It may have sounded like a good idea at the time. When it was created in 2019, the office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), tasked with addressing human rights abuses committed overseas by Canadian companies in the mining, garment and oil and gas sectors, seemed to promise an end to the long-standing impunity enjoyed by companies based in Canada but committing human rights abuses abroad. And the sectors targeted are ones in which abuses of human rights and worker rights are often rampant.
If you want to know more about some of the horrors inflicted on the world by Canadian based mining firms, mark your calendar for mid-October this year when Christopher Pollon’s Pitfall :The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places will be published by Greystone Books.
If you want a primer on the human costs of the garment industry, take a look at the web sites of the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Maquila Solidarity Network. And for information on fossil fuel production and human rights, spend some time on the Oil Change International website. Despite a small flurry of investigations announced in the past few months, the first since the creation of the office, it turns out that CORE may well be a toothless watchdog, with little power and less inclination to bring any serious consequences down on Canadian companies complicit in abuses against workers around the world. The “sunny ways” so earnestly promised by Prime Minister Trudeau in the early days of his administration may turn out, in this case as in many others, to be nothing but rhetorical moonshine.
In August of 2023, the CBC reported that CORE was launching an investigation into Ralph Lauren Canada LP and demanding information for an initial assessment of the operations and future plans of the Toronto based mining company GobiMin. Both steps were taken out of concerns about the two firms’ possible complicity in China’s genocidal attacks on its minority Muslim Uyghur population.
The view that the Chinese government is committing human rights abuses that qualify as genocide is widely held, even by Canada’s own Parliament. On February 22, 2021, a majority of MPs present supported a resolution denouncing China’s anti Uyghur genocide. Tellingly, the Prime Minister and most of his cabinet were absent when the vote was taken. The Chinese government, perhaps unsurprisingly, denies any wrongdoing vis a vis the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities, and the Chinese Embassy in Canada posted a statement on its website urging Canada not to interfere with China’s internal affairs.
Canada is not alone in condemning China’s Uyghur genocide and the forced labour it entails. The UN has suggested China may be committing crimes against humanity in its treatment of Uyghurs and an Australian think tank has detailed the use of Uyghur forced labour in Chinese factories, many of which produce for Western buyers.
In July of this year, the Ombudsperson announced investigations into Nike Canada Corp and Dynasty Gold Corp., also targeting the firms’ operations in China and possible use of Uyghur forced labour. While this announcement and its August follow-up looks like progress, even if only under the rubric of “too little too late,” it remains unclear what power, if any, the ombudsperson’s office has to create change in corporate bad behaviour, even if the political will to take serious steps exists. The long delay between the creation of the office and these paltry first investigations suggests that the watchdog needs dentures.
As a critical report from the Kroeger Policy Review
recently noted:
“The annual and quarterly reports from the CORE also indicate a lack of success within the existing complaint process. The inaugural report from 2019 to 2021 revealed the CORE spent most of its time on internal structure . A necessary focus, but it begs the question: how much of the CORE’s time and budget was actually allocated to individuals requiring aid abroad? Their latest quarterly report from March 15 to December 31, 2021, marked 46 inquiries and five complaints. Of the five, only one proceeded, and the CORE referred the complainant to a different organization. The other four did not go ahead on grounds concerning time frame, admissibility, and a lack of information .”
As noted, the three investigations and the initial information demand to GobiMin announced this summer represent arguably the first serious actions taken by CORE since its creation in 2019. Even if these investigations go forward to completion, CORE has no real enforcement powers to punish Canadian companies who are partnering with firms guilty of genocide and human rights abuses in other jurisdictions. As the Kroeger Policy Review paper previously cited goes on to argue:
“The biggest pitfall of the CORE is that it has no power to enforce anything. The entire complaint process rests on the hope that both the complainant and corporation will be willing to abide by the CORE’s actions. The CORE has no ability to compel corporations, or the Canadian government, to act and end human rights violations. This renders the Ombud largely ineffective, and only capable of raising awareness towards specific issues.”
I reached out to CORE and asked for comments on these criticisms. In an unsigned email, the office admitted that the three recently announced investigations were the first it had launched since it initiated its complaint process in 2021, two years after the office was established. The unnamed spokesperson insisted that CORE did have some power, and said:
“If, based on information gathered during the review, the Ombud has reason to believe that a criminal offence may have been committed or may be being committed in Canada or abroad, she may recommend to the Minister that the matter be referred to law enforcement authorities.
If she has reason to believe that a regulatory offence may have been committed or may be being committed in Canada or abroad, she may recommend to the Minister that the matter be referred to a regulatory or other relevant authority.
If the Ombud had recommendations for a given company, she may attach timeframes, reporting requirements and other conditions to support the implementation of the recommendation. She may also follow up on recommendations and report publicly on them.
Where the Ombud considers that a Canadian company is not acting in good faith in implementing one or more recommendations, the Ombud may make recommendations to the Minister on implementing trade measures.”
None of this seems likely to leave corporate malefactors trembling in their boardrooms. Canadian workers and their allies should insist that this Potemkin Ombudsperson office be equipped with real enforcement powers or dissolved in well merited embarrassment. Without some way of correcting the abuses of human rights and worker rights endemic to globalized capitalism when the offenders are Canadian companies, CORE will continue to represent empty virtue signalling rather than good public policy.
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