I have lived and worked with environmental and human rights defenders affected by Canadian mining companies in the Philippines since 1988 and in the last 22 years with MiningWatch Canada as Asia-Pacific program coordinator.
I first testified before this committee in 2005, together with two indigenous Subanon leaders from Mindanao in the Philippines. Timuay Anoy and Onsino Mato flew to Canada at the invitation of this committee to testify with urgency about human and indigenous rights abuses faced by their people and threats to their lives as a result of Canadian mining company TVI Pacific's determination to mine a sacred mountain on their ancestral land.
Due to this committee's concern about actions taken by TVI Pacific, even as the Subanon were on their way to Canada, they were invited to testify in camera for their safety.
The abuses suffered by the Subanon of Canatuan are well documented. I witnessed some abuses myself on visiting their place, including forest relocations and TVI Pacific's use of paramilitary forces to set up roadblocks to control access to community members and food to the village. They included the marginalization of traditional leaders such as Timuay Anoy, bringing in fake leaders to secure free, prior and informed consent as required by Philippine law, and using funds provided by the Canadian embassy to reward villagers who agreed to cease their opposition to the mine.
I have taken us back to this earlier testimony because, in the context of severe deterioration of human rights in the Philippines and lack of access to remedy, the abuses suffered by Timuay Anoy and Onsino Mato are prevalent at Canadian mine sites throughout the Philippines today.
You heard testimony earlier from Mr. Clemente Bautista about threats to local indigenous Ifugao opponents of OceanaGold's mine in Nueva Vizcaya and about the history of well-documented human rights and environmental abuses at that site.
In 2018, I accompanied indigenous rights defenders from that community, who had been red-tagged and were threatened by extrajudicial killing, on a fruitless visit to the Canadian embassy to seek protection for them. These indigenous community members remain threatened today.
Additionally, Barrick Gold has been embroiled in legal action since 2006 as a result of 30 years of irresponsible mining by a Canadian mining company bought out by Barrick that had left widespread environmental devastation on the small Island of Marinduque.
Another Canadian company, B2Gold, operating on the island of Masbate, is also embroiled in disputes with local farmers and fishers because of the loss of land and livelihood to the mine, environmental impacts to water and fishing, militarization and the criminalization of dissent.
I am also taking us back to 2005 because in that year, this committee prepared a very strong report that remains highly relevant to the issues discussed here today. This report was unanimously endorsed by both the subcommittee and the standing committee. It asked for an investigation to be made “of any impact of TVI Pacific's Canatuan mining project in Mindanao on the indigenous rights and the human rights of people in the area and on the environment”.
The Canadian government of the day declined to carry out this investigation.
The report also asked the government to:
Establish clear legal norms in Canada to ensure that Canadian companies and residents are held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies;
We are still waiting for these laws to be established.
To conclude, Canada must fulfill its obligations to protect human rights in the context of the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines. In particular, it must protect those who are criminalized and whose lives are threatened for speaking out in defence of human rights and the environment.
Canada should not be selling military equipment and providing defence, support and co-operation to the Philippines. Canada needs to mandate its consular staff to protect human rights. Canada needs to fast-track the means by which rights defenders whose lives are threatened can receive visas for temporary relocation to Canada or other safe countries.
Next, Canada needs to live up to its commitment to grant the Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise the powers to compel testimony and documents from Canadian corporations in the course of her investigations.
In addition, Canada needs to follow the lead of European jurisdictions and implement mandatory human rights due diligence legislation that would require companies to prevent human rights abuses throughout their global operations and supply chains and to report on their human rights and environmental due diligence procedures. Companies could be sued in Canadian courts if they caused harm or failed to do due diligence.
Thank you.