RESISTANCE TO “FREE TRADE” REPRESSION, ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN PERU
Dear friends,
As part of Rights Action’s efforts to get emergency relief funds to indigenous groups in Peru’s Amazon basin – targets of Peruvian State repression right now, including a minimum of 60 people killed, perhaps over 100 - we send you this information:
BELOW:

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From: Bob Lovelace, lovelace@queensu.ca
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 12:31 AM
ANOTHER DAY IN THE - LIFE OF PERU AND CANADA
While in the Amazon region of Ecuador a few weeks ago I wrote to a friend, “At least now I can say that I have seen the Garden of Eden”.  My worst fear, the gnawing secret I would not have dared to breathe, was that the beautiful courageous people that we met and shared stories with would one day be murdered for their land and the hidden metals of which they had no need of themselves.  Just over the hills was Peru.  As I looked south I had wondered who lived there.  Now I know.
In the last six days we have learned who lives there.  Mostly they are indigenous people whose genes have flowed through the region as long as the rivers have.  They are not poor, because they are at home, because they are among their families and clans, because they walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, because the land that has sustained hundreds of generations will continue to care for them.  They are frightened now.  Six days ago they were worried that their land would be destroyed; now they fear that everything will perish. They are courageous.  They do not hide when the helicopters fly over. They watch them come and go.  And they will watch them go, watch them go.
Tomorrow will be the seventh day.  Tomorrow, Thursday June 11th, our job is to make the world aware of what has happened in Peru.  In Ottawa, we will be at the Peruvian Embassy.   In Toronto, we will be at the Peruvian Consulate.  Where ever you are tomorrow you must make your voice heard.  Call your local Canadian Bank and tell them to stop investing in extractive industries, mining, drilling, forestry and agri-business that are overlooking or participating in human rights abuses.  Call your local MP and MPP and tell them that you are tired of them selling your soul for an economy that places so little value on human life.  Call your neighbour and ask them to join you in denouncing the media for keeping you ignorant of the truth that Canada is complicit, as a free trade partner, in the murder of people this week in Peru.
You see, we can do something.  We may not be on the frontline but we can make a difference.  We can save lives by making our names, faces and attitudes known.  If you have a camera, take pictures at a demonstration, of yourself and friends holding signs, of sidewalk chalk messages that you write on Bay Street, use your imagination and then post those pictures on the web where people in Peru can see them.  Tell them with pictures that they are not alone.  And then send those pictures to the politicians and to the mining companies and to the Banks, to the US Embassy, the Peruvian Embassy, so that they will know that our brothers and sisters in Peru are not alone.  You are not alone.
We can also share our wealth or a portion of our poverty with indigenous people in Peru.  They can use it right now. (See below, how to donate)
The Ben Powless Interview on CBC, “The Current” has been switched to Friday morning.  Get in and listen because Ben is now at Pagua, Peru conducting interviews and helping search for evidence.  (Please read Ben’s article, and other links included:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ben-powless/2009/06/peru-battle-lines-drawn-over-amazon)
Support those demonstrations tomorrow (today). I will see you there!
Please forward this email to all of your e-lists.  Since mainstream media is playing this down or not even present we need to be the news.
Migwetch,
In peace and Friendship,
Robert Lovelace
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JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ FROM Common Frontiers, MiningWatch Canada, and the Council of Canadians (http://www.canadians.org/action/2009/11-June-09.html)
ACTION ALERT: Canada must halt free trade agreement with Peru after violent police crackdown of Indigenous protest
Indigenous communities in Peru have been holding peaceful protests since April 9 to condemn new laws that would allow for the rapid industrialization of the Amazon rainforest.  These laws were put in place by the Peruvian government to further facilitate its proposed free trade agreements with Canada and the United States.
Over 30,000 Indigenous protesters have blocked roads, rivers and railways to force the repeal of these new laws, which would make way for intensified oil, mining, logging activities and massive agricultural projects, and to demand that they be consulted on all development planned on their land.
But at dawn on Friday, June 5, 600 Peruvian police in helicopters and on foot opened fire on protesters blocking a road near Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon. Conservative estimates indicate that 60 Indigenous and police have been killed.  Police are accused of burning bodies then hiding them in the river and of removing the wounded from hospital to hide the real number of casualties.
Should Canada really be signing a free trade agreement with the Peruvian government when this is how they respond to legitimate protests against oil, mining and forestry projects that threaten to displace local and indigenous communities and further despoil Amazonian ecosystems?
Many of our elected Members of Parliament seem to think so.  The new Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement gives Canadian resource companies new legal powers to challenge what few Peruvian laws stand in their way, while paying only lip service to labour rights and environmental protection. The House of Commons has already passed Bill C-24, the implementing legislation for the Agreement, without adding even a mention of human rights; it is currently before the Senate.
But the deal can still be stopped!
We need you to write to the Senate immediately and ask them to send the Canada-Peru FTA back to Parliament for reconsideration. The Senate cannot be allowed to rubber stamp this deal, which legitimizes state repression for the sake of boosting the profits of Canada’s oil patch and major mining companies. By using the form below, your letter will be copied to all the major party leaders so they know Canadians stand in solidarity with the Peruvian Indigenous protesters and oppose the free trade agreement.
In solidarity,
The Council of Canadians
Common Frontiers
MiningWatch Canada
To send a letter right from your browser, or just to see a list of key Government and Senate e-mail addresses, go to the Council of Canadians web site http://www.canadians.org/action/2009/11-June-09.html
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Senator,
The recent police attack against peaceful Indigenous protests in Peru, which resulted in as many and perhaps more than 60 deaths, shows a blatant disregard for human rights, democratic resistance and Indigenous rights. It also forces Canada to reconsider its proposed free trade agreement with Peru that you are currently debating in the Senate.
Since April 9, Indigenous communities in Peru have been holding peaceful protests condemning new laws that would allow for the rapid industrialization of the Amazon rainforest. These decrees were put in place by the Peruvian government to further facilitate the free trade agreements with Canada and the United States.
Protestors point out that these decrees violate Indigenous rights and open the way for an unprecedented expansion of new transnational petroleum, mining, logging and plantation agriculture projects in the Amazon rainforest.  Indigenous leaders are calling for international solidarity to safeguard the Amazon, 72 per cent of which is already leased for petroleum exploration and extraction.
Considering that 50 per cent of Peruvian oil and gas exploration is now being done by Canadian companies, it is our government’s responsibility to ensure that if such development occurs at all, it is done according to international laws requiring consultation in good faith with Indigenous communities, and under the guidance of strong environmental rules. As written, the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement only pays lip service to both of these primary concerns while handing Canadian corporations enormous new legal powers to further challenge what few Peruvian laws might stand in the way of their profits.
Canadians expect their government to promote fair and sustainable trade when reaching out to other countries - not free trade and investment treaties that put corporate profits above human rights, legitimate protest and environmental protection. The Peruvian government has acted criminally and recklessly in attacking those who have a different vision on how their land should be developed from the Canadian companies who will benefit from the free trade agreement.
I urge you to do whatever you can to halt Bill C-24, implementing legislation for the Canada-Peru FTA.
Sincerely,
[For more info about this communiqué, contact jamie@miningwatch.ca, www.miningwatch.ca]
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TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
Rights Action will send 100% of all donations (made to Rights Action in the name of the “Free Trade Conflict in Peru”) to indigenous peoples’ organizations in the affected area.  Please encourage people on your e-lists to give something to support healing for people in Peru. 
Make cheque payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* CANADA:  552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
* UNITED STATES:  Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
NB – Write “Free Trade Conflict in Peru” on cheque’s memo line, or in the appropriate field of the on-line credit card donations. This will ensure that every dollar you donate will go directly to the people it is intended to help.
For more info, contact Grahame Russell, co-director, info@rightsaction.org
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