A coalition of human rights organizations is asking a federal body to investigate several Canadian companies for allegedly sourcing products created by forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region.
In a letter submitted to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) on April 10, the coalition, which consists of 28 groups, alleges that the Canadian companies—many of which are subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals—are complicit in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, with their supply chains being “tainted by Uyghur forced labour outside of Canada.”
“It is well-established at this point that atrocity crimes, including genocide, and human rights abuses are being committed by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] against the Uyghurs. The crimes and abuses documented include surveillance, arbitrary detentions, torture, forced sterilization, forced organ harvesting, and forced labour,” says the letter signed by lawyers Sarah Teich and David Matas, and human rights campaigners Aliya Kahn, Mehmet Tohti, and Dean Lavi.
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