Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on May 4th, 2021

[Ai-Men Lau]

If I may add, Alliance Canada Hong Kong has created a sanctions list. We are happy to send it over if you'd like.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

We would be very grateful. On behalf of the committee, thank you.

Canada and other western countries have taken actions in response to what has happened in Hong Kong.

What do you think has been the effect of these actions on the Chinese Communist Party? Have they had the desired effect?

[Sam Goodman]

I mean, I don't think they've had much effect, to be honest. I think, sadly, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't really care what much of the world thinks of their actions in Hong Kong, and they've set themselves on a path now to dismantle Hong Kong regardless of what actions we take. That being said, there has to be a price paid for what they're doing in Hong Kong, and it's up to like-minded democracies to make sure that there is a price.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Do you think that a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics would have a greater impact on China?

[Ai-Men Lau]

Yes.

[Sam Goodman]

Yes, definitely. That's not a bad idea.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you.

We'll move now to our last questioner in this panel.

To conclude, MP McPherson, you have two and a half minutes.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, I'll thank the witnesses for being here. I'm sure that I speak on behalf of all of us when I say that we really wish we had you for about seven more meetings because there are an awful lot of questions that we want to ask you. I want to thank you for giving your time to us. Many of you I've met with before, so I've been able to get other additional information from you. However, I would encourage you to submit whatever you can to the clerk so that it can be included in our report.

I have the privilege of always going last in these committee meetings. You are the specialists here. I am hoping that I can pass this to you to get your final thoughts on what you'd like to see Canada do. Please keep the comments very short, as we don't have very much time.

Ms. Lau, I'll start with you.

[Ai-Men Lau]

I'll keep it brief and short.

Hong Kong is a litmus test for Canada as to whether we are upholding our Canadian values of democracy, civil liberties and human rights. I urge this committee to not let us fail this litmus test.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Ms. Lau.

Mr. Chan.

[Albert Wai Yip Chan]

I think that Canada should compare Hong Kong now to Shanghai in 1951. If you can understand what Mao Zedong did to Shanghai in 1951, then you will know what Xi Jinping is going to do in Hong Kong right now. The Canadian government has to find ways and means to prevent the atrocity that is going to be created in Hong Kong. It has to find ways and means to stop Communist China from destroying Hong Kong and killing Hong Kong people.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chan.

Madam Siu.

[Joey Siu]

I will keep it very brief and short.

As Hong Kong's situation continues to worsen, it is really important for the Canadian government to take actions to expand the lifeboat policies and, really, to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and also Chinese officials who have been committing human rights violations.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Goodman, you get the last word this afternoon.

[Sam Goodman]

I think there's a small window to act in the next six to 12 months. I think that Canada should work with like-minded partners to introduce Magnitsky sanctions, upgrade its lifeboat scheme to help young people get out of the city so that they don't spend 10 years of their lives in jail, and work towards a UN special rapporteur on Hong Kong.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, I'll pass it back to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP McPherson.

Thank you to the witnesses. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your answers to the many questions and for your courage. Thank you for the time that you've spent with us today. We really appreciate it.

Members, we're now going to suspend for about five minutes to get our next panel ready.

Thank you very much, everyone.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Welcome, everyone.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would encourage all participants to mute their microphones when they are not speaking and address all comments though the chair.

When you have 30 seconds left in your questioning time, I will signal with this paper. Interpretation is available through the globe icon on the bottom of your screen. It's in English and French. Please note that screen captures or photos are not permitted.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses for the briefing on the situation in the Philippines.

With us tonight, representing the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines Canada, we have Guy-Lin Beaudoin, and Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.

We have Maria Ressa. She is the CEO and executive editor at Rappler Inc., and is appearing as an individual.

We have Catherine Coumans, research coordinator and Asia-Pacific program coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.

We also have Emily Dwyer, coordinator at the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability.

Mr. Beaudoin and Ms. Palabay, please start us off with your opening remarks for up to five minutes.

[Guy-Lin Beaudoin, Lawyer, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines - Canada]

Mr. Chair, we have split our time. Ms. Palabay will speak first for three minutes, and then I will speak for two minutes. I'm counting on you to let me know when my time starts.

[Cristina Palabay, Secretary General, Karapatan, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines - Canada]

Thank you for having me today, as it becomes even more dangerous every day for human rights defenders, with an epidemic of rights violations in the Philippines.

Our colleague, Zara Alvarez, is among the 15 human rights workers of Karapatan who were killed in the last five years, out of the 394 civilians killed in the course of the Duterte government’s counter-insurgency campaign. The majority of those killed are land rights, indigenous and environmental defenders. These figures add to the thousands killed in the government’s drug war, which is creating a climate of fear and impunity in the country.

Many more defenders, including myself, face judicial harassment for trumped-up charges based on perjured testimonies, planted evidence or fabricated grounds. The independence of courts is questioned for complicity in issuances of questionable search and arrest warrants against defenders that result in their arbitrary arrests, detention, or worse—their killings. Because of these cases, there are currently 703 political prisoners in the country; 68% of them have been arrested under this administration.

Women human rights defenders are among those killed, arrested and detained. We eat death, rape and threats of sexual violence for breakfast every day, online and offline. Community pantries, relief and fact-finding missions, universities, journalists, doctors, lawyers, church people, members of the opposition, the Commission on Human Rights and many more receive what UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor called context-specific death threats in the form of red-tagging.

I emphasize that these occur in the context of the government’s counter-insurgency campaign, with its whole-of-nation approach to stemming the armed rebellion in the country. In our view, this is a murderous campaign in violation of the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants under international humanitarian law. It is a militarist or strongman approach, which trumps civilian authority and interests.

From this policy stems measures that restrict democratic and civic spaces, such as the recent counterterror legislation. A national task force to end local communist armed conflict is conducting and wielding the baton for these wholesale attacks on civilians, particularly human rights defenders, in the crackdown on dissent.

In the midst of this, there is inadequacy or lack of domestic mechanisms that encourage victims for the rendering of justice and accountability. Courts deny legal protection for defenders, resulting in more harmful impacts on our lives, security and liberty. We are among those who sought legal protection and our colleagues were killed. We continue to be threatened and harassed and a reprisal suit is brought before us.

No perpetrator has been prosecuted nor convicted in all the cases I mentioned. We implore the Canadian government to take action on these concerns with urgency, as our country further descends into an authoritarian state.

Thank you.

[Guy-Lin Beaudoin]

Given the abundant and damning testimonies and findings in the Investigate PH report, our coalition takes the liberty of making the following recommendations.

First, we recommend that Canada end its policy of quiet diplomacy on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

Second, we recommend that the Department of Foreign Affairs issue a public statement expressing Canada's concern about the serious deterioration of human rights and the restriction of civic space in the Philippines.

Third, we recommend that the Minister of Foreign Affairs direct the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines to take immediate and concrete steps to implement Canada's guidelines for supporting human rights defenders, namely to meet with human rights defenders, to visit communities and organizations that are facing harassment, and to expedite the visa process for temporary settlement in Canada.

Fourth, we recommend that the Government of Canada suspend its support for policies and programs related to anti-terrorism and counter-insurgency programs, including military funding, training, co-operation and military sales in the Philippines.

Fifth, we recommend that the government investigate or request international agencies to investigate, and prosecute, senior officers who order, commit, or have assisted in extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations in the Philippines.

Finally, we recommend that the Government of Canada pressure the Duterte regime to resume peace talks between the New People's Army and the Government of the Philippines.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you. You're right on time.

Maria Ressa, you're up for five minutes.

[Maria Ressa, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Editor, Rappler Inc., As an Individual]

Thank you.

Good morning. I'll cover these in the next few minutes: the weaponization of the law and how it works hand in hand with online state-sponsored attacks; enabling this environment where abuses of power and human rights violations are normalized, an example of which is something we call red-tagging or calling someone a terrorist; increased violence and impunity; and the killing of human rights workers and activists, the jailing of journalists and the killing of lawyers.

Let me start with the abuses I know first-hand. In less than two years, the Philippine government has filed 10 arrest warrants against me. I've had to post bail 10 times in order to be free and to do my work. I was arrested twice in a little more than a month. One arrest was timed to the closing of courts, with a warrant or information that left out the amount I needed to pay for bail, so the arresting agents brought me to the National Bureau of Investigation where they had dinner and delayed until night court closed, detained me overnight and took away my freedom unjustly. These seem small in the big picture, especially after what you just heard, but it's a reminder of the state's power that was meant to harass and intimidate me to prevent me and my company, Rappler, from doing our job of speaking truth to power. I like to say that they miscalculated.

The ludicrous charges against me fall into three broad buckets: cyber libel, tax evasion and securities fraud. In order to file five criminal charges of tax evasion against me and Rappler, the government had to reclassify our company as—and this is a direct quote—“a dealer in securities”. We're not a stock brokerage house. We don't trade and deal in securities. Securities fraud includes what I call the mother case: trumped up charges of foreign ownership.

Now I'll go on to cyber libel. On June 15 last year, I sat in this decrepit, windowless courtroom and listened to Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa deliver her verdict on a case that in the past would never have even made it to court. This decision will impact all Filipinos. The statute of limitations for libel was changed from one year to 12 years. I was convicted for a crime that didn't exist when we published a story nine years ago, for a story I didn't write, edit or supervise. Oh, and while my former colleague and I were found guilty, Rappler was innocent. Don't remind them of that. It's just Kafkaesque.

Of course, I'm challenging this verdict because I've done nothing wrong. I'm a journalist, not a criminal, yet I'm now fighting for the basic right to travel, and these ongoing cases can send me to jail for the rest of my life.

However, I'm lucky compared to others, like 35-year-old Ritchie Nepomuceno, who accused the police of torture, extortion and rape. She was one of at least three Filipino women who filed charges against 11 policemen she named who, these women said, held them inside a secret room at a police station. Less than two weeks ago, on April 19, Ritchie was walking down the street when she was shot and killed.

You heard from Cristina about human rights activist Zara Alvarez and another colleague. They were set to testify against the government and the military. She went as far as asking for court protection, which was, at first, denied and is still on appeal. Last August, she was just walking home after she bought her dinner when she was shot and killed. So was her colleague. No one is left to testify.

Now, let's go to the journalists. Frenchie Mae Cumpio celebrated her 22nd birthday in prison, arrested and jailed more than a year ago. This is a familiar tactic. The police get an arrest warrant. They do a raid, and then they charge the target with possession of illegal firearms and explosives. That's non-bailable.

It's not a coincidence that a lot of the victims are women. This February, I'll just remind you, Senator Leila de Lima, whom Amnesty International calls a prisoner of conscience, began her fifth year in prison. She calls it “lawfare” when law is used as a weapon to silence anyone questioning power.

Exactly a year ago, Filipino lawmakers, nudged by President Duterte, just shut down ABS-CBN, once our largest broadcasting network, our largest news group, taking away credible information sources. In the provinces, thousands lost their jobs. Around the same time that Hong Kong passed its draconian security law, the Philippines passed an anti-terror law that sparked 37 petitions at the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional. Under that law, anyone some cabinet secretaries dub a terrorist could be arrested without a warrant and jailed for up to 24 days. This makes red-tagging, or when a government calls a journalist a human rights activist or an opposition politician a terrorist, even more dangerous.

I, along with other journalists, have been red-tagged.

Here is a fact about the lawyers who defend us in court. More lawyers have died under the Duterte administration than in the 44 years before he took office.

There is a lot more—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you. You'll have an opportunity during questions.

Ms. Coumans, you have five minutes.

[Catherine Coumans, Research Coordinator and Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada]

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.