Open for Business

And then there is the damage done to Canada’s international reputation when companies with few ties to this country don’t feel bound by its laws. “Miner linked to mercenaries” and “Corporate Corporate dogs of war who grow fat amid the anarchy of Africa” were headlines on stories linking Canadian companies to mercenaries in 1997, just as Ottawa was promoting Canada’s new human-security policy around the world.

Ivanhoe Mines of Vancouver is another case in point. Its chairman, Robert Friedland, a Canadian, lives in Hong Kong. Its deputy chairmen live in Idaho and Singapore. The company president lives in Ireland. All of its operations are overseas. In 1988, to protest well-documented human-rights abuses by the military regime, Canada suspended commercial relations with Burma and withdrew support for Canadian firms doing business there. Despite this clear signal from Ottawa, Ivanhoe began operating a copper mine in a joint venture with the Burmese government in 1998, and has generated millions of dollars for the ruling junta this year alone.

The curious can find some, but not all, of these details by reading the various reports that companies are required to file with securities regulators. However, disclosure is heavily weighted toward the technical and financial aspects of a company, while non-financial issues are glossed over in boilerplate language that could describe the situation in any number of countries and companies.

Buckingham is described in Heritage Oil reports as a self-employed businessman. No mention is made of his military background or mercenary friends. He has neatly married Canada’s desire to be the global capital of mining finance with his own need for a national identity that will help him win contracts and raise money for his oil operations overseas. In doing so, he has shown that you don’t have to be a Canadian to fly the Maple Leaf abroad.