This blog has already highlighted the role of Canada in the
exploitation of Africa’s natural resources:
This article, ‘Harper’s Government Helping Canadian Mining
Companies Plunder Africa’s Resources’, by the Canadian political commentator, Yves
Engler, and it is well worth drawing attention to it.
The article begins:
“Canadian policy in
Africa can be summed up in nine words: Do what is good for Canadian-owned
mining companies.
Despite rhetoric about aid to the poorest people in the
world, the Harper Conservatives have worked assiduously to ensure that Canadian
corporations profit from Africa’s vast mineral resources. Even widespread
criticism of their operations has failed to dampen the Conservatives’ support
for Canada’s many mining interests in Africa. Canadian mining companies have
been accused of bribing officials, evading taxes, dispossessing farmers,
displacing communities, employing forced labour, devastating eco-systems and
spurring human rights violations.”
The articles ends:
“Canadian policy in Africa has become largely synonymous
with the interests of Canadian mining companies. The Harper Conservatives have
sought to ensure that the continent’s mining policy serves the interests of
foreign corporations, the majority of Africans be damned.”
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