Canada axes human rights watchdog, plans product-based forced labour rules

The updates respond to US pressure, and come as the European Commission consults on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive 

Canada is scrapping its corporate human rights watchdog in favour of a law seeking to clamp down on products linked to forced labour. 

On Friday, the federal government tabled Bill C-35, also known as the Ban on Importing Goods Made with Forced Labour Act, which would create a list of products at high risk of being derived from forced labour.  

Border authorities would use the list to monitor incoming shipments, and Canadian importers would be required to prove their products aren’t the result of forced labour if asked.  

The list hasn’t been established yet, but it’s expected to include products connected to apparel, seafood and critical minerals, among others. 

Bill C-35 is the latest effort by the Canadian government to create a regulatory regime to deal with forced labour, which also includes the 2024 Supply Chains Act, which requires large companies to report annually on the measures they’ve taken to mitigate forced labour.

But it also announced plans recently to scrap Canada’s Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, set up in 2019 to investigate human rights abuses taking place in the overseas supply chains of businesses operating in Canada. 

The body has only taken on five cases since it was established, investigating Ralph Lauren, Nike, Levi Strauss, GobiMin and Dynasty Gold.  

Earlier this month, the US authorities concluded that Canada was one of 60 jurisdictions failing to effectively deal with forced labour, and slapped it with a 10% tariff as a result. 

The US wants to see tighter import rules globally for products made in China, particularly the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region – one of the country’s most economically important areas, but with a Uyghur Muslim population widely acknowledged to face systematic human rights violations including slave labour. 

Last year, Homeland Security described the US Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act as a way to “eradicate threats that endanger our nation’s prosperity”. 

On the same day Canada tabled Bill C-35, US Customs and Border Protection published 80 pages of guidance for importers covered by the Act.

 The Chinese government this month published a National Human Rights Action Plan for 2026-2030 and, in a bid to counter the growing number of laws targeting its manufacturing industry, it also recently introduced regulation that punishes companies or countries found to take a ‘biased’ approach to Chinese products and businesses.   

Nonetheless, the Canadian government is planning to include specific countries and regions in Bill C-35, according to its proposal. 

Meanwhile on Friday, the European Commission launched a consultation on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. 

Between now and July 24th, policymakers are collecting feedback to help them develop guidelines to support the implementation of the law, which requires companies to identify and mitigate human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains.