Tell Minister Carr that Canada needs a corporate watchdog with teeth
On April 8, 2019 the Minister of International Trade Diversification, the Honorable Jim Carr, announced that Canada had appointed a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise to review allegations of human rights abuses committed overseas by Canadian companies.
But he broke several key promises to give the office the independence and investigatory powers needed to make a difference.
Environmental and Indigenous rights defenders have been threatened, attacked, displaced, criminalized and sometimes killed for speaking up to defend their rights in the face of unwanted resource extraction projects. Workers making clothes for the Canadian market have faced labour abuses, health harms and have even lost their lives. Whole communities have suffered.
Canadians campaigned for years for an Ombudsperson with powers to independently investigate complaints of human rights abuses committed overseas by Canadian companies and to make recommendations to government regarding sanctions, remedy and prevention of future harm.
Join us in calling for an Ombudsperson who can truly hold companies accountable.
We only have a few short weeks to act.