Corporate Social Responsibility

Hi all,
One of my classes, Government and Business (G-Biz) brings up some pretty interesting topics that are going on in the world. Soon, we're going to be having a class debate about Canada's Bill C-300, which I'd like to share with you all:


Bill C-300 was introduced by Liberal MP John McKay on Feb 9, 2009. It implements some recommendations from the March 2007 Final Report of the Corporate Social Responsibility Roundtables (Google it for more info!). The issue at hand is many Canadian mining companies have operations overseas, specifically in China. Now, as many will guess, some of these countries do not have as rigorous laws as ours regarding corporate social responsibility. These include unethical hiring practices, air and water pollution, etc etc.

Bill C-300 would regulate the relationship between Canadian government agencies (Export Development Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Canadian Pension Plan) and Canadian extractive companies (Mining, Oil, and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries). The bill would also create a formal complaint mechanism, inducting the appropriate legislature to investigate the impugned company.

The big mining companies in Canada, including Kinross Gold, HudBay Minerals, Gold Corp, Barrick Gold have lashed back out at this bill. There is also substantial opposition stating that such a bill would drive these mining companies, one of Canada's key economic drivers, to other companies. As it currently stands, the majority of their materials come from outside of Canada since this country actually has a very small amount of reserves.

Thoughts and opinions?

Full article here: http://www.miningwatch.ca/bill-c-300-corporate-accountability-activities-mining-oil-or-gas-corporations-developing-countries

Gotta love first week of school =)

Wooooo!!
You know school has really kicked in when you out again hitting up all the first-year/first-week parties around campus! This is truly one of the best things about being a student. What's our motto? We work hard and party harder!

Rumour has it that some schools have completely banned alcohol on dorms. This was a decision stemmed from some guy at Queen's Uni who drank himself to death at one of these parties, and he was in a basement all alone, passed out cold with no one there to help him.

Honestly? My view is that with the more oppression the administrations try to take upon us (ie forbid us from drinking in dorms), we're just shovelling more dirt on the issue because students can and will find a place to get drunk on a Saturday night. If they have to venture to the deepest part of the forests or basements to do it, they'll do it!!

So to all the post-secondary schools across Canada, stop forcing us to have to retreat and drink in such isolated places. At least when we're in the dorms and someone passes out in the living room, there are tons other people to help him out and call the ambulance he needs!

Research in Motion

Hey guys!
Was reading the financial press today and found out that Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry (NASDAQ:RIMM, TSE:RIM) is down 20% overnight on horrendous quarterly report figures.

See the article here!
http://www.bnet.com/blog/technology-business/rim-earnings-sales-margins-income-8212-you-name-it-it-fell/12874

This is just an inkling, as I honestly don't have that much experience in trading stocks or technology stocks or even blackberries, but... I think this is oversold and will bounce back up tomorrow at market open! We shall see...

Stare Decisis

Hey guys,
In court class right now, Commercial Law. And we're learning about Common Law, specifically Stare Decisis (I love my latin terms...)

A bit of background: The whole idea of Stare Decisis, or the Theory of Precedent, is that the jduge MUST look to past cases with similar/identical facts from a higher/equal court level in deciding the case. In other words, "let the former decision stand".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law

My thought to you guys is this: Does this ingrain certain traditions or customs in society, that unnecessarily get transferred down with each iteration of the law? As life and society progresses and evolves, so do our values... and so should the laws that govern our lives. What's acceptable eons ago may not be looked upon in the same manner as today...

Of course, that's not to say that there is no "readjustment" in this regard, or deviation from precedent law. Good example: "In 1896 the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated public facilities was constitutional as long as they were equal. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional. In 1956, if the Supreme Court had blindly followed the principle of stare decisis, it would have ruled that segregation was permissible."


But as you can imagine, the prevalent tendency is to lean toward a former, slightly outdated ruling.
Thoughts?

First Week of School

So last week was my first week of school, and I can't say I'm more relieved. Usually summers make me just insanely bored... So by the time September rolls around, I'm dying to crack the books. This year, despite all my travels and fun, was no different!

The feeling of stepping back into that Sauder School of Business building and seeing all these people I recognize is simply amazing. It's like seeing long-lost family when I can't walk 2 steps down the hall without calling out for someone's name or someone calling me out, then standing there and catching up with them for a good 2 minutes. It's almost customary. And this ritual usually lasts for a good 2 more weeks before I finally get a chance to see everyone again and say hi.

My classes this year are incredibly well set up, if I do say so myself ^^. I've got Tuesdays and Thursdays off, with classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This basically allows me to save about 4 hours' of transportation time per week, and grants me well-needed time to study or read between the days to prepare for the next class.

Courses I totally loathe: GBiz and Comm Law. Boy I just... blegh. I can see how they would be useful later on, but seriously it's so bland that I want to throw up. The textbook and readers are just blocks of text filled with unheard-of terminology, or in the case of GBiz, economic nonsense. By that I mean things that would look brilliantly logical on paper or in theory, but has very little application in the real world. That's usually what Econ tends to be...

Back from Alaska!

Hey guys!
I'll bet everyone is wondering where I've been for the last few weeks. I was on a cruise ship visiting beautiful Alaska with my family. It was a 7-day cruise through the inside passage, on Holland America's Volendam ship.

While the rooms and the facilities on this ship were a bit dated, what it lacked in that field it more than made up for with the food. They really outdid themselves! Between the Lido buffet, Canaletto Italian restaurant, Terrace Grill barbeque, Pinnacle Grill restaurant, and Rotterdam fine dining, the place was heaven. Even the buffet, which are usually notorious for poor quality food unfortunately, was top notch. From paté to roast beef, it was absolutely scrumptious and the selection was just impeccable.

And of course, beautiful, beautiful Alaska...

That was the Mendenhall Glacier that we saw in Juneau. Isn't that just freaking gorgeous? We were literally a stone's throw away from it, snapping up all the pictures my poor SD card could muster. All three ports of call, Junean, Ketchikan, Skagway, were tiny... One could easily comb through downtown in half an hour. Guess I'm used to my big city Vancouver downtown with its massive web of streets...

Of all the places, I think Skagway had the best story behind it. Skagway is the ghost town remnants of the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush. It was "run" by notorious Soapy Smith and his gang of conmen, thieves, murderers and marauders.



Next post: My first week of school =)