March 17, 2003

Mr. Fraser Reilly-King and Co-signatories
NGO Working Group on the EDC
Halifax Initiative
104-153 Chapel Street
Ottawa, Ontario
KIN 1H5

Dear Mr. Reilly-King and Co-signatories:

Thank you for your e-mail and letters of January 17, 2003, with which you enclosed a copy of the report entitled Human Rights Dammed Off at Three Gorges, concerning the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project in China. I am also replying on behalf of my colleague the Minister for International Trade, the Honourable Pierre S. Pettigrew.

We have taken note of the allegations in your report and will continue to monitor developments. In its human rights dialogue with China, Canada works to promote improved governance and democratic development. We raise concerns about the human rights situation with the Chinese leadership at every available opportunity.

January 17, 2003

The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew
Minister of International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Tower B, 5th Floor
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G2
Fax: (613) 944-2509/0455

cc.  The Honourable Bill Graham
      Minister of Foreign Affairs
      Ottawa

      Mr. Ian Gillespie
      President and CEO, Export Development Canada
      Ottawa
 
Re: Human rights violations in the Three Gorges Project

Dear Minister Pettigrew:

We would like to bring to your attention the massive human rights violations entailed in the resettlement program for the Three Gorges Project in China. Canada is involved in this project through export credit guarantees granted by Export Development Canada.

December 12, 2002

Mr. James Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank Group
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433 U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

We are writing to express dismay at the recent Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman report on the MIGA guarantee of the Bulyanhulu gold mine and to request your urgent intervention.

The CAO is a mechanism that non-governmental organizations have pushed hard to establish. Your personal support for the initiative played a major role in ensuring that the CAO was established. As all parties have observed, the CAO's effectiveness rests on the respect and trust it enjoys amongst the public: integrity, transparency, even¬handedness and thoroughness are thus critical to all aspects of its work.

Linking Investment and Human Rights: the case of export credit agencies

Final Report on the G6B (Group of 6 billion) People’s Summit
The Halifax Initiative participated in the G6B People’s Summit. We assisted in bringing to the Summit two Southern activists, with whom we work - Tundu Lissu, a Tanzanian activist with the Lawyers Environmental Action Team, to discuss the impacts of foreign direct investment in mining, and Virginia Setshedi, a South African activist with the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. As well, Pam Foster, Coordinator, participated on three panels, presenting on financial liberalization, the environment and the G8.

Click here for pdf

Click here for the Speech on Financial Liberalization

An information kit containing 11 factsheets discussing different issues related to the G8, including what is the G8 and he New Partnership for Africa's Development.

• Who we are [ 555 Kb ]
• Key Messages on NEPAD from Africa Canada Forum [ 1.9 Mb ]
• New Strategies, Old Loan Conditions: The Case of Uganda [ 1.4 Mb ]
• G7 Response to Financial Crises - Another Band-Aid [ 1.4 Mb ]
• What's shutout of the G7? - The Tobin tax and Mountains of Money for Development [ 2.6 Mb ]

KANANASKIS G7 SUMMIT ISSUE BRIEFS (June 2002): Extractive Industries and the Role of the World Bank
One of the most controversial areas of World Bank involvement is the financing of oil, gas and mining projects in developing nations. This brief describes World Bank involvement in these extractive industries, specifically the devastating effects of these projects on local people and the environment and the solutions put forward by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to correct these problems.

May 9, 2002

The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew
Minister for International Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario   K1A 0G2

Dear Minister Pettigrew:

I am writing you today on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Export Development Canada to denounce the recent attempted kidnapping of indigenous community leader Sara Imilmaqui in Chile and demand EDC to withdraw its support of the Ralco dam project until the voice of the indigenous Mapuche people is heard.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien

The following letter was sent to the Prime Minister with copies to the Finance Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister on March 14, 2002. It was signed by leaders representing over 100 Canadian development, social justice, labour and faith organizations.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Centre Block, 309-S
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

March 14, 2002

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you, as representatives of Canadian non-governmental organizations, to express our dismay at the proposed outcomes of the UN Financing for Development process and Canada’s role in the negotiations leading to it. We call urgently for renewed leadership on the road to Kananaskis.