NDP: Government fails on corporate social responsibility

Here's the press release from NDP.ca:

OTTAWA – Canadians looking to government to ensure that the overseas activities of our mining corporations do not undermine environment, labour and human rights were disappointed with the Conservative policy on Corporate Social Responsibility.

“The international community was looking to Canada to take leadership in putting forward some of the most clear and strongest corporate accountability mechanisms in the world” said New Democrat Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar. “Conservatives wasted the opportunity for Canadian leadership”.

“Conservatives took two years to just water down every one of the panel’s recommendations and put forward a disappointing set of policies” said John Rafferty, New Democrats’ International Cooperation Critic. “The panel had recommended mandatory standards, the government is pushing for voluntary guidelines; the panel called for an ombudsman with real authority, the government is establishing a counsellor with no teeth”.

Dewar stated that he continues to push forward his private member bill which puts the panel’s recommendations into law. NDP’s Peter Julian will soon reintroduce his private member bill to extend the authority of Canada’s Federal Court to protect foreign citizens against rights violations committed by corporations operating outside of Canada. New Democrats will also support other parliamentary initiatives that push forward stronger corporate social responsibility policies.