Executive Overview
Human rights defenders, environmental advocates, and international accountability organizations have expressed profound dismay following the Canadian government’s decision to formally shutter the Office of the Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). Established to evaluate complaints regarding alleged human rights abuses, land dispossession, and environmental degradation by Canada-based corporations operating internationally, the watchdog was eliminated in June after languishing without a leader for more than a year.
The closure leaves dozens of active, pending investigations in a state of administrative limbo. To absorb CORE’s remaining portfolio, the federal government redirected complainants to the National Contact Point (NCP), a non-judicial grievance mechanism housed within Global Affairs Canada. However, critics, legal experts, and affected communities argue that the NCP—a body with a 26-year history marked by low settlement rates and systemic conflicts of interest—fundamentally lacks the statutory powers, investigative independence, and teeth required to hold powerful multinational corporations accountable.
Because Canada hosts approximately half of the world’s publicly traded mining and mineral exploration companies, the dismantling of its primary independent investigative watchdog carries immense global implications. As international experts call for deep structural reforms, vulnerable populations from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Southeast Asia warn that Canadian corporations operating overseas will now face virtually zero oversight or domestic repercussions for alleged corporate abuses.
Detailed Chronology of a Watchdog’s Demise
The path leading to the termination of CORE and the controversial reliance on the National Contact Point spans several years of administrative neglect, political stagnation, and fierce clashes over corporate transparency.
The Rise and Stall of CORE
The Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise was created in response to sustained civil society pressure, explicitly designed to fill a glaring void in Canada’s regulatory architecture. Civil society groups had long argued that existing bodies could not independently investigate overseas harms linked to Canadian companies in the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors. CORE was empowered to evaluate complaints, conduct independent investigations, and make formal findings of fact.
However, the office’s momentum stalled sharply following a political transition. Two months into Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tenure, the ombudsperson position became vacant. Successive months passed without a new appointment. For more than a year, CORE languished without a leader, legally and operationally paralyzed, unable to proceed with probing mounting overseas complaints.
By June, with 24 active complaints still pending and three awaiting intake, Prime Minister Carney’s administration declared the agency ineffective. Rather than appointing a leader to revitalize the office, the government dissolved it entirely. Complainants received an abrupt email notifying them that CORE’s activities had ceased, presenting them with two unpalatable choices: transfer their files to the Canadian NCP or close their cases permanently.
The DRC Dispossession: A Case Study in Institutional Failure
Among those left stranded by CORE’s closure is John Namegabe Bugabo, a human rights defender based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2022, Bugabo submitted a formal complaint to the Canadian NCP representing 129 individuals from the villages of Mege and Bandayi.
Bugabo’s complaint alleged that residents were forcibly evicted without consultation to make way for an expansion of the Kibali gold mine—a mega-project 45% owned by Canadian mining giant Barrick Mining Corp. According to the filing, more than 2,000 people were ultimately impacted. Homes, schools, places of worship, and agricultural infrastructure such as fish ponds and mango orchards were allegedly demolished by police and military forces, leaving residents homeless and unable to salvage their belongings. The complaint further alleged that individuals protesting the evictions were shot and killed.
Barrick Mining has consistently denied any operational role in the 2021 resettlement, maintaining that the operation was executed and led exclusively by the DRC government.
Initially, Bugabo held faith in international accountability mechanisms, drawing on a successful past experience. In 2015, he participated in a complaint submitted to the Netherlands NCP regarding Dutch brewer Heineken’s DRC subsidiary, which had failed to pay severance following mass layoffs. That process culminated in a historic, mediated agreement providing monetary compensation to former workers—a case study later showcased at the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.
Yet Bugabo’s experience with the Canadian NCP proved entirely different. After a single day of mediation in 2023, the Canadian NCP unilaterally terminated the talks, stating that further dialogue was unlikely to yield a resolution. The office closed the file and issued final recommendations that urged Barrick Mining to improve transparency regarding its relationship with security forces, but completely bypassed the community’s central demands for financial compensation and restitution for destroyed homes and livelihoods.
Left high and dry by the NCP, Bugabo turned to CORE, only to have that avenue slammed shut as well. When offered the chance to transfer his defunct CORE file back to the very same NCP that had already failed his community, Bugabo refused, choosing instead to join other complainants in abandoning the process due to a total lack of faith in the institution.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Structural Flaws of the National Contact Point
The National Contact Point system operates across 52 nations adhering to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. These guidelines are non-binding principles designed to foster ethical corporate behavior, with NCPs serving as non-judicial grievance mechanisms for alleged breaches.
However, historical performance data for the Canadian NCP reveals systemic ineffectiveness:
- Abysmal Settlement Rates: Since 2000, out of 33 cases formally submitted to the Canadian NCP, only three have reached a formal joint agreement. Even in those rare instances, agreements often represented vague, agreed-upon actions rather than meaningful, enforceable redress for victims. In one of those successful cases, the process was actually spearheaded and led by a foreign NCP rather than Canada’s office.
- Severe Staffing Deficits: From 2017 until recently, the Canadian NCP operated with a meager staff of just two dedicated individuals, rendering it incapable of managing complex international investigations. While Global Affairs Canada has pledged to increase personnel, watchdog advocates emphasize that adding staff cannot resolve deep-seated structural and jurisdictional flaws.
- Perceived Conflicts of Interest: Operating directly inside Global Affairs Canada—specifically within the Responsible Business Conduct Division of the Trade Strategy Bureau—the NCP is tethered to a department whose primary mandate includes promoting Canadian commercial interests abroad. A 2019 peer review conducted by representatives from the OECD Secretariat and the NCPs of Belgium, Denmark, and the United Kingdom explicitly warned that this institutional placement creates an inherent conflict of interest and fosters a public perception of partiality.
The Sakto Corp. Controversy and OECD Censure
The structural vulnerability and susceptibility to political interference within the Canadian NCP were laid bare in a landmark 2016 case involving the Swiss environmental NGO Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) and Ottawa-based real estate investment firm Sakto Corp.
BMF alleged that Sakto had breached OECD guidelines by failing to disclose adequate information regarding its finances, beneficial owners, and corporate structure. The NGO claimed that Sakto was tied to illicit logging kickbacks stemming from massive rainforest destruction in the Malaysian state of Sarawak during the tenure of former Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, whose daughter, Jamilah Taib Murray, controls Sakto alongside Sean Murray.
Sakto vigorously denied all allegations, maintaining that it is a 100% Canadian company with local shareholders that has never done business outside Ottawa or affiliated with any foreign entities. The company’s legal counsel noted that the damaging allegations forced Sakto to pursue ongoing defamation proceedings in Switzerland.
While the Canadian NCP initially drafted an assessment finding that the OECD guidelines applied and that the issues merited examination, the process collapsed dramatically. The NCP ultimately closed the complaint in 2017, blaming both parties for aggressive communications and accusing BMF of breaching confidentiality by taking parts of the process public.
Simultaneously, emails uncovered during the dispute revealed that a Canadian Member of Parliament, Andrew Leslie, had written directly to the minister of international trade criticizing the NCP process and characterizing BMF’s actions as a "campaign of harassment." BMF executive director Lukas Straumann asserted that corporate actors successfully leveraged political influence to pressure public officials, causing the process to implode. Sakto defended these actions, arguing that contacting a Member of Parliament is an entirely appropriate recourse when dealing with a government body.
The fallout prompted OECD Watch—an international network evaluating NCP performance—to file a formal complaint against the Canadian NCP with the OECD Investment Committee. The committee sustained the critique, ruling that the Canadian NCP failed to fulfill its responsibilities, severely lacked transparency, and contributed to a pervasive perception of partiality.
Official Statements and Institutional Positions
The federal government maintains that responsible business conduct remains a core priority, defending the administrative consolidation as a streamlined approach to oversight.
"Responsible business conduct remains a priority for the Government of Canada. In support of this priority, Canada’s National Contact Point will continue, with an enhanced staff complement, to promote awareness and adoption by Canadian companies of the OECD Guidelines… and contribute to the resolution of disputes regarding alleged non-observance," stated Brittany Fletcher, deputy director of media relations at Global Affairs Canada.
Foreign ministry officials further asserted that the permanent integration of CORE’s mandate into the NCP represents a move toward functions with stronger historical track records. However, civil society organizations strongly reject this framing.
Catherine Coumans, research coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, argued that relying on the NCP allows Canadian mining conglomerates to operate with impunity.
"What this essentially means is that it’ll be business as usual for Canadian mining companies operating overseas," Coumans said. "They have nothing to be concerned about. They won’t have to improve their practices. They will not be held to account in Canada in any way."
Joseph Wilde-Ramsing, advocacy director for the Netherlands-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and co-founder of OECD Watch, emphasized that Canada’s position as a global mining superpower makes its weak regulatory oversight an international liability.
"The Canadian NCP’s track record is extremely poor," Wilde-Ramsing noted, pointing out that jurisdictions like the Netherlands succeed precisely because their NCPs utilize independent experts detached from government trade ministries to manage mediations and investigations.
Future Outlook and Demands for Reform
As Canada’s National Contact Point undergoes its second periodic peer review led by the OECD and international peer reviewers, pressure is mounting on Ottawa to enact fundamental structural overhauls.
Civil society groups, including MiningWatch Canada and OECD Watch, are demanding that the federal government either reinstate CORE with full statutory independence or establish an entirely new watchdog agency equipped with legal subpoena powers to compel evidence, summon witnesses, and issue legally binding rulings. Without such powers, advocates warn that foreign communities victimized by Canadian corporate misconduct will remain entirely without recourse.
For human rights defenders like John Namegabe Bugabo, the stakes could not be higher. Reflecting on the ongoing displacement in the DRC, Bugabo stresses that robust domestic accountability in Canada is the ultimate preventative medicine against overseas corporate abuse.
"It is important for them to be strong," Bugabo said, "because if the company knows that the problem will be taken in hand, they will prevent themselves to do wrong."
