QUESTION PERIOD — Global Affairs
Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise
June 15, 2026
Senator Moreau, I want to revisit our conversation about the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, or CORE, for corporate responsibility.
Have you had a chance to locate the rule that you indicated to me I might be violating because I referenced a “corporatist Carney government,” asking if this government is protecting companies that abuse human rights?
To the best of my knowledge, you haven’t answered my question about which rule you think I was violating, so I’m asking it again.
I also want to ask for the reasoning behind not appointing a CORE — an ombudsperson on corporate responsibility — for more than a year.
When I answered your question the first time you asked it, I said that your introduction was assigning motives to the government. If I’m wrong, correct me, but I think our rules indicate that we must not assume the intentions of others. When you characterized the government as a “corporatist government,” you attributed an intent to the government that is just not there.
The government is working for Canadians. It has no intention to protect any particular segment of society or to hide something because it comes from a corporation. I don’t have any information suggesting that that is the government’s intention.
According to our rules, it isn’t appropriate to impute intent to others, whether it be members of this chamber or the government as a whole.
I’m asking for the rule because we’ve been trying to find it. When we last spoke, you indicated that you would provide me — other than your own sense of what is okay — with the actual rule. I’m asking for that again.
Let me do my research, and I’ll get back to you with the rule.
