Should Canada pay for Sudan's sins? - National Post, Monday, Feb.7
By Ezra Levant
Calgary's Talisman Energy has been under attack lately by a motley crew of do-gooders. Talisman's crime: owning 25% of an oil field in Sudan. Actually, it's not a crime at all, neither in Canada nor Sudan. But Sudan is governed by an Islamic regime that is fighting a brutal civil war against animist and Christian tribes in the South. Its conduct of that war is opposed by both the U.S. and human rights groups -- and those enemies have become Talisman's enemies, too.
Maybe that's how things work in the world of international politics -- if Madeleine Albright, the U.S. secretary of state, wants to impose trade sanctions on Sudan, that's her right. (Her fury can be soothed, however. Just as Vice-president Gore hit the campaign fundraising circuit, Ms. Albright granted U.S. soft drink and candy manufacturers a special exemption to import a Sudanese ingredient called gum arabic.) Even if the U.S. State Department has good reasons for opposing Sudan, however, what motivates Talisman's Canadian critics -- liberals whose usual reaction is to oppose American foreign policy?
Many of Talisman's Canadian critics are liberals who find it more simpatico to attack a Canadian oil company than a foreign dictatorship. Craig Forcese, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, recently wrote a column in these pages condemning Talisman for its Sudanese involvement. Although Mr. Forcese presented no evidence that Talisman is a party to Sudan's abuses, he argues that the taxes Talisman pays support the regime's policies. Hence Sudanese tribesmen should sue Talisman in Canadian courts.
No doubt Talisman's oil royalties do support the Sudanese government's agenda. But making Talisman liable for Sudan's crimes -- if military actions in a civil war even constitute crimes -- is a long leap of logic. And why should Canadian courts be used as a forum for the world's disgruntled plaintiffs and their lawyers to strike it rich, at Canadian shareholders' expense? If Mr. Forcese proposes that Canadian companies be put on trial for the sins of host governments, then we ought to begin building additional courthouses immediately. Canada is a trading nation more than most, and there will be many people on trial -- including Ottawa itself.
Take Canadian businesses near Sudan, in Algeria. That North African nation has been in a civil war for decades, and human rights observers report that 20,000 political dissidents have simply disappeared in the past five years. Torture, though officially outlawed, is still a tool used by police. But there on the Tamadanet field, blissfully pumping oil, sits Petro-Canada, a company 18% owned by the Canadian government. It's been there for years, in partnership with Algeria's national oil company.
Petro-Canada also pumps oil in Tunisia, in a joint venture with that state's oil company, too. Tunisian police routinely arrest political dissidents, and they often punish their families as well. Two years ago, in a report to the UN, Tunisia formally admitted that it still uses torture as a tool for law enforcement.
North Africa isn't the only ethical hot spot in which Canadian oil companies do business. And some companies are subsidized to do so by Ottawa. Using a grant of 29 million Canadian tax dollars, Nova Gas has teamed up with China's National Petroleum Corporation to exploit China's hydrocarbons.
And it's not just oil and gas. Canada recently sold China two nuclear reactors, financed with our government's official export credit. China's scientifically dubious Three Gorges Dam project also is being built in part by Canadian firms using federal export development financing. The dam itself has a significant negative impact on human rights -- 1.2 million peasants are being displaced, and media and political critics of the dam have been arrested, never to be seen again. Set that on one side, however, and Canadian export subsidies are still contributing indirectly to an oppressive regime. Back at the time of Tiananmen Square, a few thousand students were calling for democracy; this year literally millions of Chinese Christians and adherents of the Falun Gong sect are under attack. When it comes to slave labour or relocations of peasants, China could teach Sudan a thing or two.
But human rights abuses have not stopped Jean Chretien from leading Team Canada missions to Beijing. Nor has it stopped Canadian companies like Sherritt International from doing business in the island prison of Cuba, under the approving eye of Lloyd Axworthy.
By Mr. Forcese's logic, all these companies should be sued, here in Canada, for the human rights abuses of their foreign hosts. And since the Canadian government has been a shareholder, financier or agent in each of these cases, Canadian taxpayers would be liable, too.
While the prospect of African tribesmen or Chinese peasants being flown to an Ottawa court sounds ridiculous, it is actually the next logical step in the erosion of Canada's democracy. For better or worse, Canada's policies toward Sudan and China are still written by Parliament's cabinet, not by appointed judges or self-appointed interest groups.
Activists would like to use Canada's courts to cherry-pick the foreign policy issues that bother them. Mining in Cuba they countenance; damming the Yangtze River they abide; but pumping oil in Sudan offends them. Instead of winning a national election on the issue, or convincing Parliament or even Mr. Axworthy alone, they are shopping to find a judge who'll agree with them -- no difficult task, these days.
If activists can hound Talisman out of Sudan they will have removed the most ethical member of the consortium. Talisman's partners in Sudan -- including the Chinese government -- will absorb Talisman's stake, and keep on pumping.
Mr. Forcese's legal solution would make matters worse. If Canada's courts punish companies for the sins of their foreign hosts, our reputation as a stable corporate base will be seriously harmed. If Canada is turned into an international Robin Hood, stealing from Canadian companies to pay foreign tribesmen, it will only drive Talisman and a hundred other multinationals out of the country -- and beyond the reach of ivory tower critics.
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