A/HRC/45/12/Add.1 90. Remediation remains a widespread concern. Concerns have been raised regarding the inadequacy of financial guarantees from polluting enterprises for site clean-up and remediation, leaving so-called contaminated orphan sites. The National Orphaned/Abandoned Mines Initiative is a welcome step.140 Efforts by Quebec and British Columbia to ensure that polluters pay for the closure and remediation of contaminated sites are encouraging.141 Thousands of such sites remain across Canada, however, particularly in Alberta, with considerable concern that the public and future generations will bear the Can$ 100 billion price of restoration, monitoring and remediation.142 91. The Special Rapporteur was concerned to hear allegations that the aforementioned acts of intimidation and harassment against human rights defenders have not been properly investigated. For example, it was alleged that the Government still has not fully investigated the disappearance of an indigenous woman who raised concerns of exposure to toxic pollution from oil sands operations. V. Extraterritorial impacts of business enterprises 92. The obligations of Canada to ensure that companies respect human rights, including its duty to prevent exposure to toxics and help provide remedies to those affected by Canadian business activities, do not stop at the country’s territorial borders.143 A. Waste exports 93. In the case of waste exports, certain Canadian companies have shipped waste to a number of countries in Asia, in apparent contravention of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Despite repeated protests in importing countries, the Government of Canada has been unable to compel the business involved to return the waste, which was finally repatriated to Canada only five years later.144 Illegal shipments to Malaysia have also been reported.145 94. Only 9–11 per cent of Canadian plastic waste is recycled,146 and there are concerns that plastic recycling is technically a myth. There is an urgent need to dramatically decrease consumption and use of plastics in Canada. Despite global regulation on plastic waste exports under the Basel Convention, the only way to minimize externalized impacts on people throughout the lifecycle of plastics is by reducing their consumption and production. B. Extractive industries 95. A perpetual pattern of human rights abuses by Canadian extractive industries operating abroad is undeniable. The limited efforts of the State to deter well-documented and widespread abuses has inspired much of the need for global standards on business and human rights. 96. Worrying reports have raised the issue of the complicity of the Government of Canada in these abuses. The Special Rapporteur is troubled by reports of the extent to which the Government may be extending financial and political support to weaken or impede 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 www.abandoned-mines.org/en/; submission by Arn Keeling, John Sandlos and Caitlynn Beckett (2019). https://thenarwhal.ca/environmental-stain-bc-announces-clean-up-2000-oil-gas-wells/. www.cdhowe.org/sites/default/files/attachments/research_papers/mixed/ Commentary_%20492_0.pdf; www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Inactive-Oil-WellsMuehlenbachs-1.pdf. A/74/480. www.wcel.org/blog/canada-should-stop-opposing-un-ban-exporting-waste-developing-countries. www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/qa/6971/media-briefing-canadas-plastic-waste-export-trendsfollowing-chinas-import-ban/. www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/pded/plastic-pollution/Science%20Assessment%20 Plastic%20Pollution.pdf; www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/plastic-waste-canada.pdf. 19