The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

From: Tracy Glynn
Sent: November 26, 2006 2:30 PM
To: Hay, David; Duplessis, Brian
Subject: Re: Letter from David Hay to Leon Teicher

Dear David and Brian,

I want to apologize for the delay in sending this note of acknowledgement
and appreciation for sending the letter we requested. When the letter was
sent, I was traveling throughout eastern Canada with Indonesian women who
were sharing their incredible stories of daily struggle with Inco Ltd.,
the former Canadian mining company. However, I was able to let the union
and international delegation in Colombia know that a letter was sent by
NB Power to the mining company on the day that it was sent.

Besides the region of the Cerrejón mine, news that NB Power sent this
letter spread throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Salem,
Massachusetts where El Cerrejón coal is consumed. Many people expressed
how pleased they were to hear that NB Power took a position and acted
towards ending and preventing further abuses from occurring in the coal
mine affected communities. In Nova Scotia and Massachusetts, those
concerned about the situation in Colombia are asking that their power
companies follow NB Power's good example and send a similar letter at
this important time of negotiations between the coal mining company, the
union and the communities. I also want to commend NB Power for sending a
letter to the multinational companies that own and operate El Cerrejón.
These big multinational players need to be reminded that the customers of
their mines are watching and taking positions in favour of human rights
and
environmental protection.

The letter, sent on November 14, was very timely as the negotiations were
slightly delayed with the union tabling its proposal on November 17. The
negotiations began last week. On the same day that I received the letter
from NB Power, I had received this note from Colombia: "These communities
lack the most minimal conditions necessary for a decent life. They seem to
belong to the living dead". Jairo Quiroz from the National Union of Coal
Workers (Sintracarbón) wrote this after investigating the living
conditions in communities around the Cerrejón earlier this month.

Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, a fearless union activist and human rights
leader in Colombia, who has had at least seven assassination attempts on
his life including one following his visit to Atlantic Canada a few years
ago, responded to the letter from NB Power: "I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT IT
PROVOKED A VERY STRONG REACTION ON THE PART OF THE COMPANY...IT IS
WONDERFUL THAT THE LETTER WAS WRITTEN BECAUSE THE COMPANY NOW IS BEGINNING
TO HAVE TO WEIGH CAREFULLY WHAT THE CONSEQUENCES ARE GOING TO BE IF IT
CONTINUES TO TRAMPLE ON THE COMMUNITIES".

We hope this letter will be followed with further actions by NB Power to
monitor the situation and take action when needed and requested by those
most affected by the extraction of the coal that NB Power buys. We are
also happy to provide NB Power with important information as it is sent
to us. For example, with regards to the medical supplies we collected for
the affected communities, Dr. Timothy Bood from Halifax and Dr. Tom
Whitney from Maine set up clinics in the affected communities in early
November and treated many people with these medical supplies. In other
news, the Dutch have followed the Danish and have stopped buying
Colombian coal until the murderers of union leaders in Colombia are
brought to justice. You can also regularly check these websites for more
information about the situation in Colombia:
http://www.frederictonpeace.org, http://www.arsn.ca,
http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/ A new website (still under
construction) has been launched specifically to accompany the contract
negotiations between the mine and the union here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~sintracarbon/index.html

In appreciation,
Tracy Glynn


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