https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/11/news/advisors-storm-out-and-accuse-trudeau-government-dithering-corporate-watchdog
[links in online article]
Advisors storm out and accuse Trudeau government of dithering on
corporate watchdog
By Alastair Sharp in News, Politics | July 11th 2019
All 14 members of a panel appointed by the Trudeau government to provide
advice about a new corporate watchdog have resigned en masse.
The group, which represents labour unions and other civil society
groups, publicly stormed out of their advisory role on Thursday,
complaining in a statement that the government had failed to give a
newly-appointed watchdog the teeth to investigate allegations of
overseas human rights abuses against Canadian corporate citizens.
The group, the Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Body on Responsible Business
Conduct Abroad, said it had lost "trust and confidence in the
government’s commitment to international corporate accountability" due
to its delay and eventual creation of a toothless watchdog to guard
Canada's reputation abroad.
Members of the panel said in a statement that their unanimous decision
to resign was due to "the erosion of civil society and labour unions’
trust and confidence in the government’s commitment to international
corporate accountability."
The members of the panel, which advised the government on the
establishment of the watchdog, included Amnesty International Canada,
the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, the Canadian Labour
Congress, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, Mining Watch
Canada, the United Steelworkers Union, and World Vision Canada.
The federal Liberal government, which is heading into an election due in
September, had promised in the campaign that brought them to power in
2015 that they would create an independent watchdog to ensure Canadians
companies operating abroad were being good corporate citizens.
But human rights defenders are disappointed by the creation of the
Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) to watch over
Canada's mining, oil and gas, and garment sector companies. They say
CORE is no improvement over a previous position in government, a
corporate social responsibility counsellor, since it retains the
insufficient status quo without the legal authority to compel documents
and witnesses.
Sheri Meyerhoffer, who was hired for the CORE role in May, said earlier
this week that her office is still being set up and should be fully
operational later this year.
“It was because of assurances that the CORE would have independence and
real investigatory powers that we stood alongside the government in
January 2018 and we promoted the announcement both nationally and
internationally,” said Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty
International Canada. “The Government of Canada’s decision to backtrack
on those promises, despite ongoing assurances to do so over the past
year, has led me to lose confidence.”
The decision to instead appoint a special advisor to the minister of
International Trade Diversification without needed investigatory powers
was a betrayal and a sign that the government had not acted in good
faith during the consultations, the group said.
“Without independence and investigatory powers, the CORE amounts to
nothing more than a broken promise," said Emily Dwyer, Coordinator,
Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability. "A powerless CORE won’t
serve impacted communities. In fact, it has all the hallmarks of the
failed offices it is supposed to be replacing. It is like giving someone
a car, but telling them that the gas tank won’t be installed for two
years. How can civil society have any faith that law and policy reform
discussions at the Advisory Body will be fruitful when the government
has bowed to industry pressure and reneged on concrete commitments
regarding the ombudsperson?”
National Observer reported on Wednesday about Canadian embassy staff in
Africa and officials in Ottawa brushing off allegations of human rights
abuses at a mine in Tanzania as they sought to aid Barrick Gold Corp. in
a tussle with the east African country’s government in 2017.
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