Respectful to the human aspect
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
“A very unfortunate development.” That’s how an executive at Ontario-headquartered Magna International, which employs roughly 2,500 people at car manufacturing facilities in Russia, described Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.Global director of external communications Louise Colledge told The Narwhal on Wednesday that Magna was “respectful to the human aspect of this situation and [wishes] for the best to all those impacted,” but added that the company’s operations in Russia were still running. Just as we were about to press send on this newsletter, Magna reversed course and said it was idling those operations.
You could be excused for wondering how it is that Magna has been doing business in Russia despite all the news of the Trudeau government’s growing list of sanctions against the country’s businesses and oligarchs. But the company is far from alone when it comes to Canadian ventures that appear to have so far avoided sanctions that are evolving by the minute.
Reporters Emma McIntosh and Carl Meyer scoured corporate filings and found a number of Canadian players that have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in Russian mining, manufacturing, oil and gas projects.
Take Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. Carl went to the company with questions about whether the Russia-linked deals the company had outlined in old press releases were still active.
“The company replied that none were — except one, OAO VNIPIneft.”
“After doing some research on VNIPIneft,” Carl says, “I found one line in an old news story that suggested the Russian government was a shareholder. I followed up with SNC-Lavalin to ask if it still was. That's when I learned the joint venture partner was Rosneft.”
If Rosneft sounds familiar, that’s because it’s a state-controlled oil and gas company that has been a central target of sanctions by Canada and other countries. SNC-Lavalin says it began divesting from its 48 per cent stake in OAO VNIPIneft a few years ago but that the process is “still ongoing.”
I caught up with Carl and Emma to learn about how they whipped up the piece, their first together at The Narwhal but a familiar practice from their time at Canada’s National Observer. “I swear we have only ever shared a byline in similarly dynamic situations,” Emma explains. “So we really just slid into a flow and [extremely East Side Mario’s voice] bada bing, suddenly we had a story!”
Speaking of how the dynamics of this story have been changing on a dime: after Emma, Carl and other reporters began asking Toronto-based Kinross Gold questions about its plans to conduct business as usual with its Russian mines, the company reversed course and said it would be suspending those operations. It’s still declining to share its long-term plans for Russia, but as recently as last month Kinross’ CEO was telling the press the country has “been a great place for us.”
So, how is the federal government planning to deal with Canadian companies that maintain their Russian operations? That’s a question Carl and Emma asked, but so far they haven’t received an answer from either Global Affairs Canada or the Department of Finance. In the meantime, they’ll continue to monitor the latest developments on the Ukraine-Russia front.
“This is definitely not something I ever expected we'd be covering, on our beats,” Emma told me. “But I do think it highlights how often resource extraction interacts with human rights issues, which is a really important discussion.”
Take care and give your pension fund a call,
Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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