Ethics code traps Talisman - National Post, December 14
By Peter Foster
Pressure is building now almost daily on Jim Buckee's Talisman,
whose stock has been subject to a Care Bear Raid over its
investment in Sudan. Yesterday, the shares were knocked down
again in the wake of a spate of bad news. Last week, another U.S.
pension fund bailed out. A group of 200 "prominent civic and
religious leaders" called upon Bill Clinton to prevent investors in
Sudan from raising money in the U.S. -- a move that could threaten
Talisman's listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Last Sunday,
Sudan's president, Omar Bashir, dissolved parliament and declared
a three-month state of emergency. Yesterday, "slavery activists"
were due to hold a press conference in Calgary suggesting that Mr.
Buckee was misleading both the company's board and shareholders
over the Sudanese situation.
It has been suggested that President Bashir's state of emergency is
based on an ongoing internal power struggle with ideological strong
man and parliamentary speaker Hassan Turabi. A struggle for
power means a struggle for state revenues, so the proceeds from
the Greater Nile project, in which Talisman holds a 25% interest,
could become as much of a political football inside the country as
they are already on the international political scene.
Yesterday's Calgary press conference, organized by Christian
Solidarity International, was intended to embarrass Mr. Buckee
further, particularly in the light of the company's formal signature last
Friday of the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business,
which was cooked up by Lloyd Axworthy a couple of years ago to
deflect criticism over investment in Nigeria.
The situation in Sudan appears to test several of the code's "beliefs,
values and principles." Although corporate signatories at first saw
the code as a useful shield against being shaken down in foreign
countries, to activists it has always been seen as primarily about
holding corporations to strict standards over human rights and the
dangerously vague notions of "social justice" and "fair sharing."
In the case of Talisman, emphasis is inevitably on human rights. The
Sudanese government is claimed to have forcibly removed
populations close to the oilfields. The country reportedly still also
harbours slavery.
The code declares: "we will support and promote the protection of
international human rights within our sphere of influence" and "[we
will] not be complicit in human rights abuses."
It seems improbable that slavery could be considered within
Talisman's "sphere of influence." However, if local populations have
been forcibly removed, would that make Talisman "complicit"?
Talisman spokesman David Mann recently declared that signing the
document merely amounted to confirming practices the company
already followed. However, the first bitter fruit of signing on came
when Errol Mendes, director of the University of Ottawa's Human
Rights Centre and a key adviser in framing the code, declared that
signing it was "not sufficient." He called for external monitors, a
sentiment immediately echoed by Canada's corporate ethics cabal.
Meanwhile, the federal government announced that Talisman's
compliance would be monitored by its missions in Ethiopia and
Kenya, and by local Sudanese non-governmental organizations.
This might incline Talisman to rapidly sign up its own external
auditors. Facts are at a premium, but one great uncertainty relates to
what impact Sudan's turmoil will have on the three-week
fact-finding mission currently being undertaken by John Harker,
which is due to report early in the new year. Mr. Harker's report is
assuming more and more importance in the fraught atmosphere
surrounding Talisman's investment.
There are two issues for Talisman's board and management to face:
their responsibility to their shareholders, and their responsibilities
under the code of conduct they have just signed, presumably not
without much consideration. The two have become inextricably
intertwined. Mr. Buckee has said that within his "sphere of
influence," he is doing a humane job: building public facilities as well
as generating wealth for the Sudanese economy. His opponents say
the wealth is being used to fund repression of Southern rebels,
which of course it is. The question is whether that should be any of
Talisman's "ethical" business, given that the code also talks about
national governments having "the prerogative to conduct their own
government and legal affairs in accordance with their sovereign
rights."
This situation has gone beyond fine legalistic points. The Talisman
affair has caused a stand-off between Internet-fuelled, pack-hunting
activists on the one hand and those who deplore their tactics and
their agendas on the other. Activists have, in one sense, already
"won" in their impact on Talisman's share price, which has cost the
company perhaps $1-billion of stock market value.
Nevertheless, Mr. Buckee undoubtedly does face real moral
dilemmas. If he sells out of the Sudan, activists will claim yet another
victory, but it will be a typically activist victory. Another company
will take Talisman's place, prepared to face the activists, and with
perhaps less concern for local Sudanese conditions. Talisman -- and
Mr. Buckee in particular -- will be seen to have lost face. But Mr.
Buckee's priority now is clear: He must save his share price.
nationalpost.com |
