Economics: Canada: Africans call on Canada to regulate its mining companies operating internationally
.Developing countries are begining to speak out with one voice in regard to multinational mining corporations. In the present case, corporations engaged in mining and in oil and gas extraction have issued an appeal. Here is the appeal to Canada and the home-offices of Canadian-based multinationals that are bad corporate citizens in the host countries from which they extract profits without returning anything to the societies whose people and resources are exploited. It's time for change.
We, communities affected by mining, oil and gas, NGOs, members of Africa Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society (AIMES) and academics from Cameroon, Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe participating in an Africa-wide meeting on communities affected by mining organized by Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Af) and hosted by Environmental Rights Action (ERA) from September 4-7th, 2006, Port Harcourt, Nigeria call on the Government of Canada to develop mechanisms for influencing and regulating Canadian mining companies operating internationally.World Economy > Africa > Canada
Africa has become one of the major destinations for transnational mining companies, following liberalization of the mining sector about two decades ago. Canada is one of the leading countries that play host to mining companies operating in Africa. While some of these companies may be contributing to national and community development in their areas of operations several of them have been severely implicated in cases of human rights violations and environmental abuses such as destruction of farmlands, water resources, protected forests, injuries and threats to death.
Communities from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, participating in the Pan-African meeting on communities gave harrowing testimonies of human rights violations, environmental abuses and livelihood destructions perpetrated by Canadian mining companies.It's important for Canadian Christians to alert both the international corporations based in Canada, and the Candian goverment itself, to work for the creational norms of economic fairness. At present, the renewed Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been featured occasionally by refWrite, needs to receive the tax revenues devolving from Canadian and other multinational mining companies in the DRC province of Katanga. A huge bleeding of funds for the purposes of graft (bribery) of Katanga and other officials has led to ineffectual taxation on the one hand; and on the other, windfall profits. Canada's minority conservative government has recently taken steps to stop the bleeding of national revenues to businesses by means of the Income Trusts structure established by the Liberals. The Conservatives had promised in the campaign not to touch the Income Trusts which had been a huge tax dodge for Canadian companies and stockholders. It will be difficult for the Conservs to find the courage to also hold to account the Canada-based multinationals that are bleeding other countries, especially companies in the focus of this blog-entry, those in Africa.
Contact:
Jamie Kneen
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
MiningWatch Canada
250 City Centre Ave., Suite 508
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6K7
Canada
ofc. (613) 569-3439
cell: (613) 761-2273
fax: (613) 569-5138
e-mail: jamie@miningwatch.ca
http://www.miningwatch.ca
-- Politicarp
Further Research:
Canadian mining companies in Africa [HTML page; available also as PDF for download].
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