The movie 300 was a testosterone-packed comic book feature about a small group of Spartans holding back the Persian hordes at the battle of Thermopylae. Bill C-300 is a nail-biting private member’s horror scenario that threatens to overwhelm the Canadian mining industry with the prospect of permanent battle in Ottawa.
Yet another Greek connection came up this week when Jon Baird, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), quoted Plato in a speech about C-300 at the Economic Club of Canada: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
Plato is a dodgy reference for any businessman, given that he despised commerce and favoured a communistic state (But then, portraying Spartans in 300 as fans of liberty was a bit of a stretch too). However, the key point — when it comes to business — is what acting “responsibly” means.
Bill C-300, introduced by Liberal MP John McKay, could — under the ever-spreading aegis of “corporate social responsibility” — considerably burden mining companies operating overseas.
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