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January 17th, 2019

NDP Statement on One Year Anniversary of Core Announcement

Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP Critic for International Human Rights, issued the following statement:

"One year ago today, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government announced its plan to establish an office of a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, or CORE.
Yet here we are, one long year later and not only is the office not up and running, but an ombudsperson has yet to be appointed. As Canadians have come to know only too well, this Liberal government is great on making announcements but fails to follow-through.
New Democrats believe Canadians, and the people in the countries Canadian companies operate deserve more than the typical Liberal government photo-op, they deserve real action.
Canada’s reputation has taken a beating through the years due to the large number of Canadian-based companies, mostly in the mining sector, associated with human rights and environmental abuses abroad. The CORE was meant to provide much-needed oversight to Canadian companies operating in other parts of the world. This ombudsperson would have been empowered to independently investigate, report, recommend remedies and monitor its implementation. A multi-stakeholder Advisory Body was to be established alongside the CORE to advise the Government and the CORE on responsible business conduct abroad.
A year has passed, and the Liberals have taken no concrete action to make this a reality.
Since 2007, New Democrats have called for the creation of a Canadian Mining Ombudsperson. On top of that, twelve years ago, a large group of industry and civil society leaders recommended this action at the 2007 National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries.
New Democrats will continue to push this Liberal government to stay true to its word and implement an ombudsperson for responsible enterprise.”