Canada can use foreign interest in Alberta's tar sands to push for change in Darfur, the House Foreign Affairs committee heard last week.

Canada's Leverage Over Darfur

The Canadian government has major leverage over the situation in Darfur as many of the foreign oil and gas companies operating there also have interests in the tar sands, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development heard on Feb. 28.

China and India are among the most significant contributors to violence and human rights violations in the war-wracked region of Sudan, civil society organizations told committee members, as companies from the two nations purchase oil from the Sudanese government in return for weapons.

And many of those countries' state-owned oil companies, such as the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. of India (ONGC), also have or are looking at opportunities in Alberta.

Daniel Millenson, national advocacy director of the Washington-based Sudan Divestment Movement, told MPs that on Dec. 31, 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act.

The act prohibits contracts from going to firms considered major offenders and have a harmful presence in Sudan while also refusing to take any mitigating actions, Mr. Millenson said.

"I would urge this government to use its unique position of leverage to seriously engage with CNPC to make clear to CNPC and ONGC, and any other state-owned enterprise or other company involved with Sudan in problematic ways, that doing business in Canada must be contingent upon respecting human rights in other parts of the world where their operating," Mr. Millenson said.

NDP Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar had raised the same issue when Ken Sunquist, associate deputy minister of global operations and chief trade negotiator at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, appeared before the committee earlier in the day.

"If we know of Chinese oil companies, as an example, who are investing there and their best practices don't conform to our notion of [corporate social responsibility] and they come here to invest and making similar profits, that I think it's a fair question to ask," Mr. Dewar said.

He noted the government has assigned a panel to look at the issue of foreign takeovers in natural resources and other industries, and how to ensure they are done in a way that doesn't threaten Canada's national interest.

"Is there a way to put contract conditions on investment in our oil fields as much as looking at what is going on in Canadian investment and indirect investment as well in Sudan?" Mr. Dewar asked.

Mr. Sunquist said he didn't believed the idea of holding foreign firms to account for their activities in other countries as a precondition to investing in Canada had been given any thought by Canadian officials.

"I don't believe we've used it as a line in the sand as to what that company does in the United States or does in the UK or in China or in Japan," he said. "I guess you would get into kind of the reputation of the company which could be used. It's just one that has not, as a public policy vehicle, been used."

Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, dismissed the idea as "not feasible" and "not viable." However, aside from saying the government would be forced to pressure foreign governments to hold companies to account, he did not explain why it would not work.

During his testimony, Mr. Sunquist said Canadian trade with Sudan last year included about $65 million worth of imports, 99 per cent of which was gold, and exports valued at $210 million, with the vast majority in cereals.

He said the government does not have a clear idea of which Canadian firms have investments in Sudan, but said one Montreal-based affiliate of a French mining company, La Mancha, has been implementing socially responsible practices.

Mr. Sunquist and the civil society advocates warned the committee against recommending Canada implement wide-ranging divestment orders targeting Sudan. Not only could it have negative effects on the Sudanese population, they said, stronger sanctions could also see the situation worsen.

Pointing to Canadian company Talisman's withdrawal from Sudan after it was publicly rebuked for its operations in the country, David Tennant, executive director of Canadian Economic Development Assistance for Southern Sudan, said the situation in the country hasn't improved since other companies are performing even worse.

"I think we have to be very careful," he said. "We have replaced Talisman with a conglomerate that has no interest in the environment, has no interest in human rights, and we have no persuasive powers over them."


By Lee Berthiaume (extract), Embassy
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