Confidential information or public scrutiny?

摘要

In early November 2001, AECL appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada for a secrecy order to ensure confidentiality of a document AECL proposed to give a lower court. AECL simultaneously asked the Supreme Court to keep the existence of the proposed confidentiality order secret. AECL was trying to reverse the decision of two lower courts which deemed that documents originating in China which AECL sought to introduce in a legal proceeding instigated by the Sierra Club should be made public. During the Sierra Club lawsuit, AECL declared its intention to submit to a lower court an environmental assessment document (the Qinshan Candu Environmental Assessment) prepared in China with AECL participation. AECL sought, through production of the Qinshan Candu EA to legally demonstrate in Canada that its Qinshan Candu export project complies with Canada's Environmental Assessment Act. Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien signed a MoU on nuclear commerce with Premier Li Peng of China, which envisioned future bilateral negotiations for the supply by AECL to the China National Nuclear Corporation of two 700MWe class Candu 6 heavy water reactors. In the MoU, Li endorsed Chretien's offer of favourable financing, which was later agreed as a low-interest C$1.5 billion loan from Canada's Export Development Corporation (EDC)to the State Development Bank (SDB) of China. The loan was at 7.49%. EDC is funding this loan, which was signed in November 1997, although the collection risk resides with the Canadian government. The controversial loan was approved by Chretien's cabinet. EDC also loaned US$350 million to cover the interest charges accruing during the drawdown period of the loan.