Comment: The Canadian's mining corporations are invading America and have threatened the state of Colorado with threats about CO mining laws. The Canadians will be invading Virginia to mine uranium. Does Virginians want this type of Corporations, Heck NO!!! Write the state and local leaders to ban uranium mining now!(thanks KM)
Published On Sun Nov 22 2009
A private member's bill aims to impose controls on powerful Canadian mining companies that operate overseas
Canadian mining companies are facing allegations of abuse and assault on local citizens in dozens of developing nations.
The companies say they have done nothing wrong – mining copper, gold and other metals brings only prosperity to these poor regions.
Yet locals in countries like Ecuador allege some companies have used armed guards to violently trample their opposition to mines that threaten rainforests and their way of life.
The word "Canada" is so reviled in some places that travelling Canadians mask their citizenship by wearing American flags on their caps and backpacks.
In Ottawa this week, at a House of Commons committee, MPs will continue debating a Liberal private member's bill designed to put controls on mining companies overseas.
THE ALLEGATIONS are severe: From Ecuador comes a lawsuit, filed in Ontario, alleging that in 2006 a Canadian company's armed security forces attacked unarmed locals with pepper spray first, then fired guns to dampen protest near a proposed mining site.
In El Salvador, allegations of violent attacks against anti-mining activists. In Mexico, allegations of human rights and environmental abuse that led a Mexican court to close a Canadian-owned mine.
While MPs in Canada consider controls, foreign pension funds have signalled they will not invest in Canadian mining companies unless they adopt firm corporate responsibility rules abroad.
International Trade Minister Stockwell Day says there will be no legislative action because it would not work, and the companies do not need it.
"As you know, one country doesn't develop laws that apply in another country," he said in an interview.
The allegations of human rights abuses come from at least 30 of the world's poorest countries and have named companies of all sizes, from giant corporations to junior mining companies.
Company spokesmen at some firms say they are the target of false allegations that stem from poorly run or corrupt governments where mines are located.
"The biggest challenge out there is a lack of governance capacity in developing countries," says Gordon Peeling, CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, which represents the interests of Canada's largest mining companies.
"If (countries) had the capacity to protect civil rights and live up (to) their international obligations with appropriate justice systems, etc. we wouldn't have much to talk about."
Forty-three per cent of the mining exploration around the world can be attributed to Canadian mining companies.
"In many countries, when foreign investors arrive, it happens too often that local, even national governments will wash their hands of these regions," says Louise Léger, director general of Foreign Affairs Canada's Trade Commissioner Service.
"In other words a company wants to invest, and all of a sudden it becomes responsible for building schools, roads, setting up health-care services, and providing basic services that all governments must ensure their citizens."
But watchdog groups like MiningWatch Canada and the Halifax Initiative, both based in Ottawa, allege some companies spend money buying guns, employing paramilitaries, bribing officials and forcefully relocating entire communities.
Allegations like these caused John McKay, Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, to introduce the private member's bill being debated in committee.
"Not only is there a behavioural risk to an individual company, but there is also a risk to our national reputation."
POLITICIANS HAVE long squabbled over how best to deal with the accusations of abuse.
Debate kicked up in 2002 after a United Nations report called on the Canadian government to investigate the actions of seven Canadian companies accused of illegally exploiting resources from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been in a state of civil war since 1996.
The Canadian government didn't investigate.
Then in 2004 came reports of bloodshed.
From Africa: Where the UN says 73 people were killed in Kilwa, a fishing town in the Congo. Killed, according to a UN report, by the Congolese military, which used vehicles, supplies, pilots and drivers from a Canadian-Australian mining company to transport them to the site of the massacre.
To Southeast Asia: Where 15 Canadian-employed mine workers were gunned down in a remote Philippine jungle strip, victims of a feud between Canada's TVI Pacific Inc. and the indigenous peoples of Mindanao.
The committee called for an investigation. The Liberal government at the time responded, saying it recognized "the difficulties Canadian companies can face when operating in foreign jurisdictions" and said the TVI case "highlights the complexities of evaluating company activities against standards that may be either unclear or inconsistent between governments."
Again, the government didn't investigate.
MININGWATCH CANADA and the Halifax Initiative, both roundtable signatories, have criticized Day's response to the recommendations.
But Day says: "They need to get a real look at what is going on. They need to see the high quality of work that Canadian companies do and how they respect host governments and local communities."
Richard Janda, a law professor at McGill University and co-author of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legal Analysis, says Day's initiatives are weak and disregard the severity of the allegations.
He also questions Day's appointment of Marketa Evans as Canada's first corporate social responsibility counsellor, a recently appointed bureaucrat who answers to Day and who is the closest thing to an ombudsman the Harper government has produced.
He says Evans' position is "toothless" because, under the mandate given to her by Day, she requires consent from a mining company before she can review any allegations against that company.
The Conservatives have vowed to kill it and McKay says some Liberals are weary of attaching themselves to a bill opposed by some of the richest companies in the country. "The mining industry in Canada is too powerful a lobby," McKay says.
But he won't say much else.
"I have to be extremely careful because the mining companies have made it very plain to me that, `We will sue your ass off if, in fact, you make any allegation of our companies and cause reputational damage.'
"But I will say, if they think they can treat a Canadian MP this way, you can imagine what they say about Third World countries where they can walk in and say, `How much to buy you?'"
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/729147--one-man-s-defence-of-a-national-reputation
