How are Canadian firms responding to reports of forced labour in their supply chains? We asked dozens of companies whose suppliers have faced high-profile allegations of abuse. More than half of them didn’t reply.
Above Ground and two other civil society organizations are asking the TSX Venture Exchange to set the record straight on oil and gas drilling by Canadian company ReconAfrica in the Okavango region of East Africa.
Critics warn of an “enormous transparency gap” surrounding tens of billions of dollars in emergency aid given to businesses during the pandemic. To close that gap, legislation that hinders full public disclosure should be amended.
Canada’s Export Development Act is under review. In this submission to the government, Above Ground and civil society groups from across Canada call for legal reforms to bolster the accountability and transparency of Export Development Canada.
Canada’s export credit agency is reviewing its environmental and social risk management policies. Given the agency’s repeated support for companies facing credible allegations of human rights abuse, environmental damage or other serious harms, such a review is long overdue.
Ongoing media coverage regarding the sale of a Bombardier jet to the Gupta family has triggered an important public debate about the accountability and transparency of Export Development Canada. With Parliament set to review EDC’s governing legislation this year, the timing for such a discussion could not be better.
Next week a group of indigenous activists from Malaysia, accompanied by the NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), will travel to Canada to call attention to the decades of clear-cut logging that has razed the rainforests of Borneo and allegedly enriched a Malaysian family accused of money laundering through a Canadian company.
When allegations emerged last fall that the Mexican president’s 2012 election campaign was funded in part by a subsidiary of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, the news barely made headlines in Canada. But this development in the Odebrecht scandal should give us pause, because it raises crucial questions about the anti-corruption and disclosure policies of our export credit agency.
Export Development Canada has perfected the art of lending billions of taxpayer dollars to scandal-ridden foreign buyers. But its transparency could use some work.
By Richard Poplak | Published in The Walrus
Above Ground works to ensure that companies based in Canada or supported by the Canadian state respect human rights and the environment worldwide. It is a project of MakeWay, a national charity that builds partnerships and solutions to help nature and communities thrive together.
Above Ground c/o MakeWay
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