Doing business abroad: a review of selected recent Canadian case-studies on corporate accountability for foreign human rights violations

Abstract

ABSTRACT While it is reported that a large part of the mining activity abroad comes from Canada, a robust regulatory framework for addressing human rights violations committed by Canadian mining companies is lacking in Canada. From Canadian and international law perspectives, this paper addresses the issue of accountability of Canadian companies who commit human rights violations while operating in foreign countries. The paper discusses reports of human rights abuses by Canadian corporations and the jurisdiction of Canadian courts in cases of alleged violations committed abroad. It analyses selected recent decisions from Canadian courts as case-studies and argues that legal reform is needed to ensure accountability of Canadian corporations operating abroad and access to civil law remedies.