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Background
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) tabled, in June 2005, a landmark report on Mining in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The report recommended that the Canadian government move away from its current voluntary approach to CSR. It called for policies that condition public assistance for Canadian companies on compliance with international human rights and environmental standards, including core labour rights. The report also identified the need for legislation to hold companies accountable for their actions overseas.

The Government failed to adopt the majority of SCFAIT’s recommendations, but it did commit to hosting a series of national roundtables. These Roundtables were to identify ways for Canadian extractive companies to meet or exceed international CSR standards and best practices.

EMBASSY REPORT
By Jonathan Montpetit

Ottawa Pressured to Crackdown on Canada's International Bad Boys

Extractive firms behaving well in the community where they do business isn?t just an exercise in public relations. It can have a lasting effect on their bottom line when acts of vigilante justice draw attention to abuses and consumers take notice.
Last December, a medical facility in northern Ecuador owned by a Canadian mining company was torched, literally sending more than $20,000 worth of equipment up in smoke.

For Immediate Release

Pdf of letter

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-06-08/news_story7.php

GOLD IN THEM GLACIERS

WILL NOTHING STOP CANUCK MINING DISASTERS ABROAD?

By JORGE FERNANDO GARRETON

Santiago, Chile -- T.O.-based mining giant Barrick Gold will move mountains - literally - to get to buried treasures of silver and gold. But three glaciers?

Friday, April 28, 2006

PDF versions are available in the below links.

Issue brief on IFC and MIGA: "Private Sector and Lending and the World Bank Group."

Issue brief on EIR: "World Bank and Extractive Industries Review - Lessons Learned (and promptly ignored)."

Issue brief on IFC Performance Standards: "The International Finance Corporation's Performance Standards - the new 'gold standard' or 'fool's gold'?"

Policy brief on EDC: "Export Development Canada and Human Rights - Risk or Rights?"

Click here for pdf of "Moving Beyond Voluntarism,"

Urgently Needed: Mining Ethics

Government fails to take action: Human rights and environmental abuses abroad go unchecked