Abé ho Aloz in performance. Timorese-Canadian duo Abé Barreto Soares and Aloz MacDonald performed numerous shows across Canada in support of the Timorese cause.

Abé ho Aloz in performance

Timorese president Taur Matan Ruak awarded ETAN/Canada with the Order of East Timor in 2015. Pictrued are former Timorese refugees and CNRM representatives in Canada Abé Barreto Soares and Bella Galhos with the Order of Timor-Leste medal, Dili. (Photo: David Webster)

Nova Scotia East Timor Group, 1983-onwards

When Dalhousie University in Halifax started considering a project in Indonesia, a group of local people formed the Nova Scotia East Timor Group. The group, led by Bill Owen, Audrey Samson and Ross Shotton, undertook a letter-writing campaign to the Canadian government, the first time Ottawa felt compelled to respond to letters from the public. Ten years after the 1975 invasion of East Timor, the NSETG was instrumental in the Canadian component of an Amnesty International to raise awareness about human rights in East Timor. Under Indonesian rule, AI reported, some 200,000 Timorese had died.

• Bill Owen (crouching) at NSETG literature table and banner showing, Halifax

In 1983, Monsignor Martinho da Costa Lopes became the first Timorese voice to speak in Canada since the 1975 invasion. He had recently been removed as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Dili – in de facto terms, head of the Timorese Catholic church – for being too critical of Indonesia’s human rights record. Msgr da Costa Lopes came at the invitation of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, meeting Canadian Catholics and also lobbying the government and speaking to the
Canadian media.

• The same year also saw the release of Peter Monet’s film “Betrayed But Not Beaten,” the first documentary to be produced in North America about East Timor.
  -Image: screen shot of Martinho da Costa Lopes from the film

Canadian Labour Congress president Bob White with Bella Galhos at a CLC convention.

Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna meets with members of the developemnt NGO USC Canada and Timorese organization RAEBIA (formerly USC), in Ottawa, 2016.

Each year, a Canadian member of Parliamentarians for East Timor travelled to take part in international testimonies to the UN Decolonization Committee.
-Dan Heap MP at the United Nations with José Luis Guterres of Fretilin and Charles Scheiner of ETAN/US

Photograph of East Timor Alert Network vigil outside the Indonesian Consulate in Toronto, date unknown [1990s]. Vigils took place on a weekly basis for some years in the 1990s outside the office building housing the Indonesian Consulate at 425 University Avenue, Toronto. The Consulate later moved to its own building on Jarvis Street.

An image of some of the participants at the annual informal meeting of East Timor solidarity groups held each year in Europe. This session was in the 1990s and timed to coincide with the annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Exact date unknown. Pictured are Luisa Teotonio Pereira (Commission for the Rights of the Maubere People, Portugal); Jean Inglis (Free East Timor! Campaign, Japan), Sister Minica Nakamura (Free East Timor! Campaign, Japan) and Judy Gilson (Australia).

East Timor Alert network protesters attempt to block access to a loading bay at the Pratt and Whitney factory in Toronto. Pratt and Whitney was one company issued with military export licences to Indonesia. The protest aimed to highlight Canada's role in arming Indonesia as part of ETAN's campaign for an arms embargo on Indonesia. Photographer at right is one of the reporters who covered this event. The protesters were removed and arrested by local police.

Agio Pereira of the East Timor Relief Association performs in a concert presented by ETAN/Toronot at the 519 Church Street community centre.

ETAN conference of Ontario members, held in Toronto at the Canadian Auto Workers centre, College Street West.

Bella Galhos speaks at Toronto protest against Bata Shoes role in Indonesia, sponsored by ETAN/Toronto, Bloor Street West, near University of Toronto

João Santos Rolo and street theatre troupe at protest outside the Bata Shoe Museum, Bloor Street West, at a protest organized by ETAN/Toronto

-Abé Barreto Soares went to the UN Human Rights Commission for ETAN/Canada in 1993, pictured here with Jose Ramos Hort anad other CNRM supporters in the halls of the Palais des Nations, Geneva

Canadian support for economic development in East Timor began in 1990 with a small grant to ETADEP, which the Canadian government considered to be the only true Timorese NGO. The most significant early player was the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, which provided both funding and human rights support, especially for the Peace and Justice Office created by Bishop Belo.
-Jess Agustin of Development and Peace with Bishop Belo in Dili, 1999