Canada-China Relations committee  My team and I believe it's more important to do our work right than to do it fast, and we believe we have gotten it right: We've built a strong foundation for a complaints mechanism, through which we are currently reviewing 15 complaints. Also, I will say that 13 of those compla

Canada-China Relations committee  My answer remains the same. Yes, the CORE believes and I believe that having the addition of the power to compel documents and testimony would strengthen our ability to do our job. I remain steadfast in that. I am having conversations at all possible times to move that along as s

Canada-China Relations committee  I believe we can be a factor. We've received 13 complaints that relate to forced labour in the Xinjiang area. We will be issuing some initial assessment reports in early July. We will do a couple in early July, and they will all come out over the coming weeks. We will, perhaps,

Canada-China Relations committee  If, after we do an investigation, it is found that the company is in fact connected, through the supply chains or otherwise, and benefiting from forced labour, we will make some concrete recommendations to those companies to change their practices and improve their practices. You

Canada-China Relations committee  To answer that question, the CORE has not done any investigations to date. We are about to complete 13 initial assessments, and we will be starting our investigations this summer.

Canada-China Relations committee  The CORE was established in May 2019. We've just completed our fourth year.

Canada-China Relations committee  I would say, from my end, we haven't done extensive research into that, and I wouldn't be able to answer that question at this time.

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes. Thank you. I would definitely like to elaborate on human rights due diligence. I've said many times, and it's on my website also, that we believe the introduction of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence would go a long way in allowing the Government of Can

Canada-China Relations committee  There are numerous reports out there about the Xinjiang region. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights did a report after a visit to China in 2022. The Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University also has one where it had people on the ground

Canada-China Relations committee  That information sounds accurate to me.

Canada-China Relations committee  I would say the CORE believes that Canada should strengthen its legislation to prohibit forced-labour imports. My office has not conducted extensive research or developed specific recommendations on how to strengthen that, but it has noted, as the honourable member has noted, tha

Canada-China Relations committee  If I can just elaborate a little on my previous answer, I would just note that one of the differences between how the U.S. enforces the law and how we enforce the law is that the U.S. does, in fact, provide specific guidance on the evidence required to rebut a presumption of whet

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and the honourable members of this committee, for your invitation. I am joining you today from the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. The Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise, or the CORE,

International Trade committee  I think we are having some impact. I have 15 complaints at the moment with the CORE. The majority of those companies have engaged, and we are discussing issues. Hopefully, we'll be moving to a resolution and remediation. So far, the powers that I have are having a positive impact

International Trade committee  According to their testimony, they said we need the power to compel documents. Without that, they're afraid of the potential for retaliation against impacted parties.