Photo: On September 29, 2025, PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico accompanied two representatives from Espacio OSC at a meeting in Ottawa with Terrence Cowl, the Deputy Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).
CBC News reports: “Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government is eliminating a watchdog position responsible for investigating allegations of human rights violations committed by Canadian companies operating abroad.”
This article adds: “The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) was introduced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2019 to investigate potential abuses, including the use of forced labour. But Carney said on Thursday [June 11] that the role would be ‘eliminated,’ suggesting that the office hadn’t been effective. …Carney said the decision to cut the role was taken ‘a few months ago’ but it doesn’t appear that a government official had yet announced it.”
It further notes: “The CORE had been criticized for lacking the powers to fulfil its mandate. Advocates have said the office needed the ability to compel documents and testimony from companies, for example.”
UN Committee on Human Rights
On March 24, 2026, The Globe and Mail reported: “The United Nations Committee on Human Rights, which includes representatives from the United States, France and Spain, criticized Ottawa for failing to fill the post of a watchdog whose job was to investigate human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad.”
The newspaper noted: “’The Committee recommended that Canada urgently appoint a new Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise and ensure the office’s independence and adequate resources,’ the panel said in its report.”
It adds: “The panel [also] called on Canada to ‘strengthen mechanisms to ensure that business enterprises under its jurisdiction respect human rights standards, including when operating abroad.’”
UN Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders
On April 11, 2025, Mary Lawlor, who was at that time the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, posted on social media: “At #HRC58 [the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council] I welcomed #Canada’s support for human rights defenders abroad. But I had to say it: Canadian extractive mining companies are putting defenders at risk all over the world. We need binding due diligence obligations, a stronger @CORE_Ombuds [Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise/CORE], and real accountability.”
In November 2024, Lawlor also called for a “significant strengthening of the CORE.”
At that time, Lawlor commented: “I have long-standing concerns as to the adequacy of the CORE, in its current form, to provide any adequate form of redress for human rights defenders and the communities they represent when their rights have been violated or been put at risk by Canadian companies operating abroad. This has been reflected in conversations I have had with human rights defenders since taking up my mandate, who, where aware of the CORE, have repeatedly told me they have no confidence in its effectiveness.”
Specifically, Lawlor called on the Government of Canada to: “Provide the CORE with legally enforceable powers to compel evidence and testimony from companies, in line with international standards and best practice on ombudspersons’ offices, to enable effective investigations of all cases and overcome the barriers presented when companies refuse to meaningfully engage with the CORE.”
PBI-Canada monitors attacks against HRDs
Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to document violations by Canadian companies within Canada as well as in the countries where PBI physically accompanies land and environmental defenders, including Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and now Southeast Asia (the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand).
Our initial research in July 2024, utilizing the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) database, found that 21 Canadian companies have been implicated in 88 attacks against human rights defenders over the past nine years.
We have also expressed concern that Lawlor’s office had registered 15 cases between June 2019 and March 2022 of retaliation against human rights defenders that she alleged can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining companies.
We continue to follow this.
