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
In this letter, Above Ground joins more than 20 organizations in calling on the Canadian government to establish a public registry of the beneficial owners of companies and trusts. By taking this action, Canada will show national and global leadership in efforts to curtail the use of anonymous companies to hide tax evasion, money laundering, fraud and business activities that undermine basic human rights.
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