Ottawa, Unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin Territories, November 11, 2025 – While directly-impacted communities call for long-needed answers regarding the status and powers of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), Budget 2025 maintains the government’s silence on the future of this office.
The position of Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, an office created in response to over a decade of civil society advocacy, has been left vacant since May. For months, government officials have evaded repeated questions regarding the future staffing of the office. These questions include written and oral Parliamentary inquiries, as well as questions from complainants and civil society. The results of the 5-year review of the CORE – a process which the government said would take place over a six month period, and for which public comments were accepted until October 2024 – have yet to be made public.
Further, the government has yet to deliver on its commitment to equip the office with the “tools and resources” required for companies to comply with the complaint process.
The stakes are high. Complainants to the CORE represent communities and workers who have suffered significant harm and have been encouraged by Canadian officials to trust the CORE, at substantial risk of retaliation. The office has reportedly discouraged at least some complainants from communicating with the media – which, if complainants comply, removes vital avenues for accountability while they wait in limbo. To our knowledge, at least 36 complaints are currently awaiting a decision from the CORE.
While increasingly authoritarian regimes are pulling back from their international human rights obligations, Canada should instead double-down on respect for human rights. Providing remedy to victims of human rights abuses is a cornerstone of justice. Canada must meet its commitments to directly-impacted people by appointing a new Ombudsperson immediately, providing the office with the necessary tools and resources to do its job, and transparently communicating with the public.
Quotes from complainants and civil society groups who engaged closely in the development of the CORE office:
We registered a complaint with the CORE in January 2023 against Barrick Mining Corporation over alleged human rights abuses at Barrick Mining Company’s Reqo Diq mine in Balochistan. Despite the admissibility of the complaint and CORE's initial acknowledgement that Barrick might have violated the right to self-determination of the Baloch people, and its promise to work on and finalize an Initial Assessment report and publish it, no action has been taken so far. The CORE now has no Ombudsperson and is not able to answer even basic questions on the status of our complaint.
It is highly concerning and painful to know that the Canadian government offered nothing in its 2025 budget to make the CORE a better monitoring and accountability mechanism to address Canadian corporations' alleged human rights abuses globally. This leaves victims without an answer to protect their children, livelihoods, and ecosystems -- particularly the fundamental unit of life, water sources. That's very dangerous.
Namibian Communities and NGOs made a 187-page complaint to Canada's CORE Ombudsperson about a Canadian oil company violating their fundamental human rights in April 2024.(1) They did so at their expense and risk to their personal safety. The CORE operates contrary to best practices and doesn't fulfill the most basic aspects of its mandate while asking people to trust it with their lives. In this, SOUL contends that the office characterizes the Canadian government's actual commitment to human rights: it is compromised, inept, and fundamentally unable to deliver.
The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project is deeply concerned that the new federal budget provides no clear direction or renewed commitment to the CORE. With the Ombudsperson position remaining vacant and a growing backlog of complaints, the absence of leadership and transparency sends a discouraging message to victims and survivors. In light of the well-documented evidence of forced labour affecting Uyghur communities, Canada must ensure that its resource allocations and priorities reflect its stated human rights values by empowering the CORE to act decisively, investigate abuses, and deliver justice for Uyghur victims and their families.
The CORE was created to play a unique and important role in ensuring access to remedy for workers and communities harmed by Canadian companies abroad. Leaving complainants in limbo is both unacceptable and irresponsible. The government should immediately appoint a new ombudsperson and finally equip the office with the powers and resources needed to do this important work.
USW has been a strong advocate for the creation of the CORE to address labour rights and other violations by Canadian companies in their operations overseas. While the office suffered from a crucial lack of independence and essential powers needed to effectively investigate allegations of abuse, its omission in the budget sends a worrying signal about this government’s lack of commitment for measures of basic accountability for corporations waving the Canadian flag.
Canadians expect Canadian companies to respect human rights, workers rights, and the environment. The CORE emerged from that advocacy, with thousands of Canadians calling for an independent and effective office and in 2018, the government committed to exactly this. We call on that commitment to be honoured.
For media inquiries please contact:
Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood
Network Coordinator, CNCA
agilchristblackwood@cnca-rcrce.ca
1-438-872-0401
Notes to editors:
- The complaint, filed jointly with the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, alleges human rights abuses by Calgary-based Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. More information: https://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/LATEST_NEWS/Press_Release_09.04.24.pdf .
