Canada the Good

In 2010, a bill to increase corporate responsibility in the mining sector went before the Canadian House of Commons. Entitled the Responsible Mining Act, it gave hope for a new level of accountability in a sector rife with problems. It would have given the minister responsible for international development the ability to set environmental and international human rights standards for Canadian companies engaged in mining, oil or gas activities in developing countries. After intense debate, Bill C-300 was defeated. The vote was 140 to 134.

It leaves in its place a voluntary corporate social responsibility system. A damning report commissioned by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada that was leaked in 2009 found that Canadian mining companies were implicated in four times as many international mining violations of corporate social responsibility as mining companies from other countries. The report went on to state mining companies from Canada were...