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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
Addressing the problemThe Canadian government continues to promote the “Canada Brand” by relying on voluntary, non-enforceable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) codes to measure company conduct. The two main government offices responsible for CSR are the Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor (CSR Counsellor) and the National Contact Point (NCP) under the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Neither office conducts investigations, nor do they have the power to sanction companies directly or compensate victims. Their only power is to recommend the withdrawal of Canadian government financial and embassy support.There is no indication that there is any systematic review of company behaviour nor any publicly available information to indicate that the current CSR Counsellor has responded to reports of violence or considered withdrawing Canadian embassy support.There is no evidence that the government does not have the capacity to handle more complaintsThe international community demands a more robust accountability mechanism for both state and company accountability, but opponents claim that the government does not have the capacity to handle the claims. There is no evidence that the current CSR Counsellor, nor the NCP, have too many cases to handle.The CSR Counsellor was established in 2009 and has handled only six complaints.The current CSR Counsellor’s website shows no indication of any investigations, disputes, dialogues or any engagement with specific conflicts.The current CSR Counsellor has no Annual Report and the only Publications are news reports of six speeches made by the CSR Counsellor since his appointment in 2015.The NCP only
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