Canada's corporate ethics watchdog on Thursday announced investigations into the Canadian units of Walmart and Hugo Boss over allegations of Uyghur forced labour in the companies' supply chains and operations.
Both companies denied the allegations.
The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) said it had published an initial assessment report after complaints filed by a coalition of 28 civil society organizations in June 2022.
CORE will also investigate the Canadian unit of fashion firm Diesel, which is owned by Italy's OTB. It has already launched probes into Nike Canada, Dynasty Gold and Ralph Lauren.
"As mediation between the parties is not currently an option, we will be launching investigations into the allegations outlined in these reports," Sheri Meyerhoffer, CORE's Ombudsperson, said in a statement.
Walmart Canada said it did not tolerate forced labour of any kind in its supply chain.
"None of the entities in the complaint are in our active disclosed supply chain," it said in a statement.
Hugo Boss said "the allegations are without any basis." In an email, the company said it no longer received supplies from a Chinese firm that CORE had expressed a concern about.
In March, a UN committee said it was concerned about China's treatment of its Muslim minority, including the use of forced labour against Uyghurs. China denies the allegations.
CORE was launched in 2019 to monitor and investigate human rights abuses, mainly by Canadian garment, mining and oil and gas companies operating abroad.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Devika Syamnath)
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Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A pro-Palestinian activist group says its international co-ordinator, who was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation, was released with an order not to attend any protests for the next five months.
The Province of New Brunswick will attempt to dissolve an education council over litigation fees.
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London Drugs stores in Western Canada remained closed Thursday due to a "cybersecurity incident," marking the fifth straight day of closures.
One person is in custody after two people were found dead in a home in St. Catharines.
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A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office confirmed Thursday.
The parliament of Georgia cancelled its Thursday plenary session following massive protests against a proposed law that critics fear will stifle media freedom and endanger the country's bid for membership in the European Union.
A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison.
Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further ceasefire talks, in a new sign of progress in attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the militant group to end the war in Gaza.
Gangs in Haiti laid siege to several neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince, burning homes and exchanging gunfire with police for hours as hundreds fled the violence early Thursday in one of the biggest attacks since Haiti's new prime minister was announced.
The European Union announced Thursday an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about US$1.06 billion — much of which will go to boost border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.
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Halle Berry is joining a group of bipartisan senators to push for legislation that would put US$275 million toward research and education around menopause, the significant hormone shift women go through in middle age.
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Scientists studying a Neanderthal woman's remains have painstakingly pieced together her skull from 200 bone fragments to understand what she may have looked like.
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Guitarist Duane Eddy, best known for twangy riffs on hits such as 'Rebel Rouser' and 'Cannonball,' has died at the age of 86.
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The bell at Erle Rivers High School in Milk River, Alta., will ring for the last time on June 26, as the 114-year-old school is scheduled to be torn down to make way for a new K-12 school.
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