Dear Health Promotion friends and colleagues,
I hope you all had a restful holiday season .
I am writing about a deeply personal matter that is related to Canada’s
foreign affair policy. I was born in Chile and came to Canada during the
time of the military dictatorship. It was a horrific time for my family,
and now sadly we are re-living this trauma and chaos.
You may have heard about the cancellation of some high profile global
meetings scheduled in Chile this fall, such as the 26th Cochrane
Colloquium, the International Climate Change Summit COP25 and Asia-Pacific
Economic Co-operation (APEC) leaders’ meeting. They were cancelled due to
the crisis in Chile that started in mid-October due to a massive social
uprising and military crackdown that occurred when President Piñera
declared a state of emergency on Oct 1, 2019.
Since that date, human rights watch groups including the National Institute
for Human Rights in Chile, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch
and United Nations have reported 400+ criminal complaints allegedly
committed by security forces; deaths, sexual violence, tortures, detention
of children and thousands wounded and admitted to hospital. More than 350
people have lost their eyesight due to severe ocular wounds caused by
non-lethal lead ammunitions banned by UN. Political responsibilities have
not being persecuted yet.
The root cause of the social unrest is the decades of neoliberal economics
and policies that were established with the Constitution of 1980 under the
Pinochet dictatorship, with zero participation of civil society.
Today, Chile has the largest social inequities in all the OECD countries.
In addition, the social unrest is related to the climate justice issue
where many Indigenous Mapuche people have lost their lives and/or are
imprisoned for defending their land and water.
Canadian media and government have been silent so we have decided to apply
some pressure and launched a parliamentary e-petition.
Below is a great article in the Georgia Straight about the petition and why
Canadians should be concerned about our economic interests in Chile largely
in the mining and extraction industries.
https://www.straight.com/news/1336776/vancouver-residents-e-petition-calls-canada-urge-chilean-government-end-military-and?fbclid=IwAR2f4l413A3_t3-qzKBXaj7U35-g8btckl-WhL2h7j5DRgs_UJ9wce501Bc
We have over 1300 people across Canada signing this e-petition to Canadian
Parliament to ask our government to denounce the human right abuses.
Please consider signing and sharing. Deadline is tomorrow at 1pm PST.
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2302
Thank you for your solidarity.
Best wishes for 2020!
Paola
[image: photo]
SFU's 2017 Coast Capital Savings Award winner for Social Impact
*Paola Ardiles Gamboa *
Faculty: Social Innovation, Health & Community Partnerships - Simon Fraser
University
Co-Founder, Bridge For Health <http://www.bridgeforhealth.org/> Coop
p: 604-428-1517 | e:[log in to unmask] | w:
http://bridgeforhealth.org
<http://www.facebook.com/Bridge4Health> [image:
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/paolaardiles]
<https://ca.linkedin.com/in/paolaardiles> [image:
https://twitter.com/Paola_A_Ardiles]
<https://twitter.com/Paola_A_Ardiles> skype
id: paolaardiles @Paola_A_Ardiles
*I acknowledge I live, work and play within the ancestral, traditional and
unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples.*
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