At least 227 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2020, making it the deadliest year on record – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to a report published by the international NGO Global Witness this week.
That’s more than four people killed per week and likely an undercount, the group said. The report identifies several high-level findings, including that nearly three out of every four murders occurred in the Americas, and a third of all lethal attacks were against indigenous peoples. Colombia was named the deadliest with 65 deaths, while Mexico and the Philippines ranked second and third, respectively, with 30 and 29.
Canadian animal rights activist Regan Russell, who was hit by a transport truck As he protests outside a slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario, he is the only person outside the Global South to be included in the death toll. The driver was reportedly accused with careless driving.
“It can be morbid to record and analyze each death of a defender of the land and the environment. But it is important to understand what connects these seemingly disparate cases: the water defenders killed in northern Mexico with the South African grandmother shot to death outside her home apparently for refusing the expansion of a nearby coal mine, ”the report says.
“It may seem simplistic, but it is a fact worth considering: the process of climate degradation is violent and manifests itself not only in violence against the natural world, but also against people.”
The report says that violence, like the climate crisis itself, has three “fundamental truths”: its impacts are uneven, companies are responsible, and governments cause it and fail to stop it.
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Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch Canada says that focusing only on deaths can hide a lot of damage.
“They can be intimidated, attacked, anything short of being killed and they are not on the list,” he said.
“When you look at the pipeline protests, the Grassy Narrows or any number of places, the weakness of seeing how many people died as an indication of how bad things are shows… Many lives can be destroyed without anyone being shot. “
Jen Moore, an associate fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, says Canadians should be concerned about rising violence around the world, in part because Canadian mining companies play a disproportionately important role in the global mining system. .
“There are more than 1,000 mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges, far more than any other stock exchange in the world, due to the ease with which they can obtain financing,” he said.
“Violence, like the climate crisis itself, has three ‘fundamental truths’: its impacts are uneven, companies are responsible, and governments are causing it and failing to stop it,” says a report by @Global_Witness. #cdnpoli
TO study of the Justice and Corporate Responsibility Project, published in 2016 and updated in 2017, found 28 Canadian companies linked to violence in Latin America between 2000 and 2015. The report identified 44 deaths, 30 of which it considered “selective,” as well as 406 injuries. , 90 percent of which occurred during the protests. That study also found that more mining companies active in Latin America are based outside of Canada than any other, at 41 percent.
“The mining industry has a very close friend in the Canadian state, and it has easy access to capital in Canada, which I think is what has resulted in such a disproportionate role for Canada in the globalized mining industry,” Moore said.
Moore said Canadian mining companies are effectively exporting a home-developed resource extraction model.
“There is a true neocolonial face to mining activities in the Global South, and I think indigenous peoples and affected communities are the first to identify that,” he said.
The Canadian company Tahoe Resources was defendant in a British Columbia court by seven Guatemalans who claimed to have been shot in 2013 by private security forces while protesting against the Escobal silver mine. Escobal is now owned by Vancouver-based Pan American Silver, which bought Tahoe in 2019 and inherited its legal battles. Pan-American settled down but the terms remain confidential. The company now calls the silver mine a “catalyst” to increase shareholder value by investor presentation.
A defender of the Xinka land named Julio David González Arango, who was protesting against the Escobal silver mine, was almost shot to death in Guatemala in January.
“Julio David González Arango was shot and wounded in his home by armed robbers. In the following days, Juan Eduardo Donis, Pablo Adolfo Valenzuela Lima and Edwin Alexander Reynoso Bran, members of the peaceful resistance, received death threats, “read a letter signed by Moore, along with representatives from MiningWatch Canada, Earthworks, and others, sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“Then, on February 7, the Xinka leader and Xinka Parliament employee, Luis Fernando García Monroy, was threatened by a supporter of the mine near his home. Finally, in April, armed individuals fired three shots at the house of two Xinka representatives involved in the consultation process ”.
Pan-American He says it condemns violence and that its human rights policy “specifically commits to respect and not interfere with anyone who (acts) to promote or protect human rights by peaceful and legal means.”
The president of the Shuar Arutam people, Josefina Tunki, says he has faced death threats to oppose Vancouver-based Solaris Resources, which is trying to develop a major copper mine in Ecuador.
TO letter On August 26, sent to the Canadian ambassador to Ecuador, Sylvie Bédard, with 137 organizations signed, says that the Shuar Arutam people are concerned about “corporate abuses”, including “community division, intimidation and threats of death against our president. “
The letter asks Canada to condemn the alleged threat and describe steps that will prevent future threats, among other actions.
“It’s not a bad apple thing, it’s actually pretty consistent and too widespread for comfort,” said Kneen of the Canadian mining companies.
Solaris Resources did not return multiple requests for comment.
Global Affairs Canada did not return a request for comment.
John Woodside / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer
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