Pink Floyd’s Waters lends star power to Ecuador fight

TORONTO • Two groups of Indigenous Ecuadorean villagers, backed by some star power from legendary British rocker Roger Waters, faced off briefly against oil giant Chevron Corp. in a Canadian court Tuesday as they fight to collect on a US$9.5-billion judgment.

But the case was delayed a day at the request of one of the groups to allow their new lawyer to get up to speed.

The first issue Ontario’s top court needs to sort out is whether the villagers must come up with almost $1 million as a security deposit before they can appeal a ruling that went against them.

Pink Floyd co-founder Waters, who was in the courtroom, called the case important.

“It’s a fundamental question of whether corporations like Chevron ... should be allowed to use their financial muscle to destroy people with an absolute vital claim to reparations for damages that was caused to them over many years,” Waters said. “The way Chevron has behaved here is against everything that any of us might believe society ought to be like.”

The case dates back decades when Texaco, now owned by Chevron, dumped billions of litres of toxic oildrilling waters into hundreds of open-air pits in Ecuador. The affected area sees the highest rates of childhood leukemia in the country as well as far more cancer deaths and miscarriages than elsewhere.

Chevron calls the health concerns a “point of debate,” Roger Waters, centre, with former Assembly of First Nations head Phil Fontaine, left, and Paul Paz y Mino, associate director of Amazon Watch, outside court. saying there’s no evidence to tie any issues to Texaco.

The lawsuit, filed in 1993 on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, took until late 2013 when the courts in Ecuador awarded the Indigenous plaintiffs US$9.5-billion — one of the largest awards ever to arise out of environmental destruction.

The ruling, which Chevron argued was obtained fraudulently, sparked a new round of fights in several countries including the U.S. over the money, which would be used to remediate the environmental damage and compensate those affected. U.S.-based Chevron, which has also long argued Texaco cleaned up the mess, denies responsibility.

Because the firm no longer has assets in Ecuador, the plaintiffs have been trying to get asset-rich Chevron Canada to pay up instead, arguing the Canadian company should be liable for the award against its parent.

An Ontario judge, however, ruled the Ecuadoreans could not “pierce the corporate veil:” Chevron Canada is a separate entity and cannot be held liable. It is that decision the plaintiffs are looking to the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn, but Chevron wants the villagers to put up cash as security for its legal costs before the appeal is heard. Last month, Appeal Court Justice Gloria Epstein sided with Chevron. She ordered the villagers to put up $945,000 to cover Chevron’s legal costs if the oil company wins on appeal.

The plaintiffs, who decried Chevron’s gambit as an abuse of the legal system and another attempt to thwart the villagers, are now asking the Appeal Court to set aside Epstein’s costs ruling.

The two sides were to argue the case Tuesday, but lawyer Peter Grant asked for an adjournment, saying he had only recently been asked to represent 10 of the 47 Ecuadorean plaintiffs and needed time. The costs hearing will be heard Wednesday

Also on hand to show support for the villagers was Phil Fontaine, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.