Urgent Action: Support legislation to hold Canadian mining companies to account for abuses overseas

The Canadian government has consistently failed to create meaningful measures to regulate the activities of Canadian mining companies operating overseas. A private member’s bill, number C-300, represents the best chance for urgently needed regulation. It is currently being reviewed by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Your letters in support of Bill C-300 are urgently needed to ensure that Canadian mining companies live up to international human rights and labour standards and environmental best practices when they operate overseas, and that government financial and political support are not provided to companies that abuse human rights and the environment.

Show your support for Bill C-300

Background:

Bill C-300 is a private member’s bill introduced by Liberal MP John McKay on February 9, 2009. Bill C-300 implements a number of key recommendations from the March 2007 Final Report of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Roundtables. The recommendations reflected the consensus of a multi-stakeholder advisory group that had representatives from industry and civil society groups including MiningWatch Canada.

If passed, Bill C-300 will:

• put in place human rights, labour, and environmental standards that Canadian extractive companies receiving government support must live up to when they operate in developing countries;
• create a complaints mechanism that will allow members of affected communities abroad, or Canadians, to file complaints against companies that are not living up to those standards;
• create a possible sanction for companies that are found to be out of compliance with the standards, in the form of loss of government financial and political support.

Download our 1 page Fact Sheet on C-300.

Write to your Member of Parliament

See the link below the sample letter to find your MP and his/her contact information by entering your postal code. Please also send a copy of your letter to the clerk of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development which is reviewing Bill C-300 (email address provided in letter).

Sample letter:

To: (name of your MP)
cc: Carmen DuPape, Clerk, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, faae@parl.gc.ca

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6
Canada

Date: (of your letter)

Dear (name of your MP),

Re: Support for Bill C-300 on Corporate Accountability

I am writing to let you know that I strongly support Bill C-300, an Act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries.

I am appalled by regular reports that Canadian mining, oil and gas companies are involved in human rights, labour, and environmental violations around the world and by the fact that these companies often receive financial and political support from the Canadian Government. The current government’s response to these concerns is its “Building the Canadian Advantage” strategy. This voluntary approach is completely inadequate and does not address the fact that many countries in which our extractive companies operate do not have strong legal or regulatory systems to hold them to account for human rights and environmental abuse.

Bill C-300 responds to the urgent need for a stronger regulatory framework to hold Canadian mining, oil and gas companies accountable, in Canada, for human rights, labour, and environmental violations overseas. Bill C-300 has garnered support across the country and internationally. It is supported by the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability (CNCA), a coalition which includes prominent labour, ecumenical, environmental, social justice, and human rights organizations. Bill C-300 has my support as well.

I urge you, as my Member of Parliament, to support Bill C-300, recognizing that it reflects and responds to the recommendations made to the Government of Canada by the earlier Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2005.

Yours truly,

(your name and address)

Find your elected representative here.

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