo Bay

Omar has now spent over a third of his life in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. Canada is the only Western government to refuse to request the repatriation of one of its citizens from Guantanamo.

On March 23 the House of Commons passed a motion calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to request Omar’s repatriation. On April 23 the federal court ruled that the Canadian government must act immediately to repatriate Omar. It is now the will of a majority of Parliamentarians, all three opposition parties and a growing majority of Canadians that Omar be brought home.

Shaanaz Gokool, of Amnety International, addressed the rally saying:

“Increasingly disturbing to Amnesty International has been the fundamental lack of protection and the complicity of the Canadian government. That due to our government’s actions, or inaction, [Omar Khadr has] been tortured by foreign security services.  …  We ask today, where has the rule of law in Canada gone? [This is] not about undermining the legitimacy of foreign governments, or the Canadian courts interfering with foreign affairs; this is about the role of our government and the value of Canadian citizenship. Why do we have to rely on the Canadian courts to demand that our own government treat all of our citizens with the same protection and concern for their human rights. It is not acceptable to assist some citizens and virtually abandon others in the face of ongoing human rights concerns. Our government needs to deal with the reality that they are accountable for truth, justice, and due process to all Canadian citizens…

Shaanaz Gokool contintued:

“…As we stand here today and count off all the ticks accross here [on the banner] that represent each day young Omar Khadr has been detained by the US government to today’s date. We are forced to acknowledge, with this powerful visualization, that this has gone on for far too long and enough is enough!

How many days will I be detained by a foreign nation state before the Canadian government intercedes on my behalf? How many days will you be detained before the Canadian government comes to your aid? How many instances of torturemust I endure, instances that our Canadian governemnt knows that I have endured, before my government comes to my aid? These are the questions we must all ask ourselves, it is a long over-due discussion that needs to happen in every home in our country. What is the value of Canadian citizenship, if our own government will not protect our human rights when we are abroad?

Shaanaz Gokool continued

“Omar Khadr forces us to take a hard took at who we are as Canadian citizens and to demand that the Canadian government do better by us. Omar Khadr is not a random person who has been detained by the US authorities for the past seven years — Omar Khadr is a Canadian. He is you, he is me, and he is all of us, and he is a benchmark for how we expect to be protected, or not, by our Canadian government. Amnesty International calls on the Canadian governemnt to reclaim our position on the worlds’ stage as a human rights defender. Charity, they say, begins at home. Bring Omar Khadr home!”

James Loney, who was once held hostage while doing humanitarian work in Iraq before being rescued in a daring raid by multinational forces, also raised questions about why “some citizens get help, others don’t”, citing the cases of Brenda Martin, who was imprisoned in Mexico before being brought home by the Canadian government, and Abousfian Abdelrazik, who was left in Sudan for six years before finally returning home to Canada this month. “There seems to be two standards of citizenship” Loney concluded.

“I was a Canadian citizen who was in trouble abroad, I went to Baghdad on a peace delegation, contrary to a travel advisory, and unbeknownst to me at the time, our government mobilized vast resources to assist my family to try and secure my release and sent a team to Baghdad … and I was astounded, amazed, I had no idea that the government would do this for me, that I would be claimed in this way.

“…and it really angers me that there are two standards of citizenship. What is it based on, is it colour of skin, or if you were born in Canada or somewhere else, or your last name, or your religion, or what? What is it? Why do some citizens merit the protection of the charter and others do not? In my view, and I think in the view of most Canadians, there is no such thing as second-class citizenship, or a two-tier citizenship. A citizen is a citizen is a citizen! And if we allow even one of us, even one of us, to have our rights trampled upon and abused and neglected, then we are all at risk. And we can’t allow that to happen to anyone.”

Professor Audrey Macklin:

“The last couple of years I’ve had the privilege of working with Omar Khadr’s US Military Defense Council, who has been representing Omar Khadr before the military commissions…

“Omar Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured. A 15 year old who has been detained for seven years without charge, in conditions that amount to torture and cruel and unusual and degrading treatment. Does the fact that he has parents who are pariahs, or that he happened to be somebody who is a minority religion, or that he is being detained by Canada’s biggest ally, are those reasons that justify what otherwise I think we would all immediately and obviously regard as totally unacceptable?

Professor Audrey Macklin continued:

“It shouldn’t be necessary to talk about the particular allegations against Omar Khadr … but nevertheless, the Harper government counts on the allegations against Omar Khadr and aspects of his identity and relationships and his familial history to somehow erase from peoples’ minds his status as a Canadian citizen, if not his identity as a human being. So let me just say a couple of words about these allegations, although I repeat it shouldn’t be necessary to do so: Omar Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade at a US soldier in the course of a battle.

“When I started working on this case, I was willing to take as given that maybe that happened. Only since that time have I learned that the evidence that he threw a grenade is, in fact, severely compromised. It initially came from a report written by a US soldier present at the battle who later admitted that the initial report he wrote identified somebody else as throwing the grenade, not Omar Khadr, and that that report was actually changed afterwards to identify Omar Khadr as the culprit. Why? Because the other person was summarily executed on the battlefield. Subsequently, and only years after Omar Khadr’s detention, was it possible for defence council to commission an expert who could examine the shell fragments that were found in the body of the deceased US soldier, only to discover that there might be reason to believe that the grenade that killed him was friendly fire, because it was more consistent with grenades fragments from a US made grenade, rather than Soviet/Russian-made grenades…

Professor Audrey Macklin continued:

“Something else about Omar Khadr: he has never been tried. All of the allegations against him, after seven years or a third of his life, remain as mere allegations. These are things that seem to have slipped from notice. A last point about the facts: one of the scare tactics, I think, that the Harper government has used to justify its inertia on this case is that ‘well, what are we gonna do with him? We can’t try him for a crime when he gets back here and, my gosh, we can’t have this man walking the streets!’

“Well whatever one makes of that kind of claim, you should know that his defense council and others ahve worked hard to prepare a program of reintegration and rehabilitation for Omar Khadr if and when he comes back to Canada. Knowing that, if not his life before capture, surely his life after capture; seven years in virtual solitary confinement, as a youth with no access to education, psychological treatement, anything that could be regarded as age-appropriate treatment, surely have left somebody who is profoundly damaged. But know that his has been taken into account, and that people have given long and hard thought to what to be done that would make Omar Khadr’s reintegration and rehabilitation possible…

Professor Audrey Macklin continued:

“You may think that you don’t face the same risks as Omar Khadr, because he may be a Canadian citizen but hey, if you get in trouble abroad, well, you got a different profile than Omar Khadr. And it’s true that the Canadian government takes the position that it holds no obligation to any Canadian citizen, not just no obligation to Omar Khadr, but no obligation to any of us. So you may think that ‘ah that’s ok if I get in trouble, the Canadian government will come to my aid because, afterall, I’m not likely to do the things that Omar Khadr is alleged to have done, and I kinda look different, I kinda sound different.’

“Well are you willing to take that gamble? More importantly, should the rule of law be a crapshoot? Should your human rights depend on whether at a particular moment in time the government of Canada likes the way you look or sound or likes what it knows about you? The rule of law is not a gamble, human rights are not a popularity contest. Bring back Omar Khadr now! For his sake and for all of our sakes as Canadian citizens!”

For more information:

www.BringOmarHome.ca

Amnesty International

Jul 15, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 8 Comments »

The Effects of Climate Change are the Greatest Threat to Humanity – Oxfam

Oxfam’s recent report, Suffering the Science – Climate Change, People and Poverty, argues that the effects of climate change pose the greatest threat to humanity.  The following are a few excerpts from the report, illustrated with some of my photos:

The report combines the latest scientific observations on climate change, and evidence from Oxfam’s work in almost 100 countries around the world.

“Women living in poverty, who already face a daily struggle to survive, are being hit the hardest,” – Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada.

A survey of top climate scientists, also published by Oxfam, said poor people living in low-lying coastal areas, island atolls and mega deltas and farmers are most at risk from climate change because of flooding and prolonged drought. The scientists named South Asia and Africa as climate change hotspots.

More people on the planet depend on rice than on any other crop. Rice plants react very quickly to temperature change: they show a 10% drop in yield for every 1ºC rise in minimum temperature. In parts of the Philippines, farmers have had to stop growing rice completely during the droughts caused by the ‘El Nino’ years, and river delta and coastal rice production has already suffered badly accross South-East Asia because of storms that overwhelm sea defences and salt-water intrusion into paddy fields.

An Asian Development Bank report warns that rice production in the Philippines could drop by 50-70 per cent as early as 2020.

Crops are only one part of the food story. Fish stocks are also endangered by climate change — threatening the loss of a significant source of protein and income for the 2.6billion people who get 20 per cent of their protein from fish. In many countries, dependence on fish consumption increases with poverty. In addition, 500 million people in developing countries depend — directly or indirectly — on fisheries for their livelihoods.

Both wild and farmed fish are threatened by a whole range of climate-driven problems — from raised sea levels and floods that damage fish farms on coasts and in river areas, to the increasin acidification of the oceans as a result of GHG emissions. A recent study suggests that 90 per cent of the food resources of the ‘coral triangle’ of the western Pacific will be gone by 2050, potentially affecting 150million people.

In the last few months, several bodies including the Commonwealth countries’ health ministers have concluded that climate change is the greatest threat to health globally this century. The poorest and hottest countries will suffer the most. The loss of healthy life years as a result of global environmental change is predicted to be 500 times greater amongst poor African populations than amongst European populations. Climate change-driven alterations in patterns of disease and illness are already occurring globally, and 99 per cent of the casualties of climate change now are in developing countries.

Rapid urbanization — which can be spurred by climatic factors as people seek new livelihoods in cities — brings disease with it. Urban sprawls often lack health infrastructure, and migrant workers may not be able to afford care and medicine. Some of the worst health statistics emanate from cities.

Small increases in temperatures hit human beings hard. None of us, no matter how well acclimatised, can do heavy work effectively above 35ºC or so. A couple of degrees higher than that, and our bodies soon get exhausted. Once core body temperature passes 38ºC, heat stress may set in. The body tries to cool down by sweating; dehydration may follow. People’s work rate slows. Ultimately, production and incomes decline.

“Working under the open sky during summer has become nearly impossible in the past four years or so — for farmers and their cattle alike.”  — Mir Ahmed, Bangladeshi farmer.

Finding and transporting clean water is a central occupation in the working day of many people in developing countries, especially women. When a community is short of food, or suffering an outbreak of desease, there are immediate ways in which they can be helped. However, scarcity of water is a much greater problem. According to the UN Development Programme, over one billion people lack access to safe water today, and that number can only increase.

2009 is one of the most important years in human history. In Copenhagen in December, politicians will meet at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Climate Change Convention. This meeting will decide whether we face a future on a hot glowering planet, or whether we set a course for climate safety for everyone.

see the full report for more information and references.

Jul 08, 2009 | Picture of the Day, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues | 12 Comments »

Grassroots Reporting and Photos from the Streets of Honduras

Sandra Cuffe is on the ground reporting from the streets of Honduras.

Sandra is a freelance journalist, photographer, contributing member of DominionPaper.ca & MediaCoop.ca, and Honduras correspondent for UpsideDownWorld.org

You can follow her reporting from Honduras through the following:

Honduran cell = (504) 9525-6778 (Available for interviews in English, French, and Spanish)
Canadian cell = (514) 5… [while in Honduras, voicemail & text messages only!]
public email = sandra.m.cuffe@gmail.com
twitter = SandraCuffeHN
facebook = Sandra Cuffe
photos = http://flickr.com/photos/lavagabunda
video [content up soon!] = http://www.youtube.com/user/lavagabunda27
Honduras blog [content up soon!] = http://hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com
Dominion blog = http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/sandra
Akwesasne blog = http://akwesasnecounterspin.wordpress.com

Jul 07, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

IDP Awareness Day

IDP Awareness Day is an educational initiative to raise awareness about the plight of the world’s internally displaced people.

IDP stands for Internally Displaced Person. IDPs are persons forced or coerced to flee their homes but whom, unlike refugees, continue to live within their country’s borders. They are often obliged to leave their homes as a result of, or in order to, avoid the effects of conflict, violations of human rights, and generalized violence. 26 million people worldwide currently live in situations of internal displacement as a result of conflicts. Although internally displaced people now outnumber refugees by two to one, their plight receives far less international attention. (see:  http://www.internal-displacement.org/)

The following images are of a number of IDPs I met last summer in Tanzania, in these cases the IDPs were displaced in order to make way for large scale multinational gold mines:

For more information:

Someone Else’s Treasure – Tanzania

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

Jun 26, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Pride Week

This is Pride Week in Toronto so I have just added a new gallery of my photos from the Pride Parades from 2008 and 2007.

Jun 22, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 1 Comment »

Picture of the Day: Escape

Jun 16, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples in Peru

A protest was held outside th Peruvian Consulate in Toronto where about thiry people came to show their solidarity with the indigenous peoples in Peru.

The following letter was delivered to the Consul General of the Republic of Peru by the Latin American Solidarity Network – Toronto:

Toronto, June 10, 2009

Gabriel Garcia Pike, Consul General of the Republic of Peru

10 St. Mary Street, #301

Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 1P9

Dear Sir,

The Latin American Solidarity Network of Toronto conveys to you its most emphatic protest against the unjustified massacre carried out by your country’s repressive forces on June 5 against the aboriginal people of Abya Yala in Peru’s Amazon Region.

We have learned that Peru’s security forces, sent to break up a peaceful demonstration by indigenous people, murdered at least 28 of them. The Natives were striving to preserve their ancestral territories from seizure by transnational corporations…

Given the gravity of these developments, the Latin American Solidarity Network requests that you transmit to your government the following demands:

1. The national government must withdraw its military forces from Native territory.

2. The civil and military authorities responsible for this massacre must be prosecuted.

3. Peru’s Amazon territories must be preserved as a natural sanctuary, free of interference by transnational corporations who seek only to maximize their gain at the cost of the destruction of nature.

4. The fundamental cause of the Native protests is the increasingly damaging effects of Peru’s free trade agreements with Canada and the US on the economy, lives, and culture of the indigenous peoples. These treaties should be canceled.

We thank you for conveying to your government this indignant protest.

Yours truly,

Carlos Torchia, Coordinator

Latin American Solidarity Network – Toronto

contace: ctorchia39(a)aol(dot)com

The following photos were taken on May 22nd, 2009, in New York City at a similar protest outside the Peruvian Mission in NYC.

For more information:

Ben Powless reporting directly from Peru.

Another Day in the Life of Peru and Canada by Bob Lovelace

Police Violently Attack Peaceful Indigenous Blockade in Peru

For more background information:

www.amazonwatch.org

For something you can do right now:

Avaaz

Amnesty International

Jun 11, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Picture(s) of the Day: Moment of Discovery at the UNPFII

A moment of discovery for one of the 2,000+ indigenous peoples attending the eighth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as she figures out how to use the earphone translator.

See more on the Eighth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Jun 02, 2009 | Picture of the Day, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues | Leave A Comment »

George W Bush in Toronto

George W Bush is speaking at Toronto’s Metro Convention Centre today. Protesters will be gathering outside.

In a letter to Prime Minister Steven Harper, Lawyers Against the War insist that Bush either be barred from the country or charged with war crimes upon arrival.

A few exerpts:

Dear Prime Minister,

…

We write to advise you of your duty to immediately take all necessary steps to prevent George W. Bush from entering Canada, in accordance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), s. 35 (1) (a).

If George W. Bush enters Canada we demand that he be arrested, as being inadmissible under the IRPA and as a person suspected of torture, and then either prosecuted in Canada for torture or extradited to another country that is willing and able to prosecute as required by the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 7 (CAT).

We remind you that the failure to take one of these actions violates Canada’s international law obligations. In addition such inaction denies remedies to victims, ensures impunity for perpetrators and encourages other instances of torture.  For example, reports released this month conclude that torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq remains “routine and commonplace.” (Iraq Ministry of Human Rights and Human Rights Watch)

George W. Bush stands accused of authoring, supervising and directing the most egregious war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, during his eight year term as President and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.  As such he is inadmissible to Canada under the ‘Human Rights and International Law Violations’ sections of the ‘Inadmissibility Division’ of the IRPA.

Inadmissibility under the IRPA, s. 35(1)(a) is established when there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the person seeking to enter Canada has been involved directly or indirectly in one or more of the impugned acts, namely gross human rights violations, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Torture is a war crime, a crime against humanity and a gross violation of non-derogable rights.  The Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted reasonable grounds as ‘something more than a suspicion and less that proof to the balance of probabilities.’  Evidence of Bush’s involvement in authorizing widespread, long term and brutal torture far exceeds the ‘reasonable grounds’ test.

Evidence that U.S. officials tortured — sometimes to death — prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Bagram prison, already overwhelming, continues to mount.  Human rights and legal advocates around the world are unanimous in citing the legal duty under CAT to prosecute Bush and other senior members of the Bush administration. An Appendix to this letter lists some of the evidence of Bush involvement in torture.

Read the Lawyers Against the War letter in full at www.rabble.ca

May 29, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 1 Comment »

Indigenous Leaders confront Barrick Gold II: Official Statements

Indigenous leaders Jethro Tulin, from Papua New Guinea, and Sergio Campusano, from Chile, traveled to Canada this month to attend the April 29 shareholders’ meeting of Barrick Gold.  Once inside the meeting they confronted Barrick about human rights abuses and environmental degradation on their lands.

Complaints included killings, rapes and the arbitrary detentions of local village people in the Papua New Guinea highlands by Barrick security guards, and  the failure to consult the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous community, who hold title to the land of that proposed mine, as well as other areas that Barrick is exploring.

The following are the full statements prepared by Jethro Tulin and Sergio Campusano, which they read out to the shareholders at Barrick’s annual general meeting:

STATEMENT: Jethro Tulin’s testimony read to Barrick shareholders at their 2009 Annual General Meeting
April 29th, 2009

My name is Jethro Tulin and I hold a proxy from Mr. David Wurfel.

Mr. Munk, I am an indigenous Ipili from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. I have traveled half way across the world to speak out against the grave human rights and environmental conditions my people face because of your Porgera mine. I came to this meeting last year as well, telling your shareholders and Barrick’s Board of Directors about the situation in Porgera, but all questions from shareholders were censored from Barrick’s webcast of the meeting.

Since I spoke at this meeting last year, there have been 5 more killings of indigenous community members by your security guards and more women have been raped by your security guards. These issues are now being investigated by the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings at the United Nations.

The toxic waste you continue to dump into our 800 kilometer long river system (which would be illegal in Canada) has caused the Norwegian Government to divest its pension fund from more than 230 million Canadian dollars worth of shares in Barrick Gold and to report that its decision was based on its “assessment that investing in the company entails an unacceptable risk of the Fund contributing to serious environmental damage.”

Now, under the influence of your company, the Papua New Guinea government has imposed a virtual State of Emergency in Porgera. When I came to Canada last week I received reports from Porgera that landowners who have spoken out against your mine are now being targeted. This week, and while I am standing here before you, their houses are being burnt down and they are fleeing for fear of their life.

Days after your Annual Meeting last year I met with your Senior executives Peter Sinclair and Vince Borg, and a commitment was made to establish dialogue and find a way to address the issues. But this dialogue has never taken place. Instead the human rights and environmental abuses we have been suffering for many years have continued.

Mr. Munk, your mine has destroyed our land, our water, our safety and our ability to feed ourselves. We know that we can no longer live on our ancestral land. We know that we must leave our place so that our children can have a future. But rather than offer us fair terms for our relocation you are calling for military action and our houses and lands are being torched.

My questions for you, Mr. Munk, are on behalf of the Porgera Alliance, a coalition of human rights activists and Porgera landowners:

1. Will Barrick immediately call on the government of Papua New Guinea to stop the burning of houses and the threats against landowners being perpetrated by its mobile forces and platoons against Porgerans on your mine’s Special Mine Lease Area?

2. Will Barrick agree to move the more than 5,000 families who live within your mine lease area in a way that is fair and will provide us an opportunity to be healthy, to feed our families, and to educate our children?

3. Will Barrick finally pay fair compensation to the families who have lost their loved ones to the guns of your security forces, to the rape victims, to the families who have lost members in your open pit and in the waste dumps and who have drowned in your river of tailings?

4. Will Barrick finally carry out the recommendations of the 1996 CSIRO report and stop dumping mine waste into our river?

STATEMENT: Testimony of Sergio Campusano, prepared for Barrick Gold’s 2009 Annual General Meeting

I am the elected president of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos in my second term. I am holding the proxy from Louise Constantine.

The Chilean part of the Pascua Lama gold mining mega-project is located on our ancestral land to which we have title. This was not taken into consideration in the series of negociations that approved this project in 2001.

This mega project initially included the removal of 3 glaciers that are part of the principle
fresh water reserves that feed the Huasco river. This generated strong public opposition opinion and a supposed change in the design of the project. In the latest assesment of the Chilean Environmental Authority the exectution of the project is conditioned on not affecting direct changes to the Toro I, Toro II, and Esperanza glaciers that are found on the Pascua Lama gold deposit. Despite having made this commitment, in 2005 the Chilean General Directorate of Water tested and proved that these three glaciers have shrunk by 50 to 70% as a direct result of Barrick’s actions. Barrick Gold has not been sanctioned as a result of this and continues to work in this zone.

Barrick Gold is preventing access to our community members their traditional land. Even when there is a public policy that prevents keeping the main road closed, this road is kept closed and permanently  monitored by security guards.

After exhausting all the legal avenues in our country to oppose this project and prevent the usurpation of our lands and the consequent pollution of the Huasco Valley, in 2006 we decided to sue the State of Chile for the Pascua Lama project in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Now, Barrick Gold seeks to extend facilities to other parts of our territories including the top of the Chollay and Pachuy mountains, sectors which is currently conducting mining explorations.

The image of this company has been tarnished by the harmful impacts on the environment and communities that it has generated around the world. As a way to improve its public image, it has the public face of Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Relations. According to these policies, Barrick Gold requires the approval of local communities, but our community, which are the legal owners of the land where the projects are located have not authorized the company to
perform their work because they do not respect the natural balance of our lands and the maintenance of our culture. This is why we have repeatedly expressed our rejection of the development of mega-mining in our territory.

As a result of this, the mining company Barrick Gold has for several years conducted a process of reinvention of ethnic Diaguita which is intended to make the public believe that they have the support of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos. In this process the company has brought outside professionals to conduct training on the Diaguita’s own ancestral traditions and has manipulated these teachings for their own convenience, inventing a nonexistent Diaguita culture and denying the ethnicity of our community. They have raised false leaders, who are now attending meetings with the company and appearing in Barrick’s newsletters, and have discredited our real leaders, creating irreconcilable divisions among our people and weakening our neighbors and community’s identity.

Questions:

1. How is it possible that Barrick claims to be environmentally responsible despite the study conducted by the Chilean Water Direction showing the glaciers were reduced by 70% as a result of your actions?

2. How can Barrick claim to be accountable to the Diaguita if the representatives that Barrick chooses to negotiate with are not the Senior elected Leaders of the Diaguita Community?

3. At what cost to humanity and our mother earth will Barrick Gold Corporation continue to destroy our culture and heritage for only one objective: making money

4. Have you ever asked yourself about what kind of damage are you doing to humanity and mother earth to be part of Barrick Gold Corporation?

For more information:  www.ProtestBarrick.net

May 16, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 1 Comment »

RoyalOr Stakes a Claim on Mont-Royal

On Monday May 11th, the mining company RoyalOr formally staked a claim to a large portion of the Mont-Royal park in the heart of downtown Montreal with plans to develop a large scale open-pit gold mine.

RoyalOr is composed of members of various communities around the world confronting projects developed by Canadian mining companies — including Barrick Gold, Goldcorp, New Gold, and Osisko.  Affected community representatives came to Montreal from the Valle de Siria, Honduras; Valle de Huasco, Chile; Porgera, Papua New Guinea; San Luis Potosi, Mexico; and Malartic, Quebec.

By starting an open-pit mining project that would destroy the heart and defining feature of Montreal, the people behind RoyalOr illustrated the legal and governmental support Canadian mining companies enjoy here and abroad.

The act of staking a claim to Mont-Royal’s mineral rights is perfectly legal within the regulations set out in Quebec’s mining code and the claim will be duly filed within the regulations set out in Quebec’s mining code with the Ministere des Resources Naturelles du Quebec.

According to the members of RoyalOr, the problem begins here in Canada where 75% of the worlds mining and exploration companies are headquartered and receive the lion’s share of their financing.  Hundreds of millions of dollars come from our public pension funds such as the Canadian Pension Plan and the Caisse de Depot et de Placements.  They take advantage of strong tax incentives and the permissive rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange. They also benefit from active financial support of the Canadian government through its Crown Corporation, Export Development Canada, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and strong diplomatic support.

Canada still has no mechanism to hold its mining companies to legal accountability. Communities that have seen their livelihoods lost and their lands and waters contaminated have no means of seeking justice in Canadian courts. In Canada, debate over whether and how to regulate the mining industry has been stifled by SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits launched by Barrick Gold and Banro Corp. against the authors and publisher of the book Noir Canada. The book quotes numerous allegations of violations and abuses committed by Canadian companies in Africa.

“We feel powerless against these mining companies that come to our lands to destroy our heritage and consume and pollute our natural resources. As natives of our lands, we do not like these companies coming in to take away the very basis of our traditions and our family economy,” explains Albadina Carmona, of the Diaguita Huascoaltino people in the Huasco Valley, Chile.

Steps towards a solution:

In the view of the various organizations that participated in this event, there are ways provide communities with leverage, whether they are facing mining projects here or overseas:

1)  Mining code reform.

2) Assuring the accountability of Canadian mining companies operating abroad, through the improvement and then passing of Bill C-300

3) Providing space for a public debate free of the fear of SLAPP suite (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) by the rapid passing and application of the Quebec government’s “Loi no. 9″

For more on communities impacted by the global mining industry, see:  Someone Else’s Treasure

May 14, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 5 Comments »

Picture(s) of the Day: Fast Facts

Did you know?

May 13, 2009 | Graphic Design, Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

No One is Illegal: May Day Action

Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Toronto to demand justice for migrant workers.  The march was organized by No One is Illegal.

According to flyers handed out by No One is Illegal volunteers:

“Under the Tories a broken immigration system has been shattered. Half of all people arriving in Canada today are on temporary visas without a path to permanent immigration status. Over half a million others live without any status.

People without status are denied education, health, shelter or food while working and paying municipal, provincial and federal taxes.

Canada uses detentions, deportations, temporary work programs and US style immigration raids to tear families apart, create fear amongst and against non-status peoples and pit workers against one another.

Canada, and Toronto in particular, are responsible for causing migration. Here hide some of the worst mining companies in the world that steal the livelihoods of millions, forcing them off their lands and out of their homes.

Canada is occupying Afghanistan and Haiti and is participating in the terrorizing of the people of Iraq, Colombia, Mexico, Palestine and Tamil Eelam among others.

Wars, greedy corporations and racist economic policies force migrants to come here to be used as disposable labour in this sweatshop city.

We refuse to be silent spectators as our communities are robbed and attacked. We refuse to be criminalized and made invisible. Today we will be seen. No One is Illegal!”

For more information about Sergio’s and Jethro’s struggle against Barrick Gold:  Indigenous Leaders Confront Barrick Gold

For more on why there is a rapidly growing global resistance movement against Canadian mining:  Someone Else’s Treasure

For more on the Philipine migrant workers’ rights see:  SIKLAB-Ontario

For more on the Tamil’s struggle in Sri Lanka:  www.savetamils.org

I’ll post more on the arrests later. For now I’d rather focus on why people were there in the first place.

May 02, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Supporters show their Solidarity with Affected Communities outside Barrick AGM

Over twenty supporters gathered outside Barrick Gold’s annual general meeting to show their solidarity with the indigenous leaders who were confronting shareholders inside the AGM.  With large banners, information hand-outs, and loud drumming and chanting, the protesters explained that they were there to draw attention to the complaints being raised by Jethro Tulin and Sergio Campusano (see: Indigenous Leaders Confront Barrick Gold), who travelled great distances to represent indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea and Chile.

For more on the complaints raised by the indigenous leaders see:  Indigenous Leaders Confront Barrick Gold

for more information see: www.ProtestBarrick.net

see Sandra’s blog at the Dominion Newspaper for more

For more information about Norway’s divestment from Barrick Gold see: VICTORY! Norwegian Pension Fund Divests from Barrick Gold

For more about Noir Canada:  slapp.ecosociete.org

For more on Barrick Gold:  www.barrick.com

For more on the complaints raised by the indigenous leaders see:  Indigenous Leaders Confront Barrick Gold

Apr 30, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Indigenous Leaders confront Barrick Gold I

Indigenous leaders from Papua New Guinea and Chile traveled to Canada this week to attend the April 29 shareholders’ meeting of Barrick Gold. Where they confronted Barrick about human rights abuses and environmental degradation on their lands.

Complaints include killings, rapes and arbitrary detentions of local village people in the Papua New Guinea highlands by Barrick security guards. For Barrick’s Pascua Lama project on the border of Chile and Argentina, Barrick failed to consult the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous community, who hold title to the land of that proposed mine, as well as other areas that Barrick is exploring.

“Barrick Gold says that they want to help the poor, but we don’t want their helping hand, we want their hands off our mountains,” says Sergio Campusano, president of the Diaguita Huascoaltino Indigenous and Agricultural community who are struggling against Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama mine and other exploration in the area. Barrick recognized Campusano as the legitimate leader of the Huascoaltino community until he asked Barrick to leave the area. Now the corporation is promoting Diaguita from other areas as legitimate leaders who will provide consent to the project.

In 2006, Sergio’s community lodged a complaint against the State of Chile for the Pascua Lama project in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

According to Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer of the Akali Tange Association, a human rights organization in Papua New Guinea, “Barrick’s Porgera Mine is a textbook case of what can go wrong when large-scale mining confronts indigenous peoples, ignoring the impacts of its projects and resorting to goon squads when people rebel against it. This outrages the conscience of local Indigenous communities, especially when the mine is right next to our homes; my people are exposed to dangerous chemicals like cyanide and mercury; some of our people drown in the tailings and waste during floods; and fishing stocks, flora and fauna are depleted down the river systems, leading to indigenous food sources being threatened.”

As Mr. Tulin traveled to Canada to attend Barrick’s AGM, the Papua New Guinea government sent 200 heavily armed troops to the Porgera area. This effective State of Emergency in Porgera was motivated by situation reports presented by Barrick (PNG) Limited, according to Laigap Porgera Member of Parliament Phillip Kikala. Reports and photos received from Porgera landowners this week testify that these troops have burnt down 80 houses in one village bordering the mine site and are now targeting houses in other nearby villages.

“Barrick Gold and the Government of Papua New Guinea must immediately start to address the catastrophic problem in Porgera pro-actively rather than over reacting with high level security installations and branding it as a law and order problem. Calling a State of Emergency is not the right method to fix these extensive and irreversible damages, the ordinary people are already victims of what as gone wrong.”

Last year the Norwegian Pension Fund divested $230 million CAD from Barrick Gold for ethical concerns related to the Porgera Mine.

Native to the rocky highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Jethro Tulin is a popular organiser and founder of the Akali Tange Association (ATA), a human rights organization documenting abuses at the Porgera mine, owned by Toronto’s Barrick Gold.

Jethro has been organizing within and outside the Barrick’s Porgera mine since its inception (then owned by Placer Dome. In 1989, he registered Porgera’s first mine workers union and became its first secretary. Years later, after spending time abroad and involved in other aspects of Papua New Guinea’s nascent union movement, Jethro returned to Porgera to find the situation with the mine and the surrounding villages had worsened dramatically. So, in 2003, he founded the ATA, which has operated in Porgera with an all-volunteer staff and material support from friends, victims’ relatives, and even local businessmen and officials.

here’s a good youtube clip of Jethro speaking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUY-ift-6ts

Sergio Campusano is the President of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous and Agricultural Community. Since he assumed the role of president, Sergio has been fighting against the greed of the mining corporations and the local agriculture companies in order to mantain the rights of his people. He has participated pressing charges in countless times even against the Chilean State and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He’s  conscious they’re fighting not only to represent the living, but also the ancestral thought of preservation of the ecosystem for the entire world, for the children of us all. In this clear idea is impregnated the principles of AUTO-DESTINY, AUTONOMY, and the right of the indigenous peoples of AUTODETERMINATION.

He will be accompanied by Albadina Carmona Villegas, an elder of his community.

While Jethro Tulin and Sergio Campusano were speaking to shareholders inside the AGM, more than twenty supporters were rallying outside the AGM to show their solidarity with the affected communities.

For more information on Sergio Campusano’s and Jethro Tulin’s trips to Canada:

www.ProtestBarrick.net

For more on the social and environmental impacts of the global mining industry:

Someone Else’s Treasure

Apr 29, 2009 | Picture of the Day | 6 Comments »

Save Lake Cowal: the sacred heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation

From SaveLakeCowal.org:

Every major gold rush has meant death and devastation for local people at the hands of fortune-seekers. It is now estimated that 50% of gold produced in the next 20 years will come from Indigenous Peoples lands. The fight to save Lake Cowal from the hands of the worlds largest gold producer, Barrick Gold is no exception.

Lake Cowal is the largest inland lake in New South Wales, Australia, and the sacred heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation. It has been a site of ceremony and gatherings for over 4000 years. There are thousands upon thousands of artefacts and relics at the Lake Cowal site that are a testimony to the longevity of traditional living in the area.

Barrick Gold and their predecessors never properly consulted with Aboriginal traditional owners from the region, many of whom declared their opposition to the Lake Cowal gold mine project.

Barrick Gold and its predecessors ignored instructions from Wiradjuri Traditional Owners from the region, many of whom have declared their opposition to the Lake Cowal gold mine project and demanded that the cultural objects, including marked trees and thousands of ancient stone artefacts, be left where they are.

To clear the way for the mine, Barrick desecrated the sacred ground and felled river red gum trees and laid water pipes and an electric transmission line. Dozens of trees that sheltered Wiradjuri people from the elements for hundreds of years and held historic markings of generations have been eradicated.

Many artefacts on site remain vulnerable or have been damaged or destroyed as Traditional Owners have not been given an opportunity to collect them.

The artefacts hold individual significance, but more importantly, they are parts of a larger landscape of spiritual significance, and piecemeal collection compromises the integrity of the whole site. A few Wiradjuri sites in the area have been dated to between 2000 and 4000 years old, making them contemporaries of the Egyptian pyramids. Much more archaeological work, however, needs to be done and, according to the Wiradjuri, much older dates are likely as Lake Cowal is a very ancient lake. Archaeologists and assistants working for Barrick have reputedly collected more than 10 000 Aboriginal stone artefacts from the mining lease as well as removing a number of highly significant Aboriginal scarred trees.

To learn more about the Wiradjuri Nation and their ongoing struggle against the world’s largest gold mining corporation see:

www.savelakecowal.org

www.protestbarrick.net

Apr 28, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Picture of the Day: No Evil

Apr 23, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Picture(s) of the Day: Earth Week

With Earth Day coming up on Wednesday, April 22nd, here are a few pictures from last years’ Earth Day celebrations in downtown Toronto.

Apr 20, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »

Picture(s) of the Day: York Gets Wasted

As part of York Universities’ Ecojustice Conference students squared off a section of Vari Hall where, over the course of the day, they dumped all the garbage thrown out by students in the building to force people to confront their consumption habits.  One interesting fact that was obvious just looking at what was being thrown out was that at least half of what was being thrown out should have been put in the recycling bins instead of the garbage.  A few people made comments about the smell but overall the reactions seemed quite positive, especially from the groundspeople that work on the campus.  They were very happy to see some of the students taking action on this and were happy to participate in the effort.

Apr 17, 2009 | Picture of the Day | Leave A Comment »