Ensuring Corporate Accountability

On October 27, 2010, the Canadian Parliament voted down Bill C-300, the "Responsible Mining Act". In the absence of any meaningful government measures to make Canadian mining companies responsible for their actions, the victims have taken to the courts.

On November 8, 2010, an association representing Congolese citizens filed a class action against Anvil Mining Limited in a Montreal court, alleging that by providing logistical assistance the company was involved in human rights abuses, including the massacre by the Congolese military of more than 70 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in October, 2004.

On November 25, 2010, the Ontario Court of Appeal heard the appeal of the Ontario court's dismissal of three Ecuadorian villagers' suit against Copper Mesa Mining Corporation and the Toronto Stock Exchange over physical assaults, death threats and various human rights violations against local community members carried out by the mining company's agents, in turn funded by the TSX.

On December 1, 2010, a lawsuit was filed against HudBay Minerals for the death of indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' community leader Adolfo Ich Chaman at the hands of the company's security forces in Guatemala on September 9, 2009.

Canadian civil society groups, working principally through the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability (CNCA), have not given up the struggle for legal and regulatory controls, corporate disclosure and transparency, and accountability for environmental, labour, and human rights abuses.