Canada failing to protect human rights activists from mining companies operating overseas: UN watchdog

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The federal government’s failure to protect human-rights advocates who raise concerns over the activity of Canadian corporations abroad is tarnishing the country’s global reputation, a United Nations official said in an interview.

Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human-rights defenders, said Canada should strengthen legislation and bolster oversight of extractive firms operating abroad, some of which she says are causing harms to the environment and human rights advocates. (As a special rapporteur, Ms. Lawlor writes formal letters to governments, and companies, in which she raises concerns about situations where advocates are at risk).

Her office has registered 15 cases, between June, 2019, and March, 2022, of retaliation against human-rights advocates that she alleges can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining abroad. Ms. Lawlor also criticized the federal government for not equipping its watchdog for corporate abuses abroad – the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise – with the powers to investigate companies.

“This is really causing reputational damage to Canada – the conduct of its companies abroad,” Ms. Lawlor said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Lawlor was in Toronto as part of a visit last week to Canada, where she met with federal government officials, banks, industry representatives and civil-society groups. She raised concerns about retaliations against those speaking out on human-rights matters, and said Canadian authorities aren’t doing enough to support them and offer access to remedy.

Her mandate is to examine challenges facing those who promote human rights and to recommend strategies on how to better protect them.

Canada “is one of the worst offenders, in terms of cases and companies,” said Ms. Lawlor, who is also an adjunct professor of business and human rights at Trinity College Dublin.

Since 2015, the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has documented more than 5,000 attacks globally on human-rights advocates who raised concerns about business-related harms. Of those, the highest number was in extractive sectors such as oil and mining. Canada is home to almost half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies.

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Ms. Lawlor has issued reports on six Canadian mining companies in the past few years, and formally raised these six cases with the federal government. Among them is Belo Sun Mining Corp., which has touted its undeveloped Volta Grande gold project in the Amazon as the largest of its kind in Brazil.

In a letter issued to Belo Sun in March, she said she had received information on “alleged threats and intimidation of human rights defenders, including Indigenous peoples and peasants,” who have spoken out against the project.

In April, she made an official visit to Brazil, where she says she heard from concerned citizens about the Belo Sun project in the state of Pará.

Belo Sun spokesperson Kenny Choi said allegations in her letter, related to intimidation and inadequate consultations, are “false and without foundation.”

“The company has done nothing either directly or indirectly to intimidate or suppress opponents” of the project, he said in an e-mail to The Globe. Belo Sun is also “unaware of any substantiated allegations of intimidation by its security contractor.”

Mr. Choi said the company recognizes that because of its location, Projeto Volta Grande (PVG) is a controversial project. (It is located in the environmentally crucial Amazon region, in an area along the Xingu River already degraded by a large hydroelectric dam).

“It is also a well-regulated project overseen by competent federal and state authorities,” he said. “In addition, it is a heavily scrutinized project that has been targeted by numerous national and international environmental, human rights, anti-mining, and anti-development NGOs … the claim by opponents of PVG that they are being intimidated into silence and that their voice is being suppressed strains credibility.”

Ms. Lawlor said the advocates she has spoken to are not anti-development, but rather want to be consulted and have more say on nearby projects that will affect them.

She also singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad. Canada introduced “Voices at Risk” guidelines in 2019, aimed at supporting human-rights defenders and giving advice to Canadian diplomats working overseas, but she says it hasn’t been properly implemented.

She said the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) should be granted the powers to compel evidence in cases, and be more independent from government. And Canada should introduce legislation, similar to that in several European countries, which requires companies to implement mandatory human-rights due diligence.

A Globe investigation last year showed that the CORE office was never given powers to compel testimony and documents for thorough investigations, despite a federal government pledge to do so. (The ombudsperson has since stepped down; the office has an interim leader, and the government is now reviewing the effectiveness of the CORE).

To date, Canada has introduced mostly voluntary measures related to corporate conduct, through adherence to guidelines and standards. That approach has sparked criticism from international human rights experts.

Canada, says Ms. Lawlor, “parades itself on the world stage as being the good guys … But when it comes to the conduct of companies in the context of business and human rights, the UN guiding principles and the obligations of Canadian embassies themselves abroad, they’re really found wanting. And it’s a big issue.”