The story-line is familiar: Big Oil wants to produce, transport and market Alberta’s Oilsands at a pace needed to sustain economic yields and Canadians’ quality of life. Environmentalists want to slow down, contain, restrain, even stop, Oilsands activity to sustain the Earth, the ecology and human habitat. Both economists and environmentalists focus on ‘sustainability’ as [...]
Size of CEO ego huge warning sign for fraud
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011Apparently, the most reliable indicator of financial fraud is not good corporate governance practises, but rather, the ego of the chief executive. “Governance doesn’t seem to matter,” says Michel Magnan, one of three authors conducting further studies into financial reporting fraud in Canada. “It looks good but it doesn’t substantively have the impact we’d hope [...]
EU oil sands ranking disturbs
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011By: Claudia Cattaneo You’d think that the European Union has enough on its hands dealing with the sovereign debt crisis that it doesn’t have the capacity to fire up a new one. Yet the European Commission did just that when it approved this week a green ranking of fuels that singles out Canada’s oil sands [...]
Celebrating Meaningful Labour
Monday, September 5th, 2011It’s Labour Day – a stat holiday when many take a break from work to actually think about what work means to us. In the present economy, if you have a job, that fact alone may be sufficient cause for celebration. Bemoaning a lack of ‘meaningful’ work could be frowned upon. And yet, we all [...]
IHRP Releases Guide “On Disputed Ground” for reviews of mining, oil, gas CSR
Friday, August 26th, 2011From: University of Toronto – Faculty of Law The International Human Rights Program (“IHRP”) at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is pleased to announce the release of a plain-language guide to assist affected communities to access the Review Process of the Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Counsellor for Canada [...]
UK firms look set to fail to meet board gender targets
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011By: Simon Read, Personal Financial Editor Leading companies are failing to tackle gender diversity at board level, experts warn. That’s despite a government deadline demanding they publish proposals to boost the number of female board members. In February Lord Davies called on FTSE 350 companies to achieve “urgent change” and announce aspirational goals within the [...]
How employees know when to break the rules
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011By: John Warrillow Recently, I saw a “pop-up” concert performed by my friend Lenni Jabour at big-box book retailer Indigo in downtown Toronto. A pop-up show is an unannounced event in a public space, and Ms. Jabour has been choosing to commandeer pianos sitting unattended in public places. The shows are one part civil disobedience and three [...]