A/HRC/54/31/Add.2 63. The extractive industry is not only responsible for half of global greenhouse gas emissions and 90 per cent of biodiversity loss, 45 but it is also at the root of conflicts created by the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples defending their lands and resources from companies and governments who support the projects of those companies.46 64. In Canada, Indigenous Peoples are taking up the fight for climate justice by opposing the construction of TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline and the Federal Government-run Trans Mountain pipeline, projects approved without the consent of all affected Indigenous Peoples. TC Energy signed benefit agreements with band councils along the pipeline route but did not obtain the consent of hereditary chiefs who assert jurisdiction off reserve. The use of injunctions and exclusion zones around worksites have led to the criminalization of Indigenous opposition to the pipeline. 47 Despite letters from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in which the Committee urged Canada to cease forced evictions of Wet'suwet'en people from their lands, the federal police (under contract with the government of British Columbia) conducted a series of raids using tactical officers, helicopters, assault rifles and police dogs to arrest 74 Wet'suwet'en land rights defenders. Nineteen Indigenous defenders were charged with criminal contempt for violating an injunction prohibiting entry to the pipeline construction site on the community’s unceded, ancestral territory. Five pleaded guilty, the remaining land defenders will face trial later this year and could be sentenced to prison. 65. Land defenders have also been arrested and charged after blockading the Trans Mountain pipeline route. A Tsleil-Waututh member received a 28-day sentence of imprisonment despite recent Criminal Code amendments providing for consideration of alternatives to incarceration. 66. There is a concern that recent bills introduced to protect against “critical infrastructure sabotage” may suppress the growing movement against fossil fuels, in which Indigenous Peoples play a central role, by silencing dissent against planned or existing projects. 67. Conservation measures taken by Northwest Territories wildlife authorities to conserve caribou have had a negative effect on the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation. Members of the First Nation reported being traumatized by a recent helicopter raid and warrantless search for evidence of illegal caribou hunting. The hunting prohibition was enacted by the Northwest Territories government without consulting the Indigenous Peoples. H. Canadian transnational corporations 68. On several occasions, the Special Rapporteur, along with other mandate holders, has expressed concern regarding human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples committed by Canadian companies operating abroad.48 United Nations treaty monitoring bodies have called on Canada to adopt a regulatory framework to hold these transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations and environmental abuses. 49 According to the information received, Canada is home to almost half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies, and 200 Canadian companies are present in 97 foreign countries 69. In 2022, Canada launched the Responsible Business Conduct Abroad strategy to promote good business practices in alignment with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights through prevention, legislation and non-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms. Canada has two dispute resolution mechanisms competent to consider allegations of human rights abuses committed by Canadian corporations abroad: a national 45 46 47 48 49 GE.23-13374 United Nations Environment Programme, Global Resources Outlook 2019: Natural Resources for the Future We Want (2019), p. 4. See A/HRC/39/17 and A/71/281. See communication CAN 2/2022, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=27260. See communications CAN 1/2022, CAN 7/2021 and CAN 5/2020. Available from https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. CRC/C/CAN/CO/3-4, para. 29; and CERD/C/CAN/CO/19-20, para. 14. 13