The Social Justice Committee endorses the Canadian networks demands for corporate social responsibility

The Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) is composed of Non-governmental organizations, churches, trade unions and other civil society organizations concerned with the detrimental human rights and environmental impacts of Canadian extractive industries. The CNCA is calling for the Canadian Government to move beyond corporate social responsibility measures that are strictly voluntary. The Government must regulate practices of Canadian extractive companies operating overseas. The SJC has signed this list of demands.

STATEMENT OF DEMANDS - MOVING BEYOND VOLUNTARISM: CANADA AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ABROAD

The problem

Canadian mining, oil and gas companies have been implicated in well-documented cases of human rights violations and environmental disasters abroad. These violations by Canadian companies include toxic dumping, the destruction of protected areas, forcible displacement of indigenous peoples, and threats and intimidation of local communities.

This is not a case of a few bad apples: Canadian extractive companies have been implicated in human rights abuses and environmental disasters in more than thirty countries.

The Government offers both political assistance and financial support to Canadian extractive companies that operate abroad. Yet the Government has no regulatory mechanisms to ensure that these companies observe international human rights and environmental standards - standards that have been adopted by Canada.

The voluntary approach to corporate accountability championed by the Canadian Government is problematic for several reasons. Most voluntary codes lack independent monitoring and verification systems, complaints tools and enforcement mechanisms. Moreover, the voluntary approach excludes binding mechanisms to hold companies accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with their overseas activities.

The solution

The Government should:

• Require Canadian companies operating internationally to meet clearly defined corporate accountability, international human rights and environmental standards, as a precondition for both financial and political assistance.
• Develop legislation to hold Canadian companies and their directors accountable in Canada when found complicit in human rights abuses and environmental destruction abroad.
• Develop robust Canadian-based monitoring, verification and compliance mechanisms to ensure that Canadian companies operating internationally meet clearly defined corporate accountability, international human rights and environmental standards.
• Promote the inclusion of human rights standards in World Bank policies and condition private sector lending on compliance with international human rights.

In addition to the members of CNCA, the following organizations endorse these demands:

• Africa Files
• Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
• Canadian Auto Workers Local 2301
• Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
• Canadian Friends Service Committee
• Canadian Pugwash Group - Executive Committee
• Centre for Social Justice
• CERLAC (Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, York U)
• Christian Peacemaker Teams Colombia Team
• Comite Chileno por los Derechos Humanos -Mtl
• Comité syndicale nationale de retraite Bâtirente
• Colombia Action Solidarity Committee
• Greenpeace Canada
• Grupo de Trabajo No a Pascua Lama - Mtl
• Guatemala Community Network, Toronto
• Le Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala
• Liu Institute for Global Issues
• Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN)
• ORPIG-Carlenton
• Oxfam Canada
• Oxfam Quebec
• Primate's World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)
• Scarboro Missions
• Social Justice Committee
• The COUNCIL of Canadians
• United Steelworkers Local 2020, Sudbury Ontario
• United Steelworkers Local 6500, Sudbury Ontario
• University of Guelph Central Student Association

Information available at Halifax Initiative