Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, visits the Globe and Mail during a three-day trip to Toronto, on June 24.The federal government’s failure to protect human-rights advocates who raise concerns over the activity of Canadian corporations abroad is tarnishing the country’sdefenders, said Canada should strengthen legislation and bolster oversight of extractive firms operating abroad, some of which she says are causing harms to the environment and human rights advocates. .
Ms. Lawlor was in Toronto as part of a visit last week to Canada, where she met with federal government officials, banks, industry representatives and civil-society groups. She raised concerns about retaliations against those speaking out on human-rights matters, and said Canadian authorities aren’t doing enough to support them and offer access to remedy.
Since 2015, the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has documented more than 5,000 attacks globally on human-rights advocates who raised concerns about business-related harms. Of those, the highest number was in extractive sectors such as oil and mining. Canada is home to almost half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies.
“The company has done nothing either directly or indirectly to intimidate or suppress opponents” of the project, he said in an e-mail to The Globe. Belo Sun is also “unaware of any substantiated allegations of intimidation by its security contractor.” Ms. Lawlor said the advocates she has spoken to are not anti-development, but rather want to be consulted and have more say on nearby projects that will affect them.