Professor Penelope Simons has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for a new project examining how Canada can better prevent and respond to business-related human rights harms linked to resource extraction. Entitled “Resource Extraction and Non-Judicial Remedies,” this three-year initiative will provide the first systematic study of non-judicial remedy mechanisms (NJRMs) in Canada, with a particular focus on gender-based violence associated with resource extraction and energy infrastructure projects.
The project comes at a critical moment. In recent years, governments across Canada have increasingly supported mining and energy infrastructure development. While these projects are often framed as essential to economic growth and environmental transition, a growing body of research has linked extractive activities to heightened risks of violence and other harms affecting women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA communities. Professor Simons’ research will explore how Canada’s legal and policy frameworks can better fulfill the country’s international human rights obligations to prevent such harms and provide effective remedies when they occur. While courts play an important role, many affected individuals and communities face significant barriers in accessing judicial remedies. The project therefore focuses on the broader landscape of non-judicial mechanisms, including human rights bodies, administrative processes, Indigenous-led mechanisms, ombudsperson offices, and other complaint and oversight structures that may offer more accessible and timely forms of protection and redress.
The research has four major objectives: mapping the landscape of existing remedy mechanisms across Canada; reviewing global scholarship and best practices on effective remedies for business-related harms; evaluating the capacity of existing mechanisms to prevent and address gender-based violence connected to extractive and energy projects; and identifying reforms that could strengthen Canada’s approach to human rights protection in these sectors. A central goal of the project is to generate practical knowledge that can support Indigenous communities, policymakers, civil society organizations, and law reform advocates. The findings will be shared through plain-language reports, policy briefs, advocacy tools, scholarly publications, and public engagement initiatives.
Professor Simons is an internationally recognized leader in the field whose research has focused extensively on the human rights implications of extractive industries, corporate accountability, and access to effective remedies for business-related harm. She is joined by Common Law colleagues Professor Angela Cameron and Professor Anne Levesque as co-applicants on the project. Other collaborators include Sarah Morales (University of Victoria), Sara Seck (Dalhousie University) and Naiomi Metallic (Dalhousie University). Together, they will work with an interdisciplinary research team combining expertise in human rights law, feminist theory, Indigenous rights, administrative justice, and business regulation.
Beyond academia, the project’s findings have the potential to inform law and policy reform across Canada and contribute to broader international conversations about corporate accountability, gender justice, and the human rights responsibilities of states and businesses in the context of resource extraction.
SSHRC Insight Grants support research excellence in the social sciences and humanities. The goal of the Insight program is to build knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world.
The Faculty of Law congratulates Professor Simons and her research team on this important achievement!