Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Sweet, call-out for Ancaster-Dundas, my hometown. First of all, I don't think we are in agreement on this at all actually. I don't find CSR to be ineffective; there are only certain conditions under which it is effective.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the current CSR counsellor has done a very good job overall in engaging with corporations. That is his job, but the instruments the government has provided him are not disciplinary instruments, by and large, and so it hasn't gone that way.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's a really interesting question. Certain codes require ongoing consultations. The government could require that. I think it's probably not in the interest of the government to tell companies how to use their profits. That being said, I think companies that spend more and di

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In 2006, there was a round table process that resulted in a multipartite agreement to have a tougher regime for Canadian companies that involved a kind of ombudsman with investigative power. That was originally agreed to by the mining industry. Having not been involved in any of

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It lacks teeth?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Whether or not it was a sincere effort, I think the government was interested then in reducing both the incidence and perception of social conflict with Canadian firms. The other part of the question is whether a regulatory response, as envisioned, would have had any effect eit

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I won't speak for my colleague, but that's not my position at all.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My position, as you'll see from my work, has always been.... I study the mining sector as a fact. I'm not interested in opinionating.... I am unlikely to ever—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The private mining sector in Latin America has without a doubt contributed to lowering poverty levels in regions—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, yes, absolutely.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In theory, any violation of the law or human rights should be prosecutable in the states where they occur. One concern of activists is that in weak states, or in states that are keen on promoting Canadian mining, they're not going to take that step.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Clearly, there are great variations in the ability of developing countries to uphold the rule of law. When we talk about Canadian companies in the developing world, remember that developing countries want them there. There may be conflicts with certain communities located near mi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the problem with social conflict and human rights is a lot about the absence of the state. Where the state is not present to redirect benefits received from mining companies, locals typically see few if any of these benefits. Incidentally, because my colleague mentioned

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  One of the problems of doing empirical research on this sector is that there is no central clearing house of information on social conflicts between mining companies and local activist groups. I use the term “known conflicts” very specifically to indicate conflicts that have bee

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, anything that involves sustained mobilization of people is counted as a conflict. I should note that this is a common practice under the political event analysis methodology that we use for the counting. My main defence of it is that there is so little data out there. We us