The Canadian government, mining and human rights

Opinion

You may not know it, but bad things are happening in different parts of the world that have a distinct Canadian connection.

Environmentally speaking, foreign mining companies are often more concerned about extracting profits than they are about protecting the local ecological space. There have been innumerable cases of these extractive businesses releasing dangerous chemical pollutants into the air, causing physical damage to nearby homes through soil and bedrock disturbances and dumping mining effluent that poisons local drinking water systems.

Moreover, Mexican environmental activist Mariano Abarca was shot and killed by a man on a motorcycle in front of his house in Chicomuselo in late November 2009. Seven Guatemalans were also shot and seriously injured in late April 2013, while trying to engage in peaceful resistance and defending their ancestral lands.

Topacio Reynoso Pacheco, a 16-year-old human rights campaigner and Indigenous Xinka land protector, was murdered near Mataquescuitla, Guatemala in April 2014 by unknown gunmen. And in late October 2023, Noé Gómez Barrera, a Xinka community leader and land defender, was also assassinated near his home in Jutiapa department, Guatemala.

Do you know what all of these violent encounters, environmental degradations and deaths have in common? Well, they all happened in and around the mining sites of Canadian-owned companies.

To be sure, global mining operations are big business, involve huge profit-taking opportunities and can have profound negative impacts on local communities abroad. It is instructive to note that Canadian-owned mining companies have significant resource extractive investments in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Many of the world’s top mining corporations (over 1,400 entities) are actually headquartered in Canada. They do so mainly because of a favourable business tax regime, the absence of strict corporate financial and accounting practices and enjoy a general immunity from legal liability and accountability for their foreign activities.

Another very important angle of this sordid story of corporate greed is the involvement or complicity of the Canadian government itself. One could make a pretty strong case that Ottawa works hand-in-glove with the extractive sector to facilitate their foreign operations.

In fact, Export Development Canada (EDC) eagerly provides financial loans, insurance, strategic information and other material support to these mining companies. It’s also true that Canada’s Trade Commissioners, who are central players in most of Canada’s embassies abroad and key interlocutors with the extractive industries, effectively serve at the beck and call of these same corporations.

At the same time, the Canadian government maintains that it is an ardent proponent of defending human rights around the world and engaging in ethical conduct. At every opportunity it says that it adheres to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the world body’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Furthermore, official Ottawa professes its firm commitment to Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders (or “Voices at Risk”) of 2016 and the investigatory activities of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise or CORE, which was created in 2018 (though CORE is perhaps best known for not investigating any Canadian corporate breaches or violations).

One of the key questions — and there are many not addressed in this short op-ed piece — revolves around why the Canadian government would basically look the other way at these corporate abuses. Not only does Ottawa turn a blind eye to these serious rights violations, but in many cases it contributes to the abuses directly and indirectly.

Part of it stems from the persistence of a colonial worldview and mindset within the Canadian government that prioritizes Eurocentric thinking over traditional Indigenous ways. That mentality is joined by a deep-seated belief that the best model for fostering economic development in the Global South is via a pro-business, neoliberal and export-led model.

The government-corporate symbiotic relationship is also fortified by a conviction that promoting Canada’s economic interests means supporting the Canadian extractive sector abroad no matter what. Lastly, one should not discount bureaucratic interests from the governmental complicity equation — that is, doing so can strengthen the Americas Branch within Global Affairs Canada and even lead to individual career advancement.

The extant evidence, then, is overwhelming that there exists a disturbingly tight relationship between Ottawa, Canadian diplomats in the field and in-country corporate mining representatives. The Canadian government is feeding these representatives critically sensitive information (much of it done secretly) about what is happening behind the scenes in the host country, running interference for mining operations themselves and working obsessively to avoid transparency and to keep prying eyes away. More importantly, its willingness to sweep these business human rights and environmental violations under the rug has only served to create a climate of continued corporate impunity.

To avoid this type of situation, Ottawa decision-makers need to seriously dismantle what appears to be a problematic state-client relationship with the extractive sector. Secondly, they need to transform CORE into a meaningful investigatory body with formidable powers of oversight. Above all else, they need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to actually advancing a robust international human rights agenda.

Peter McKenna is professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.