Heather McPherson MP - Letter to PM Carney - Decision to eliminate the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise

June 15, 2026

The Right Honourable Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
Ottawa, Ontario

Delivered by email

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to express my profound disappointment and outrage at your government’s decision to eliminate the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).

This decision is a betrayal of Canada’s stated commitment to human rights, corporate accountability, and communities around the world that have suffered harm as a result of certain activities by Canadian companies operating abroad. Your decision sends a clear and troubling message: when faced with a choice between standing up for human rights or shielding powerful corporate interests from accountability, your government has chosen the latter.

The CORE was never perfect. For years, advocates, labour organizations, human rights defenders, and parliamentarians called on successive governments to strengthen the office by granting it the independence and investigative powers it was originally promised. In fact, a Parliamentary study undertaken by the House of Commons Subcommittee on Human Rights concluded that the CORE ombudsman should be given strengthened powers in 2023. The answer to those shortcomings was obvious: empower it. Instead, your government has chosen to abolish it entirely.

United Nations bodies have called on Canada to strengthen oversight mechanisms and urgently appoint a new Ombudsperson. Rather than fixing a system that was under-resourced and neglected, you dismantled one of the few avenues available to marginalized people, workers, Indigenous communities, and human rights defenders whoa re seeking accountability from Canadian corporations operating overseas.

For years, complainants were encouraged by Canadian officials to bring forward allegations of forced labour, environmental destruction, violations of Indigenous rights, and other serious abuses. Many did so despite significant personal risk. Now those individuals and communities are being told that the Canadian government is simply walking away from its responsibility to hear them. There are 22 outstanding cases still in the complaint process, from the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors. As a result of your decision, none of these complaints will be heard. This is a gift to corporate bad actors and a dereliction of responsibility and justice.

Canada is home to some of the largest mining, oil and gas, and garment companies in the world. With that economic influence comes responsibility. Eliminating the CORE does not eliminate allegations of abuse. It does not eliminate forced labour. It does not eliminate violations of human rights. It simply eliminates a mechanism for accountability and leaves victims with fewer options for seeking justice.

Moreover, last week your government introduced a bill banning goods made from forced labour from entering the country. While this is a minor step forward, it is nowhere near the comprehensive due diligence legislation that was promised by the previous Liberal government only two years ago. The new bill does nothing to hold corporate bad actors to account, nor does it require Canadian companies to ensure their supply chains do not used forced labour. Canadians were promised comprehensive due diligence legislation and a stronger CORE. We have received neither from your government.

Canadians expect better. We expect our government to defend human rights wherever Canadian companies operate. We expect transparency, accountability, and justice. We expect Canada to lead, not retreat.

Your government should reverse this decision immediately, appoint a new Ombudsperson, and finally provide the office with the powers and independence that civil society, labour organizations, human rights experts, and international bodies have long demanded. And your government should finally introduce the comprehensive due diligence legislation on corporate accountability that was promised years ago. Anything less is an abdication of responsibility.

The workers, communities, and human rights defenders who placed their trust in Canada deserve better than this. So do Canadians.

Sincerely,
Heather McPherson
Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona