Advocacy Winner

SHARE

Project: Canada’s Modern Slavery Legislation Initiative

Tackling the “S” in “ESG” requires effective corporate management and comprehensive and comparable disclosure. SHARE has been working to create new legal obligations for corporations operating in Canada to develop and disclose due diligence measures that find and fix human rights risks in their global supply chains, and report them to investors. Starting with an investor-focused analysis of global legislation and Canadian law, SHARE worked with civil society, legal experts and companies to identify best practices and sharpen proposals for legislative action. SHARE issued a joint investor letter to the Canadian government asking for new legislation, and began regular lobbying of Members of Parliament and government officials, leading to Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development hearings on the issue. In 2019 SHARE worked with Committee members to place SHARE’s recommendations for new legislation in its final report, continued to educate parliamentarians, Ministers, and departmental officials, and presented its vision to a meeting of all provincial, territorial and federal labour Ministers. SHARE published new supportive research, worked with government to develop cross-Canada consultations on the potential new law, and continued to meet with government and convene companies to bring the new law into being. We’re not done yet, but the transformative potential of this legislation for global human rights, and for investors’ own due diligence, is immense.

Finalist: Ivey Foundation
Project: Building Sustainable Finance Capacity in Canada

Learn more about the 2020 RIA Leadership Awards.