 Thank you and good morning. My name is Ed Bianchi and I'm program manager at Kairos. Kairos is a coalition of 10 Christian churches and religious organizations that work on human rights and ecological justice here in Canada and around the world. Today we're here with some of our partners from the Philippines to talk about how mining companies negatively impact their lives and livelihoods. They are here in Canada on a Kairos sponsored six city tour to help Canadians understand how Canadian mining companies impact their human rights and their environment negatively and also talk to Canadians about what the Canadian government can do about that. Two of the speakers we have today are from the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. In 2014 Kairos sponsored a learning tour to the island of Mindanao to learn more about the impact of Canadian mining companies on their rights and on their lands. Bishop Antonio of Blum is a bishop in the Philippine independent church in the diocese of Pagadan in Mindanao. He is an outspoken critic of the operations of Canadian mining companies and especially about the increased number of killings in areas where mining companies operate and where threats and acts of intimidation by the Philippine military and paramilitary groups are unfortunately all too often. Danita Condez is indigenous Subbanan and lives in Mindanao. She is deputy secretary general of the SGS, a federation of indigenous Subbanan groups. Since 1996 the Subbanan have been dealing with Canadian mining companies on their ancestral lands. Carlos Zarate is a representative in the Philippine House of Representatives and vice president of the Mindanao National Union of People's Lawyers. And Emily Dwyer coordinates the Canadian network on corporate accountability. The CNCA works to ensure that Canadian mining, oil and gas companies respect human rights and the environment when operating abroad. We will begin with some words from Danita Condez and Bishop Ablon will translate. And congressman Carlos Zarate will translate. I am Danita Condez, I am a leader of the Subbanan tribe in Subbanan Subbanan in the Philippines. We are the members of the Subbanan tribe are victims of the large scale mining operations of a Canadian mining company named Toronto Ventures Incorporated. The TVI resources development occupied thousands and thousands of hectares and resulted to the displacement of also thousands and thousands of our fellow indigenous peoples and farmers and they were displaced and some were actually even killed during these operations of the mining company. To protect their interests in the Philippines, the TVI used the military, the armed forces and they also organized paramilitary forces to harass, intimidate and even kill some fellow indigenous people so that we will leave our place and in fact up to now we were displaced from our ancestral land. Up to now many of us were not even able to return to our ancestral lands because of what happened to our communities. We were told to leave our communities, we were displaced. Even myself, I am the leader of our tribe. I am not free to return to my community because I am threatened, my life is threatened. So I am just like many fellow indigenous peoples, I am not yet able to return to my community. Because of this continuing harassment, threat, intimidation to us, oppression on our people, we will learn how to also resist. We organize ourselves into organizations. Because of this continuing harassment, threat, intimidation to us, oppression on our people, we will learn how to also resist. We organize ourselves into organizations. In fact because of this continuing intimidation and threats on some of our fellow indigenous peoples even joined rebel groups just to protect themselves. So we are here now in Canada to seek for justice, not only for myself but also for my people, for what they, this Canadian company, the TVI did to our community, the human rights relations that they did to us and that is why we are seeking for justice here. We hope that the government, the Canadian government can give us the opportunity to seek justice here in Canada because of what the TVI did to us. Thank you. I am Bishop Antonio Ablon of the Philippine Independent Church and I am here together with the indigenous peoples leaders in the Philippines because we want the Canadian people to know our story and we want that foreign corporations operating in the Philippines, especially those who are Canadian mining companies to be held accountable in their complicities in the commission of human rights violations against our people. These Canadian companies are coming to our place and they corroborated with the government of the Republic of the Philippines and they hired civilians in special oxalary army and they paid them to demolish our people, the Subanans, the indigenous peoples from their area for them to operate the mining operation. There is a deception which they said, we have the permit, we have the consent, the so called free, prior and informed consent from the indigenous peoples. But what happened is that in order to get the signatures or the consent, one, they would intimidate, they would harass, they would gun point on the leaders of the indigenous people. Second, they would identify another indigenous who is not the genuine leader of the indigenous peoples in the land just to make them signed and cooperate and those who are against the entry of the mining companies, they are harassing them just like what Nenita has told us. And the effect of the people, they have not been back to their homes, their places and they lost their way of living and they are scattered now in their families away from the very source of their lives which is the land. And aside from that, we want the Philippine laws and the armed forces of the Philippines to promote and protect the Filipino peoples' civil, socioeconomic and political rights, not international trade or investments at the expense of those rights, at the expense of our people's rights, at the expense of the communities of the indigenous people in our land in the Philippines. Thank you. In 2014, I mentioned that Cairo sponsored a tour to the Philippines and we gathered information there from community groups, from community members, from government representatives, from people who work for the company that the speakers have mentioned and gathering that information, following that investigation, we called on the Philippine government to stop all mining in the area until they could ensure the safety of the people and also to investigate those human rights allegations, violations. We also, in Canada, worked with others to call on the Canadian government to legislate in human rights extractive center sector, with the power to investigate and to address these claims and also we called on the government to legislate and facilitate access to Canadian courts for those people overseas who are claiming that their rights have been violated by Canadian companies. I'm wondering if we have any questions for any of the speakers. Yes, I'm wondering if you could tell me who you're planning on meeting at this delegation by meeting in Ottawa with ministers at all? Yes, that's correct. As I mentioned at the beginning, it's a six city tour, so in addition to Ottawa, we're also traveling to the delegates that are traveling to Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. Here in Ottawa, we have been meeting with members of parliament from all the parties and also with members of the Standing Committees and we are hoping that in Calgary we are still exploring the possibility of meeting with representatives from the TBI Pacific. I wonder if the Bishop could respond to this. What do you expect of the religious communities you're here as an Anglican, large Anglican population in Canada? What would you anticipate, what would you say to them? The Anglican community or the Anglican world have been with us in the ministry and were been doing things for the people. So right now in our trip in Canada, we expect that our counterparts, our brothers and sisters Anglicans here will particularly support our call for the justice for the indigenous people and to help us echo the stories of the plight of our Lumads in Mindanao and of all the country in the Philippines. Have you yourself received any threats because of your position on this? Yes, there have been many threats and in fact during the 2014 Philippine learning tour after we announced to the media that the Canadian people are coming, two days after my bedroom in the convent was ransacked, it was, I was lucky I was not there on that night and many other kinds of threats to my life. I wonder if you have a senior, when you talk about threats, you've had threats on your life. I have been threatened by the military and paramilitary groups that I will be killed because of my participation in organizing my people and leading my people in resisting the incursion of mining companies in our ancestral land. How are you reacting to this? Do you have special protection? I have been threatened by the military and paramilitary groups that I will be killed because of my participation in organizing my people and leading my people in resisting the incursion of mining companies in our ancestral land. How are you reacting to this? Do you have special protection? I have been threatened by the military and paramilitary groups that I will be killed because of my participation in organizing my people and leading my people in resisting the incursion of mining companies in our ancestral land. How are you reacting to this? I have been threatened by the military and paramilitary groups that I will be killed because of my participation in organizing my people and leading my people in resisting the incursion of mining companies in our ancestral land. How are you reacting to this? I have been threatened by the military and paramilitary groups that I will be killed because of my participation in organizing my people in resisting the incursion of my people protect us. It did not even investigate the complaints that we lodged to them, especially the human rights violations committed by paramilitary troops. You mentioned a Toronto mining company. What has their response been to criticism about their ventures in the Philippines? I heard about the Toronto Ventures. They said that if there is an operation in the Philippines, will they be able to get their guitars? That is what paramilitary troops and military troops have in their areas. That is what paramilitary troops and military troops have in their territory. They will not be able to get our hostages. Nothing, despite these criticisms, they continue to harass us. There is no justice. They continue to use the military and the paramilitary troops to harass us. Are you optimistic there will be any improvement as a result of your appearance here in Canada? In particular, we have been supportive of the call of our Canadian friends here from Kairos and other organisations calling on the Canadian government to establish an ombudsperson for extractive companies that will help accountable these Canadian firms that are operating in our country and to let people like Nenita have access here in Canada to call for the accountability of these Canadian companies. We have been meeting with members of parliament and other staff of the global affairs community and some are very encouraging and we will continue to push for this campaign so that justice for these indigenous peoples will be given. Any final comments from you? Kairos is fully supporting the Subbanan people and all the people who are impacted by the mining operations in the Philippines. We are working closely with them going forward to ensure that justice is finally served. I think it is important to recognise that we work with lots of partners not just in Canada but around the world. In Canada, one of the partners we work with is the corporate network for corporate accountability, the Canadian network for corporate accountability. Emily Dwyer, I am going to ask her to say a few words just in relation to the calls to the government for the creation of an extractive sector ombudsperson and legislative access to the courts We believe strongly that that will make a big difference in terms of ensuring that these people's rights aren't trampled on. Emily Dwyer? Thank you very much to everyone who has spoken today. I think that no one who is hearing these accounts cannot be moved by the impacts it has on their communities and their livelihoods and their rights and the extreme risks they are taking even in coming to Canada to speak to this. I do hope that our government and the members who they have met with have been motivated. I think it is also important to note that what is happening in the Philippines and the accounts they are talking about are not isolated to the Philippines. We are hearing continuously and have been for over a decade hearing accounts of widespread, credible allegations of serious human rights abuses associated with Canadian mining companies around the world. I think that it is particularly important to highlight that this tour of this week is raising similar accounts to what led to the Standing Foreign Affairs Standing Committee recommendations back in 2005. The Canadian government and the Canadian Parliament has been hearing calls from around the world for over 12 years to develop accountability mechanisms and have yet to implement any credible mechanisms. All of the major political parties made commitments to establish an extractive sector human rights ombuds person if they were elected. This was included in the Liberal Party of Canada's commitments. The budget that came out yesterday includes absolutely no reference to an ombuds person and no reference to business and human rights. We continue to be informed that the Canadian government intends to act on its commitments and intends to create an extractive sector ombuds person but we are very disappointed not to have seen anything in the budget yesterday. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Emily. Are there any other questions? Did you want to say something? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Just one last point. Aside from our trip here is of course about accountability about mining companies, Canadian mining companies but we are also calling for the Canadian government to play an active role in the ongoing peace processes here in the Philippines between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front because there are already advances and I know that the Canadian government and the Philippine government have good relations and this good relation between these two countries can possibly be used in further advancing the peace process in the Philippines including of course giving solution to what is now happening for the socioeconomic reforms and what is happening now in our region in Mindanao. Thank you. Thank you. If there are no more questions then? Okay, thank you very much.