Mining Companies Exploration and Investment News

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.”

Mining companies are big business in Canada and, with about 200 active lobbyists, a powerful voice in Ottawa.