Canadians paying murderers – and funding their defence in civil suits

But most Canadians don’t know they’re doing that. I’m sure nearly all would be horrified and would demand the government stop doing this, if they did know.

I have to say nearly all would be opposed, because clearly, at least 140 Canadians have no problem with this. In fact, they voted to make sure these murderers and their employers could continue murdering, torturing, and stealing unhindered by even the threat of losing some funding. A few more Canadians gave their support to the murders by avoiding the vote.

Bill C-300 would have helped put an end to Canadians unknowingly supporting murder, but instead, we will get to pay for their defense.

A $12-million civil lawsuit has been filed in an Ontario court against HudBay Minerals Inc. seeking accountability from the Toronto-based miner for the death of a community leader near its project in Guatemala…The legal action comes after a man was shot to death in September, 2009, during an attack near El Estor. The man was allegedly killed by security employed by HudBay.

HudBay is the successor to Canadian mining giant INCO which, in 1999, was found by the UN Truth Commission to be jointly responsible, along with the Guatemalan army, for the murder of anti-mining activist Pablo Bac – the father of the activist leader whose murder lies at the centre of this lawsuit.

Although there were several witnesses to the 2009 murder and they identified the security employee, HudBay claims it knows nothing about it.

Sure. Just like they know nothing about the actions of their security guards and this murder:

On 27 September last, the day before Pablo Bac junior was shot, Adolfo Ich, a community leader and teacher, was kidnapped, tortured and then murdered by security guards working for CGN/Hudbay. There are numerous eyewitness accounts of this. However, no charges have been brought against the culprits or their employers.

The people who are victimized by these publicly funded murderers are not so ignorant of Canada's complicity:

“The image that the [Mexican] population has of Canadian mines is that they’re murderers, and that’s throughout the region,” said Gustavo Castro, a close friend and colleague of Mariano’s who works for Chiapas NGO Otros Mundos.

“People have seen lives lost, dead livestock, waterways contaminated—that’s what they’ve seen of Canadian mining…”

 

They have good reason to believe Canada supports murder:

The following is a list of people who have died in mining related conflict in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador since June 2009:

• Marcelo Rivera—El Salvador—opposed the El Dorado mining project headed by Canadian firm Pacific Rim. Tortured and killed. Disappeared June 18, 2009, body was found 12 days later.

• Adolfo Ich—Guatemala—opposed HudBay nickel mining project. Allegedly shot by security guards hired by the mine on September 27, 2009.

• Martin Choc—Guatemala—shot and killed when men opened fire on a minivan he was traveling in September 28, 2009.

• Mariano Abarca Roblero—Mexico—opposed mine operated by Canadian firm Blackfire. Shot outside his home on November 27, 2009.

• Ramiro Rivera Gomez—El Salvador—opposed the El Dorado mining project. Despite 24 hour police protection shot and killed when the car he was driving in was ambushed, December 20, 2009.

• Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos—El Salvador—opposed El Dorado and was the wife of a man who had lost two fingers due to opposition to the mine. Murdered while eight months pregnant, December 26, 2009.

I love my country. I also love my kids, but when they messed up I did not blindly defend them. I held them to account and did what I could to nurture and reinforce good values – not only to be expressed in words, but through their actions as well. 

With that in mind, while I love my country, I find it increasingly difficult to be proud of it. Our governments have done far too many actions that oppose the values we claim to embrace, and we, the electorate, fail to hold our politicians to account. John McKay advises us on just such a thing:

A Facebook group for supporters of Bill C-300 ha(d) been created and McKay suggest(ed) those who support the Bill contact local Conservative MPs to express their support.

“Just make the lives of Conservative MPs as hard as possible. That seems to be about the only thing that works,” he said.

But I need to modify that advice to include all of those MPs who either voted against or abstained on C-300.

Let’s look at the party colours who think it’s no big deal if Canada pays murderers and torturers:

The clear proponents of murder and torture are the CONs with a whopping 139 votes against stopping funding to killers. One Independent (Guergis) also wants us to continue funding murderers.

Since the Bill was killed by 7 votes, some of those who didn’t bother showing up helped kill it and deserve mention as supporters of Canadian funded murder as well. That’s 13 Liberals, 4 NDP, 5 Bloc. Some may have had good reason to be absent, but the Liberals made sure it wouldn’t pass.

So, John McKay, we have to make the lives of Liberal MPs as hard as possible as well – not only those who abstained from the vote, but all of those Liberal MPs who failed to criticize their party and leader for helping kill the Bill.