Pinned

A call to support mandatory due diligence to protect human rights and the environment

Bill C-262 & Bill C-263
Powerful legislative tools to tackle Corporate Responsibility to Protect Human Rights and the Environment

Despite knowing for decades that Canadian companies and supply chains are contributing to human rights abuse and environmental damage abroad, the Canadian government continues to rely on voluntary measures to encourage responsible business conduct. Human rights and environmental rights have been harmed by Canadian companies’ activities. Environmental and human rights corporate impunity led to an aggravated climate crisis.

No one should be suffering abuse at the hands of a Canadian company. Canada lacks an Ombudsperson with teeth and the power to hold Canadian corporations accountable for their actions here and abroad.

In response to longstanding calls from activists, civil society, labour organizations in Canada and impacted communities around the world, MP Heather McPherson (Edmonton-Strathcona) and MP Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby) tabled legislation in Parliament to strengthen oversight and enforcement to ensure that Canadian corporations respect human rights and the environment abroad.

NDP Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, MP Heather McPherson tabled Bill C-263 that would give the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) the necessary powers to investigate human right abuses by Canadian corporations.

To help carry out that work, Peter tabled Bill C-262 to enshrine in Canadian law tools to hold Canadian corporations accountable for their actions. Bill C-262 would require companies to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights abuses and provides for liability when companies cause harm in their global operations. The federal government must make abusive actions by Canadians and Canadian corporations illegal here and abroad.

Currently, human, labour and environmental rights lack protections. Canada’s federal government should be holding Canadian corporations, their subsidiaries and supply chains to a high standard of corporate social responsibility at home and abroad – and ensure they meet it.

Together, these Private Members Bills aim to install powerful legislative tools for Canada to respond to violations of human rights and dangerous threats to the environment linked to the global operations and supply chains of Canadian companies.

“Canadian unions welcome these bills to ensure workers and communities aren’t harmed by the overseas business activities of Canadian companies and that they have access to remedy when violations do occur. For decades, trade unions have been fighting globalization’s race to the bottom that put profits before people. These bills are helping us build back better for everyone by ensuring that labour and human rights are fully respected.”

— Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress

“Canada is a leading player in the global mining industry, but for over 20 years MiningWatch has witnessed a persistent pattern of egregious human rights abuses and environmental impacts related to Canadian mining operations overseas. These abuses keep happening primarily because our companies operate without serious consequences for the harm they do and because Canada has consistently failed to create accountability at home; that will change if these bills are implemented into law.”

— Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada

“The two bills tabled today will help create a level playing field for forward looking Canadian companies that have already taken steps to improve human rights and environment performance; for those companies that are laggards the bills will be the push they need to adapt to a changing world. As well, MP McPherson’s bill offers the Liberal government an opportunity to make good on its 2018 commitment to a human rights ombudsperson with teeth. There is now legislation in front of the House that can finally and fully establish the Ombudsperson workers and communities have been asking for.”

— Meg Gingrich, on behalf of Marty Warren, National Director of USW-Canada

Watch the press conference with the CLC, USW-Canada and MiningWatch Canada

Watch the press conference with Amazonian Indigenous Leaders on Corporate Accountability

Watch the press conference with the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability and MPs from different parties

Take action to support C-262 & C-263

Take action to combat racism, discrimination & online hate

All Canadians have the right to feel safe in their communities and across the country. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that our communities do not allow the promotion of hate.

Tragically, we are seeing an increase in hate and racism experienced by the most vulnerable populations in Canada. The rise of hate, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny and associated extremist ideology is spreading like wildfire.

With hate crimes on the rise across Canada, we must do everything we can to stop the spread of hate, racism and discrimination in our communities across Canada and online. The time for rhetoric is over. Canadians are tired of symbolic gestures. The time for action is now.

It is not enough for governments to recognize the problem, and not take the necessary action to counteract these troubling facts. Canadians want action to combat racism and hate now to save lives and keep people safe.

It is critical that Canada prioritizes and concretely addresses systemic racism and discrimination for a just recovery, where no one is left behind. We must condemn all forms of hate in our communities as it creates unsafe conditions for Indigenous people, Black, Asian and other racially marginalized communities.

MP Peter Julian tabled three bold legislatives tools in this 44^th session of Parliament, in order to take concrete and immediate action to combat all forms of hate, discrimination, racism and violence.

Allowing symbols of hate to be sold in stores or publicly displayed is threatening for people who have been, and continue to be, targets of violence and oppression. Bill C-229 would prevent anyone from selling and displaying symbols that promote hatred and violence against identifiable groups.

Motion M-14 is designed to counteract all forms of hate and all forms of discrimination, hate crimes and incidents of hate and includes measures such as: working with provinces, territories, municipalities and community-based organizations to put into place a reporting and tracking system for hate crimes and incidents of hate to ensure accurate tracking; ensuring that comprehensive victim services are available to all those who are victims of hate crimes or hate incidents; working to eliminate harmful images and stereotypes present in media and cinema; and strengthening all legislation against hate and introducing amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act to ensure that hate speech no longer occurs with impunity.

Private Member’s Bill C-292 would ensure that online communication service providers do not use algorithms and personal information in a manner that results in the adverse differential treatment of any individual or group of individuals based on one or more prohibited grounds of discrimination or on any other grounds. The only way to ensure this is through algorithm transparency.

We all need to keep working together to ensure organized hate groups aren’t tolerated in any way. We must continue to take a strong stand against all forms of hatred and racism.

Call on the Trudeau government and your Member of Parliament to support these legislative initiatives.

A made-in-Canada Green New Deal

A plan to tackle the climate crisis, create millions of jobs and invest in our communities.

Climate change has escalated into a global climate emergency; the world is on pace to warm nearly 4 degrees Celsius by 2100. We are already living through catastrophic climate events. and extreme weather events are growing with increasingly severe impacts, including floods, forest fires, rising temperatures, killer heat-waves, massive storms, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.

In the face of the accelerating climate emergency, it has never been more urgent that Canada transition to a low-carbon clean energy economy to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis, while ensuring that all Indigenous Peoples and Canadians benefit from the substantial public investments a low-carbon economy requires, like energy efficiency retrofits, affordable housing, renewable energy, infrastructure, public transit, pharmacare, dental care, childcare and eliminating student debt and tuition fees.

We cannot keep putting off action on the climate crisis.

Canada must address this climatic emergency with the ambition and urgency required, on behalf of present and future generations. The next 10 years are the ones that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports say are crucial if we want to have any hope of avoiding the most severe impacts of climate change.

Canada is not a climate leader. But we could be.

We need a just transition and real climate action and a made-in-Canada Green New Deal. That is why immediately following the last federal election, I re-introduced my Motion M-1 for a Green New Deal for Canada, in order to help us respond to the climate crisis. It remains the first and only legislative initiative before the House of Commons.

Motion M-1, Green New Deal, calls on Canada to take bold & rapid action to adopt socially equitable climate action to tackle the climate emergency and address worsening socio-economic & racial inequalities at the same time; while ending fossil fuel subsidies, closing offshore tax havens, and supporting workers impacted by the transition and creating well-paying, unionized jobs in the shift to a clean and renewable energy economy.

The motion is inspired by and in solidarity with Indigenous people, civil society actors in eco-social movements in Canada and Québec. M-1 was based on different models worldwide including in the U.K., the U.S., France, South Korea and in Europe. Lawmakers in countries around the world are currently looking into introducing similar legislation.

The federal government can model change by becoming a trail-blazer and adopting Motion M-1 in Canada’s Parliament.

The "Green New Deal goals" would be accomplished through a 10-year national mobilization that will require among other goals outlined in M-1:

fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples for all decisions that affect First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and their traditional territories;
honouring all treaties and agreements with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, and protecting and enforcing the sovereignty and land rights of Indigenous Peoples;
to take bold & rapid action to tackle the climate emergency and address worsening socio-economic & racial inequalities at the same time;
to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of frontline and vulnerable communities;
to support workers impacted by the transition in the shift to a clean and renewable energy economy;
investing in sustainable farming and land-use practices that increase soil health, and by building a more sustainable food system that ensures universal access to healthy food;
ensuring that public lands, forests, waters, and oceans are protected, and that eminent domain is not abused;
providing Indigenous Peoples and all Canadians with high-quality health care, affordable, safe, and adequate housing, economic security, and access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and nature.

Watch the virtual Town Hall on a Green New Deal

Take action to support Motion M-1 for a Green New Deal

Protect Pharmacare from Conservative Attacks!

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Repeal Section 43

Tell your MP to support the repeal of section 43 of the Criminal Code

Children deserve the very best start in life. The right to physical security through legal protection from assault and threats of assault is the most fundamental of all human rights. Every single child in Canada should have the care and opportunities that they need to succeed and thrive – without exception. Indigenous children and young people have the right to culture, language and to be raised in their own communities – all of which are vital to overall well-being.

We are seeking Canadians' support for the Private Member’s Bill C-273, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Corinne’s Quest and the protection of children). C-273 calls for the repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code that permits physical punishment of children in Canada:

Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada, Correction of child by force, every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.

MP Julian tabling Bill C-273 in Parliament

IN THE HOUSE - Tabling of Bill C-273, Corinne's Quest - for the protection of Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NDP BILL TO PROHIBIT CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AGAINST CHILDREN IN CANADA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NDP calls on Liberals to outlaw the physical punishment of children in Canada

View the press conference on CPAC.ca | Headline Politics | NDP MP Peter Julian Calls for Banning Corporal Punishment – December 8, 2022

Canada has the obligation and duty under international law to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, labour and environmental norms and laws. The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989), ratified or acceded to by 196 states, the World Report on Violence against Children (2006), and the TRC’s Calls to Action (2015) all call for an end to the legal justification of corporal punishment of children.

It is still legal in Canada for parents and legal representatives, teachers and caregivers — including babysitters and foster parents, to physically assault their children under certain circumstances. Parents can use « reasonable force » for purposes of correction. Teachers can also use « reasonable force » depending on the context. It is the judge that has the last word in deciding whether the use of force is acceptable.

Canada committed to implementing the 94 calls to action of the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), with the goal of remedying the legacy of residential schools and advancing reconciliation. By implementing the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and supporting self-determination, the federal government would make sure that all First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children, young people and families are treated with the justice, respect and care that they deserve.

A vital part of reconciliation is fully acknowledging the horror and harm caused to Indigenous children, their families and communities by the residential school system. These institutions systemically removed children from their families and inflicted abuse, sickness and death. The continuing revelations of thousands of mass and unmarked graves at residential school sites across the country underlines the depth of the horrible atrocities that were done to these children, that this genocidal policy inflicted for more than 160 years.

As the former TRC Commissioner Murray Sinclair stated recently: “Survivors led us to this moment on the journey of reconciliation, while they have been on their own personal journeys of healing.”

In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, TRC Call to Action No. 6 calls for the repeal of Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada—a section in effect since Canada's first Criminal Code in 1892, that legally defends the use of corporal punishment by adults, teachers and caregivers — including babysitters and foster parents, as an appropriate and necessary way to correct a child’s behaviour.

In 1991, Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Article 19 articles 19, 28(2) and 37 which mandates the protection of children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse. In response to reports from Canada regarding the action it has taken to meet the requirements of the Convention, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has twice recommended that Canada prohibit corporal punishment of children in schools and families be prohibited; in 2003, the Committee informed Canada’s government that it was ‘deeply concerned’ that Canada has taken no action to remove s. 43 from the Criminal Code.

The time of half-measures is over. More than ever, it is time for Canada to act now and quickly to completely implement all 94 TRC calls to action and advance reconciliation.

Bill C-273 will ensure that children and youth are safer under the law of Canada. We call on all Parliamentarians to support the clear measures in this bill and put an immediate end to the corporal punishment of all children in Canada. We urge MPs to commit to taking meaningful action in the fight to protect children and their right from being harmed by their parents and legal representatives by supporting Bill C-273.