(Ottawa) Ottawa’s business ethics watchdog has announced an investigation into a gold mining company and the Canadian subsidiary of Nike, over allegations of labor use forced the Uyghur minority in China into their supply chains
“These are very serious issues that have been brought to our attention,” Sheri Meyerhoffer, the Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), told reporters on Tuesday.
“Canadian companies are expected to uphold Canadian standards for human rights and environmental protection when working abroad. »
The inquiries are the first his office has launched since it was set up by the Liberals in 2018, after sustained criticism from activists, MPs and Ms.me Meyerhoffer herself that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has not given the ombudsman enough power to hold companies to account.
In an evaluation report, Mme Meyerhoffer accuses Nike Canada Corp. failing to adequately address allegations that the company sources products made by slaves.
Its report says Nike rejected the initial mediation, arguing that its global parent company had already refuted allegations by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an arm of the Australian government, about specific suppliers with whom Nike says it no longer has ties.
Mme Meyerhoffer said Nike hasn’t eliminated the possibility of buying products through a supplier in Vietnam who may be using cotton sourced downstream from forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region.
“The complex nature of apparel supply chains may warrant investigation,” says Ms.me Meyerhoffer, particularly because Nike “provided few details about the nature and extent of its human rights due diligence, including whether or not it used technology to determine the origin of the fibres” used in its products.
In a gold mine
The other report of Mme Meyerhoffer accuses Dynasty Gold Corp. of allowing forced labor at its gold mine located in the district of Hatu, on the border with Kazakhstan, near what China has called “detention” or “re-education” centers.
China insists that these centers are intended to eliminate Islamic radicalization after several deadly attacks in the country.
But the United Nations found in mid-2022 that China had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and other Muslim communities, which “could constitute international crimes, especially crimes against humanity”.
The report of M.me Meyerhoffer says that after months of attempts by his office to contact someone from the Vancouver-based company, he eventually argued that he had no control over the mine.
Butme Meyerhoffer noted that this claim is contradicted by statements in corporate documents and press releases.
The company “appears to have deliberately avoided participating in and cooperating with OCRE’s dispute resolution process without providing an explanation,” the report read.
Both investigations follow complaints by a coalition of two dozen human rights groups, which Ms.me Meyerhoffer, are open to a resolution that would not involve the companies being publicly named.
The Canadian Press has contacted both companies and the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa for comment.
Other business to come
Mme Meyerhoffer said she plans to release 11 more reports in the coming weeks on cases involving Uyghurs.
The ombudsman has also been weighing for months whether to investigate alleged violations of the right to a living wage for workers in Canadian-controlled garment factories in Bangladesh, and of the right to assembly for workers in the clothing in Honduras.
The Liberals promised to create the position of ombudsman in the 2015 campaign, replacing a position that Stephen Harper’s Conservative government created in 2009 that was limited to advising the extractive sector and monitoring its company policies.
They enacted the new bureau in 2018, allowing it to investigate the apparel industries as well as the mining, oil and gas sectors.
Mme Meyerhoffer, a lawyer whose career has focused on international development and Alberta’s oil sector, was appointed a year later. But she only started accepting complaints in 2021 and had not launched any formal investigation until Tuesday.
The office oversees the role of any entity directly or indirectly controlled by a Canadian company, which includes foreign suppliers and contractors who only work for a Canadian-based company.
He reviewed issues abroad, such as an analysis of ten Canadian garment companies operating outside the country. He found that few track supply chains well enough to detect child labor, as many only check their systems in the stages after raw materials are produced.
The powers of OCRE in debate
The office has long faced a debate over the powers Mr.me Meyerhoffer needs to do more rigorous work.
Lobby groups such as the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability have long called for the legal right to compel companies to provide documents and testify. But some academics have argued that a more cooperative approach with industry would be more likely to drive change.
An external legal study commissioned by Ottawa sided with human rights advocates, finding that Mme Meyerhoffer cannot be effective without a temporary regulatory order and/or new legislation to compel companies to disclose information.
Mme Meyerhoffer herself told the media in November 2019 that she would ask the Liberals for such powers, and she did not say on Tuesday whether the Trudeau government had responded to that request.
She pointed out that many organizations gave their opinion on how best to design the office, which she says is unique in the world.
In February, M.me Meyerhoffer told MPs she was aware that human rights groups advised against filing complaints with her office and going straight to court, in part for fear of retaliation from companies that are not obliged to cooperate with his team.
Opposition parties criticized Ottawa for failing to seize any shipments of goods produced by forced labor. By comparison, the United States seized 1,530 shipments last year and ultimately prevented 208 of them from entering the country.
Advocacy groups have warned that cotton and tomato products from China may be Uyghur forced labor products.