While Canada’s Parliament weighs in on Bill C-300, and Blackfire Exploration reels over the shut down of their mine in Chiapas, Mexico — another Canadian company, Cosigo Resources, finds itself implicated in a surge of recent murders in southeast Colombia. The Social & Climate Justice Caravan reports.
7 December 2009 – Canada: Human Rights Hypocrites
Legislation ratifying a free trade agreement between Canada & Columbia is being passed in the Canadian Parliament. Canadian officials, claim that a free trade agreement with Colombia, will result in an improved human rights situation in Colombia. In recent days in Columbia five indigenous leaders have been murdered for their opposition to the Canadian mining firm Cosigo Resources of Vancouver.
It is objectionable that Canadian transnational companies are complicit in human rights abuses of this magnitude. Canada remains one of two countries that refuse to sign & ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. How can the Canadian government claim that Free trade agreement will improve human rights, when they refuse to acknowledge the importance of Indigenous rights?
Contact:
Olivier de Marcellus 0041793427025 (French English)
Dave Bleakney (Canadian Postal Workers, English), and Jose Goyes (CRIC, Colombia, Spanish), 0032-489281693
Audio Interview
Dave Bleakney interviews José Goyes, a climate caravan participant and member of the CRIC.
A vocal opponent of the Vancouver-based company, Cosigo Resources, José is one of many indigenous leaders and activists in imminent danger of being assassinated by “the Black Eagles” paramilitary group.
A full transcript of the interview is available here.
José lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.
Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.
Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo Resources. On Sunday (December 6), we received the news that one of the indigenous leaders in the struggle had been killed. This brings the death toll of indigenous leaders in the region to five. These deaths are happening purely because the local populations are refusing to cooperate with the multinationals and government paramilitaries who are expelling them from their land.
José himself recently received a fax from the paramilitaries, stating that he and his organisation are considered a “military objective”. Jose has already had paramilitaries torture him in his own home. Now he knows his life is even more seriously in danger.
Contacts
Olivier de Marcellus 0041793427025 (French English)
Dave Bleakney (Canadian Postal Workers, English), and Jose Goyes (CRIC, Colombia, Spanish), 0032-489281693
More Information
- Canadian business and state denounced by a Canadian in Brussels, due to their complicitness in murdering of Colombian Indigenous
- Three Indigenous Murdered in Cerro Titeras Reserve
- Tories trying to push through CCFTA: Interview with Dawn Paley
- Opposition to Canada-Colombia Free Trade Continues
- Paramilitaries Threaten Aida Quilcue and Social Organizations
What You Can Do
1.
2. Send a letter to Colombian authorities and Canadian Politicians, encouraging them to defend and guarantee the protection of trade unionists, Indigenous leaders and other human rights advocates in Colombia.
Señor Presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República
Palacio de Nariño, Carrera 8 No.7-2
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 1 337 5890
Salutation: Dear President Uribe
His Excellency Jaime Giron Duarte
Ambassador for Colombia
360 Albert Street, Suite 1002
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7X7
E-mail: embajada@embajadacolombia.ca
Fax: (613) 230-4416
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 941-6900
EMail: HarpeS@parl.gc.ca
Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 992-5880
EMail: IgnatM@parl.gc.ca
Jack Layton, Leader of the NDP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 995-4565
EMail: LaytoJ@parl.gc.ca
Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Québécois
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 954-2121
EMail: DucepG@parl.gc.ca
John Ahniwanika Schertow is an indigenous rights activist of Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) and mixed-European descent. For the past 8 years, he has served as the e... 
The Páez people, also known as the Nasa, are an indigenous people in the department of Cauca, southwestern Colombia.... 
You say that Canada is one of only two countries which has not signed and adopted the UNDRIP. As far as I am aware, New Zealand and the US have both not yet signed it either, and Australia’s endorsement still as yet appears to have been nothing more substantive than an optical gesture?
In a world becoming starved for resources, it’s becoming clear that Canada’s intent is to keep itself clear of any commitments to international laws respecting fundamental human rights which could legally hinder Canada’s intent to act as a clearing house for extractive industries most particularly.
Yes, Canada and New Zealand should be thrown out of the Commonwealth, and the US (if they are even a part of it?), and Australia should be placed under probationary measures, all until all of the United Nations members have signed and showed active participation to advance the rights of indigenous peoples, which will go a very long way to re-balancing the capitalist economic system to the betterment of all…
… concerning all UN members becoming signatories to the UNDRIP, and the US specifically. The US developing its own version of a UNDRIP ‘ for it to be able to sign ‘ does appear to make a complete mockery of the UN? Then again, one should perhaps be at least willing to give the US some benefit of the doubt due to their having access to much information and some of the best experts from pretty much every community of peoples on earth, so that just perhaps it is a possibility that they are focusing their efforts to achieving a ‘declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples’ that indigenous leaders themselves (the sovereign leaders=the people, not the bought out puppet stand ins that mimic Western paternalistic forms of government) may be able to endorse as having bettered the current one?…
Buena tarde,
Acabo de leer este articulo y me parece de lo más raro del mundo porque la Compañia Canadience llamada Cosigo si esta en el Sur de Colombia en un Pueblo llamado Taraira pero en ningun momento en esta región han asesinado lideres indígenas, lo digo porque yo soy la voz de mi pueblo, la voz de las comunidades indígenas de Taraira Vaupés y al contrario de esto NOSOTROS estamos en dialogos amenos con la multinacional y en ningun momento se nos han violado los derechos humanos, es más esta multinacional ha traido médicos a nuestras comunidades y tambien trajo utiles escolares para nuestros niños.
En estos momentos la multinacional no ha podido iniciar trabajos de exploración en nuestras tierras porque el gobierno esta evaluando los estudios ambientales, lo triste de todo esto es que mientras el gobierno decide si se hace un proyecto de exploración social y ambientalmente responsable, la minería ilegal gana terreno y eso si deja miseria y problemas ambientales.
Me gustaria que me escribieran y poder ponerlos al tanto de todo.
Nota: En nuestras tierras la Palabra PARAMILITAR es desconocida, gracias a Dios estas personas por aqui ni llegan.
Benigno Perilla Restrepo
Representante de las Comunidades Indígenas de TAraira – Vaupés.
This is incredible. I beleive that Cosigo also generate the earthquake in Chile. Please, investigate that situation. I Know why I say that