Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think, as you're saying, there's good progress but it has to be implemented. What we found on the ground, not only regarding Canada but many other countries, is that at the operational level companies have weak grievance mechanisms. Very often they are not in the local language

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have to say that I'm not an expert on junior mining companies. However, in general, when companies approach a country and go into the field, they have to rely on information provided by the government. The information in general is weak. They assume that the data they get and t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have actually engaged with relatives of victims of violence. What happens on the ground is that as you move away from the capital of the given countries, you run into territories where there has been a lot of violence or open war, as in the case of Brazil, or an overall lack of

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Our standard recommendation for governments is to set clear expectations regarding the behaviour of companies in house, in Canada, and abroad. The opportunity for Canada is to develop a national action plan on business and human rights that you don't have right now. That action p

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  All three reports have a reference to, let's say, the gender lens, but also a reference to vulnerable groups overall. We found that the approach followed by companies and their due diligence practice tends to not consider well enough the vulnerable groups. When you identify risks

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We found openness and willingness in general, yes, but the concern that was raised by my two colleagues who did the Canadian visit was that the engagement of high-level government officials was limited. The access afforded by the Canadian government was perfect, and the organizat

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  [Technical difficulty—Editor] bridges, and not only in the extractive sector. It was a very extensive fact-finding trip that we made. It was 10 days of listening and hearing about 200 to 250 testimonies in the countries, ranging from governments and various agencies to civil soci

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation. It's a pleasure to address your committee from Santiago, Chile, and from your embassy, in fact. They have quite good facilities here. I appreciate that. I'm part of the UN working group on business and human rights. We have the mandate t