Bill C-571 (Historical)

Trade in Conflict Minerals Act

An Act respecting corporate practices relating to the purchase of minerals from the Great Lakes Region of Africa

This bill is from the 40th Parliament, 3rd session, which ended in March 2011.

Sponsor

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Sept. 30, 2010
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment requires Canadian companies to exercise due diligence before purchasing minerals that originate in the Great Lakes Region of Africa to ensure that no illegal armed group has benefited from any transaction involving those minerals.
It also requires the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor to identify, in the Counsellor's annual report to the Minister for International Trade, those Canadian extractive sector companies that the Counsellor has reasonable grounds to believe are not practicing corporate social responsibility in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Similar bills

C-486 (41st Parliament, 2nd session) Conflict Minerals Act

C-486 (41st Parliament, 1st session) Conflict Minerals Act

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-571s:

C-571 (2014) An Act to amend the Meat Inspection Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Act (slaughter of equines for human consumption)

C-571 (2008) An Act to amend the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 (prohibition against oil tankers in Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound)

1^st reading

Trade in Conflict Minerals ActRoutine Proceedings

September 30th, 2010 / 10:15 a.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

seconded by the member for Etobicoke Centre, moved for leave to introduce Bill C-571, An Act respecting corporate practices relating to the purchase of minerals from the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

He said: Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Liberal Party for seconding the bill.

The illegal extraction of minerals from Africa's great lakes region has been directly financing the conflict in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo where millions have lost their lives and the human rights of millions more have been violated. We are connected to these conflicts through our use of minerals that finance these conflicts.

The UN Security Council has made recommendations to put an end to the trade of conflict minerals and this bill heeds the call to that action of the Security Council. It would create a due diligence mechanism for Canadian companies to ensure that they are not purchasing minerals that finance conflicts. The bill would also mandate the extractive sector's Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor to report to the minister and Parliament as to which companies are not practising due diligence in purchasing these materials.

I invite the government to adopt this bill. Should we win a seat on the Security Council, this will be an area where Canada can play a significant leadership role in promoting global peace and security.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)