Bill C-300 : In the minefield of the International Trade Committee

Canada is #1 in the world in mining and extractive industries in foreign countries. With over a thousand mining and exploration companies in 100 countries - about 5,000 projects - Canada has well over 50% of the global exploration and mining companies. There have been noises about human rights abuses.

On March 26, 2009, the Cons tabled a policy to deal with corporate social responsibility abroad : a "centre of excellence", a voluntary industry compliance strategy, and a Con-appointed corporate social responsibilty official, Marketa Evans, who will report to the minister of trade once a year. She has no power to investigate abuses if the corps in question do not agree to it.
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International human rights standards, however, refer to people, not corporations.
Bill C-300, An Act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries, attempts to provide a mechanism for dealing with environmental and human rights violations supported or perpetrated by Canadian companies abroad.
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From the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development :
Oct 8 : A Canadian copper mine in the Philippines was dumping mine waste in the ocean. Its earthen dams broke, inundating villages below with toxic mine waste. Parents of dead children were paid $23 per child.
In Ecuador a Canadian mining company's paramilitary agents issue death threats to local villagers opposed to the mine.
In Tanzania, a Canadian gold mine is leaking cyanide into surrounding rivers.
Norway's government pension fund has dropped its shares in a Canadian mine in Papua New Guinea because it "dumps its tailings and its waste directly into a huge tropical river system".

Oct.20 : A Canadian mining company in Papua New Guinea :

Numerous accounts of rapes show a similar pattern. The guards, usually in a group of five or more, find a woman while they are patrolling on or near mine property. They take turns threatening, beating, and raping her. In a number of cases, women reported to me being forced to chew and swallow the condoms used by guards during the rape.

Oct 22 : A tailings dam failure in Guyana in which the Canadian gov refused to hear the suit, a large cyanide spill at the EDC-supported mine in Kyrgyzstan, irreversible damage to local glaciers in Argentina, troops kill artisan miners in Tanzania to make way for a Canadian gold mine. Etc etc through about 30 countries.
Lawsuits are tried in the US courts because there is no opportunity to try them in Canada.

Export Development Canada is a crown corporation export credit agency, providing 8,300 Canadian companies operating abroad, mostly mining companies, with advice, debt insurance, and start-up financing money.
In response to questions about the need for Bill C-300 to safeguard human rights, Jim McArdle, a lawyer for EDC, explained that EDC is concerned that C-300 would force them to yank funding from Canadian corps found to be committing human rights abuses, and this would have a chilling effect on companies considering applying to the EDC for assistance. Despite already having their own CSR (corporate social responsibility) advisory group and a compliance officer, EDC has yet to yank funding from a single Canadian corp for any violation.

Further, McArdle said Canada adopting C-300 would "take Canadian companies out of the game", give other countries an unfair advantage, and likely result in our companies relocating to another country with less stringent rules.
Hey, I guess that's why we're currently #1.

Peter Goldring, Con, suggests that with its emphasis on international human rights standards, this bill "amounts to a limit on Canadian sovereignty."

Kevin Sorenson, Con Chair, suggests Bill C-300 would pave the way for "frivolous lawsuits"

CIDA : Not our job to handle complaints!

Deepak Obhrai, Con, says the definition of what precisely constitutes a human right is very open to misinterpretation and will hurt our mining companies.

Tell you what, Deepak, let's just start off by dealing with the raping, killing, and displacing of brown people in the way of our profits and work back from that.

Another concern voiced was that the media would carry stories of abuses as soon as investigations began, thereby putting a potentially innocent company under a cloud until the issue was resolved. Yeah, just like people.

Every committee has at least one Con whose job is to ask leading questions about how wonderful the Con gov is. This job just requires stringing together a number of non-sequitors in the form of a question. Or not.
John Weston, Con, my MP :

"I would appreciate more specific comments on what the government is doing now. In other words, this is not a government that's oblivious of human rights concerns. We created serious impediments for mining companies, with some of the things we've done in the name of human rights. We're doing that to try to open up the competitive capacity of the mining companies. If you can't do business and you don't pay your taxes in Canada, then we can't maintain our social safety net."

Thanks for that, John.

On April 22, 2009 Bill C-300 passed second reading in the House by a mere 4 votes. With all Cons voting against it, it is now struggling its way through the minefield of the Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee - 6 Cons, 3 Libs, 1 Bloc and 1 NDP. Excellent work from Paul Dewar with Bob Rae looking for the middle ground.

Time to fire off a letter. Over at The Beav I've posted the email addies of the 20 Libs and 7 Dippers who missed the vote last time. They could use a note too.
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Yes, CBC, how about that blood?

CBC challenges the protesters from the Bill C-311 demonstration in the House two days ago to explain "the discrepancy" between their crappy video clip in which the blood on Jeh Custer's face from his bout with House security is not visible, but then suddenly is visible an hour later when he is interviewed on CBC. Is this incompetent slagging of protesters part of your new look, CBC?

Anyway, here ya go above, CBC, and again here. How about you explain that.

Con House leader Jay Hill also sees a nefarious conspiracy :

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a question of privilege in regards to the disturbance in the public gallery yesterday during question period and charge the member for Toronto—Danforth [that would be Jack Layton] with contempt for his involvement in this incident.

It has now become quite clear that the people who disrupted the proceedings of this House were guests of the leader of the NDP. That member booked room 237-C from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon prior to Question Period for the use of that group. It was set up, according to the parliamentary functions room request form, for theatre-style seating, standing microphones for questions, and media feed, all provided by the House of Commons."

Yes, the NDP booking a meet with a group of youth concerned about our crap environment policy, some of whom later staged a flash mob protest in the House, is all the proof I need that the NDP were behind the protest.

Ooh, look :


Environment Minister Jim Prentice is also seen here at a meeting on the Hill with the now infamous House hecklers. Was Prentice also behind the protest, Mr. Hill?

*snerk*

All this bs about blood and conspiracies makes for great telly, doesn't it? Must be very galling to the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition who put months of work into getting the word out on our mia environmental policy, only to have their message collectively ignored by Cons, Libs, and the media in favour of blood and bs.

Update : The Natty Post, The Star and the Globe and Mail all pile on with more bs about faked injuries and blurry pix. Bah. h/t Ben Powless

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Flash mob in the House for Bill C-311

" I say '311', you say 'Sign it, sign it' " ...repeat...

A flash mob of 200 young environmental protesters disrupted question period in the House for a whole four minutes yesterday by standing up one by one in the public gallery and chanting slogans in support of Bill 311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, before being dragged off by security.

A whole four minutes.
Naturally, many commenters under the various news stories covering the demonstration call for these "hooligans" to be tasered or used for target practice by the army or sent to Iran - presumably for defiling the model of decorum and respectful civility that is the hallmark of QP, but mostly for refusing to ask permission to stand outside in the rain holding placards that are completely ignored by the press. Certainly Bill C-311 was.
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Good on the protesters.
For genuinely bad behavior on C-311, see here.
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"Good Morning, Afghanistan"

On Sunday hundreds of Afghan students and protesters shouted slogans against the US, Nato and Afghan government and burned an effigy of the President Obama during a rally in Kabul before attempting to storm the parliament building.

- updated below -

Eric Margolis : Take poor Hamid Karzai, the amiable former business consultant and CIA "asset" installed by Washington as Afghanistan's president. As the U.S. increasingly gets its backside kicked in Afghanistan, it has blamed the powerless Karzai for its woes and bumbling.

You can almost hear Washington rebuking, "bad puppet! Bad puppet!"

The U.S. government has wanted to dump Karzai, but could not find an equally obedient but more effective replacement. There was talk of imposing an American "chief executive officer" on him. Or, in the lexicon of the old British Raj, an Imperial Viceroy.

Washington finally decided to try to shore up Karzai's regime and give it some legitimacy by staging national elections in August. The UN, which has increasingly become an arm of U.S. foreign policy, was brought in to make the vote kosher. Canada eagerly joined this charade.

No political parties were allowed to run. Only individuals supporting the West's occupation of Afghanistan were allowed on the ballot.

As I wrote before the election, it was all a great big fraud within a larger fraud designed to fool American, Canadian and European voters into believing democracy had flowered in Afghanistan. Cynical Afghans knew the vote would be rigged. Most Pashtun, the nation's ethnic majority, didn't vote. The "election" was an embarrassing fiasco.

Ironically, the U.S. is now closely allied with the Afghan Communists and fighting its former Pashtun allies from the 1980s anti-Soviet struggle. Most North Americans have no idea they are now backing Afghan Communists and the men who control most of Afghanistan's booming drug trade."

Scott Taylor : "Spending millions of dollars to stage elections — and run-offs — to exercise a democratic process to appoint a U.S. puppet hasn’t fooled the Afghan people.
It’s time we stopped fooling ourselves."

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The National Post reports a poll this morning showing Support for Canada’s role in Afghanistan has fallen below 50%.

Wesley Wark, Munk Centre : "Good news stories -- good news stories could change their opinion."

Independent : "At 6.30am Helmand time today, the words "Good Morning, Afghanistan" boomed forth from the first British Forces radio station in the country.

DJ Dusty Miller mimicked Robin Williams's greeting this morning."

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Oct 28 Update : [h/t Pogge at Bread 'n Roses]

NY Times : Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A.
That would be Ahmed Wali Karzai, alleged drug lord and fixer of the Afghan election, on the CIA payroll for the last eight years. In what sounds like a scene out of the movie Traffic, brother Karzai is said to finger rival drug lords to the DEA and then take over their territories.

Also :

"The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home."

Isn't that what we used to call Al Qaida?

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Malalai Joya on Democracy Now [h/t Waterbaby]:

"You know, my people call him “Small Bush” in Kandahar province, this brother of Hamid Karzai.
And this was the main project of the CIA in Afghanistan, that under the banner of women rights, human rights, democracy, they occupied my country. They imposed these terrorists, blood and creed of the Taliban, on my people. And also they changed my country to the center of drug."

Meanwhile the similarities to Viet Nam continue. Wherever the CIA goes, the drug trade follows.

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*350* Climate Action Day in Vancouver

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CanWest : "In Vancouver, 5,000 people surged over the Cambie Street bridge and along Pacific Boulevard for an afternoon of music and festivities, all aimed at bringing attention to global warming.

A giant 100-metre-wide banner made by school students from around the Lower Mainland was hung off the side of the bridge. The banner said: “Canadians Care Cut Emissons Now.”
Of the afternoon’s Vancouver events, the most unique was a large salsa dance performed in the shape of the number 350."

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Well done, Bridge to a Cool Planet.

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Pictures at West End Bob's

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The revolution will be YouTubed redux

When Paul Manly's video of union leader Dave Coles confronting three rock-toting undercover Quebec police officers skulking through peaceful protestors at the North American Leaders Summit in Montebello hit YouTube two years ago, then-minister of public safety Stockwell Day dismissed calls for a public inquiry :

"The thing that was interesting in this particular incident, three people in question were spotted by protesters because were not engaging in violence," Mr. Day said.
"They were being encouraged to throw rocks and they were not throwing rocks, it was the protesters who were throwing the rocks. That's the irony of this," Mr. Day said.

Mr. Day added the actions were substantiated by the video that he has seen of the protests.
"Because they were not engaging in violence, it was noted that they were probably not protesters. I think that's a bit of an indictment against the violent protesters," Mr. Day said."

This ridiculous statement ran nightly on TV newscasts alongside footage of the police provocateurs shoving Dave Coles around before sneaking back behind police lines - seen here at left - to jeers from the crowd.

As Dave Coles told CBC's As It Happens :

"I didn't know they were police right away but I knew they were agitators because earlier they had been trying to get the young kids down on the road to cause trouble."

For days after the incident, Quebec Provincial Police denied these were their guys.

Well there was no inquiry and Quebec's Police Ethics Commissioner took till this May, two years later, to clear the officers, but now the Quebec independent police ethics committee will hold hearings to determine whether the officers breached the Code of Ethics of Quebec Police Officers by inciting others to violence.

Dave Coles suspects likely federal involvement may lead to a cover-up :

"This is the big question: Who sent them in? And don't give me some lame excuse that it was a low-level officer "

Good thing we already have the public statements from Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and the QPP on record for the Quebec independent police ethics committee.

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International Day of Climate Action

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On International Day of Climate Action tomorrow, Lotuslanders will be meeting on the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver for a march parade to Science World in solidarity with thousands of other climate action events in what is now 180 countries worldwide including Antarctica. Local info here, worldwide info here. along with a map of events in your corner of the world.
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It's already 'tomorrow' in Ethiopia where 15,000 students marched through Addis Ababa carrying signs saying "350" - the number that scientists say is the safe upper limit of parts per million for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Yeah, we're at around 387 right now I think.
A joint Palestinian Israeli Jordanian event at the Dead Sea will have people from each of the three countries form a human 3, 5 and 0.
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And if walking across a bridge tomorrow accompanied by people playing salsa music with paper mache salmons on their heads doesn't seem like the way to fight a global climate disaster, consider that worldwide coordination of all these events by 350.org and its over 200 sister organizations was begun just two years ago by environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben after he decided to take a walk across his home state of Vermont.
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Bill C-311 : Inside the Environment Committee

Last week Iggy vowed to make the environment central to the Liberal platform again.
Today the Libs voted with the Cons to delay passage of the Climate Change Accountability Act by granting the Standing Committee on the Environment yet another extension to study it instead of pass it.
As noted by Pogge this morning :

The bill is identical to one that passed final reading last year but died in the Senate when the last election was called. This version has already passed second reading. Layton wants to push it through before the climate change talks in Copenhagen to send a message that Harper and company, who have been quite happy to sabotage international efforts whenever they can, don't represent the majority of Canadians on this issue. So why are the Liberals suddenly withdrawing support from legislation they've supported on five previous votes?

This is the party that signed us on to the Kyoto Protocol in the first place and then spent a decade or more studying implications without actually doing anything. So does this mean they didn't study the implications of this bill the last five times they voted for it?

Good question. Bill C-133 sets long-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. It does not prescribe specific measures on how to achieve this ; it just says yes we really mean it this time, not like the other time, and authorizes the government to set penalties for failing to reduce emissions.

Back in April, Lib environment critic and environment committee member David McGuinty pushed to have discussion on the bill deferred until this fall. Then the meetings on Sept 29 and Oct 1 were cancelled because they didn't have a chair. Now they want an extension.

The Standing Committee on the Environment :
6 Cons - Bezan, Braid, Calkins, Jeff Watson, Warawa, Woodworth - all voted against Bill C-311 in April, Calkin absent. [Note : Iggy also absent for the vote]
3 Libs - McGuinty, Scarpeleggia, Trudeau
2 Bloc - Bigras, Ouellet
1 NDP - Linda Duncan

So what's going on in that committee?
Yesterday I listened to the audio of Tuesday's meeting as the committee heard four climate scientists , including Nobel Prize winner and former IPCC Working Group Chair John Stone, speak for two hours on the importance of passing the bill prior to the Copenhagen talks in December. Without it we are not even in the game, the scientists said. We will have no voice there, no credibility. Being scientists, they stuck to explaining sciencey things.

No good, said McGuinty and the Cons, we need solutions and concrete plans. What about waiting to see what happens to Obama's targets? What about the other countries? Where is your specific plan of action for Canada and how much it will cost?

We're scientists, not economists or policy makers, the scientists patiently explained about six freakin' times, noting again the importance of making a start.

"Bill C-311 is a first ingredient - we must begin by setting targets.
Kyoto did not work because we didn't have any legislation in place with which to begin to implement it."

Ok then, said the Cons, just give us your personal opinion on what a solution would look like.

One scientist tells about a Saskatchewan project on carbon capture that he says actually works. Another says that if Canada implements a target to keep temperature increase to 2°C, then we would only lose one year of GDP growth by 2050.

The Cons immediately pounce : "What is your expertise in making this claim? Where are your qualifications in economics?"

And after that the scientists politely declined any further ventures into the Con Catch-22 land of being berated both for not providing policy solutions outside their expertise and also for providing them when badgered into it.

Note to committee : Your credibility as members of an environment committee was not particularly enhanced by bringing up climate change 'skeptics' like Ross McKitrick and Rex Murphy and asking actual climate scientists to address the points you recently read about in the National Post.

And then the meeting ended after approving a budget of $39,650 for further study of Bill C-311.
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Update : Devin .
Upperdate : The vote : 169 to 93, with 8 paired. Bill C-311 now officially mired in committee and unlikely to pass before Copenhagen.
Although all three Lib environment committee members voted with the Cons for the extension as expected - including Stéphane Dion! - 14 Libs broke ranks to vote with the NDP and Bloc against it.

Canadians who give a shit about the environment thank the following Libs for their support:
Scott Andrews, Kirsty Duncan, Andrew Kania, Dominic LeBlanc, Keith Martin, Alexandra Mendez, Shawn Murphy, Anita Neville, Robert Oliphant, Glen Pearson, Mario Silva, Michelle Simson, Alan Tonks, and Francis Valeriote.
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Oct 26 Update : 200 protesters disrupted Question Period today as one by one they stood up and shouted : "I say 311, you say 'sign it' " - before being dragged away. 6 detained; at least one roughed up. Good for them. Probably raised the level of debate in the House several notches.
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Owelympic off-sales

The city of Vancouver is already home to over 600 billboards but I don't recall hearing much fuss about it till the Squamish Nation submitted plans to erect a further six on First Nations land to raise some much needed Owelympic advertising dollars for their community.

Please. If you're already ok with the existing 10' by 18' LED appeals to your fondest shopping desires, then you'll surely also be able to handle these.

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What I'm wondering though is what will be going up on those six FN billboards?

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Vanoc has spent $40-million to buy up all the public advertising space around the city in order to guarantee exclusive Owelympic branding rights to the corporations who have paid for it.

They even got Gordo to push for a law allowing municipal workers to remove what they call "ambush marketing" from your home should you suddenly feel moved to display a massive Kool Aid logo in your livingroom window between Feb 1st and March 31st.

So will "ambushers" be buying up space on those FN electronic billboards?

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Personally I'm hoping there'll be room on them for a few community messages as well. I know I've got mine ready.

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Post continues with more Owey shenanigans at The Beav.

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Canada's first-ever corporate social responsibility counsellor

Today is the first day on the job for Canada's first-ever corporate social responsibility counsellor.
Marketa Evans, founding director of the University of Toronto's Munk Centre on International Studies, will help Canadian mining and energy companies in countries like Colombia improve their social and environmental standards.

The Munk Centre is named after Peter Munk, chairman and founder of the world's largest gold-mining company Barrick Gold, who contributed $6.4 million to its construction.

.... a post-doctoral fellow was stopped from organizing a panel on mining issues at the Munk Centre that would include discussions of Barrick Gold's operations.

Corporate social responsibility counsellor Evans will report directly to Trade Minister Stockwell Day, does not have the power to mediate disputes, and is not allowed to investigate cases without first obtaining agreement from all parties involved.

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Oh, well done.

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The CSR counsellor's mandate was much discussed during debates on the Canada-Colombia FTA, with the Bloc and NDP noting a certain lack of toothiness.

Just before the Thanksgiving break, the Libs supported a Con motion to prevent any further amendments to the Colombia agreement, so as the House resumes sitting today, the NDP and Bloc insistance on further debate is the only thing preventing this appalling piece of legislation from reaching second reading.

Lib MP Scott Brison, Sept. 14 :

"If we isolate Colombia in the Andean region and leave Colombia exposed and vulnerable to the ideological attacks of Chavez's Venezuela, we will be allowing evil to flourish."

Brison, who is on the trade committee, and Bob Rae say they just want to see the bill go back to committee where - hello! the membership consists of 6 Cons, 3 Libs, 2 Bloc, and 1 NDP - or odds in favour of it passing - 9 to 3.

Meanwhile, irony-deficient Government House Leader Jay Hill, master of the Cons' 2007 dirty tricks manual on "how to unleash chaos while chairing parliamentary committees", is complaining that NDP opposition to the bill "is making Parliament dysfunctional".
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