Advocates attack Carney government's elimination of ombudsperson for forced labour

Sheri Meyerhoffer, the former Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise, holds a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA — Human rights advocates say Ottawa is betraying foreigners alleging involvement by Canadian companies abroad in forced labour and environmental degradation by shutting down an office meant to probe those reports.

“The government is turning its back on people who are experiencing human rights violations linked to Canadian companies,” said Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood, head of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability.

“There is a real absence of any mechanisms with teeth that can hold our companies up to the kind of human rights standards that are required,” he said Thursday, flanked by activists on Parliament Hill.

Prime Minister Mark Carney mentioned in passing last week that Ottawa had eliminated the position of Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise, or CORE, months ago.

The office reviewed complaints about possible human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad in the garment, mining and oil and gas sectors.

The Trudeau government set up the office in 2018 after a decade of advocacy, particularly in the mining sector.

The case for such an office was bolstered by the 2013 Rana Plaza incident, when a nine-storey building in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,130 people and injuring 2,520 others — some of whom were manufacturing clothing for Loblaws’ apparel brand Joe Fresh.

Advocates such as Amnesty International had urged Ottawa to go beyond the existing National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct, a mechanism developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, because activists said that body had been ineffective at pursuing corporate accountability.

Ever since Ottawa launched the CORE in 2019, it was criticized over the fact the office lacked powers to compel documents and witnesses.

The only person to lead the office, Sheri Meyerhoffer, acknowledged these shortcomings toward the end of her term last year. She issued multiple reports that said many major companies were not complying with requests to provide substantial information.

In his remarks last week, Carney noted the CORE had fully completed only one investigation since 2019.

“It appears this office was set up to fail,” said Gilchrist-Blackwood. “But the solution is to reinforce the office. It is not to eliminate it.”

The office’s website does not say it is defunct and activists say Ottawa gave them no indication the CORE would be closing. An email The Canadian Press sent Thursday to the CORE’s email address did not prompt an autoreply indicating it has closed.

MiningWatch Canada said it’s aware of more than 20 cases that were in limbo when Carney announced Ottawa had pulled the plug on CORE. They include an Indigenous rights defender in Asia who in 2023 submitted a case against a Canadian mining company, which the CORE accepted as meriting investigation.

“These are people who came forward in good faith, investing extraordinary time, energy and courage. They were not warned the office would be closed,” said MiningWatch Canada’s co-manager Diana Martin.

“At a moment when Canada is accelerating mining at home and abroad, accountability mechanisms are being weakened. The global rush for critical minerals is increasing pressure on communities and ecosystems, making oversight more important than ever.”

Martin said Canadian embassies had told affected communities for years to bring their complaints to the CORE, even when doing so can expose them to retribution.

In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said the CORE “was one effort among many to uphold” responsible business conduct. It argued the CORE duplicated the role of offices with “stronger track records of effectiveness,” such as the OECD contact point.

“Given concerns about whether the initiative was fit to deliver results, the role of the ombudsperson has remained vacant,” wrote spokesman John Babcock. “In parallel, the government has been looking seriously at Canada’s entire forced labour regime with a view to further strengthening our already rigorous laws.”

Last week, following an American tariff threat, Ottawa tabled a bill to change the way Canada bars imports of products made with forced labour.

The bill would create a public list of products that have been linked to forced labour in specific regions, and require importers to prove that the products were not made through slavery.

Gilchrist-Blackwood noted the legislation only deals with labour and not broader human rights abuses, such as a mining company evicting residents or contaminating an ecosystem.

New Democrat MP Heather McPherson said the government is neglecting human rights, despite making it one of the three pillars of its foreign policy and sticking with a bid to join the UN Human Rights Council.

Canada is cutting foreign aid and signing investment deals with countries that have ghastly human rights records while removing accountability mechanisms, McPherson said.

“Canadians have asked people around the world to risk their lives, to put their safety at danger so that they can defend their communities (and) our planet against Canadian companies, and they have been left in the lurch without any access to justice,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press