Canada has reportedly launched one of the first-ever probes into Nike’s alleged use of forced labour abroad.
Driving the news: Nike Canada faces a federal investigation into allegations that it sells products made with forced Uyghur labour in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
- Many journalists and organizations have reported on alleged crimes against Uyghurs, an ethnic Muslim minority population, by Chinese government officials in Xinjiang.
- An ethics watchdog alleges that Nike has supply relationships with companies that use or benefit from such labour, though Nike claims those ties have been severed.
Catch-up: The mandate of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), the watchdog leading the probe, is to keep an eye on garment, mining, and oil and gas companies working outside the country for possible links to human rights abuses.
- CORE launched in 2019, but is only now announcing its first probes into any company’s overseas business practices—the other is into miner Dynasty Gold.
- The agency still lacks the powers it was promised back in 2018 to actually be able to call on witnesses for testimony or force companies to share relevant evidence.
Why it matters: Sarah Teich, a human rights lawyer, told The Globe and Mail that—to her knowledge—it’s the first time that a government-affiliated body is investigating Nike over its alleged ties to forced labour in China, and could push other jurisdictions to follow suit.
Bottom line: Though CORE lacks the power to investigate and prosecute companies, the optics of an investigation could still pressure companies to clean up their act abroad.—SB