Webinar: Making Canadian Mining Companies Accountable

Date: June 12, 2021
Time: 12:00 Noon to 1:30 PM CDT
Admission: Free
Location: Online, via Zoom. Register at Eventbrite:
Presenter: Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada
Sponsor: Peace Alliance Winnipeg

Canadian mining companies dominate the sector in many parts of the world, but they are largely unregulated and able to profit from weak protection for the environment, workers, indigenous peoples and human rights in many countries. Catherine Coumans, of MiningWatch Canada, will talk about the struggle to make Canadian mining companies accountable. She will also talk about the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountabilty (of which MiningWatch is a part) that is launching on Monday, May 31.

Catherine Coumans has co-managed MiningWatch Canada and coordinated the Asia-Pacific program for 20 years. Departing from a rights-based perspective, Catherine has worked in solidarity with communities and Indigenous peoples affected by Canadian mining companies in more than ten Asia-Pacific countries and in Tanzania. The Canadian government appointed Catherine as an advisor in National Roundtables on the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries in 2006-07. She has provided expert testimony on mining in congressional inquiries in the Philippines, before the Constitutional Court in Indonesia, and for Canadian Parliamentary and Senate committees, as well as in an Amici Brief for the Supreme Court of the United States. MiningWatch is a founding organization of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability where Catherine provides strategic leadership on the steering committee. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and has published on mining in more than 15 peer reviewed publications since 2008, including in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies; UBC Law Review; Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment; Current Anthropology; and The Extractive Industries and Society.

Recommended Reading

The ‘Canada Brand’: Violence and Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America, Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17/2017. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2886584

CANADIAN OMBUDSPERSON FOR RESPONSIBLE ENTERPRISE [CORE] APPROACH WITH CAUTION – http://cnca-rcrce.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/core-caution-E-1.pdf

NEWS RELEASE: Human Rights Advocates and Legal Experts Deliver Blueprint for New International Corporate Accountability Law in Canada, May 31st, 2021|Business and Human Rights Legislation, Press Releases. https://cnca-rcrce.ca/2021/05/31/news-release-human-rights-advocates-and-legal-experts-deliver-blueprint-for-new-international-corporate-accountability-law-in-canada/

This is the first in a series of webinars PAW is organizing to explore the roles Canada plays on the world stage.