Canada Protects Mining Investors While Scrapping Its Corporate Accountability Ombuds

Two decisions by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, made just weeks apart, lay bare Canada’s approach to corporate accountability. In June, Carney announced the abrupt closure of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), a federal office mandated to review allegations of human rights abuses linked to the overseas conduct of Canadian extractive and garment companies and report on its findings. A month later, Canada signed a free trade agreement with Ecuador that grants sweeping protections to Canadian mining investors—at a time when Ecuadorians face a deepening human rights crisis linked, in part, to existing Canadian mining investments.