Bill C-438

SUMMARY

This enactment establishes the Canadian Extraterritorial Activities Review Commission to receive complaints and conduct inquiries to determine whether the extraterritorial activities of Canadian businesses and entities are conducted in a responsible and ethical manner; to prepare, with the assistance of an advisory committee, a draft code of Canadian standards governing the extraterritorial activities of Canadian businesses and other entities; to advise the government in order to help it support only those Canadian businesses and entities and those projects outside Canada that are in compliance with this code; and to notify the Minister of Foreign Affairs of situations that might justify imposing sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act against a Canadian business or entity conducting extraterritorial activities.

The enactment amends the Special Economic Measures Act to give the Governor in Council the power to take measures against Canadian businesses and entities whose activities outside Canada he or she believes have led or are likely to lead to a threat to peace, serious and repeated violations of human rights or serious or irreversible degradation of the environment.

It also amends the Export Development Act and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Act to ensure compliance with the principles referred to in section 13 of this enactment.