Financial Support through Embassies

Case Study

TVI Pacific in the Philippines

Calgary-based TVI Pacific Inc. (TVI), through its Philippine affiliate, TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc., is currently operating a mining concession on indigenous land on the island of Mindanao, amidst a decades-old violent civil insurgency. TVI has been the focus of highly public and sustained opposition by local indigenous Subanon (who hold Ancestral Domain Claim to the area), as well as by local small scale miners, downstream Christianized farmers and coastal Muslim fishing communities. Opposition to the mine has been raised a number of times by indigenous representatives at the United Nations level and has been highlighted by UN special rapporteur Rudolfo Stavenhagen. There have been violent conflicts involving TVI personnel and security forces, and forced evictions at the site.

Documents received through an access to information request show that in 2001, CIDA-INC (CIDA's commercial arm) rejected a request for funding from TVI because of "gun fire by a TVI security guard." In 2002, an ambush of a TVI vehicle left 13 people dead. Surprisingly, just one year later, CIDA funded a development project by channeling money from the embassy-directed Fund for Local Initiatives Program directly through TVI, in contradiction of the Fund's guidelines.² In October and November of 2004, a delegation of local people raised concern both at the Canadian Embassy in Manila and at CIDA headquarters in Gatineau that the money was being used by TVI to divide the community, thereby creating further conflict. Nonetheless, the funding for the project was renewed early in 2005. Furthermore, although CIDA has required that other development projects in Mindanao implement Peace and Conflict Impact Assessments, there was no such requirement for TVI, in spite of evidence of violent conflict associated with the mine.

Even after the issue was brought before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) in March 2005, the project funding was continued. The parliamentary committee requested a moratorium on government promotion of TVI pending the outcome of a government investigation of the company's activities–a recommendation the government rejected.