Oxfam Canada welcomes the Government of Canada’s intention to move beyond reporting only requirements and explore implementing a mandatory due diligence regime requiring businesses to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate adverse labour rights impacts in their operations. This represents an important step towards ensuring that Canadian businesses respect human rights throughout their global supply chain.

The submission focuses on comprehensive due diligence framework aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct that are considered to be fundamental to the effectiveness of any future due diligence measures to address forced labour and human rights harm cause by businesses operating in Canada.

We urge the federal government to

• Make a clear, time-bound commitment to comprehensive mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation encompassing all internationally recognized human rights, consistent with international standards. As a first step, the regime must cover all fundamental labour rights and provide access to civil liability and remedy.
• Ensure companies meaningfully engage with workers and affected communities, prevent and remedy harm, and be held legally accountable for human rights abuses.
• Ensure due diligence obligations require businesses to have supply chain transparency and traceability, recognize workers' right to living wages, and adopt gender responsive and intersectional analysis into every stage of their due diligence process.

Download the full submission(opens in new tab) for further details.