Globe & Mail - For Canadian companies overseas, a corporate heart of darkness

Article questioning whether Canada is doing enough to legislate CSR practices of Canadian companies operating abroad.

Child labour-free cocoa ‘almost impossible,’ Nestlé head says

According to a report on the cocoa trade by the International Labour Organization (read the PDF here), an estimated 200,000 children, under the age of 18, were engaged in child labour in the Ivory Coast in 2002.


But Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe’s latest comments seem to suggest that eradicating child labour is neither realistic, nor particularly helpful.

“If they have the access to good schooling, then the child labour as such, if it is helping the fathers in the field and helping with the harvesting, I don’t think this is a problem,” he said, according to Reuters. “The problem is when you use the children only for that and don’t allow them to go to school.”

See Globe & Mail Article Here

Professor Kernaghan Webb, "CSR & the Law: Learning from the Experience of Canadian Firms in Latin America."

On Friday, October 29, Professor Kernaghan Webb delivered a lecture on the above subject, as part of the Ryerson Institute for the Study of CSR/Federal Extractive Sector CSR Counsellor Public Seminar Series, at Ryerson University in Toronto.

This particular talk was also co-sponsored by the Ryerson Law Centre. Based on research he is conducting, Dr. Webb’s presentation reviews current CSR-oriented legal disputes involving Canadian mining companies in Latin America, as a way of highlighting challenges associated with the legal regime, and opportunities for proactive environmental, social and economic practices by Canadian mining firms that can go some way towards reducing the likelihood that future legal issues will arise with respect to their operations.

The webcast (approx 1.5) is available for download HERE