Corporate Responsibility Campaign

Advocating stronger, more effectively enforced corporate responsibility laws

Please send your letter now using the form on this page, and please help spread the word by Liking and Tweeting this page.

Key Links

For background, view Democracy Watch’s Corporate Responsibility Discussion Paper (October 1994)
Links to Corporate Responsibility Resources

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Corporate Responsibility Campaign 1993-2011 archive (archive website)

The Opportunity

There are many key corporate responsibility measures that are under ongoing review by the Canadian federal government. No matter what issue or problem concerns you, strengthening the federal corporate responsibility systems will help you win the changes and solutions you are pushing for.

The federal Canada Business Corporations Act, under which 155,000 of Canada’s largest corporations operate (including half of the largest 500 corporations), is under an ongoing review by the federal government.

Now is a key time to send a strong message to the leaders of all the federal political parties that you are fed up with the dishonest, unethical, secretive, unrepresentative, and wasteful actions of corporate executives and you want key changes to make everyone involved in Canada’s large corporations act honestly, ethically, openly, responsibly and to prevent waste.

Incredibly, the laws and enforcement of parking a car illegally are stronger than most corporate responsibility and bank accountability laws and enforcement systems in Canada, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate executives who act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, irresponsibly or wastefully!

No main federal political party in the past 160 years since Canada became a country has focused on making ourcorporate responsibility system world-leading and best practice. While the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), the Bloc Québecois Party, and the Green Party have focused more than the Liberals and Conservatives on strengthening the federal corporate responsibility and bank accountability systems, not even they have made these changes a top priority issue.

On corporate honesty, ethics, openness, responsibility and waste prevention reforms, the federal government has not heard from citizens or citizen groups enough to counter the power of corporate lobby groups. It is important that you let the government know that you want significant corporate responsibility reforms.

Canada’s biggest corporations spend more than $25 billion annually on their lobbying and promotion efforts (advertising etc.), including on about 10,000 full-time lobbyists across the country. In contrast, there are only about 500 full-time citizen group lobbyists, and citizen groups spend only about $50 million annually on lobbying and promotion. As a result, Canadians must all work together and push hard if there is any hope to counter the corporate lobby and win key corporate responsibility changes.

Send your letter to key politicians calling for changes to ensure Canada's big corporations act responsibly and can be held accountable when they don't.
(See list of politicians below)

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Message Subject (Please change as you like)

Your Message (Please change as you like)

Hello,

I am sending this email to call for changes to ensure Canada’s big corporations act responsibly and can be held accountable when they don’t.

The federal government’s corporate responsibility enforcement system is the real scandal because for more than 140 years it has allowed Canada’s big corporations and executives to act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, non-representatively and wastefully.

Either laws and rules don’t exist or are full of loopholes, or enforcement and penalties are too weak to prevent wrongdoing and penalize wrongdoers effectively.

Incredibly, the laws against illegal parking in Canada are enforced more strongly and effectively than key bank accountability and corporate responsibility laws and rules, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate wrongdoing!

The problem is undeniable, as dozens of corporate wrongdoing scandals have occurred over the past decade.

If the corporate responsibility system is not strengthened in key ways, corporations will continue to get away with abuse of customers, communities, the environment and shareholders.

I will not vote for you or any of your party’s representatives if you do not promise in writing to resign if you do not do everything you can to make the following changes within one year after the next federal election (as you will see, the following changes are comprehensive and detailed, because incomplete half-measures will clearly not do enough to strengthen corporate responsibility in Canada and make corporations effectively accountable.

Here are the 6 detailed changes I want you to make to strengthen the corporate responsibility system in Canada:

Key General Corporate Responsibility Changes

Require everyone who incorporates a business or purchases property anywhere in Canada to disclose all of the owners of the business and/or property (including “beneficial” owners) in a searchable, online registry, to ensure that it is clearly illegal for criminals, foreigners or foreign entities or others to hide or launder their money through Canadian businesses or properties, and require FINTRAC (and give it the funding and resources needed) to conduct regular, random audits of the registry, with high mandatory fines for anyone violating the full disclosure requirement.
Require corporations (including banks and other financial institutions) to send a pamphlet to individual shareholders and customers inviting them to join watchdog groups for each corporate sector (some U.S. states have required utilities to do this — See details on Democracy Watch’s Citizen Association Campaign webpage).
Require corporate directors to consider stakeholder interests (represented by workers, customers, communities, social justice and environmental groups) in making decisions, and to account publicly for the extent to which they do (including reducing waste to the best world standard, and paying all the costs of recycling and cleaning up any waste or pollution that results from what the corporation produces, all to the best world standards).
Require corporations to disclose their records of compliance with environmental, criminal, competition, human rights, labour, health and safety laws, and set up an on-line, searchable database so that the public has easy access to the information.
Establish an effective system (including a fully independent, fully empowered watchdog agency) to protect, from any form of retaliation, “whistleblowers” who disclose corporate wrongdoing to the public or to the government.
Prohibit every government from giving any form of tax breaks, subidies, grants or loans to any corporation unless the corporation is required to comply with the above responsibility conditions, and unless the government ensures the conditions are fully enforceable even if the corporation declares bankruptcy or shuts down (to prevent another fiasco as happened with US Steel in Hamilton).
Require any corporation that receives any form of tax breaks, subsidies, grants or loans from a government to reduce executive salaries to an amount no greater than 20 times what its average employee is paid, and to comply with the above responsibility conditions.
Prohibit corporations that violate laws from receiving any form of tax breaks, subsidies, grants or contracts from any government for a specific period of time (e.g. 5-10 years).
Close all loopholes so that all businesses in Canada are required to pay their fair share of taxes, and also impose a special excess profits tax as England and Australia have.
Impose mandatory minimum penalties for violations of all laws that apply to businesses at least equal to (and ideally double) the amount of money the business made from the actions that violated the law.
Require fines to be imposed on, and prosecution of, any business executive or employee that is wilfully involved in illegal activity or knew about and did nothing to stop the activity, so that the executive or employee is always penalized.
Allow stakeholders to apply in court for the dissolution of a corporation that repeatedly violates laws.

Again, please let me know what steps you are taking to introduce bills to close these bank accountability loopholes, to pledging in your party’s election platform to close these loopholes.

My vote in the next election will very much depend on your response. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hello,
I am sending this email to call for changes to ensure Canada’s big corporations act responsibly and can be held accountable when they don’t.
The federal government’s corporate responsibility enforcement system is the real scandal because for more than 140 years it has allowed Canada’s big corporations and executives to act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, non-representatively and wastefully.
Either laws and rules don’t exist or are full of loopholes, or enforcement and penalties are too weak to prevent wrongdoing and penalize wrongdoers effectively.
Incredibly, the laws against illegal parking in Canada are enforced more strongly and effectively than key bank accountability and corporate responsibility laws and rules, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate wrongdoing!
The problem is undeniable, as dozens of corporate wrongdoing scandals have occurred over the past decade.
If the corporate responsibility system is not strengthened in key ways, corporations will continue to get away with abuse of customers, communities, the environment and shareholders.
I will not vote for you or any of your party’s representatives if you do not promise in writing to resign if you do not do everything you can to make the following changes within one year after the next federal election (as you will see, the following changes are comprehensive and detailed, because incomplete half-measures will clearly not do enough to strengthen corporate responsibility in Canada and make corporations effectively accountable.
Here are the 6 detailed changes I want you to make to strengthen the corporate responsibility system in Canada:
Key General Corporate Responsibility Changes
<ol>
<li>Require everyone who incorporates a business or purchases property anywhere in Canada to disclose all of the owners of the business and/or property (including “beneficial” owners) in a searchable, online registry, to ensure that it is clearly illegal for criminals, foreigners or foreign entities or others to hide or launder their money through Canadian businesses or properties, and require FINTRAC (and give it the funding and resources needed) to conduct regular, random audits of the registry, with high mandatory fines for anyone violating the full disclosure requirement.</li>
<li>Require corporations (including banks and other financial institutions) to send a pamphlet to individual shareholders and customers inviting them to join watchdog groups for each corporate sector (some U.S. states have required utilities to do this — See details on Democracy Watch’s Citizen Association Campaign webpage).</li>
<li>Require corporate directors to consider stakeholder interests (represented by workers, customers, communities, social justice and environmental groups) in making decisions, and to account publicly for the extent to which they do (including reducing waste to the best world standard, and paying all the costs of recycling and cleaning up any waste or pollution that results from what the corporation produces, all to the best world standards).</li>
<li>Require corporations to disclose their records of compliance with environmental, criminal, competition, human rights, labour, health and safety laws, and set up an on-line, searchable database so that the public has easy access to the information.</li>
<li>Establish an effective system (including a fully independent, fully empowered watchdog agency) to protect, from any form of retaliation, “whistleblowers” who disclose corporate wrongdoing to the public or to the government.</li>
<li>Prohibit every government from giving any form of tax breaks, subidies, grants or loans to any corporation unless the corporation is required to comply with the above responsibility conditions, and unless the government ensures the conditions are fully enforceable even if the corporation declares bankruptcy or shuts down (to prevent another fiasco as happened with US Steel in Hamilton).</li>
<li>Require any corporation that receives any form of tax breaks, subsidies, grants or loans from a government to reduce executive salaries to an amount no greater than 20 times what its average employee is paid, and to comply with the above responsibility conditions.</li>
<li>Prohibit corporations that violate laws from receiving any form of tax breaks, subsidies, grants or contracts from any government for a specific period of time (e.g. 5-10 years).</li>
<li>Close all loopholes so that all businesses in Canada are required to pay their fair share of taxes, and also impose a special excess profits tax as England and Australia have.</li>
<li>Impose mandatory minimum penalties for violations of all laws that apply to businesses at least equal to (and ideally double) the amount of money the business made from the actions that violated the law.</li>
<li>Require fines to be imposed on, and prosecution of, any business executive or employee that is wilfully involved in illegal activity or knew about and did nothing to stop the activity, so that the executive or employee is always penalized.</li>
<li>Allow stakeholders to apply in court for the dissolution of a corporation that repeatedly violates laws.</li>
</ol>
Again, please let me know what steps you are taking to introduce bills to close these bank accountability loopholes, to pledging in your party’s election platform to close these loopholes.
My vote in the next election will very much depend on your response.  I look forward to hearing from you.

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