Opinion piece in the The Asian Pacifc Post slams Canadian government for “forking out tax dollars to companies like Nortel which is accused of helping China’s army of cyber cops round up and jail Internet users”.
“What this company is doing is basically telling China that we at Nortel can help you track down activists and free speech advocates,” said [Clive] Ansley, a former professor of Chinese studies and Chinese law in Canada, who was the first foreign lawyer to open a law office in Shanghai. Instead of implementing laws to control the export of such technology that results in scores being rounded up, jailed and even killed, the Liberal government has been handing out tax dollars to companies like Nortel.
Canada’s Export Development Corporation continues to support Nortel Networks Corp. even though Nortel has not filed official 2003 financial statements, is under investigation by stock market regulators in Canada and in the United States, not to mention the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas, which is currently conducting a criminal investigation.
The Export Development Corporation (EDC) is a Canadian Crown corporation which facilitates Canadian exports through the provision of trade finance and risk management services. It guarantees loans and offers insurance to Canadian exporters where in many cases the risk is extreme. As a result EDC makes otherwise uneconomic investments proceed.
Probe International‘s campaign to stop the EDC provides masses of evidence to support the conclusion that the EDC:
. . has a long record of financing environmentally damaging and economically unsound projects. Many EDC projects have also contributed to the violation of human rights and are plagued by corruption. Because of its exemption from the Access to Information Act, EDC’s activities are sheltered from public view. The absence of public sector oversight and market discipline make EDC-supported projects a perfect breeding ground for corruption and business activities that harm the environment, sink Third World citizens in debt, and cost Canadian taxpayers money. Most profoundly, EDC secrecy potentially threatens lives and undermines democratic institutions.
Working with Rights and Democracy in 2001 we ran up against EDC’s culture of secrecy. As Hon. Warren Allmand explained to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) at the time :
In trying to get information from the government on what role was played by the EDC in financing Nortel and other companies developing this technology for the very repressive government in China, we tabled 17 access to information requests. We got back blank pages. We got back blank pages”17″because the EDC is not subject to the Access to Information Act.
In a democracy, there is no greater guarantee of justice than the free flow of information.
Further reading:
Rights and Democarcy provide a Summary of Canada’s Trade Promotion and Human Rights Activities including the ICT sector.
China’s Golden Shield Corporations and the development of surveillance technology in the People’s Republic of China
