The federal government has eliminated the human rights watchdog overseeing corporate responsibility.

Established after years of intense lobbying by human rights activist organizations and individuals, CORE — the Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Corporate Enterprise — was eliminated in a move that caught these groups by surprise.

“Last Thursday (June 11), the Prime Minister announced a new bill, Bill C-35 (the Ban on Importing Goods Made with Forced Labour Act), that makes it illegal to import goods made by forced labour at any point in the supply chain,” Kiegan Irish, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada’s (DPCC) advocacy officer told The Catholic Register. “At the same time, we learned that the decision to eliminate CORE, the Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Corporate Enterprise had been eliminated. This was a complete surprise to all of us who had complained about human rights abuses in the Global South by Canadian companies.”

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CORE was established by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to investigate human rights abuses, including the use of forced labour by industry. At the time, much of the focus was on China’s use of Uyghurs, China’s Muslim minority, for forced labour.

“DPCC has been involved in mobilizing thousands of volunteer members across Canada as a grassroots movement of Canadians who believe that companies representing their countries in the world should behave in a way that reflects our values,” Irish told a June 19 news conference in Ottawa. “Values founded in solidarity, human rights and respect for the environment.”

Irish emphasized that instead of respecting the will of the people expressed through all this grassroots activism, eliminating CORE was a real blow against people power in this country.

“We are a development organization,” he said. “We work with partners in many of the countries of the Global South, providing emergency aid to victims of these abuses, and we also advocate for the human dignity of people in developing countries. The two aspects of our work are deeply linked and in alignment with Catholic social teaching.”

He added that by participating in the campaign, a significant number of Catholic voices were walking in solidarity with the people of the Global South

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“Members of (DPCC) — mostly parishioners and students at Catholic schools — have been campaigning for years, sending petitions signed by millions to Parliament,” Irish said. “When CORE was established in 2019, we saw it as a victory, but it was a hollow victory because the ombudsperson had very little power to enforce accountability.” 

In September 2015, DPCC had participated in a rally on Parliament Hill to demand measures from the Canadian government to grant more powers to the ombudsperson to enforce corporate accountability. No government action was taken in response to the petition DPCC and Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability (CNCA) colleagues presented.

Catherine Couman of Mining Watch, another CNCA member organization, pointed out the irony of people fleeing to Canada as refugees as a result of human rights abuses by Canadian corporations in their countries.

 Balochistan, a remote region in Pakistan, south of its border with Afghanistan, is the epicentre of a separatist movement and one of the most volatile places in South Asia. Coumans said that Mining Watch, like several other international organizations, is concerned about the enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the high level of violence in the region as local indigenous people protest the exploitation of their resources without their consent. Barrick Gold, a Canadian mining company, is accused of violating their rights and degrading the environment.

Local activists have also protested the role of the Pakistani military, which acts as the security apparatus for such companies.

One such activist, Lateef Johar was in danger due to his support of the separatist movement and his protests against Barrick Gold. He sought asylum in Canada and now lives in Toronto. He has filed several complaints with CORE.

In a letter to the CORE team dated June 17, he wrote: “The news of CORE’s elimination was deeply concerning to many and shocking to the petitioners, including me. This is because we have ongoing petitions with the Office, and I had been told that my petition against Barrick was being finalized, with the drafting of its initial assessment report already in progress.”

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Coumans was more forthright in her criticism. 

“We are outraged that the decision to eliminate CORE was made without informing complainants who had filed petitions,” she said.