By Lital Khaikin, Rabble.ca

Canadian embassies are failing to stand up for activists in foreign countries who seek to protect their land and resources from exploitation by Canadian corporations.

Over the winter, hundreds of demonstrators in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia denounced a Canadian gold mine owned by Aris Mining in the eastern Andean wetlands. They were rallied by the Comité Santurbán, a collective of activists protecting the vulnerable Santurbán watershed, known as a páramo, from industrial mining. 

Opposition has been ongoing for at least 16 years. But this past December, members of the Comité were designated by a group supporting the Canadian mine as “persona non grata.” In October, they were labelled as “enemies of progress in Santander” and accused of being responsible for “the deterioration of the country’s heritage”.

Comité members rallied again in March, but this time, they gathered at the Canadian embassy in Bogotá. They wanted the Canadian government to know about the intimidation targeting defenders of the paramo, about their community’s rejection of the Canadian mine, and the systemic harassment and death threats facing activists across Colombia. 

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