Monday, November 10, 2003

European protests mount around Canadian gold-mine

Ottawa - Monday, November 10th, 2003, Today, in major cities across Europe, hundreds of people gathered outside Canadian embassies to protest Canadian Gabriel Resources proposed open cast gold mine in Rosia Montana, Romania.

The demonstrations took place in Budapest, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. In Bucharest, the protestors demanded that the Canadian Ambassador visit the site in the Apuseni Mountains to see the project's impacts for himself.

Press Responses: November 15, 2006

No digging up dirt at mine conference    
Closed-Door sessions are norm; Industry's behaviour in 3rd World discussed   
LYNN MOORE   
      
The Gazette   
      
A government-sponsored roundtable concerning corporate responsibility of Canadian mining companies operating in developing countries was subject to media restrictions yesterday, even as industry and watchdog groups urged "transparency and truth."  

Reporters could enter sessions open to the public during which seven-minute presentations were made by interested parties, but were "not welcome to report what is seen or heard," a Foreign Affairs spokesperson said yesterday as the Montreal roundtable opened.        

Press Response - November 16, 2003

FINANCE: Groups Fear Canadian Funding for Romanian Mine

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 16 (IPS) - The World Bank's refusal to help fund a Canadian company's controversial development of a huge open pit gold mine in Romania has raised concerns the Canadian government will step in with money.

Last Monday hundreds of people gathered outside Canadian embassies in major European cities, including Budapest, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague, to protest the 400-million-U.S.-dollar Rosia Montana gold mine in Romania. · Export Development Corporation· Romanian NGO Alburnus Maior· Gabriel Resources

''The Canadian government has to act to stop this mine. It will destroy the homes, churches and livelihoods of my people,” said Sorana Ciura, a member of Alburnus Maior, the Romanian group spearheading the protests, speaking at a news conference in Ottawa..

Letter on Tibet project to Terrie O'Leary, Executive Director for Canada at the World Bank Re: Qinghai component of SAP - July 12, 2000

Terrie O’Leary
Executive Director for Canada
World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington D.C.

12 July, 2000

Dear Ms. O’Leary,

I am writing to express our pleasure that the Board of Directors of the World Bank has cancelled its support for the Qinghai component of the Western China Poverty Reduction Project. This cancellation sends a much needed signal, following the approval of the Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline project, that the Board will work to ensure that the World Bank accountability mechanisms are used to screen out projects that cannot meet even its own participatory, sustainable development standards.

EDC Compliance Officer response (4) Re: Cernavoda - October 22, 2003

October 22, 2003

Mr. Fraser Reilly-King
Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street, Ste 104
Ottawa ON KIN 1H5

Re: Compliance program file number 2236--1-1-2003

Dear Mr. Reilly-King:
With this letter, I would like to report to you the status of the compliance program review of your letter of complaint dated July 28, 2003.

To reiterate, in your letter, you alleged that Export Development Canada (EDC) "violated the spirit of its disclosure policy, environmental review directive [(ERD)] and Code of Business Ethics" in relation to the Cernavoda 2 nuclear power plant transaction in Romania. You set out specific sections of each policy and proffered substantiating information for the allegations of non-compliance. You saw my role "as interpreting these policies in ways that ensure that they are implemented to their best intent."

CSO letter regarding government boycott of corporate accountability conference

Hon. Stockwell Day
Minister of International Trade

Hon. Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Hon. Lisa Raitt
Minister of Natural Resources

Hon. Beverley Oda
Minister of International Cooperation

November 3, 2009

Re: Withdrawal of civil servants from corporate accountability conference

Dear Ministers Day, Cannon, Raitt and Oda:

On October 29, civil servants from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency suddenly withdrew their participation from a conference jointly organized by the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) and the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), which is taking place today. These civil servants withdrew not only as speakers on each of the conference’s panels, but also as registered participants.

Press Responses : Wednesday, June 18, 2003

CBC’s “The Current”
June 18, 2003
Damming Evidence: Canada and the World Commission on Dams  
It's the most expensive construction project in the history of the human race, and one of the largest.
 
The Three Gorges dam project in China won't be finished until 2009, but this month it passed a symbolic landmark. Engineers closed the dam's sluice gates and for the first time the mighty Yangtze was blocked. The enormous reservoir behind the dam is now starting to fill with water.

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