The Dominion news from the grassroots

Colombian Farmers Casserole Protests: Grow Resistance clanging across Canada

Honduras after the Coup

Political Policing in Mexico

Ottawa’s role in supporting permanent war

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August 201 The Dominion July/August 2012 www.dominionpaper.ca Contents The Dominion is a pan- Canadian media network that seeks to provide a counterpoint FRONT LINES MEMBER PROFILE ORIGINAL PEOPLES to the corporate media and to 3 formerly known as 4 Abby Lipman, Montreal 5 Remembering Nakba & direct attention to independent Month in Review activist Musqueam Block Bridge critics and the work of social by Dawn Paley movements. The Dominion is published six times per year in print and on the web. G20 FALLOUT LABOUR ENVIRONMENT 6 Tickling the Dragon 7 May Day 8 Slick Water Under Publisher by Megan Kinch by Justin Saunders Scrutiny The Dominion by Steven Wendland Newspaper Co-operative Board of Directors Nat Gray (contributor) LABOUR ORIGINAL PEOPLES FEATURE Westray 20 Years After Aboriginal Peoples’ Canada Boosts Police Sharmeen Khan (reader) o Dru Oja Jay (editor) 9 by Miles Howe 1 Stories Remain Unheard 12 Power in Mexico by Sandra Cuff e by Dawn Paley Tim McSorley (editor) Moira Peters (editor) Editorial Collective LATIN AMERICA LATIN AMERICA CANADA Sandra Cuff e Colombians Refuse Laboratory, Honduras Budget Axe Falls on Roddy Doucet 15 Canadian Mine 17 20 by Emma Feltes Retirement Supports Koby Rogers Hall by Leah Gardner by Alex Hemingway Miles Howe Tim McSorley Dalia Merhi CANADA ENVIRONMENT BACKTALK Dawn Paley 21 Harper’s Assault on 22 Flawed Process, 23 Letters & Comments Tara-Michelle Ziniuk the Past Flawed Project compiled by Moira by Sheldon Birnie by Trevor Kehoe Peters Editors-at-Large Hillary Lindsay Martin Lukacs QUEBEC Dru Oja Jay 24 Casserole Protests Dawn Paley text by Dalia Merhi Moira Peters photos by Katya Konioukhova Copy Editors Zinta Avens Auzins Joel Butler Aethne Hinchliff e Kate Kennedy Lise Kuhn Meg Leitold Kendra Martin David Parkinson Ryan Peterson Claire Williams Zander Winther Graphic Designer Zinta Avens Auzins Cover Illustration Style and Substance Emily Davidson Back Talk compiled by Moira Peters We hope you’ve noticed The Dominion’s new look! Thanks to funding from Emploi-Quebec, we ISSN 1710-0283 were able to hire a graphic designer to update our www.dominionpaper.ca design. [email protected] PO Box 741 Station H Montreal, We hope you enjoy it! QC H3G 2M7

Send us your feedback at [email protected]. We acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Government of To fi nd new subscribers, we occasionally exchange mailing lists with like-minded organizations for one-time mailings. If you Canada through the prefer not to receive such mailings, please email [email protected], or write to the address in the masthead. Canada Periodical 2 The Dominion is printed on Enviro100 100 per cent post-consumer paper. Fund (CPF) for our Printed by Kata Soho Design & Printing, www.katasoho.com, in Montreal. publishing activities. Front Lines Formerly known as Month in Review

Instead of being dismissed or punished, RCMP sergeant G20 Summit 2010 Don Ray, who admitted to sexually abusing a colleague among other off enses while on duty in Edmonton, was In Toronto, Ontario’s Offi ce of the docked two weeks pay and transferred from Alberta to BC. Independent Police Review Direc- tor released a report reviewing police actions during the city’s G20 summit, which took place nearly two years ago. The watchdog group said police referred to protesters as terror- Military States ists and used excessive force. Activ- On Memorial Day, almost 50 United States ists expressed concern, though, that veterans from campaigns in Iraq and Afghani- reprimands against police involved in stan symbolically threw their medals in the abuses would be unlikely. direction of the NATO conference. “We no longer stand for their lies, their failed policies and these unjust Thousands of protesters, ranging from wars. Bring our troops home and nurses to climate activists, showed up for end the war now. They can have a protest against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Chicago. Before these back,” said Marine Corps veteran Iris Feliciano, just prior to tossing her medals. protests got underway, police broke down the door of an apartment and arrested Just before the Chicago summit, NATO head nine activists without a warrant. At least Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested Canada 45 people were arrested during the week- should keep troops in Afghanistan until after end of protests. 2014. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the federal government remains open to the idea. “There’s absolutely nothing that could happen in the streets at a The Canadian Army honoured a US batallion based out of Fort Bragg, Texas, marking the protest that holds a candle to the fi rst time Canada has bestowed medals upon death and destruction caused by a US unit. The two militaries tag teamed the occupation of Afghanistan, fi ghting side-by- NATO to families and communities side in 2006 in the Kandahar region. all around the world.”

Rachel Perrotta Occupy Chicago Quebec Student Protests Protests in Quebec against tuition fee increases entered their fi fth month in June. While negotiations between student representatives and the provincial Bill 78

government resumed at the end of May, they ended without resolution when • Renders illegal any demonstra- the Quebec government walked away from the bargaining table. The discus- tion that does not provide its sions followed a tumultuous May that saw a chaotic protest at the provincial itinerary to police for approval

Liberal convention in Victoriaville, and the resignation of the provincial educa- at least eight hours in advance tion minister. • Bans protesting within 50 Nightly demonstrations in Montreal have lasted over 50 consecutive days. metres of any campus

Since the passage of Bill 78, there have also been nightly casserole demonstra- • Establishes fi nes of between tions, which have taken off across the province and the rest of Canada. Meant $1,000 and $125,000 for to quell student protests, Bill 78 has instead pushed protests to new heights. breaching the law

For more strike coverage check out www.mediacoop.ca/greve.

3 The Dominion July/August 2012 Member Profi le Media Co-op members come from all walks of life! They alert us to issues their communities face, write articles, fi nancially support us, and help ensure the vitality of the Media Co-op by actively participating in their local Co-op. We couldn’t do this without them.

Today, we would like you to meet Abby Lippman, a Montreal activist who helps us with grant writing. Abby’s work was instrumental in securing a grant that will allow the Media Co-op to help retired writers and journalists mentor young journalists—thank you Abby!

When not helping out the Media Co-op, Abby is a Professor Emerita at McGill working with others (faculty and students) to support those facing administra- tive reprisals for expressing their democratic rights. She is also on the Board of the FQPN (Quebec Federation for Planned Parenthood) and, more recently became a member of the aBabord collective. Her research, much of which has been done with community-based groups, has focused on the politics of women’s health and the development of policies related to the regulation and application of biotechnologies.

Not a member yet? There’s no time like the present to sign up and show us how much you care. Each and every member in our network help make the news happen. We are the Media Co-op. Go to www.mediacoop.ca/join to sign up today!

Susan Stout "The Nakba is not only a Palestinian story. The experience of displacement, dispossession and colonization is also the story of the indigenous people 4 of this land, as is the experience of resistance and steadfastness." 4 Nadine Kallas, of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at the University of British Columbia Original Peoples

Musqueam Block Airport Bridge Escalation a push to ensure ancestors remains protected

by Dawn Paley e

c′ snae m—Members but to no avail. “We have maintained a of the Musqueam First permanent presence since the fi rst day of Nation and their sup- the protest,” said Dan. “There are band porters shut down all members and non-band members camp- traffi c on the Arthur ing here.” Laing Bridge in South The bridge closure came after a Vancouver on May 31st. The action was 100-person delegation marched on the an escalation in tactics, after weeks of legislature in Victoria, and a 12-hour day camping out, pickets and events dedicated of actions on May 29th, which began at to guaranteeing the protection of ancient Mountainview Cemetery, then Christy burial grounds at the foot of the bridge, Clark’s offi ce, and ended at the Vancouver had not stopped the threat of condomin- Art Gallery. These actions failed to gener- ium development. ate the support the Musqueam needed “It’s not about us here, it’s about the in order to ensure their ancestors are ones who are resting there,” said Alec Dan, protected. The bridge blockade proved Ongoing Coverage who self-identifi es as a cultural ambassa- that the Musqueam people will continue to For updates on this story visit dor of the Musqueam people. “If it wasn’t strengthen their stand against the further www.vancouver.mediacoop.ca for them, us Musqueam and Coast Salish desecration of their heritage. people wouldn’t be here today.” About 200 people gathered at the site at 7am, fi rst blocking the on-ramps to the bridge, and eventually taking up the entire span. Drumming, singing, and carrying signs, the crowd set up chairs at the north end of the bridge and settled in, while police rerouted traffi c. “Late for work? Blame your wonderful premier!” said one woman’s sign, refer- ring to the province’s refusal to back the Musqueam in their bid to end the confl ict through meaningful negotiations. Spirits were high as normally-heavy bridge traffi c fell silent. Some of the frustrated morning commuters honked and waved in support of the protesters. Dan said they fi rst found out about about plans to build condos on top of the remains of their ancestors in January. In March, the bodies of two infants were discovered in ancient graves. He said the Musqueam have engaged in negotia- tions with the developer of the proposed Drummers lead the crowd during a blockade of Arthur Laing Bridge on May 31, 2012. condo site, even offering him other land; Murray Bush Flux Photo

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the Vancouver Media Co-op. Read more of her work on page 12. 5 The Dominion July/August 2012 G20 Fallout

Tickling the Dragon Byron Sonne and Crown Prosecution by Megan Kinch

TORONTO—On Novem- explosives-related charges. He spent 330 in an on-line chatroom “no fewer than 5 toronto.mediacoop.ca ber 4, 2009, Bryon Sonne days in pre-trial detention; during that time times” but defence attorneys noted that the wrote a group email to he lost his house, his marriage of 14 years, subject of the chat was actually about how Toronto hacker collective his business and his freedom. stupid people blow themselves up when hacklab titled “Tickling The case against Sonne can only be trying to make explosives at home. the Dragon,” in which understood in the larger context of the A conversation about a zombie apoca- he wrote the sentence: “I want to test the persecution of anti-G20 activists, some of lypse was also brought up. system.” whom were guilty of nothing but thought Nadeau used such “evidence” to argue In the months and weeks leading up to crimes. that Sonne was both a criminal mastermind the G20, Sonne, a licensed systems security Jaggi Singh, for example, pled guilty and pathologically stupid. She constantly professional and member of hacklab, did to a counseling charge—a result of a speech referenced Sonne’s credentials as a secu- just that. Sonne purchased legal chemicals, near the perimeter security barrier, in rity professional, as well as the inability some to simply raise fl ags with authorities, which he urged listeners to “tear down this of police to access an encrypted partition and some for his home chemistry experi- fence that divides us.” on his computer. Yet she also argued that ments. He also took part in public, online But many still felt that prosecutors this so-called mastermind publicly posted discussions about state surveillance and the had to see Byron’s trial through, to go for photos of things intended for use as weap- security measures being taken for the G20 a conviction in order to justify the money ons—such as a potato cannon—on fl ickr Summit. spent in the name of protection from G20- and twitter. Sonne also ordered hazardous On his way home one day after taking inspired acts of terror. chemicals from the U.S. using his home photos of the G20 security fence, Sonne was Yet almost two years after his ordeal address and credit card. arrested after being noticed by law enforce- began, Sonne was acquitted on all charges. ment agents. He would never enter his But no one can say the Crown didn’t try. The case against Sonne house again. According to lead Crown attorney can only be understood in But the police would. Elizabeth Nadeau, Sonne’s ownership of the larger context of the Authorities found a chemistry lab in three pellet rifl es indicated an “obsession persecution of anti-G20 Sonne’s basement and charged him on with fi rearms.” He also discussed explosives activists, some of whom were guilty of nothing but thought crimes.

The only logical explanation for his actions is the one that Sonne himself pro- vided in an email he wrote to Kate Milberry, an academic who sent a research request to hacklab members. Sonne wrote: “I’ve ordered all sorts of chemical precursors and lab equipment in order to get ‘the man’ interested in me. With no success.” Sonne’s lawyers stated that he was trying to set off red fl ags in ordering chemicals but had no intention of making anything out of them. Sure enough, at the time of his arrest a few days before the G20 Summit began, nary an “explosive” could be found in his lab. It did contain items such as nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide and hexamine tablets (camping fuel starters). Nadeau also argued that it was “suspicious” that Byron possessed baking

Byron Sonne speaks with members of the press. In May Sonne saw all his G20-related charges continued 6 dropped, nearly two years after his arrest and 330 days of pre-trial dentention. q_e_d Labour

May Day Takes Toronto Annual workers’ rights celebration spills into streets throughout the day and night by Justin Saunders

TORONTO—One of the Hall later in the afternoon and quickly terity policies were discussed. A contingent toronto.mediacoop.ca most successful May Day swelled to roughly 1500 people. The event of Occupiers stayed to protest the Barrick demonstrations in years denounced austerity policies at all levels of Gold AGM on the following day, decrying took place in Toronto, as government, and highlighted the struggles the Toronto-based mining giant’s dismal large numbers of activists of immigrants, refugees and indigenous environmental and human rights record. fi lled the streets. peoples in Canada, drawing links between Later, three chaplains were arrested Early in the day, an Occupy contingent them and the historical struggles of the shortly before midnight, during their began guerilla gardening in a small patch labour movement, whose victory in securing attempt to put up a roofl ess ‘chapel’ tent. of Queens Park, while a police video unit the 8-hour workday is routinely celebrated Police, who informed Occupy that the city’s showed a prolonged interest in the peas, on May Day. Parks and Recreation department would garlic, onions, kale, lettuce and radishes After a two-hour march, the par- allow demonstrators to stay as long as they they planted. ticipants reached Alexandra Park, where a didn’t ‘lie down,’ use sleeping bags or put This “Garden Party Picnic Potluck” was concert was held until dusk. up structures, had until this point taken a held to “challenge the lack of food security As night fell, about 300 people largely hands-off approach to the May Day for many in this city”, said Jacob Kearey- marched back toward the fi nancial district demonstrations, although Meaghan Daniel, Moreland, who organized the event, one of as part of a spring bid to ‘re-occupy’ that a lawyer with the Movement Defence Com- ‘99’ other gardens planned across the city has occurred across North America. Sakura mittee (which offers free legal support to on May Day intended to connect food secu- Saunders, a spokesperson for Occupy activists), noted their highly visible and rity to broader economic issues. Toronto, said that “Occupy Toronto intends intimidating presence. The day’s main rally gathered at City to start [organizing] 24-hour occupations “This [level of] police presence...only to mark signifi cant moments when the one comes out for these types of events,” said percent [conspires] against the public.” Daniel. “It’s not really equal opportunity soda, since he had it in a labelled container At 10pm, the re-occupation march policing.” in his lab instead of in a box in his reached Simcoe Park, where stands a mon- May Day actions in North America refrigerator. ument to workers who died while on the were well-attended in cities that have been Two days after closing arguments, job. The park is situated across the street part of the Occupy movement, while Europe broadcasting live on channel CP24, police from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, centres saw their customarily large turn- unearthed a yellow bucket from the yard of from which more than 20,000 demonstra- outs. The movement was also present in Sonne’s old Forest Hill home, brought it to tors were barred during the G20 Summit of South America and Asia, with notable dem- a waterfront bird sanctuary and attempted June 2010, where many contemporary aus- onstrations in Santiago, Bogota and Manila. to blow it up. It wouldn’t explode, how- ever, because it wasn’t explosive, although they did manage to get it to burn. The substance inside the bucket turned out to be potassium chlorate. There is a restriction on buying or selling more than 1 kg of the substance, but not on pos- sessing it. Nadeau was reduced to arguing that it was dangerous because a child could have gained entry to the yard, dug up the bucket, opened it and then eaten it; an argument that the judge didn’t buy. In the end, the case against Sonne was struck down by an Ontario Superior Court judge and he walked out of court a “free” man. Yet in using “trial by media” and hit- ting Sonne with an expensive, absurd court case and a year of detention, the dragon made sure that he got burned regardless. An anti-austerity message was at the heart of the demonstration. Kristyna Balaban

Megan Kinch is an activist and journalist in Justin Saunders is an information 7 Toronto. technologist and journalist based in Toronto. Environment Slick Water Under Scrutiny in NS Fracking waste ponds languish in Hants County by Steven Wendland

HALIFAX—Hydraulic ment (NSE) dated August 29, 2011, When the temporary permit expired fracturing wastewater obtained through an NS Freedom of Infor- in June 2010, with no remedial action shown to contain high mation request, Dr. Peter Hill, at the time having taken place, NSE issued a one-year levels of radioactive Triangle’s CEO, threatened his company’s extension with the proviso that by the contaminants has been withdrawal from the province. end of the one-year term they expected sitting in two open con- “Should the [fracking] Review fail to defi nitive plans for draining the ponds and tainment pits in Hants County, Nova Scotia support deep re-injectivity [sic] of forma- reclaiming the sites. since 2007, The Dominion has learned. tion waters back to their formation of In August, 2011, two months beyond A Freedom of Information request has origin, or ban, restrict or delay shale gas the extension deadline, with Triangle still also revealed that the water likely contains activity for a long period, then we will pressuring for re-injection, and proposing a slew of other chemicals, including known drain the ponds by the then best method they “wait for the decisions and recom- carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. available, remediate all sites, return our mendations of the review committee on Triangle Petroleum Corporation, the licenses back to the Nova Scotia Depart- hydraulic fracturing that [were] expected Denver-based company responsible for ment of Energy and cease any further later [that] year,” NSE demanded that the creating the ponds, announced on April investment in the Province of Nova Scotia.” ponds be drained before winter freeze, 16, after having stalled on remediating the The wastewater comprising the ponds or November 1st, which Triangle claimed wastewater for over four years, that it was was generated in 2007 when Triangle unfeasible, suggesting instead “the gradual “contemplating a total exit” from its opera- drilled and fracked two wells in the Ken- use of the brines as a de-icing/wetting tions in Nova Scotia. netcook area of Hants County. agent on Nova Scotia roads.” NSE and Triangle have since been at Months later, Triangle agreed to drain loggerheads concerning the best method one of the ponds before winter freeze, of remediation for the 15 million litres of which they began to do on November 21st. wastewater—the former insisting on truck- Shortly thereafter, on December 2nd, NSE ing the wastewater to appropriate treat- received test results showing the wastewa- ment facilities, the latter on drilling an ter contained high levels of radionuclides, on-site disposal well and injecting it into and consequently, owing to the fact that the earth. While the deep-well re-injection there is no facility in Atlantic Canada of fracking wastewater is common industry capable of treating radioactively contami- practice, it runs counter to NSE’s best nated wastewater, suspended all drainage practices guide. activity. Although its development plan appli- Radionuclides are unstable forms of cation, submitted to the NS Department of nuclides, a generic term for the atomic Energy in 2008, states that Triangle would form of an element. The most common commit “to safeguarding the environment… radionuclides in groundwater are radon, radium, thorium and uranium. Radon and Newly disclosed documents reveal that open through the application of best practices,” air tailings ponds from hydraulic fracturing— the company has been stalwart in its uranium occur most commonly in shale such as this one in Hants County, NS—contain opposition to NSE’s insistence on drain- and granite formations, which comprise a high levels of radioactive contaminants and signifi cant portion of Nova Scotia’s geology. most likely other known carcinogens. ing the ponds and treating, rather than Steven Wendland re-injecting, the wastewater. The company Exposure to high levels of radon and has stated that trucking the wastewater to uranium has been linked to bone and The company’s announcement coin- treatment facilities would be too expensive internal organ cancers in humans. cided with the provincial NDP’s announce- and would undermine road safety. Compounding the matter, the water ment that its review of the environmental According to the Kennetcook drill site that was already trucked to the Atlantic impacts of hydraulic fracturing, initially plan Triangle submitted to the province, Industrial Services facility in Debert before slated for a Spring 2012 release, would the pits were dug to hold freshwater to be NSE suspended drainage activity now has extend into 2014. used during the fracking process. In 2008, to be removed from that location because Triangle had been threatening to when NSE realized the ponds were holding it cannot be treated at that facility. renounce its 10-year exploration lease wastewater, it issued Triangle a two-year “Who’s to say where they’re going to on 475,000 gross acres known as The temporary storage permit during which go from here, because now we’re talking Windsor Block, spanning Kings and Hants time Triangle was to have the water trans- about a much more expensive process for Counties along the Minas Basin. In an ported to treatment facilities in Dartmouth the company, so it’s back into limbo,” says email to Nova Scotia Environ- and Debert, 20 kilometres west of Truro. Summers. 8 Steven Wendland is a graduate student and contributing member of the Halifax Media Co-op. Labour No Accident: Westray 20 Years After Law to prosecute corporations is in place, but Canada is no safer a place to work by Miles Howe

NEW GLASGOW, gone under the radar…these workers at of Westray, workers made overtures to NOVA SCOTIA—An Westray that lost their lives and eventually the United Steel Workers prior to the May early-morning ceremony caused Parliament to enact a law... they 9th blast in 1992, but were deterred from marked the 20th anni- seem to me to have died in vain right now.” unionizing by management at the mine. versary of the Westray To Ken Georgetti, President of the Ken Neumann, National Director of mine disaster this May, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), it is the United Steel Workers was on hand at in which 26 coal miners were killed in a coal a question of a collective psychological the memorial, and remembers the situa- dust-sparked methane blast. re-tooling. While the legal ability to hold a tion well. He echoes Georgetti’s call for a The anniversary raised the diffi cult corporation criminally accountable theoret- change in the social mindset in order to question of whether these preventable ically exists, it requires an as-yet untapped hold corporations legally responsible for deaths have at all re-shaped the notion of popular momentum to make it stick. worker deaths. safety in the workplace. Westray retains a vital segment of the collective social consciousness, at once because it represents a cataclysmic and unnecessary disaster, and because it is a classic example of corporate profi ts taking complete and utter precedence over safety. Before the mine was ever built, the Foord seam in Pictou County was well-rec- ognized as one of the most dangerous coal seams to mine in Canada. Once operations began, safety procedures and regulations were simply not followed. The no-holds-barred quest for profi ts resulted in a dear cost in human life. Westray was no isolated incident, and as the push continues for increasingly-tight The draegermen tasked with searching for, and recovering, the bodies of the 26 miners killed in the Westray profi t margins and ever-more inaccessible mine disaster in 1992. Only 11 bodies were ever recovered. Miles Howe resources, more Westrays seem unfor- tunately destined to occur. If not here in Georgetti sees reclaiming the word “For years and years people looked at Canada, then in more distant places where “accident” as being of particular importance health and safety as being regulatory. So deaths on the job are unfortunately a to this initiative. when you have the police or the attorney common occurrence. “[A]nytime a death occurs the police general, when you have a crime scene, Statistically speaking, Canada today is should investigate it as a crime scene pri- when you have a shooting, they rope it off. no safer a place to work than in 1992. This marily and then determine whether or not They investigate it like it’s a true crime,” despite the enactment of federal bill C-45 in the death was accidental, rather than just said Neumann. He thinks that this is the 2003, known as the “Westray bill.” The bill assume that because it’s a workplace death mentality shift that is needed. was meant to enforce corporate liability and that it’s accidental,” says Georgetti. “[T]he “[I]f you look at the country today, make it easier to hold companies criminally presumption always is that it’s an accident, you’re still killing over one thousand accountable for so-called accidents at the and accidents imply ‘no fault’.” people per year. I get tired of notifying workplace. The bill, while hopeful on paper, “So we now presume under our system families that ‘your loved one is not going to has never resulted in a criminal conviction. that all accidents are accidental...but there be home,’” said Neumann. “To be [at the “I don’t think [Bill C-45]’s been applied is a culture of acceptance that this is just Westray memorial], fi rst of all is to remem- very well,” says Steven Hunt, Western the normal outcome, of heavy industry ber the people that have lost their lives and Canadian Director for the United Steel especially, of the workplace, [that] deaths the families. But also to [raise] awareness Workers. “There’s been a couple of plea happen, and they’re a consequence of the to society across the country that we really bargains where fairly small employers have nature of the work we do in Canada.” have to pay some attention to this, because pleaded guilty to workplace acts that killed Until Canada sees this culture shift, that’s not the kind of society that we believe people, but obviously there’s been some it falls to unions to provide a collective in for Canada.” fairly egregious workplace fatalities, and voice to workers, especially in potentially most of them are preventable, and have dangerous work environments. In the case

Miles Howe is an editor with The Dominion and a contributing member of the Halifax Media 9 Co-op. Original Peoples

Aboriginal Peoples’ Stories Remain Unheard The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has travelled across the nation, but few have paid attention by Sandra Cuff e

Note: This article may be triggering or out of those institutions, they didn’t have a some by Canada through partnerships distressful. To access the Indian Residential village to go back to.” with church organizations. Schools Crisis Line, dial toll-free 1-866-925- Thus far, the commission has held Cut off from their families and com- 4419. statement-gathering and outreach events munities, students were forbidden to VANCOUVER—The national Truth and in over 500 communities across Canada— speak their own language or engage in Reconciliation Commission on Indian including a prison in the Northwest Ter- their own cultural and spiritual practices. Residential Schools, which started over ritories—and national events in Winnipeg Many children experienced emotional, two years ago, has been largely ignored by and Inuvik. physical and sexual abuse. the Canadian public, despite the partici- It has not been easy for survivors to Larkin’s mother and grandmother pation of thousands of residential school get to a microphone and relive their expe- attended residential schools, and her survivors and countless others, both riences at these events. But the commis- father attended a boarding school. As a Indigenous and non-Indigenous. sion has helped them realize what they’ve young child, she traveled around North In fact, the fi rst and only history overcome. America with her mother, who was lesson many Canadians ever received involved with the Red Power movement about residential schools was through the It has not been easy for in the early 1970s, which came out of the Prime Minister of Canada’s “Statement survivors to get to a American Indian Movement and a grow- of Apology to Former Students of Indian ing sense of pan-Indian identity. It was Residential Schools,” issued in June 2008 microphone and relive their not until they moved to Alert Bay when and broadcast from coast to coast. experiences at these events. Larkin was four years old that she expe- The commission is now over halfway rienced the legacy of the schools. After through its fi ve-year mandate. Although “I think if you document something, being caught for years in cycles of familial the government established the com- you can’t say it didn’t happen,” Kecia violence and abuse, amidst a community mission in 2008, it took until July 2009 Larkin, 41, told The Dominion, after speak- dealing with youth drug use, suicides and before Head Commissioner Justice ing at the commission’s regional event in sexual abuse by the local school principal, Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Victoria in April. “And if people who have she left her home at the age of 15. Wilton Littlechild, Commissioner Marie spoken fi nd some pride in themselves, in Larkin moved to Vancouver and Wilson and a ten-member Indian Resi- the courage to speak out, then that’s some- wound up in the child welfare system, dential School Survivor Committee began thing that has been accomplished.” which she considers a modern-day gathering statements and documents. At the regional event in Victoria, 158 extension of residential schools, and on The core of the commission’s mandate residential school survivors and other the streets in the Downtown Eastside. is to establish the truth about the schools, affected people shared their experiences. After experiencing multiple traumas, she educate all Canadians about that history More than 2,000 people attended the became a heavy drug user and later tested and begin a dialogue about reconciliation. event and another 3,300 people from 16 positive for HIV. “Residential schools were part of an countries tuned in to the live webcast. Months after discovering her HIV- overall approach toward Aboriginal people The commission is not only examining status, Larkin was able to leave the streets in this country,” Head Commissioner Jus- the history of residential schools, but also and settled in Victoria, on unceded Coast tice Sinclair told reporters in Vancouver at their ongoing impact on communities as Salish territory. Over the past decade she a press conference in February, when the a whole, and on intergenerational survi- has spent much of her time doing advo- commission issued an interim update on vors like Larkin—the residential school cacy work in the medical system and is co- its activities and released several prelimi- students’ children, grandchildren, great- chair of a group of women that created the nary recommendations. grandchildren, and so forth. fi rst Aboriginal Women’s HIV and AIDS “It is commonly said that it takes a “I’ve seen a lot of pride there,” said Strategy in Canada. village to raise a child. The Government Larkin. “But it was very painful for a lot “Because of colonialism, our experi- of Canada took Indian children away of people. It was very heart wrenching. It ence is very different, which is tied to not from their villages and placed them into made people cry out loud.” just violence but also residential school, institutions that were the furthest thing From the 1860s up until the 1990s, and it’s intergenerational,” Larkin said. away from a village that you could expect,” more than 150,000 First Nations, Metis Larkin now has two children of her he continued. “Then on top of that, the and Inuit children attended residential own and has made a conscious effort to Government of Canada set out to destroy schools. Some schools were operated give them a better environment to grow up their villages, so when they got directly by the Canadian government and in than the one she had.

10 Sandra Cuff e is a Vancouver-based journalist. She also covered the TRC National Event in Sas- katoon for the Vancouver Media Co-op in June. For updates visit vancouver.mediacoop.ca. Original Peoples

“I don’t have a lot of connection with people’s sufferings under the residential younger brothers and her sister, as young my community and culture, and I think school system. children. When they arrived at the school that’s how it’s impacted me directly, and But there are many survivors who feel in the evening, her brothers were taken my children, and my family,” she said. “I dissatisfi ed by the compensation offered. away from her, straight out of her hands, tell my children what I can, what I know.” Perry Omeasoo, a Cree residential school because of the strict gender segregation. The idea that Canadians need to survivor, told the commission that he was “The common thread we survivors change the way they think about Aborigi- raised by his grandparents as a young share is sibling separation,” she said. nal people’s history and experience is one child. After his mother’s prior residen- “It’s one of the biggest painful memo- that the commission emphasizes. tial school experience, she was unable ries of my whole life, seeing them both “In talking about residential schools to parent him and was mostly absent walking down the hall, looking back at me, and their legacy, we are not talking about throughout his life. not knowing where they were going and I an Aboriginal problem, but a Canadian “It was almost nothing,” Omeasoo couldn’t do anything,” continued Norris. problem,” reads the commission’s 2012 said of the compensation payment at a “We only learned, as adults, about how report. “It is not simply a dark chap- Commissioner Sharing Panel. “I would much we all suffered at that school.” ter from our past. It was integral to the have rather had my mother. And for that, I There are diverse opinions about making of Canada. Although the schools will always be resentful.” the 2008 statement of apology among are no longer in operation, the last ones Not only do some survivors not fi nd residential school survivors and other did not close until the 1990s. The colonial the payment healing, but the forms that Indigenous people, Norris said. She herself framework of which they were a central survivors had to fi ll out to qualify for pay- expresses mixed reactions. element has not been dismantled.” ment triggered mental breakdowns in some. “For me, it acknowledged our Indig- enous Holocaust,” Norris said. “Immedi- ately, I felt I could breathe, I felt free. And it’s because our experience was acknowl- edged.” At the same time, she explained, “it isn’t enough. It is a token apology, trinkets, again, from a government that continues to barrage our people with ingenious legislation bent on keeping our land and destroying it forever. It is felt that we can simply be paid off and silenced forever. Realistically, our pain carries on throughout our lives, as shown by inter- generational impact.” Norris is planning to give a statement of her own experiences at the commis- sion’s national event in Vancouver next year. While statement-gathering and outreach activities are ongoing across the country, the commission also has several An archival photo of students at one of many Indian Residential Schools in Canada. national events left in its mandate: June 21 to 24, 2012, in Saskatoon; September The commission was created through “Amazing how sheets of paper can 18 to 21, 2013, in Vancouver; yet-to-be- the ratifi cation of the Indian Residential be so re-traumatizing,” said Kat Norris, determined dates and locations in Quebec Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007. It a Salish residential school survivor and and Alberta; and a closing Ceremony in was a result of residential school survivors the spokesperson for Indigenous Action Ottawa. launching the largest class-action lawsuit Movement. “I had previously gone through “We know that the damage contin- in Canadian history against the govern- years of counselling, so I assumed I was ues,” Commissioner Justice Sinclair told ment, churches and individual school staff going to be fi ne. Instead, I totally back- those gathered at the event in Victoria. “In for the abuses they endured. tracked, put it on the shelf, and went into a two years this commission will no longer The agreement also established depression.” be around, but this conversation must a nominal “common experience pay- Norris is a survivor of the Kuper continue.” ment” for all students who attended the Island Residential School, which she 134 schools and residences identifi ed in calls the “Alcatraz of residential schools.” the deal, as basic compensation for the She was sent to the school with her two 11 11 The Dominion July/August 2012 Feature

Canada Boosts Police Power in Mexico Ottawa’s role in the permanent war against the people of Mexico by Dawn Paley

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO—The music is loud and the bar is well “When the wave of kidnappings grew, stocked. I sit timidly with a can of beer, eyes on the entrance. This it was because of the arrival of the federal was a happening nightclub before Juarez was transformed into police,” said Leobardo Alvarado, who runs a war zone. My companion, Julian Cardona, who used to shoot the alternative news outlet JuarezDialoga. photos for the society pages of a local newspaper, describes what “Of course, it hasn’t been proven that it it used to be like here: Hummers triple-parked on the sidewalk, has to do with that, but yes there are many hundred-dollar tips, well-dressed Texans waiting behind velvet documented cases where there were people linked to the federal police who committed ropes to get in. Not anymore. The night I visited, the place was these crimes.” near empty, waitresses busy with their iPhones, a wandering ciga- The involvement of police in illegal rette vendor calling out to make a sale. activities is nothing new. “Mexican police, indeed, are widely reported to be involved It was Cardona’s idea to go to the like Juarez is coming under intense criti- in the trade of drugs, actively through nightclub; he said it would help me under- cism. This relationship was highlighted assistance or passively through corruption,” stand the city better. His career has taken in March when defence ministers from all wrote Mathieu Defl em, a professor at the an unexpected turn because of the vio- three countries held trilateral meetings for University of South Carolina, in 2001. But lence: these days, instead of shooting for the fi rst time. over the past ten years, the level of police the society pages, he shoots crime scenes “What we’ve seen here in [Ciudad involvement in the drug trade has deepened. in one of the world’s most violent cities. Juarez] is that the city was militarized “There’s always been a really close Ciudad Juarez, a city that boomed on the last day of March of 2008, when line, or, well, they’re the same,” said with the introduction of maquiladoras, federal forces arrived here, thousands Cardona, who has lived in Juarez for over has long been a city with high levels of of troops from the army and the federal 30 years. “The police and the entire state violence. The murders of women through police,” said Carlos Yeffi m Fong, an activist apparatus, all of the institutions of the the 1990s gained international attention. and student who lives in Ciudad Juarez. state, have always been the guarantors of For each dead woman, there were nine At the peak of the militarization of Juarez, the drug trade.” murdered men. between 2009 and 2010, 5,000 federal I interviewed Cardona on the patio But when Juarez transformed into police and 5,000 soldiers were in the city. of a Starbucks, the only establishment in the focal point of Mexico’s war against Juarez that still dares to open its outdoor drug traffi ckers, things in the city began The RCMP’s training of seating area. Our table faced a Walmart, to change beyond recognition. President Mexico’s police indicates built over top of what was once a bullfi ght- Felipe Calderon launched a militarized ing arena. Every so often, we’d see a police war on drug traffi ckers at the beginning that Ottawa is interested car make a slow loop through the parking of his term in December 2006. At the end in developing a stronger lot, lights fl ashing. of March 2008, thousands of soldiers and infl uence over Mexico’s Police involvement in the drug trade federal police offi cers arrived in Ciudad internal security matters. intensifi ed with the growth of Mexico’s Juarez as part of a surge against drug traf- internal drug market, whose expansion fi ckers. After the police and troops arrived, “Generally, before the soldiers came, has to do in part with increased border the murder rate skyrocketed, violence there was an average of two murders a controls introduced after September 11, increased, and kidnappings spiked. Ciudad day, and when the soldiers arrived, that 2001. “Just 10 years ago, there was a lot Juarez became synonymous with every- number began to rise, to fi ve, and later to of narcotrafi co in Mexico but Mexicans thing that is wrong in Mexico. 10,” recounted Fong on a cool November themselves weren’t consuming the drugs,” But what’s happening in Mexico afternoon at the campus of the state- said Dr William I Robinson, professor and and in Juarez isn’t happening in isola- funded Autonomous University of Ciudad author of A Theory of Global Capitalism. tion. On the one hand, drug consumption Juarez (UACJ). “We’ve seen various cases “Now there’s millions of Mexicans that are in Canada and the US fuels much of the where the army and federal police killed addicted to drugs, and that are consumers demand that keeps the cartels in business. minors, as well as police and soldiers of drugs also, and that’s because of those On the other, Canada and the US have directly involved in robbery.” changes at the border and the changes increased their support for the Mexican Locals also link federal police, known in the velocity of drugs moving through police and army, even as their role in cities in Mexico as Federales, to kidnapping. Mexico.”

12 Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the Vancouver Media Co-op. Feature

Since the war on drugs was declared, police and policing have been a key component of the Merida Initiative, a US-Mexico strategy that aims to disrupt drug traffi ckers. In 2010, there were an estimated 409,536 police in Mexico, according to Insyde, a non-profi t orga- nization involved in US-funded police training. Federal police, of which there are more than 30,000, all receive in-country military training. Before the US announced the Merida Initiative in 2007, Canada had already since the beginning begun to increase security co-operation of Calderon’s term. with Mexico. Emily Davidson In Juarez alone, more Under the rubric of the Security and than 10,000 people Prosperity Partnership, then-Minister of have been murdered Public Safety Stockwell Day and his Mexi- since 2008. Offi cials often state the dead can counterpart agreed to create a working were involved in the drug trade, but mur- group focused on bilateral security co- ders are rarely investigated. operation in early 2007. Two years later, “Most of the killings are between RCMP offi cers were training Mexican people, well, the people who died were Federal police. As local drug markets grew, accord- unarmed,” said Dr. Hector Padilla, a “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ing to Cardona, police began to move professor at the UACJ, with a dry chuckle. along with trainers from the United States drugs themselves, to execute people and “The majority are people who were in and other international partners, are pro- even to move bodies in patrol cars, all of transit, or who were working, or in their viding basic training to Mexican Federal which meant they earned more money. homes and someone arrives and pluck,” Police recruits,” said Stephen Harper Instead of wiping out these behaviors, the he said, making a gun with his fi ngers and during a stop in Guadalajara in 2009. militarization of the city seems to have pulling the trigger. In addition to training 1,500 low-level exacerbated them. “What happens is that The Internal Displacement Monitor- Federales, the RCMP trained 300 mid- when the Federales arrive in Juarez, and ing Centre puts the number of internally level Mexican offi cers, and 32 Mexican the army, is that they basically displace displaced people at 160,000, though other police commanders received training at local state or municipal police from their studies show the number could be much the Canadian Police College. markets,” said Cardona. higher. In addition, more than 5,000 There is no transparency from the Not everyone agrees on what exactly people have been disappeared since 2006, RCMP regarding which Mexican offi cers pushed Ciudad Juarez onto the map as a and the number of federal prisoners has have attended training in Canada, and city with one of the highest murder rates quintupled to more than 18,000, 40 per thus far no way to verify whether or not in the world. The mainstream media cent of whom are in pre-trial detention. Canadian-trained offi cers have been claimed the violence stemmed from a directly involved in criminal acts. “For turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and Since the war on drugs security reasons we cannot give you the La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez names of the Offi cials that attended train- Cartel, which they claim police and was declared, police and ing at our Canadian Police College,” wrote soldiers helped to quell. Upon careful policing have been a key RCMP media liaison Greg Cox in an email examination, this narrative is constructed component of the Merida to The Dominion. in the media using offi cial sources such Initiative, a US-Mexico By late 2011, US funding had been as unnamed offi cials and the US Drug strategy that aims to used to “train over 55,000 law enforce- Enforcement Administration. The resi- disrupt drug traffi ckers. ment and justice sector offi cials, including dents of Juarez I spoke to, however, place 7,200 Federal police offi cers,” according the blame squarely at the hands of the to the US State Department. police and the army. Images of gun-fi ghting, seized drugs The New York Times reported that According to Molly Molloy, a librarian and arrests are regularly reported on the this training involved “conducting wire- at New Mexico State University who tracks evening news, while blogs disseminate taps, running informants and interrogat- the violence in Mexico, close to 95,000 torture-kill videos and grisly images of ing suspects.” people have been murdered in the country massacres and corpses cut into pieces.

13 13 The Dominion July/August 2012 Feature Emily Davidson

Regardless of the stated efforts of of Mexico’s police Minister Peter MacKay in a statement to international police forces, corruption indicates that the media after the March meeting. among Mexican police has not diminished. Ottawa is interested The fact that policing is the central “We do not want to overstate this fi nding: in developing a stronger infl uence over focus of Canada’s security engagement We see no evidence that police corruption Mexico’s internal security matters. with Mexico is in line with current military is actually falling,” reads a 2011 report pre- In addition to police training, Canada strategy, which advocates local police pared by the right-wing Rand Corporation. and Mexico hold annual political, military taking a key role over the long term. RCMP and US training of Mexican and inter-army talks, and work together “In the simplest of terms, the aim of police is taking place alongside offi cers with the US and other nations through the military intervention is to restore the situ- from Israel, Colombia, France, Spain, El Florida-based, anti-drugs Joint Inter- ation to the point at which the host nation Salvador, Holland, and the Czech Repub- agency Task Force South. Mexico is also police and security forces are able to lic. Maribel Cervantes Guerrero, the high- a member state of Canada’s Directorate maintain law and order,” reads Canada’s est ranking federal police offi cer in Mexico, of Military Training and Co-operation, an Counterinsurgency Operations Manual. was trained in the US, Israel and Spain. organization the Department of National Indeed, getting the army off the International co-operation in matters Defence says is designed to “enhance bilat- streets of Juarez and the rest of Mexico is of security creates spaces where “bureau- eral defence relationships with countries also a stated goal of the US State Depart- crats and military elites actively study and of strategic interest to Canada.” ment. “The Ambassador emphasized borrow each other’s techniques and advise From March 26 to 27, 2012, defence that the Mexican military needed an exit one another on effective ruling practices,” ministers from Canada, the US and strategy,” reads a State Department cable according to Laleh Khalili, a Senior Lec- Mexico held their fi rst trilateral meeting, released by Wikileaks. “Mexico must build turer in the Department of Politics and promising to increase defence co-oper- up its civil police and prosecutorial forces International Studies at the University of ation in the fi ght against drug cartels, as to fi ll much of the space currently occupied London. well as protecting trade. “By virtue of our by the military.” Renewed international interest on the geography, our peoples, and our trading Though homicide rates have begun part of Canada, the US and others in train- relationship, our three nations share many to drop in Ciudad Juarez, there continue ing Mexican police comes despite the fact defence interests,” reads a joint statement to be far more murders in the city than that there is no proof that such training by defence ministers. there were prior to 2008. Federal police improves security or democracy. With bilateral merchandise trade at still patrol Juarez, usually masked, often “There is no evidence that almost a $21.3 billion and Canadian foreign direct in the back of a pick-up truck with semi- century of US assistance to foreign police investment at $4.9 billion in 2009, the automatic AR-15 rifl es across their chests. has improved either the security of the government of Canada considers Mexico Residents indicate that simply being out people in recipient countries or the demo- “one of Canada’s most important trading on the street is enough to provoke search cratic practices of their police and security partners in the world.” and detention by police, likening the situ- forces,” points out Dr Martha Huggins, By 2011 there were more than 2,500 ation to an unoffi cial curfew under which who has written extensively on US train- Canadian companies operating in Mexico. the poorest are regular targets for police ing of Latin American police. Instead, she Canada’s presence is especially strong in abuse. says, “the outcome of such training may the mining and aerospace sector; Goldcorp Far from improving security for suggest that the training of Latin Ameri- and Bombardier have made major invest- residents of Mexican cities and towns, the can police has deliberately been used to ments over the past two years. replacement of soldiers with an expanded, increase US control over recipient coun- Canada’s growing corporate pres- internationally trained, militarized police tries and those governments’ undemo- ence in Mexico may in part explain the force is tantamount to the extension of cratic control over their populations.” increasingly close military and police war, by another name. But this isn’t just about the US train- co-operation. “If it’s a problem for Mexico, ing Mexican cops. The RCMP’s training it’s a problem for Canada,” said Defence

14 The Dominion July/August 2012 focus on Latin America

Colombians Refuse Canadian Mine Farmers’ stance against extractive project ignored in Ottawa by Leah Gardner

BERRUECOS, COLOMBIA—In southwest “All I see that can come from this project million, which includes geophysical sur- Colombia people are organizing within and is confl ict and displacement,” said Hector veys and drilling, to test the size of gold, throughout their villages, creating a strong Gomez*, a local farmer who is opposed to copper and silver reserves. network of resistance to Canadian gold exploration. We spoke at a former drilling Gomez and others have already paid mining. But they’re not fi ghting for conces- platform near the Mazamorras stream, a heavy price for speaking out against the sions or reforms; they’re fi ghting to win. where he had brought his kids for a swim. project. The Committee for the Integra- Canadian mining company Gran His neighbour, Carlos Perez, adds that tion of the Colombian Massif (CIMA), a Colombia Gold set up exploration plat- he moved to the area in part because of its rural social movement that counts many forms in small farming communities near reputation for being safe. “The fi rst thing local farmers as members, has offi cially Berruecos, Colombia in early 2011. Soon we lost [when the company came] was reported ten separate cases of harassment, after, local coffee farmers began to ques- peace,” he said. death threats and violent assaults against tion the benefi ts of a large-scale gold mine. The budget for exploration is $3.8 critics of the company and their children since April 2011. In two of these cases, CIMA represen- tatives say, the head of private security for the mining project directly threatened the lives of local organizers. The human rights committee for the CIMA notes that many more cases go unreported due to fear and a lack of faith in offi cials to investigate. “It’s just like what happened with the coca-producing zones,” said Gomez in a comparison that may seem unexpected, until explained. “First comes the money, then comes the violence—the armed groups, drinking [and] crime.” Farmers have had diffi culty getting the Colombian government to provide information about the environmental impacts of large-scale mining, let alone hear their concerns about the project. Gloria Muñoz, another local coffee farmer and young mother, went door to door collecting signatures for a petition calling on the municipal government to hold a forum against mining. She says she collected over one thousand signa- tures and sent it to offi cials, including the Colombian Geological Service (formerly Ingeominas), the government institute responsible for granting mining explora- tion permits. She received no response. Meetings with the local mayor led to promises of a forum, but no results. “They put it off three times,” she said in the courtyard of her modest but quaint home overlooking green hills and neighbouring Farmers call for a department-wide forum on mining outside the governor’s offi ce on December 5, 2011 in Pasto, Nariño. Leah Gardner farms.

Leah Gardner is a member of the Project Ac- *Some names in this article have been companiment and Solidarity with Colombia changed for security reasons. 15 (PASC), a Montreal-based collective. focus on Latin America

“They act like if the company leaves, and held a department-wide forum on the FTA has been that it has the potential to we’ll die of hunger,” said Muñoz. Sylvia, a impacts of large-scale mining. exacerbate the ongoing human rights crisis relative of Muñoz, was hired as a spokes- Gran Colombia Gold never signed in Colombia.” person for the company. Also a young the agreement. In a press release it said Colombia is home to the highest mother, Sylvia stresses the importance the burning was carried out by “unknown internally-displaced population in the of job creation, and argues that, when it invaders.” The release did not mention the world, estimated at between 3.8 and 5.4 comes to the environment, farmers have previous confrontation or the mediation million people. Peace Brigades Interna- nothing to worry about. “This is a respon- process. tional reports that 80 per cent of human sible company,” she said. Municipal elections led to some small rights violations that have occurred in Local spokespeople for Gran Colom- gains for project opponents in 2012. In Colombia over the last ten years took place bia Gold have their work cut out for March, organizers fi nally got their mining in mining and energy-producing regions, them. People living close to exploration forum in Berruecos, at which a number of with 87 per cent of internally-displaced platforms say that when drilling began, it offi cials and mayors declared their opposi- people originating from these zones. was loud and took place around the clock. tion to mining by multinational compa- Many see this as a result of the When a shuttered drilling platform began nies. tendency for rich earth to attract armed to leak water, project opponents say they They were also able to pressure the actors, from guerrilla groups to paramili- noticed that the water level in a nearby newly-elected Governor of Nariño, Raul taries to the Colombian armed forces. The aquifer began to drop. Delgado, to hold a department-wide Colombian military has a strong presence As tension mounted between rural forum on mining in March. At the forum in regions hosting large mining projects. communities and the company, local con- the governor committed to setting up a President Juan Manual Santos announced tract labourers and spokespeople carried co-operative roundtable that would bring in February 2012 that 30 per cent of out community projects on Gran Colombia together an array of social actors and Colombia’s public forces—more than Gold’s behalf—some of which did not go decision-makers in order to better negoti- 80,000 members—are currently dedicated over well. ate land-use policies handed down by the to protecting mining and energy infra- On October 9, 2011, some of the Colombian government. structure. personnel arrived to repair a paved soccer At the end of the forum, CIMA repre- Aside from the militarization of court in Bolivar, a tiny hamlet only acces- sentative Robert Daza said he was hopeful mining zones, social and human rights sible by a winding footpath up a steep hill- about the roundtable, but that the move- organizations have reported the targeted side. Farmers living nearby say that they ment was prepared to organize a general killings of leaders opposed to large-scale did not want company employees to carry strike across the department if it doesn’t mining. In September 2011 José Reinel out community work, so they approached work out in favour of the local population. Restrepo, a Catholic priest and outspo- the workers and asked them to stop. Organizers believe that a large mobili- ken critic of another Gran Colombia Gold They allege that the head of pri- zation like this is possible because they are mining project, was assassinated a week vate security for the project ordered the not alone. Their story is being played out after travelling to Bogota to criticize the workers to continue, and that a physical in different ways across the country. While company’s plan to displace the entire town confrontation resulted in which a mine agriculture accounts for 22 per cent of jobs of Marmato, Caldas. worker struck a protestor along with his in Colombia, the national government has Almost one year after the Free Trade sister and niece. made large-scale mining a major priority Agreement between Canada and Colombia Later that day, hundreds of angry in development planning. came into effect, the Canadian govern- residents from Bolivar and nearby com- In 2008 the Colombian Ministry of ment was slated to release a report on munities occupied two of Gran Colombia Mines and Energy reported that 52 per how the deal has impacted human rights. Gold’s mining exploration camps. They cent of companies investing in mining Rather than comply with the requirement remained on the grounds until the follow- exploration in Colombia were Canadian. to produce an annual report, the Depart- ing day when they burned the camps to the That same year the two countries signed ment of Foreign Affairs and International ground. a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which Trade released a document on May 15 that Shortly thereafter a mediation team includes strong protections for investors. merely outlined the methodology it will arrived, including the Department (the The agreement went into effect in August use to produce a report for next year. Colombian equivalent of a province) of 2011. Voices from communities like Ber- Nariño’s Human Rights Ombudsman, The Canadian Council for Interna- ruecos have, at least for the moment, been representatives of two municipal govern- tional Co-operation (CCIC) has followed ignored in Ottawa. ments and of the Governor’s offi ce, as well the trade deal closely, producing a report Despite being up against a powerful as a Gran Colombia Gold employee. on the agreement in 2009 entitled Making company, farmers in Nariño are optimis- Farmers say they negotiated a tenta- a Bad Situation Worse. Brittany Lambert, tic. “We’re not rich, but we do good work tive agreement in which Gran Colombia program offi cer for the CCIC’s Americas here, and we’re not going to lose what Gold would suspend work for one month Policy Group, said from Ottawa, “Our con- we’ve got because we’re willing and ready while the Governor of Nariño prepared cern all along with the Canada-Colombia to defend it,” said Gomez.

16 The Dominion July/August 2012 focus on Latin America

Thousands of Hondurans gather to welcome ousted President Mel Zelaya back to the country on May 28, 2011. Jesse Freeston

Laboratory, Honduras Dueling truth commissions, ongoing repression, and Canada’s role in the new Honduras by Emma Feltes

TORONTO—Just over one year ago, The roadblock where Miranda was to watchdogging the military and police, renowned Garifuna leader Miriam arrested was part of protests across the Canada has played a signifi cant role in this Miranda was brutally assaulted and ille- country that were an expression of solidar- neoliberal experiment, tinkering in legisla- gally detained by police. “I have a scar on ity with the public school teachers’ union tive, industry, and security reforms that my stomach from a burn caused by a tear and their fi ght against privatization and are defi ning the post-coup Honduras. gas canister fi red at me at point blank,” repression. The Garifuna community was Early in the morning of June 28, said Miranda, in an interview with The also calling for recognition and respect of 2009, Honduran soldiers forced a pajama- Dominion. It was a peaceful roadblock in their ancestral territories. clad Zelaya onto a plane to Costa Rica. Triunfo de la Cruz—a Garifuna community Miranda’s assault came more than 18 Congress Speaker Roberto Micheletti on the north coast of Honduras—when months after the 2009 coup d’etat which stepped in as interim President, though Miranda was hit with the canister, beaten, deposed President Mel Zelaya and sparked his appointment went unrecognized by the assailed with racial slurs and jailed with- sweeping civil unrest throughout the Organization of American States (OAS), out explanation. country. who quickly suspended Honduras’ mem- Miranda was the only person A revived neoliberal economic bership. detained that day. As coordinator of the agenda supported by Canada and the U.S., Micheletti’s tenuous reign was short- Fraternal Black Organization of Hondu- combined with brutal social repression, lived, however, as the November 29th ras (OFRANEH), she had clearly been has plagued Honduran communities ever elections ushered in the presidency of targeted by police. She was detained more since. “With the 2009 coup d’etat, Hondu- Porfi rio Lobo, who was inaugurated on than two hours without receiving medi- ras became a laboratory of political, social, January 27, 2010. Despite the refusal of cal attention, only to learn later that she and economic imperialism,” said Miranda. the National Popular Resistance Front would be accused of sedition. Indeed, from signing a free trade deal (FNRP) and many national and interna-

Emma Feltes is a writer, researcher, and rights advocate based in Toronto and sometimes elsewhere. Her work centres on Indigenous-State relations in Canada and Latin America, 17 land rights, cultural heritage, and urban issues. focus on Latin America

tional organizations to recognize the elec- Policy Research reports another 120 since Member of Parliament (Toronto-Dan- tions, they were supported by numerous Lobo’s inauguration. Cáceres situates forth) this past March. states, including Canada. Honduras was this criminalization of social movements, Under their counsel, the commis- readmitted to the OAS on June 1, 2010. social struggles, women leaders and social sion sent two teams to collect testimonies Zelaya’s critics in the National Con- leaders of the country as part of a broader across the country and opened offi ces in gress and military defended the coup as a economic, political, and military strategy. Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. “We have preemptive measure to thwart an upcom- In response to rampant repression a much more robust—evidentially, and ing public poll on whether to convene a and violence, an “offi cial” Truth and just in terms of our method—approach constituent assembly, framing it as an Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was to the human rights situation than the illegal attempt to open up the constitution established under the auspices of the OAS government commission,” said Scott in an to allow successive terms in offi ce. as part of a 12-point resolution know as interview with The Dominion. Scott has Many Hondurans saw the coup as the San José Accord. stepped down as commissioner since his “made in the USA,” as Miranda put it, Though the Accord was meant to election as MP. engineered in North America in collusion be diplomatic, mediated by Costa Rican In addition to fi nancial barriers, secu- with the local oligarchy, whose patience President Oscar Arias, the TRC was estab- rity hurdles have also stalled the Alterna- with the left-turning Zelaya had grown lished under decree of de facto President tive Commission’s work. thin. Lobo, who also hand-picked the fi ve rep- “The stress levels of our staff—espe- Zelaya had stirred up talk of agrarian resentatives to lead it, including Canadian cially the Honduran staff—were through reform, minimum wage increases, stiffer diplomat Michael Kergin. the roof,” explained Scott. “Our only two regulations on foreign industries, and, Human rights organizations have Honduran commissioners had to fl ee with the support of Congress, had recently criticized the TRC for failing to comply the country.” After receiving anonymous signed Honduras on to ALBA—Venezuelan with international standards. Under the threats, Commissioner Padre Fausto Milla President Hugo Chavez’s “Bolivarian” banner of the Plataforma de Derechos left for several months, and Commissioner alternative for Latin America. Humanos (Human Rights Platform), these Helen Umaña left in August 2011, with no “It’s clear that the US saw Honduras organizations launched an alternative plans to return. as kind of the weakest link in the ALBA commission, the Comisión de Verdad, on Further, one of the staff suffered an block,” said Tom Loudon, Executive June 28, 2010; the one year anniversary of attempted kidnapping, in which he was Secretary to Honduras’ alternative truth the coup. hauled from a taxi by police offi cers and commission, in a phone interview from pistol-whipped, before struggling free Tegucigalpa, calling the coup “a strike at In August 2011, Prime and escaping. “We’re sure if it had been Chavez’s block.” successful, they would have killed him,” The coup sparked widespread mobili- Minister Harper became said Loudon. “As he was fl eeing, they were zation within Honduras, where daily dem- the fi rst foreign leader to shooting at him.” onstrations ensued for more than three visit Honduras since it was The commission is planning to release months, drawing hundreds of thousands readmitted to the OAS. It their fi nal report by the end of June. It will of protesters across the country. This was during this visit that appear in the form of three volumes: cases, incited extraordinary repression perpe- Harper and Lobo fi nalized a patterns, and an executive summary. trated by the military, police and vigilante The fi rst volume profi les twenty-four forces, including 4,234 human rights Free Trade Agreement. of the most emblematic human rights violations in the fi rst 100 days following cases in chronological order. These include the coup. Despite the constraints of a much assassinations, the dismissal of four pub- Berta Cáceres, Director of the Civil smaller budget (estimated at about one licly anti-coup Supreme Court judges, and Council of Popular and Indigenous sixth the offi cial TRC’s rumoured $5 mil- the ransacking of the offi ces of COMAL—a Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), lion), the alternative commission took its fair trade organization based in Siguate- describes “assassinations of Indigenous cues from a broader segment of society. peque, a small city in a lush agricultural people, assassinations of people in the “Our goal has been primarily, from region northwest of Tegucigalpa. Honduran resistance, of journalists [and] the very beginning, to give voice to the The second volume identifi es pat- lawyers, and all this in a state of impu- victims,” said Loudon, a long-time affi liate terns, including the massive repression of nity.” with the Friendship Offi ce of the Americas. demonstrations, such as the mass arrest of Indeed, the Committee for Rela- The commission has been guided by 400 protesters near the Nicaraguan border tives of the Disappeared in Honduras of a team of nine human rights defend- on June 30, 2009, two days after the coup. (COFADEH) documented 54 political ers—two Honduran and seven interna- Other patterns include the persecution of assassinations during Micheletti’s short tional—including Toronto-based lawyer, vulnerable social groups, and violations rule, while the Center for Economic and Craig Scott, who was elected as an NDP related to land and natural resources.

18 The Dominion July/August 2012 focus on Latin America

The executive summary is likely to be for facilitating further exploitation. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the only volume translated into English. “The Free Trade Agreement with International Trade sent two government In August 2011, Prime Minister Canada has opened more doors for Cana- representatives to attend, including Inter- Harper became the fi rst foreign leader to dian transnational mining companies... national Trade Minister Ed Fast, who met visit Honduras since it was readmitted Leading to the violation of labour rights,” with the Hondurans. to the OAS. It was during this visit that said Cáceres, whose organization signed The proposed mining law repre- Harper and Lobo fi nalized a Free Trade the pronouncement. “And still, even at the sents just one of Canada’s efforts towards Agreement (FTA). international level, there is a lack of justice increased involvement in internal Hondu- Canada had begun free trade negotia- against these Canadian transnationals.” ran affairs. tions with the “C4 countries” (Guatemala, Canada has provided one of two Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) foreign advisors to a new, independent in 2001. But by the end of 2010, despite From signing a free trade police monitoring body, known as the the post-coup climate of repression and deal to watchdogging the Commission for the Reform of Public human rights abuses, Canada decided to military and police, Canada Security. With an express focus on rural shed the collective and go bilateral. has played a signifi cant security, this body has also been acting as “The idea of a Free Trade Agreement role in this neoliberal a key advisor to the proposed mining law. in that kind of context, was frankly almost In November 2011, Honduran police took obscene,” said Scott. “[Harper] probably experiment, tinkering in part in a training workshop on Military- sent as strong a signal as you could that legislative, industry, and Police Cooperation run by Canada’s Pear- the whole philosophy was one of eco- security reforms that are son Peacekeeping Centre. Canada has also nomic trade and growth as the completely defi ning the post-coup participated in anti-narcotics operations in dominant paradigm for how a country like Honduras. the region, including Op Martillo. Honduras moves forward.” With continued impunity for both A negotiating document acquired local human rights violators and foreign from the Honduran Secretary of Industry The coup was carried out less than perpetrators, hope is hard to muster. and Trade through an Access to Informa- three weeks prior to the fi nal reading of “The train has left the station in so tion request notes that over the course of a proposed mining law that would have many ways; the government has been 2010, Canada’s imports from Honduras demanded community consent, raised barreling ahead with its neoliberal and had eclipsed exports by $20.9 million. taxes, prohibited open-pit mining, and oppressive agenda,” says Scott. According Overall bilateral trade increased after the banned the use of cyanide in new conces- to Scott, the test will be whether or not coup, showing a 9.3 per cent increase from sions. It has since been substituted with the Alternative Commission is found to 2009 to 2010, and a 22 per cent increase a new law on mining and hydrocarbons be useful as a way for new political forces to $235 million in 2011. currently before Congress, which would and social actors to try to take back their Leading up to the FTA, Canadian slacken regulations and leave the county country. companies already held 90 per cent of vulnerable to even more extractive develop- Regardless, the Alternative Commis- investment in Honduras’ mining sector, ment. sion’s report is sure have local signifi cance. amounting to $146 million in total assets An April 23rd communiqué put out by “The report of the truth commission will be employed by Canadian fi rms by 2009. the Honduran National Coalition of Envi- very important because it will vindicate sit- During a meeting with de facto President ronmental and Social Networks against uations that strip perpetrators of responsi- Lobo in April 2010, Canadian Ambassador Open-Pit Mining and the Siria Valley bility for their crimes,” says Cáceres. Neil Reeder suggested that with the FTA Environmental Committee, denounced Meanwhile, the movement presses on. this number would balloon to $700 mil- Congress for avoiding consultation with In April, thousands of landless Honduran lion. Honduran organizations on the new law, farmers occupied 30,000 acres of land As the FTA was inked, ten of the instead shopping it around to Canadian across the country. Elections are on the most prominent Honduran human rights mining corporations and government horizon for November 2013, when the organizations released a document reject- offi cials. resistance movement will run candidates ing the agreement. The “Pronouncement The communiqué notes that Rigoberto under the recently founded Liberation and Rejecting the Extractive Policy of the Cuellar, Minister of Natural Resources Re-foundation Party (PLR). Government of Canada and the Bilateral (SERNA), and Aldo Santos, director of Ongoing repression does not mean Trade Deal between Canada and Hondu- the Directorate for the Promotion of that the Honduran people stop fi ghting, ras” describes the detrimental impacts that Mining (DEFOMIN), traveled to Canada says Cáceres. “Instead, we strengthen our Canadian investments have already had on to promote the proposed law at the annual struggles.” the environment, health, and self-determi- convention of the Prospectors and Devel- nation of communities and rejects the FTA opers Association of Canada in March.

19 The Dominion July/August 2012 Canada Budget Axe Falls on Retirement Supports Feds continue burden-shifting onto the 99 per cent by Alex Hemingway

VANCOUVER—The federal government further cuts in these inadequate pensions,” savings programs such as RRSPs, but recently raised the age threshold for Old said Gudrun Langolf, fi rst vice president of ownership of these plans is already highly Age Security benefi ts from 65 to 67. This B.C.’s Council of Senior Citizens’ Organiza- skewed towards the top of the income new age requirement will come into effect tions. distribution. Participation rates in private in 2023. The Harper government says that Cuts retirement savings plans in 2008 were the OAS in its current form is an untenable to retire- 86 per cent for the strain on resources as Canada’s population ment ages. But, as critics point out, the fi scal income case presented for the cuts has been deeply will push fl awed and misleading. more The federal government argues that seniors the OAS cuts are necessary to stem “unsus- into low- tainable” program expenditures that are income rising from $39 billion in 2011 to $108 status, and billion in 2030 (and Canadians are left to degrade the simply imagine how quickly costs will rise quality of life of in later years). others, par- The government’s projections, ticularly at a time however, do not adjust for infl ation or when employment- top fi fth of economic growth. They were stated in based pensions are income earners and 9 nominal rather than proportional terms, increasingly scarce per cent for the bottom fi fth, creating a “sticker shock” effect. Put in and also facing cuts. according to Statistics Canada. Melissa McCabe more meaningful numbers, the cost of Workplace The OAS particulars aside, Canadians OAS will rise by 2.4 per cent to 3.2 per pensions are rapidly being might also ask why their future incomes cent of the GDP between 2011 and 2030. converted into “defi ned- contri- must be targeted for belt tightening, while The government case also omits bution” plans. These plans offer weaker corporate tax rates continue to fall (to 15 that these cost increases are projected to income security, largely because they per cent federally this year, down from 28 peak in 2031, then plateau and ultimately channel retirement savings into individual per cent in 2000). This is to say nothing of reverse, falling back to 2.4 per cent of GDP investment accounts that are vulnerable to billions spent on the war in Afghanistan, by 2060 (according to the government’s the short-term fl uctuations of the market. over $600 million planned spending on own actuarial report on OAS). The burden of the OAS cuts, as is all building new prison cells, and an esti- The more sober assessment of the too often the case, will be borne dispropor- mated $25 billion on new fi ghter jets. OAS situation is supported by the non- tionately by low-income seniors, as well Perhaps unsurprising in this context, partisan Parliamentary Budget Offi cer, as workers in what the Canadian Centre the Organisation for Economic Coopera- Kevin Page, who said that the program for Policy Alternatives calls physically tion and Development has taken particu- was already on sustainable long-term fi scal demanding or stressful occupations (for lar note of Canada’s growing inequality, footing, “even under the baseline assump- whom delayed retirement is especially which has seen the incomes of the top 0.1 tion that there is some additional enrich- burdensome). per cent more than double over the past ment to elderly benefi t payments.” As Michael Wolfson, the former Assis- 30 years, while their tax rates have fallen Even evaluated on the grounds of tant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada, precipitously and median Canadian wages the modest budget savings they appear to has noted, the costs will also inevitably be have stagnated. offer, the OAS cuts are problematic. carried by taxpayers through provincial Cuts to OAS appear to be just one The lost income resulting from the governments, which will have to fi ll the more turn of the vise-grip that places the OAS cuts is substantial for individuals. The income gap left by OAS cuts from their burden of government austerity measures exact amount varies depending on the year welfare budgets and through other forms onto the backs of those who can least of retirement. For example, a person who of social assistance. Since OAS benefi ts are afford it. What remains to be seen is how is 35 years old today stands to lose a total taxable, any potential fi scal savings from communities and citizens will respond of $24,451 as a result of the changes. the cuts will be further offset by a drop in to this set of policies in an era of major- “Canada’s public pensions are already federal and provincial income tax revenue. ity government and renewed activism in too meager. And I fear, if they are raising Some Canadians will manage to sock Canada. the age, that it won’t be long before we see away more money in private retirement

Alex Hemingway is a Vancouver-based educator and PhD student in Political Science at 20 UBC. He holds master’s degrees in Global Politics and Social Policy at the London School of Economics. Canada Harper’s Assault on the Past Cuts to Library and Archives Canada fi ghting words for archival community by Sheldon Birnie

WINNIPEG—While federal departments believes. “Local archives have been using to modernize its operations to digitize across the board are reeling from cutbacks these funds to make their materials secure, its content and make it available to more in the recent budget, a fi ery call to arms to protect them from degradation, and people.” is ringing from unlikely sources. Librar- making them available online.” While antiquarian book dealing ians, archivists, historians, and antiquar- With a modest budget of $1.7 million, is only a part of Burton Lysecki Books’ ian booksellers across the country— not the National Archives Development Pro- business, it is a part of the business that generally known for raising a ruckus— are gram has supported small, local archives Lysecki and part-owner Karen Sigurdson sounding a battle cry against the Con- across the country to preserve local his- take very seriously. servatives’ “war on culture, history, and tory for 26 years. The program’s overall “Customers come and go,” explains ultimately, Canada.” cost to taxpayers is a drop in the bucket Sigurdson. “What’s bothersome about “Our history is in danger, and our compared to the $28 million budgeted for losing this customer is the kinds of things culture,” says John Lutz, historian at the celebrating the War of 1812. This doesn’t we were selling to them. Those are impor- University of Victoria and council member sit well with Lutz. tant things that belong in our country.” of the Canadian Historical Association. “A certain kind of history that is If the historical texts are not pur- Library and Archives Canada (LAC) pompous [and] jingoistic is getting all chased, there is a strong chance that they is expected to cut approximately 10 per these resources,” says Lutz. will be lost, sold at garage sales or thrown cent of its budget and almost 20 per cent While cultural institutions like the out. of its staff. This alone is frustrating to the Canada Council and national museums “The point is it’s important that these archival community. Already, services at and galleries were spared cutbacks in this things be captured and preserved in the LAC have suffered as belts have tight- year’s budget, these institutions will still national archives,” says Lysecki. ened. However, it is the elimination of the be affected by the cutbacks at LAC. “Countries really only hold together if National Archives Development Program “I think what Canadians might not they have a national story that is avail- (NADP) that was the fi nal straw for the appreciate is that other cultural institu- able to all of us,” Lutz believes. When the generally reserved caretakers of Canada’s tions like galleries and museums use infrastructure and funding to enhance, historical and cultural documents and archives to create their exhibits, do their preserve, and display our national story is artifacts. research and so forth,” explains Wilson. “A eroded, ignored or dismantled piecemeal, blow to archives is a blow to museums.” Lutz believes it bodes ill for future genera- Even before these cuts were tions. The National Archives announced, antiquarian booksellers across “This is, it seems to me, a part of a Development Program’s Canada—who often act as “on the ground” larger assault on the past,” argues Lutz. overall cost to taxpayers scouts in the acquisition of cultural and “It is part of a series of cutbacks that are is a drop in the bucket historical texts—were feeling the freeze. going to affect historians and archivists compared to the $28 million “Archives budgets have been cut back adversely.” budgeted for celebrating so badly it’s hard for them to acquire new Combined with deep cuts to the infor- material,” says Lutz, “which is impacting mation economy and to cultural institu- the War of 1812. the antiquarian book market.” tions such as Parks Canada, Lutz agrees Burton Lysecki of Burton Lysecki that what we are seeing could very well be “It all comes down to archives in Books in Winnipeg, which specializes described an aggressive restructuring of Canada being able to help Canadians fi nd in western Canadian and local Manito- culture, history, and Canada. their history,” says Lara Wilson, archivist ban history, has seen these impacts fi rst “History is under attack from many at the University of Victoria and Chair of hand.“We are the fetchers in the process directions,” he says. Whether anyone will the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA). of providing the books that need to be be able to read about this battle in the The CCA, who have administered the preserved for our national heritage,” he archives of the future, however, has yet to NADP for its duration, recently wrote an explained to The Dominion. “We’ve been be determined. open letter to Minister of Canadian Heri- let down on that subject.” tage and Offi cial Languages James Moore However, “Library and Archives protesting the cutbacks. Canada has the money to fulfi ll its man- “By cutting these relatively small date,” a spokesperson for Minister Moore funds to local archives they are in danger told The Dominion via email. According of becoming no longer accessible,” Lutz to Minister Moore’s offi ce, “LAC continues

Sheldon Birnie is a writer, editor 21 The Dominion July/August 2012 and song & dance man living in Winnipeg. Environment

Flawed Process, Flawed Project Controversy fl ows on the Northern Gateway Pipeline and Canada’s Oil Economy by Trevor Kehoe

VANCOUVER—Since January, the federal Cabinet the fi nal say on all future pipeline politicians pandering to Asian and other Joint Review Panel (JRP) has been touring projects, instead of the National Energy markets to sell Canada’s resources, while Alberta and BC, accepting public state- Board (NEB). Currently, the JRP is con- failing to deal with a number of funda- ments on the proposed Enbridge North- sidered an independent body and offers a mental issues. ern Gateway project. The controversial recommendation to the NEB, which then “Obviously this is a pretty large-scale pipeline would carry tar sands bitumen rules on whether or not the project is in fi ght,” said Ben West, campaigner for the and chemical condensate from Alberta to the public interest. The NEB is an inde- Western Canada Wilderness Committee. the BC coast. pendent federal agency; its funding comes “We’re talking about some of the wealthi- Although some observers are encour- from government, but 90% of costs are est corporations in the history of indus- aged by the JRP and opportunity for recovered from industry. trial civilization. Increasingly we’ve seen open dialogue on the pipeline, many First our leaders from Canada... going to Asia Nations, legal experts and environmental- and trying to make the case that this is a ists say the review process and the project “We think there’s signifi cant safe place to invest [in the pipeline and itself are deeply fl awed. problems with the way other resource industries] and to a certain “We think there’s signifi cant prob- the federal government extent I really think that’s the nature of lems with the way the federal government has carried out its this conversation.” has carried out its consultation,” said Josh consultation.” West says recent attacks from Paterson, legal counsel with West Coast Conservatives against environmental Environmental Law. organizations and the labeling of con- “The JRP process itself has no author- Canada’s regulatory process is already cerned citizens as “radicals” shows the ity to look at the impacts on First Nations heavily infl uenced by industry, critics say, current government feels threatened by rights and title that would be caused by and giving Cabinet members the fi nal say those beginning to think beyond the oil this project. The federal government still on projects rejected by the NEB puts more economy. has the duty to consult with First Nations power into the hands of industry-friendly “To me it’s a sign of desperation and a regardless of what this panel does, and so politicians, rather than an independent clinging to maintain the status quo,” said far they haven’t shown that they’re willing third party. West. “The big question that I think we’re to have very serious discussions about the The proposed pipeline and resulting all going to need to deal with is: what does Enbridge issue or the impacts on rights increase in oil tanker traffi c on the west a different type of economy look like? and title.” coast, along with a “streamlined” envi- Canada’s economy is very much based If the pipeline is approved, Paterson ronmental review process, has experts around oil at the moment but that can’t predicts there will be legal challenges from declaring that a broad new discussion is last forever.” multiple First Nations, who have already needed on industry’s relationship with West notes that while the Canadian stated they would contest the federal gov- government. government appears unconcerned about ernment’s failure to carry out constitution- “Environmental Law is really being voices against the project, support is grow- ally-required consultations. Paterson also gutted and environmental protections... ing. Recently, several First Nations par- said that those cases will likely go to the are just being erased in order to acceler- ticipated in theYinka Dene Alliance (YDA) Supreme Court of Canada, although it’s ate approvals of pipeline projects like train journey that ended at the Enbridge hard to predict how the court would rule. Enbridge and we think that’s really prob- AGM in Toronto. The trip raised aware- There has been a record number of lematic,” said Paterson. “We think that’s ness and protested against the pipeline in registrants to give oral statements to the going to result in a legacy of poor deci- a number of cities. JRP, more than 4,000, and a strong nega- sions being made and that’s going to affect The JRP was slated to hear oral tive response against the pipeline in many Canadians well into the future.” statements until March 2013 and make communities. Nevertheless, the Canadian Resource exploitation by large corpo- their recommendation in the fall, but the government has openly, and some say rations on Canadian soil is nothing new timeline and review process may soon be undemocratically, favoured the project and has been around since the country was changed by aspects of the parliamentary during the regulatory process, calling it “in founded, including the operations of the budget bill, C-38. the national interest.” Hudson’s Bay and North West companies. Paterson notes that the Harper gov- Environmental groups are saying the ernment is attempting to give the federal fi ght is more important than ever, with

22 Trevor Kehoe is a journalist from Calgary, now based in Vancouver. The Dominion July/August 2012 BACK talk

Move it The “honour system” described by Natascia L is, in fact, in use on Vancouver’s rapid transit (“Skytrain”) system. As was suggested (“Free Pass!” by Ben Sichel, Issue 82: May/ June 2012), I think local transit ought to be a free public util- Occasionally, transit cops (“Skypigs”) conduct fare in- ity. I don’t think that reasons like “benefi ting the poor” or spections, which, though infrequent, are not “lenient” to “protecting the environment” are winning arguments when “transient populations”; quite the opposite. It is common tested. for transit cops to target passengers who look like they may be homeless or poor. Those found without valid fares are For example, in Ontario, total transit fares collected annu- issued a fi ne of around $175, which to a person on social ally account for maybe $2 billion. For $2 billion, you could assistance is an exorbitant sum. raise welfare by $400 per month—a much better deal than a free transit pass (which costs $126). (It is never a good idea to get into a hassle with a tran- sit cop, who has the same powers as other cops and is The TTC estimates that operating a car in Toronto costs equipped with a glock semi-automatic handgun, pepper something like $14,000, plus parking. Using public transit spray, steel baton and Taser.) might cost $1,500 for a year. There’s no comparison. But studies show that 80 per cent of drivers never use transit A better idea than the “honour system” would be to fi ght at all because a car is a better experience for most people, to make aff ordable and accessible transit a right, similar to and free transit doesn’t address that. campaigns around housing and health care. Transit probably matters a lot more in terms of overall Incidentally, Skytrain will soon be abandoning the “honour urban structure—how we choose to build our cities. And it system” and installing turnstiles in all their stations. The ought to be free, since we have a “right to move.” transit cops will be kept on. —Donald Hughes —GBLK

The cost of honour

I am fond of the so-called “honour-based” transit fare Got a little backtalk for us? Send letters to system common in European countries. Transit users [email protected]. Letters and comments may be edited for are expected to buy a ticket which they must “punch” at length and clarity. Anonymous letters and comments may not be published; those with an accompanying address will be prioritized. a machine to “validate” it. While this depends on transit users being honest, fear of high fi nes if caught without a validated ticket tend to keep people “in line.” Somewhat Big Brother-ish, yes, but these checks are infrequent and, ac- cording to what I’ve heard, tend to be lenient on transient populations. —Natascia L

Racist Act

Gatherings were held in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to pro- test against Bill C-31, dubbed the Refugee Exclusion Act. “This Act is racist. It creates a two-tier system of refugee protection, increases incarceration, denies and revokes legal status, and violently targets and expels refugees and migrants from Canada,” reads a statement by No One Is Illegal, a refugee and migrant’s rights organization.

23 A May 26 casserole protest in Place Emilie-Gamelin, Montreal. Scottmontreal Casserole Protests in Montreal The 8 o’clock-sharp clangs of pots and pans echo from rooftops, balconies and street corners of Montreal in what has become a nightly ritual that signals four consecutive months of wide-scale social protest against student tuition hikes, Law 78 and the Charest government’s increased austerity measures.

Dalia Merhi

Photos by Katya Konioukhova

24

montreal.mediacoop.ca