After the U.S. courts stopped policing global securities fraud, Canada became a global class action haven. Now the U.S. courts seem on the verge of abandoning their global oversight of corporate human rights offenses. Will Canada again step into the breach? It may if the Supreme Court of Canada accepts review of Association Canadienne Contre L’Impunite v. Anvil Mining Ltd.
Anvil operates a copper mine in a sometimes-rebellious corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Plaintiffs allege that Anvil gave a notorious government militia the trucks and drivers that it needed to reach the remote town of Kilwa and massacre more than 70 civilians there in October 2004. In a 2007 criminal trial, a Congolese military tribunal acquitted three Anvil employees and nine soldiers. The Canadian jurist Louise Arbour, who then served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, voiced concern over the result.
