| Development and Peace asks the Canadian government to put a framework in place to hold Canadian extractive companies accountable for their overseas operations. These activities often threaten agricultural production and contaminate the water used by the inhabitants of affected regions.
Last year, over 200,000 Canadians signed the organization's postcard calling for the creation of an Ombudsperson that would receive the complaints of the victims of the activities of Canadian companies. A number of members of parliament also signed the card and the request was the subject of several questions in the House of Commons.
This year, Development and Peace's campaign will narrow in on the impact of mining on food sovereignty, a problem that affects many of its partners in the South.
Pedro Landa, from Caritas Tegucigalpa, a Development and Peace partner in Honduras, describes the impact of the activities of Entre Mares, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Goldcorp, in Siria Valley : "We lost 70 % of agricultural production. Now, families do not produce enough to live off their land, as they were doing before."
The government must take action
In March, 2007, the Canadian government received a report from the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Sector in Developing Countries, which made several recommendations in order to increase the responsibility of Canadian mining companies. More than one year after having examined this report, the government still has not acted on it.
Over the coming months, Development and Peace's 13,000 members across the country will urge the Canadian population to pressure the Canadian government to take action. Two postcards, one to the Prime Minister of Canada and another to a Member of Parliament, will be distributed during public events in the region. They are also available online.
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