The Canadian Multinational Extraction Crisis: A Critical Outlook Regarding the Failed Humanitarian Response

By: Emily Dell

Canadian multinational mining and extraction companies have been committing geographic colonization since the 1980s, manufacturing humanitarian crises in the Global South for their capitalist interests. The Westernized values that are the basis of these companies' capitalist drive fueled the competitive pursuit of profit for the cheapest labor and resources. Due to the demand for cheaper resources and labor in larger quantities Canada and other Northern countries needed to fabricate means to disposes land for geographic expansion (Gordon & Webber, 2008). In the 1980s, the World Bank created a debt crisis, restructuring the economies of developing nations into those of the North, and collapsing their social systems. These newly established neoliberal economies became facilitated by free trade agreements, and due to these developing nations’ need for economic stability and support, they are forced to host mining companies (Gordon & Webber, 2008). The ongoing extraction has left communities in these host countries vulnerable to hazardous living conditions, mass human rights violations, environmental degradation, and more (Gordon & Webber, 2016). Canada is only one of the Northern actors in multinational extraction, but is accountable for approximately 75% of mining corporations, making them primarily responsible for the crisis (Asuncion, et al., 2022). 

The vulnerable state of these developing nations makes aid and advocacy from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) irrefutable. For most NGOs operating within affected nations and communities, however, the distribution of resources and implementation of advocacy platforms is superficial at best. Often, NGOs operate out of the same countries facilitating extraction operation projects (Gordon & Webber, 2016). As a result, they frequently share similar neo-liberal values as the Canadian extraction companies and corresponding governments, which are infused into the aid provided to vulnerable communities (Perdersen, 2014). Additionally, there are monetary ties between Canadian extraction companies, the Canadian government, and NGOs aiding these communities (Gordon & Webber, 2016). 

The power the Global North holds over the Global South manifests in humanitarian aid, as the South is unable to refuse it, continuing neocolonial patterns of dependency. This also reinforces the exploitative mining and extraction industries that uphold it. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is a non-binding commitment to improve the communities in which extraction companies operate via their business practices and corporate resources, is used as ineffective alternative to binding legislation for responsible mining practices (Asuncion, et al., 2022). For these companies to meet their CSR ‘obligations’, they can engage in charity work, humanitarian work, and facilitate in the local ‘development’ of labor and community (Asuncion, et al., 2022). This means the same companies creating these extraction crises in the Global South can create or fund NGOs to provide surface level aid to the crisis or invest in development programs. Not only does this further the imperialism of neocolonial values onto Southern nations, but it allows Canadian extraction companies to continue operating as they have fulfilled their pitiful CSR requirements. Due to the economic state of these developing nations, that was imposed by colonial powers like Canada, their ability to refuse aid and oppose the superficiality of companies’ CRS requirements is massively limited. 

Additionally, Canadian multinational extraction and mining companies often respond to NGO activist campaigns when it's most economically and publicly beneficial for them, meaning most campaigns for effective legislation and human rights protection are ineffective (Ishva & Marcelo, 2021). Companies are able to distance themselves from their scandals through the use of strategies involving rhetorical theory, with the goal of maintaining maximum profit and a positive public image. They act with intentions of avoiding future activist response, maintaining the company image, and keeping the company afloat (Ishva & Marcelo, 2021). To accomplish this, extraction companies often resort to intimidation tactics, burying NGOs and protesters in legals fees. 

With this considered, one should question if the positives humanitarian aid has brought to the Canadian multi-national extraction crisis primarily serve as a distraction from the imperialist system it seems to preserve, and if they even aid the Indigenous peoples whom they are interacting with. 

References

• Asuncion, A. M., Ubaldo, J. E., Caouette, D., Besmanos, B., & Brunet, N. D. (2022). Challenging the binary of home vs. host State governance: Canadian transnational mining behavior and local communities in the Philippines extractive industry. The Extractive Industries and Society, 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2022.101166
• Gordon, T., & Webber, J. R. (2008). Imperialism and Resistance: Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America. Third World Quarterly, 29(1), 63–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20455026
• Gordon, T., & Webber, J. R. (2016). Blood of extraction: Canadian imperialism in Latin America. Fernwood. 
• Pedersen, A. (2014). Landscapes of Resistance: Community Opposition to Canadian Mining Operations in Guatemala. Journal of Latin American Geography, 13(1), 187–214. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24395842
• Ishva, M., & Marcelo, B. (2021). MNC responses to international NGO activist campaigns: Evidence from Royal Dutch/Shell in apartheid South Africa. Journal of International Business Studies, 52(5), 971-998. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-021-00422-5