So when Carney says he is scrapping the CORE because it isn’t working the question to ask is how to give it teeth to hold Canadian companies acting abroad to a better standard? Eliminating a watchdog gives these companies a free pass to commit human rights abuses in the name of profit maximization.
Companies have also been involved in forced evictions and “high levels of violence” at a mine in Tanzania; water contamination threatening people’s health in Argentina; and The Metals Company, a deep sea mining company headquartered in Vancouver, that is accused of violating the UN's Law of the Sea
In recent months and years we've seen more of the same. Last year, civil society organizations wrote to Canada’s Ambassador to Ecuador about “deep concern over the systematic criminalization of human rights and nature defenders” relating to a Cdn mining project.
The Recon case isn't isolated. It's part of a pattern of Canadian companies violating rights abroad, experts say. In 2016, a study termed it the “Canada Brand” where 28 companies were found to be involved in 44 deaths, 403 injuries, 709 cases of criminalization and “widespread” violence.
Feds are being taken to court over climate rollbacks. Issue here is actually pretty simple. The Net-Zero Accountability Act requires the gov's Emissions Reduction Plan actually aligns with Canada's target to cut emissions, and it no longer does thanks to the wholesale shredding of climate policies.