Corporate ethics

A Church's mistakes and lessons learned

Topics: 
Corporate ethics
Rating: 
0

Charles Lewis – October 15, 2011

It would seem to be the ultimate in bad taste to look for a silver lining in the dark cloud of the Roman Catholic Church sexual-abuse crisis. To do so would be, in the minds of many, to minimize the damage done to countless children and teenagers who were betrayed by the "holy people" they trusted.

But for some of the scholars meeting this weekend at McGill University in Montreal, the abuse scandal offers something more than just despair: It is a chance for a broader society plagued with child sexual abuse to learn from the mistakes of the Church and the solutions it found to try to end the abuse.

Nun asks: 'What kind of people are we?'

Topics: 
Corporate ethics
Rating: 
3

Charles Lewis – October 15, 2011

When Sister Nuala Kenny addresses a conference this weekend, which is meeting at McGill University to explore the sexual-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, her message will be stark and even a bit frightening.

No matter what has been done so far to deal with the crisis, no matter how many new protocols are now in place, it is still not enough, she will tell those in attendance. The fundamental question of how a systemic breakdown came to pass throughout the worldwide Church, she said, has not been answered, let alone properly asked.

Former financial adviser on a crusade

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Financial industry, Conflict of interest
Rating: 
3
Larry Elford

Martin Cash – October 14, 2011

Larry Elford is not associated with the Occupy Wall Street crowd, but he is a kindred spirit. The month-long "occupation" of Wall Street, ostensibly as a protest against corporate greed, uses the slogan, "We are the 99 per cent."

It's a way to point out the injustice inherent in the outrageous fortunes of the super rich and the contention that those fortunes were acquired through less than honourable means.

Canada: Foreign Bribery, Homegrown Inaction

Topics: 
Corruption, Corporate ethics, Foreign corrupt practices legislation
Rating: 
4

International pressure mounts on Canada to prosecute Canadian businesses complicit in corruption abroad

Ellen Gutterman – October 13, 2011

Blackfire Exploration, a junior Canadian mining company, recently made headlines across the country amid allegations that it bribed the mayor of a small Mexican town in exchange for political protection for its mine there. Most Canadians may not be aware that paying such a bribe in Mexico is a crime in Canada.

Little more than a decade ago, Canadians and other western business people typically considered side payments and kickbacks to be part of the normal cost of doing business in countries where bribery is standard practice. However, revelations of the RCMP raid on Blackfire’s Calgary office are a good reminder that times – and international norms about acceptable international business practices – have changed.

Whistleblower cried out in vain about students' plight

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Sex trade, Child abuse
Rating: 
3

Wilson Kennedy left the Brothers order because he couldn't tolerate 'culture'

Sue Montgomery – October 13, 2011

A former member of the Brothers of Holy Cross, disillusioned by the widespread sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic order, wrote a letter in 2007 to Anthony Mancini, then bishop of the Montreal Archdiocese, about the "dysfunctional situation."

Wilson Kennedy wrote that he left the religious community, to which he'd belonged for 20 years, because he could not accept a "culture that rewarded individuals for inappropriate behaviour and actions."

Enron whistle-blower praises rise of WikiLeaks

Topics: 
Sherron Watkins, Corporate ethics, Wikileaks
Rating: 
2
Sherron Watkins

Says such tools will make it easier, safer to publicize proof of corporate misdeeds

David Robinson – October 12, 2011

Sherron Watkins, who tried to get her bosses to stop the fraud that brought down Enron Corp. a decade ago, thinks websites like WikiLeaks will strengthen the hand of future corporate whistle-blowers.

“I think the most important thing that will happen is some form of Wiki- Leaks,” said Watkins, a former Enron vice president whose efforts to shed light on Enron’s massive fraud led Time magazine to name her one of its “Persons of the Year” in 2002.

Code of Silence: legal threats silence Canadians

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, SLAPP suits, Resources industry
Rating: 
4

Candice Vallantin – November 2011

In 2008, Les Éditions Écosociété, a tiny Montreal publishing house, released a 348-page treatise on human rights and environmental violations by Canadian mining companies overseas.

Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption, et criminalité en Afrique (Black Canada: Plundering, Corruption, and Crime in Africa) presents evidence for Barrick Gold’s alleged complicity in the deaths of fifty-two miners in Tanzania, and for Banro Corporation’s fuelling of violent conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales

Topics: 
Corruption, Corporate ethics, Oil & gas industry, Foreign corrupt practices legislation
Rating: 
2

Asjylyn Loder and David Evans – October 3, 2011

In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France.

In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts. “I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”

Ethics of Canadian oil companies overseas challenged

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Oil & gas industry
Rating: 
0

Mike De Souza – September 22, 2011

A University of Alberta economics professor has challenged a pro-oilsands industry group, endorsed this week by members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet, to come clean on Canadian companies that are running operations in "conflict" regions of the world.

"I think it's a question worth raising," said Andrew Leach, an associate professor of natural resources, energy and environment at the Alberta School of Business. "The whole ethical oil (argument) has pushed this stuff too far." Leach, who writes a popular energy, climate and oilsands blog, said he could only name one company in the sector, Cenovus, that has no operations in any of the undemocratic states that are being criticized in advertising sponsored by the group, which calls itself ethicaloil.org.

Xe (Blackwater) Hires Disgraced AIG "Compliance Czar"

Topics: 
USA, Corporate ethics, World Bank, Defence industry
Rating: 
2

Bea Edwards – September 16, 2011

Last week Corporate Counsel reported that infamous military security firm Xe (previously Blackwater) has hired Suzanne Folsom as its first chief regulatory/compliance officer and deputy general counsel.

The article quotes Folsom crony and former AIG General Counsel Anastasia "Stasia" Kelly, gushing about her friend's talents:

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