CORE quarterly report on inquiries and complaints – Q3 2022-2023

The CORE publishes statistics about inquiries and complaints every three months (quarterly) from April to March (the fiscal year).

An inquiry is a request for information about filing a complaint, or, a request to file a complaint about an issue that is clearly outside the CORE’s mandate (for example, a complaint about something that happened in Canada).

A complaint is about an issue that looks like it may be within the CORE’s mandate. The CORE provides more information about inquiries and complaints in its annual report.

Third quarter 2022-2023 (October 1 – December 31)

Highlights of this quarter

Complaints

Two (2) new complaints received:

• The CORE decided that one (1) of the new complaints is admissible. The complaint alleges abuse of the right to a living wage by two Canadian companies operating in Bangladesh. The complaint is now at the initial assessment stage^{Footnote 1}.
• The admissibility of the second new complaint continues to be reviewed.

Inquiries

Forty-one (41) new inquiries received:

• Twenty-one (21) inquiries were about issues that took place in Canada.
• Twenty (20) inquiries were about issues that took place outside of Canada but not in one of the CORE’s mandated sectors (garment, mining, and oil and gas) and/or did not involve an alleged human rights abuse.

Thirteen complaints received in a previous quarter are now at the initial assessment stage. Additional information about the caseload at the initial assessment stage is provided in Figure 1 below.

Fig. 1 Complaints in initial assessment broken down by possible human rights abuse and sector.

Fig.1 Text version

Number of admissible complaints that are currently in initial assessment and the breakdown of sector and possible human rights abuse. There are 10 complaints in the garment sector and two in the mining sector alleging the right to freedom from slavery and forced labour. There is one complaint in the garment sector alleging the right to a living wage.

For information on past inquiries and complaints, please see our previous quarterly reports:

Q1- Q3 2021 – 2022 March 15 - December 31

Q4 2021 – 2022 January 1 - March 31

Q1 2022 – 2023 April 1 - June 31

Q2 2022 – 2023 July 1 - September 30