The Dominion - Calgary

Oil, Gas and Banks Head South

Miles — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:56:15 +0000

Mining companies are only part of Canada's corporate presence in Latin America

LOS CABOS, MEXICO—The hard fought battle against the Keystone XL pipeline, which was slated to carry tar sands crude across Canada and the United States to port in Texas, kicked struggles against Canadian-owned oil and gas companies up to a new level. Resistance dominated headlines in Canada, while rural folk, Indigenous people, celebrities, and climate activists in the US took direct action to block Calgary-based TransCanada’s plans. In northern BC, Indigenous-led resistance to the proposed Enbridge pipeline, along with a host of other US-owned infrastructure projects, have become front and centre issues for environmentalists and activists across Canada.

The role of Canadian oil, gas and pipeline companies in other parts of the world is, however, less discussed. Many activists have focused on the behavior of the Canadian mining sector, a natural choice given the size of that sector compared to the oil and gas industries in Canada. “In Canada, a major difference between the oil and gas and mining sectors is that while many of Canada’s largest companies are oil and gas producers, some with integrated operations, they are not particularly prominent in the global arena just now,” reads a 2008 report by the Economic Commission on Latin America.

It’s been four years since that report was released, and it might be time to revisit the idea that the Canadian oil and gas sector hasn’t gained prominence on a global scale. Take the case of Latin America, where a host of oil and gas companies based in Calgary and Toronto have been increasing their holdings throughout the hemisphere, taking advantage of the same lax legal standards Canadian mining companies enjoy.

A study by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP found that in 2010, Canadian oil and gas companies made over $35 billion in mergers and acquisitions in Central and Latin America, and the region is the second most attractive place (after the United States) for Canadian oil companies to invest outside of Canada. Colombia in particular has quickly become a favourite destination for this new surge of Canadian oil and gas investment.

At the same time as the Canadian Senate approved a free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia in June of 2010, a government-hosted bidding fair on oil and gas properties was taking place in Cartagena, Colombia. "I have some good news for our Canadian friends. The Senate has just approved a free trade agreement...so that opens the way for a lot of opportunities and our government is very happy about that,” said then-Colombian Energy and Mining Minister Hernan Martinez to corporate representatives bidding on oil and gas concessions in Cartagena that day.

Canadian oil companies were among the chief supporters of the agreement, which was roundly criticized because of the continued killings, kidnapping and displacement of Indigenous people, trade unionists, peasants, dissenters and the poor in Colombia. A free trade agreement with Peru was approved by the Canadian Senate a little later, on the heels of a massacre in the Amazon province of Bagua where an estimated 100 people were killed during protests in defense of their lands.

A preliminary list of Canadian oil companies active in Latin America

CALGARY
Gran Tierra Energy Incorporated: Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru
Parex Resources Incorporated: Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago
Canacol Energy Limited: Colombia, Guyana, Brazil
Talisman Energy Incorporated: Colombia, Peru
Nexen Incorporated: Colombia
Petrominerales: Colombia, Peru
Quattro Exploration and Production: Guatemala
Quetzal Energy Limited: Colombia

VANCOUVER
Petro Vista Energy Corporation: Colombia, Brazil
TrueStar Petroleum Corporation: Guatemala

TORONTO
Pacific Rubiales Energy: Colombia, Peru, Guatemala

Pacific Rubiales and Talisman, two of the most important Canadian oil companies in Colombia, have already come under intense criticism linked to the high environmental and social cost of their operations.

A class action lawsuit brought against Talisman in 2002, which was later dismissed, alleged that the company was involved in funding war in southern Sudan. “Talisman Energy finances and directs the Government of Sudan’s ethnic cleansing campaign and must be stopped before all of our villages are destroyed and all of the people are killed,” said Taban Deng, a former government official, in 2002, from what is today Southern Sudan.

In some ways, it seems that little has changed in the 10 years since Talisman was active in Sudan. In December of last year, Amazon Watch released testimony from a priest who traveled into northern Peruvian Indigenous communities near Talisman’s operations. “The presence of Talisman is generating conflict between those who accept and those who don't accept the company, and a conflict like this here in the jungle runs the risk costing many lives,” said Father Diego Clavijo. “What they are doing here [in the Pastaza river basin] with some ex-leaders is also dividing people, and it is going to cause death and destruction,” he said. “We are on the verge of genocide, genocide between peoples, due to infighting over the presence of the company here.”

Talisman made inroads in conflict-ridden Colombia in 2010, when they bought 49 per cent of BP’s oil and gas projects in Colombia, including more than 2,000 kilometres of pipelines.

Pacific Rubiales, for its part, operates the largest oil project in Colombia. The company, which at one point had a military base with 600 soldiers stationed on its property, has been subject to ongoing strikes by the United Workers Union (USO). Numerous incursions by riot police to break up strikes have resulted in serious injuries among workers. Pacific Rubiales is working hard on public relations, having recently sponsored a prestigious golf tournament in Colombia, inaugurated with a celebrity swing by Bill Clinton.

Along with Nexen, another Calgary-based company, Pacific Rubiales has announced that it has discovered natural gas reserves within its Colombian concessions. A number of other Canadian companies have recently displayed renewed interest in the vast jungle regions of northern Guatemala, which is populated by communities primarily of Mayan descent. Increasing conflict in the region, exemplified by a horrific massacre of 27 peasants in San Benito, Peten, last year, has not been linked directly with oil and gas interests, instead being linked to the activity of drug cartels.

Tracing the fault lines of Canadian oil and gas companies in Latin America and the Caribbean also requires looking at Canada’s role in the banking sector throughout the region. RBC and Scotiabank are both major players, with banks and ATMs popping up throughout countries with heavy mining and oil and gas investment.

"Today, RBC has bought off every single aspect of the [Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago], and now financially dominates the landscape," said Macdonald Stainsby, an activist and writer who returned from the island nation earlier this year. “[RBC has] openly called for financing of new oil plays, in particular they’ve brought up tar sands,” he said. Stainsby, who runs the website oilsandstruth.org, increasingly devotes time to making links with communities organizing against tar sands in countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

Building these links of solidarity and continuing to raise awareness about the impacts of oil and gas projects on local communities, while at the same time organizing against war and repression that so often accompany these projects, is work that must continue if we are to have any chance of collective survival on this planet.

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the Vancouver Media Co-op. A version of this article was published in the March/April print edition of Watershed Sentinel.

Oil Death Jeans Improved

Disappeared Activist is Back Fighting

dawn — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:41:29 +0000

Anti-mining campaigner Mariano Abarca goes on the record

CHICOMUSELO, MEXICO—On August 17, 2009, masked men carrying high caliber rifles forced anti-mining activist Mariano Abarca, 52, into an unmarked car as he was leaving the primary school in his hometown of Chicomuselo, Chiapas.

Held without contact to his family, it was feared he had been kidnapped. But although the detention had all the hallmarks of a kidnapping, it turned out to be a state sanctioned arrest.

For the next eight days Abarca, a father of four, was held on charges that included “criminal association and organized criminal activity.” The detention was based on accusations made by Mexican employees of Calgary-based mining company Blackfire Exploration Ltd, and supported by vice-president Brad Willis’ statement to police.

Blackfire has been operating a barite mine in the town of Grecia, in the municipality of Chicomuselo, for approximately two years. In Mexico, Blackfire operates through its subsidiary Blackfire Exploration Mexico S de RL de CV.

According to an investigation by the Human Rights Center Oralia Morales, people in nearby Nuevo Morelia are unable to use a river for water due to mining activity and report skin irritation if they bathe in the water.

Abarca has been the leader of an anti-mining movement in the area that initiated a largely symbolic road blockade in June. He was also one of the main organizers of a weekend conference held on August 29 and 30 in Chicomuselo and sponsored by the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA).

Local activists interpreted Abarca’s detention as an act of intimidation for those planning to attend the conference. But more than 240 people from as far away as Canada and Guatemala participated, and, if anything, the detention strengthened the resolve of Mariano and his compañeros, who say they are as ready as ever to keep fighting.

Journalist Dominique Jarry-Shore spoke with Mariano Abarca during the REMA conference. She also recorded a short video of the interview, which is accessible through the Media Co-op.

Dominique Jarry-Shore: Why are you fighting against mining in Chicomuselo?

Mariano Abarca: What they’re doing to our municipality is basically looting the land. But apart from that, the government hasn’t taken us into account in their decisions and the company executives (Blackfire Exploration Ltd.) have never made themselves available to the people of the community.

How is this project going to benefit and affect us? We have no idea. That’s one of the things we’re unhappy about. We’d been asking the state and federal government to explain what the project is really about and how we will benefit and be affected, but we had no explanation so we had to make a decision.

We decided to close a road here in town that the company uses to get to and from the mine. Thanks to the support of our neighbors and people in our organization we were able to block the road. The company’s not happy with it because they say they’re losing money. But really, what we’re asking is that they leave Chicomuselo altogether.

We don’t want to have people here who treat our people—labourers and people of modest means—with the toe of their boots. They threaten us. And the worst of it is that they’re part of our community because some people from our town work for the company. That’s created divisions between us.

Has Blackfire made promises to the community?

Yes, they offered a road, a health center, doctors and training so that people would have the skills to work for the company—all that was offered to the people in the town where the mine is located. Other things were offered as well—about 20 different things—like drinking water.

Either they haven’t delivered on their promises or what they have done has been of very poor quality. The tanks they built for drinking water are full of leaks and are no good. And as I said before, the worst part is the social problem within the communities. Some say the company is good; others say it’s bad. That situation worries us a lot. Even in my own home some workers threatened to kill me and then of course there was my detention for defending the people.

Were you mistreated while you were detained?

Fortunately, no, I wasn’t mistreated. The worst of it was not being able to contact my family and my colleagues (on the first day), and the threat of being put in prison.

What message do you have for Canadians?

Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t do to your own people. I think the government of Canada should be more careful with these companies who come to Mexico and treat us badly. I call on the Canadian government to do something because we’re the same as any other citizen. We have rights too.

What do they mine here?

From what we can understand, it’s a material called barite. It comes with antimony. And there’s also gold and silver and another mineral I can’t remember the name of. But from what we know it’s a big mine. They’ve been extracting for two years and already there are big problems so imagine if they’re here for 40 or 50 years. Chicomuselo could disappear. We have a duty to do something.

Were you surprised by the international reaction to your detention?

Yes, but I was in seclusion. I didn’t know what was happening outside. When I was released people told me that my detention had served a purpose and we feel it did a lot for our cause. We were surprised by the support from all over the world and I’m very thankful and encouraged to keep up the fight.

Dominique Jarry-Shore is a freelance journalist based in Chiapas, Mexico. This interview was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Center in Ottawa.

Mariano Abarca Cropped

REMA Participants

Event Cancelled Due to PMO Gag Order: Organizers

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:50:11 +0000

"Canada's Role in Afghanistan," a panel hosted by the University of Calgary's Center for Military and Strategic Studies (CMSS)," was cancelled due to Prime Minister Harper's recent decision to place major limits on the media's access to ministers, organizers say.

CTV reported that the Prime Minister's Office issued an order restricting interaction with the press to discussions of the "five priority areas identified in the [Conservative] campaign."

"In order to keep a grip on such events (those that distract from priority areas), PMO will approve of all ministerial events," the order allegedly said.

A CMSS spokesperson told The Dominion that "only David Sproule, Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan, was able to attend the panel. Therefore, we decided to cancel it."

The CMSS spokesperson affirmed that it is their belief that the decree made by Harper's office led to the immediate unavailability of the other speakers, which were to include Omar Samad, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Canada.

At press time, the Foreign Affairs department had not responded to requests for information about Samad's cancellation.

Anthony Fenton

» CTV: Harper tightens leash on his ministers: report

A Pleasing Demeanor

Thu, 30 Sep 2004 21:08:01 +0000

This spirited Calgary native has finally found his zone.

The "Hockey Song" is available at krisdemeanor.com.

Nearing the end of his set at this summer's Hillside Festival in Guelph, Kris Demeanor arrived at Down in the Zone, his rollicking discourse on Canada's national obsession. It's an excellent song, and it exemplifies Demeanor's irreverent pop artistry.

Though the song is ostensibly about hockey, it actually plays on the banal sexual metaphors ("scoring" etc.) associated with the sport in order to subvert the vacuous machismo that is so pervasive in our nation's rinks and bars. The tune unfolds as a witty and self-deprecating satire in which the singer's macho boasts continually dissolve into the titular lament, "I never have a clue what to do/ When I'm down in the zone."

Clearly, that's a lot to pack into a couple of minutes. Sensing this, Demeanor favoured his uninitiated audience with an introductory anecdote concerning a performance at a high school in Denmark.

"Their English wasn't very good," Demeanor related, "so, much of the lyrical effect of my songs was lost on them. After the set, however, a boy approached me."

Here Demeanor adopted a thick Scandinavian accent in order to recount the young Dane's grave words: "That song, Down in the Zone, it is not about hockey."

With that, Demeanor broke into a huge smile, and his band took off, leaving the audience members to draw their own conclusions about the nature of "the zone." The crowd laughed and lapped the song up, just as they had for the rest of Demeanor's humourous and theatrical performance.

While the audience was cheering by the end of Demeanor's set, it's a good bet that most in attendance didn't know much about him before he hit the stage. That's because, up to this point, Demeanor has devoted his energies to building up a following in Europe and Western Canada.

Though Demeanor hails from Calgary, and his songs often refer to the West, he admits he has a complicated relationship with the region.

"I still can't figure out whether or not I feel a particular connection to the West and its culture," he says. "Some of my songs are direct products of the Western experience, but they tend to be more universal stories of human joy and trouble and could probably have been written in Michigan or Israel."

In fact, many of his songs actually were written in far-flung locales. A youthful wanderlust drove Demeanor to flee the long shadow of the Rockies for the bustling streets of Europe and the Middle East, a move that turned out to be critical to his artistic development.

"[That trip] was a first-rate musical education," Demeanor maintains. "The year and a half busking and writing in Europe gave me the nerve to play live. There's nothing more challenging or humbling than busking in Glasgow in December in the rain, desperately needing another 50 pence for a can of cider."

The experience also helped him develop his theatrical performance style. "My energetic and somewhat spastic playing style was a direct product of having to play everything fast and loud in order to get people's attention on the street."

Returning to Calgary, Demeanor formed the band Tinderbox in 1994. Five years later, he struck out on his own with his self-titled debut album. Since then, Demeanor has toured steadily, and in 2002 he released his second solo album, entitled Lark.

That release heralded his arrival as a singer-songwriter with a lyrical sensibility reminiscent of Dan Bern. The collection of folk-pop songs addresses many societal issues including alienation and superficiality, particularly in the biting spoken-word piece Extreme to Me.

Though Demeanor deconstructs these issues with a sharp and cerebral wit, that force is tempered by an engaging sense of wonder that effectively guards against cynicism. Demeanor attributes this to a creative technique he learned from his father.

"I try to approach songwriting the same way my Dad approaches visual art. He used to tell his students to forget the masters, forget copying famous pieces, forget

technique, and pretend you are the first neanderthal in the first cave picking up a piece of ochre for the first time. What are you going to draw? Why are you drawing it?"

This approach has enabled Demeanor to explore contemporary issues pertaining to prostitution and gender identity in a sensitive and elucidatory manner. Demeanor is adept at crystallizing the essence of complex issues in detailed characterizations, thereby making them tangible and poignantly human.

The songs One of Two Things (about a bookmobile turned prostitute outreach clinic) and Cactus Man exemplify this ability. Demeanor admits that he initially had reservations about the latter song. "I was a little wary of the potential pitfalls of a five and a half minute transvestite suicide ballad. I thought at first it was too heavy and bizarre."

He forged on, however, and the result was a tender narrative that takes the most essential of Western images as its metaphoric centre. "The genesis of the idea for the song came from that life cycle idea, inspired by a near dead cactus in my room that everyone kept telling me to throw out, but that miraculously sprung a bright red shooting star flower one weekend."

That compelling image could also represent the artist himself, as he appears to be in full bloom. Demeanor has a new live album – entitled Party all Night! – and a Scandinavian tour planned for November.

Demeanor will also continue to write because, as he says, "a songwriter is only really happy when he knows he's written a good song." By that measure, this restless spirit should be enthused about his efforts thus far, even as he pushes on in search of the next great chorus or fascinating country.

***

To find out more about Kris Demeanor, and to hear his "hockey" song, check out www.krisdemeanor.com.

Chris Cwynar listens to Chris Demeanor's irreverent pop artistry.