Canada faces fresh scrutiny, calls to do more to prevent Canadian corporate abuses abroad

Human rights advocates are renewing their calls for Canada to put forward "binding laws" and set up an independent mechanism to investigate possible abuses linked to the activities of Canadian companies outside the country.

Advocates say government must put forward 'binding laws' to curb possible abuses

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Canada is under renewed pressure to hold Canadian companies accountable for alleged human rights and environmental abuses abroad, months after the government announced it was shuttering a corporate watchdog office that investigated wrongdoing.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held a hearing Tuesday in Panama to examine how Canadian extractive industries have impacted communities across the Americas region.

A day later, human rights advocates spoke at a news conference in Ottawa to demand more action from the federal government to address the issue.

• Corporate watchdog was still accepting complaints as Carney abruptly closed it down

"Companies waving the Canadian flag are profiting from human rights abuse and environmental destruction," Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood, co-ordinator of the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability, told reporters on Wednesday.

"We're here saying enough is enough."

Long-standing concerns

The federal government has faced calls for years to do more to prevent abuses linked to Canadian companies operating outside the country. That includes Canadian firms that have been accused of being tied to threats and violence against local community members, as well as environmental harms.

But this week's push comes at a critical time, advocates say, as Prime Minister Mark Carney's government prioritizes new international trade ties — and it also recently announced the closure of the Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).

Prime Minister Mark Carney, pictured in the House of Commons on Wednesday, said in June that his government had closed the CORE office. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Established in 2019 under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, CORE had been charged with investigating alleged abuses linked to the mining, oil and gas, and garment sectors.

But Carney raised apparent concerns with its efficiency on June 11, saying the office only launched one investigation in seven years. "Part of government is to look at things and see whether or not they're effective and try to improve it," he told reporters.

While rights groups and opposition lawmakers also had criticized CORE's lack of effectiveness, they blamed the Liberal government for failing to give the office teeth and argued it should have been strengthened, not dismantled.

• Canada 'turning its back' on holding companies accountable for rights violations, advocates say

"The decision to close the CORE is a betrayal of Canada's stated commitment to human rights, corporate accountability and communities around the world that have suffered harm," NDP MP Heather McPherson said during Wednesday's news conference in Ottawa.

"The government dismantled one of the few avenues available to marginalized people, workers, Indigenous communities and human rights defenders who are seeking accountability from Canadian corporations operating overseas."

National Contact Point

The federal government has said another office, called the National Contact Point (NCP), will handle complaints about Canadian firms' operations abroad.

The NCP "aims to support early resolution, prevent escalation and strengthen corporate due diligence," Gillian Gillen, Canada's interim representative at the Organization of American States, said during Tuesday's IACHR hearing in Panama.

"Its value lies in accessibility and flexibility, and its ability to foster open, constructive and solutions-oriented dialogue between the parties without requiring litigation."

Ben Chalmers, senior vice-president of the Mining Association of Canada, said that, given the limited use of the CORE, "it makes sense to just have a single mechanism [the NCP] that can deal with all industries."

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Chalmers also said Canadian courts are the "more suitable mechanism" if groups want to be able to get subpoenas and compel evidence and testimonies.

"Our view is that the NCP and the CORE, until it was folded into the NCP, were a complementary mechanism to what Canada has already established in terms of judicial mechanisms," he told CBC News.

Rights advocates say that while courts in Canada have heard cases related to corporate abuses abroad before, accessing the Canadian legal system remains difficult.

Forced labour legislation

Separately, Gillen said Ottawa has taken action on forced labour, pointing to a 2024 federal law that requires specific entities and institutions to report annually on steps taken to prevent the risk of forced and child labour in their supply chains.

Earlier this year, after the U.S. announced plans to impose sanctions on Canada and dozens of other countries over allegations they allowed forced labour into their supply chains, the Liberal government also introduced new legislation to address the issue.

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Tabled this month in the House of Commons, Bill C-35 would authorize Canada's minister of foreign affairs to draft a list of goods for which there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect they are made with forced labour.

Anyone wishing to import those goods would then have to provide information to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), upon request, to show forced labour wasn't used.

Canada "remains committed to respecting human rights and promoting responsible business conduct abroad through prevention, legislation and mechanism for remedy," Gillen said Tuesday.

'We need binding laws'

But critics like Gilchrist-Blackwood, at the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability, say the government's measures don't go far enough.

Noting that the National Contact Point is a "voluntary mechanism that can only promote dialogue," he said Ottawa has failed to make its expectations that Canadian companies respect human rights abroad enforceable.

"We need binding laws … [and] we need a credible and independent mechanism to investigate abuses," Gilchrist-Blackwood said this week. "Canadians continue to call on our government to act."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours is a senior writer at CBC based in Montreal. You can reach her at jillian.kestler-d.amours@cbc.ca.