Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Shaun Fryday. I'm the minister of Beaconsfield United Church in Montreal, which is a congregation within the United Church of Canada.
In early January of this year, I led a 14-member delegation from across the country—from the five different regions—primarily made up of members of the United Church of Canada, to specifically look at the impact of Canadian mining on the lives of indigenous people in the Cordillera region. In the conduct of our study, we met with several governors, mayors, municipal councillors, members of the armed forces of the Philippines, local unions, community leaders, women's organizations, indigenous elders, and people's movements.
We specifically looked at Abra province, one of the five provinces of the Cordillera region. Eighty-five per cent of the land mass of Abra province is now under application for exploration from seven Canadian mining companies.
The 1995 mining act has attracted transnational mining investors and it is no wonder. It allows for 100% foreign ownership of mining projects. It allows for foreign companies to have enormous areas for concession, both onshore and offshore. It allows for 100% of repatriation of profit, five years of tax holidays—later extended to eight years—enjoyment of easement rights, mine leases for 25 years that are extendable for another 25 years, and losses that can be carried forward against income tax—among other things. When it's all said and done, the mining industry in the Philippines contributes 1% of the GDP.
For the affected indigenous communities that we met and stayed with for three days, deep in the interior, there is wide-scale resistance to any form of large-scale mining. I have with me a copy of the petition from the Municipality of Tubo, from the barangay captain, where 90% of the people of the municipality signed the petition, which calls for a complete end to all mining exploration by the two Canadian mining companies, CANEX and ADANACEX, that are presently exploring in the area.
As mining exploration development occurs, there are the vectors that my colleagues have spoken about: the vilification of individuals and organizations, the additional extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the taking of political prisoners, and the culture of impunity. Just a word on that. Presently, the former president is also in custody in a medical facility, awaiting trial on various charges, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, who was unconstitutionally placed in his position by that same president, is currently undergoing impeachment hearings in the senate.
There remains and exists within the mainframe of Philippine society a culture of impunity that is wanton and has a disregard for human life. If the vulnerable cannot have recourse to impartial judges who cannot receive accurate information from credible witnesses, then society is at risk, and lawlessness abounds, corruption flourishes, warlords prosper, and the people themselves bear the high cost and suffer.
Then there is the militarization of communities, which is particularly thorough in areas where there are large indigenous populations, because of the natural wealth of the land. The military will move into an area and bivouac, taking over schools, often the only public buildings. They abuse women and children, including sex crimes against women. In the case of Tubo, the community I stayed with for three days, along with other members of our delegation, they trampled entire rice crops, which deprives villages of their primary food source.
Also, in a new and disturbing development made possible in October of 2011, President Aquino has authorized the deployment of paramilitaries, known as the Special Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary, or the SCAA. Colloquially in the Philippines they are known as goons, and the three Gs combined—goons, gold, and guns—have mayhem breaking loose.
Presently, there is a request before the congress of the Philippines to conduct an investigation into the human rights abuses as practised by a paramilitary who has been hired by the Canadian mining firm TVRID, which is a subsidiary of TVI Pacific, a publicly traded Canadian mining company based in Calgary, Alberta.
It is an extremely disturbing development as mining companies now have the capacity to hire these private militias, which are armed and trained by the armed forces of the Philippines, and there is a total lack of accountability for any of their actions. Congressman Tinio, who has asked for the investigation in the Congress, alleges that the paramilitary engaged by TVI have committed human rights violations in preparation for establishing an open-pit gold mine, including demolishing people's homes, bulldozing subsistence plots, destroying small-scale mining equipment, performing illegal searches and arrests, setting up checkpoints, imposing blockades to prevent supplies from reaching isolated communities, and fencing off the only mountain stream that serves as the main source of water for the community. This example is duplicated throughout the Philippines. The private armies spell out, writ large, misery and suffering for the vulnerable groups like labourers, farmers, and indigenous people.
In closing, Mr. Chair, the indigenous people have for centuries resisted incursions onto their ancestral lands. To deploy professional armies, paramilitaries, and goons to advance corporate interests constitutes a form of depraved indifference, which is by definition an act so deficient in a moral sense of concern and so lacking in regard for the life of others, so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime, and it rests really in the hands of a complacent and ill-informed Canadian public, a Canadian government that intentionally blinds its own seeing eyes to the fundamental injustices that we allow and do not call out.
We have three very simple requests and recommendations.
Concerning vilification, we ask that the Canadian government intervene with the Government of the Philippines and have removed from the watch lists and lists of battle the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, and the regional ecumenical council, as they are victims of torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, among other violations.
Second, we ask the Canadian government to actively seek to support and fund NGOs and people's progressive organizations that record and document these human rights violations. Further, that any company, Canadian company, or Canadian mining company that uses paramilitaries who violate human rights in their many forms in the Philippines have sanctions imposed upon them, including monetary sanctions and a withdrawal of our consular services.
I would strongly recommend—I've been to the area three times myself in the last two years, first as an international election observer—that the subcommittee be seized with an opportunity to conduct its own investigation and visit the area to hear first-hand what is taking place there.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
