Canadian companies are implicated in grave human rights abuses in many places around the world. These include killings, forced labour, environmental destruction, sexual violence and abuse of the rights of Indigenous peoples. 

But there’s hope. People across Canada are taking action, urging the government to pass a strong law to finally hold Canadian companies to account. Such a law would require Canadian companies to respect human rights and the environment throughout their operations and supply chains.

The government tasked the previous Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan with introducing legislation in 2024 to protect human rights in Canadian supply chains. But there’s a serious risk that the government will bow to the corporate lobby and produce weak legislation that falls short of what’s needed, or introduce legislation with no intention of it passing into law.

LEARN MORE 

Joint statement: Canada’s new law on forced, child labour in supply chains won’t work (3 May 2023)

Ten years since Rana Plaza and still no laws to prevent a similar tragedy (22 March 2023)

PHOTO CREDT Drone photograph of the neighborhood of Gécamines Kolwezi, on the edge of the Kolwezi copper and cobalt mine operated by Chinese-owned company COMMUS, DRC, September 2022. Amnesty International (videographers: Reportage Sans Frontières).