Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (1975-2001)
The Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (TCCR) was established in 1975 as an ecumenical coalition of Canadian churches and religious orders. It addressed Canadian corporations, the Canadian government and international institutions on issues of corporate social and environmental responsibility, and related issues of corporate governance and shareholder rights. It also assisted the churches in examining their own investment policies and practices.
One of the Taskforce's first efforts was to assist church shareholders in influencing Canadian companies whose activities supported the apartheid regime in South Africa. This campaign has been described in Renate Pratt's In Good Faith: Canadian Churches Against Apartheid (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997).
The Taskforce went on to engage with Canadian companies on a broad range of human rights and environmental issues in Canada and globally. Its activities included correspondence and meetings with the management of corporations, participation in annual meetings, and shareholder proposals.
The Taskforce filed what is believed to be the first minority shareholder proposal in Canada in 1982, after a change in the Canada Business Corporations Act in 1980 made such proposals possible. A brief history of its active shareholder campaigns is included in The Promotion of Active Shareholdership for Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada (Jantzi Research for the Canadian Friends Service Committee, 1996).
In July 2001, the Taskforce, together with nine other ecumenical social justice coalitions, became part of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, to continue its advocacy work about corporate responsibility.
The Taskforce's important work and contribution to responsible investment is recorded in its annual reports, provided here as a valuable reference to those active in this field today.
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