The
federal government has proposed a devious new law that will give the
Export Development Corporation (EDC) – a Crown corporation that
finances multinationals and others who build ruinous Third World
megaprojects – the legal right to help destroy the environment in other
countries. The new law, Bill C-31, will also keep Canadian taxpayers in
the dark about EDC’s activities, and could be used to gag groups like
Probe International when we try to expose what they are doing.

Specifically, this new law will give EDC executives the right to
carry out their own environmental assessments of their own projects and
then act as their own judge and jury. EDC will even be allowed to
delegate to its multinational corporate clients the ability to conduct
their own environmental assessments.

EDC also remains exempt from the Access to Information Act, ensuring
that Canadian citizens can’t get their hands on reports and internal
documents that might expose wrongdoing. Apart from bare bones
information – such as who is receiving the government largesse –
Canadian taxpayers will be denied the right to any information that EDC
and the multinational corporations don’t want us to have. So far, EDC
has racked up almost $19 billion in taxpayer liabilities.

Perhaps most appalling, the proposed law would make it an offence to
use EDC’s name in any radio or newspaper advocacy ad, billboard, bumper
sticker, or other advertisement, among other restrictions, without
EDC’s consent. EDC’s lawyers have already warned Probe International to
stop referring to them as “EDC” or “Export Development Corporation” on
our web site “to avoid the costs associated with litigation” – and that
was before the new law was even introduced. The penalty for merely
referring to “EDC” or to the “Export Development Corporation” could be
$10,000 and six months in jail. Prominent lawyers are disturbed by this
threat to our basic liberties. The West Coast Environmental Law
Association’s Executive Director, Linda Nowlan, calls this attempt to
stifle legitimate public debate “chilling and offensive.” The Executive
Director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Innovation Law and
Policy, Richard Owens, calls it “inappropriate and ill-advised.”

EDC has a long history of financing reprehensible projects,
including nuclear technology to military hotspots in Pakistan and
India, mines that dump cyanide into rivers, and hydro dams that destroy
fertile valleys in poor countries and force millions of people off
their lands.

In the 20 years we have been watchdogs over EDC’s activities, we
have stopped numerous projects around the world, many of them
representing lost business opportunities for EDC. In the past, EDC
established an internal “Probe International taskforce” to counter us,
and now EDC may use Bill C-31 to try to silence us where past attempts
have failed.

For decades, our motto has been “We Name Names.” We aren’t about to stop. With your support,
we will continue to expose EDC’s environmentally destructive projects
around the world, to stop EDC from harming innocent people in other
countries, and to insist that EDC be held to account for its actions.

Yours sincerely,

Patricia Adams Executive Director

P. S. To show that EDC can’t cow us and our supporters, we are
printing thousands of “Stop EDC, Not Free Speech” decals. We will be
pleased to send you one (or more), upon request.