Complaints are piling up against a Canadian oil company — but there's nobody to hear them

National Observer

9 hours ago

By
John Woodside
News
August 11th 2025
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It has been nearly 500 days since Canadian oil company ReconAfrica was accused of committing human rights abuses and environmental destruction in an ecologically sensitive region in Namibia — and the alleged victims still have no answers.
In 2021, the company began drilling near a UNESCO world heritage site called the Okavango Delta. The delta is a sprawling, intact wetland that is an oasis in the arid Kalahari Basin for endangered wildlife — such as cheetahs, white rhinoceros, lions and African elephants — that have uniquely adapted to synchronize with seasonal rains and floods to sustain life. For years, Namibian civil society organizations and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre have expressed concerns about the potential environmental impact of drilling in a finely balanced ecosystem in an attempt to stop the company in its tracks.
Experts interviewed by Canada's National Observer are dismayed at the lack of progress from the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), which received the complaint in April 2024. Part of the problem is the head position at the CORE has been vacant for months, freezing its work.
In the absence of accountability for the alleged abuses, the company has continued drilling in Namibia, and is now expanding into Angola, as it drills test wells in the hope to strike a motherlode oil deposit.
The 187-page complaint filed with the CORE alleges ReconAfrica has broken international human rights laws, including the rights to health, water, food and adequate housing, as well as Indigenous rights of free, prior and informed consent to operations in their territory. The CORE was expected to say within 30 days if an investigation would proceed. To date, there has been no update.
The complaint was a joint submission from the International Human Rights Program, housed at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, and Saving Okavango's Unique Life, an advocacy group focused on protecting the Okavango Delta.
'We don't know when or if we might hear back from them,' said Sandra Wisner, director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto. 'At a time when the Carney government is laser focused on becoming an energy superpower … it's concerning that Canada's approach to promoting responsible business abroad has come to this.'
Experts are dismayed at the lack of progress from the CORE, which received the complaint in April 2024. Part of the problem is the head position at the CORE is vacant. In the absence of accountability, ReconAfrica has continued drilling.
Wisner said in Canada the CORE and Canada's National Contact Point are the only two dispute resolution mechanisms for companies operating abroad.
'Both are essentially toothless due to limited investigative powers, lack of independence from government influence, and inability, essentially, to provide meaningful remedies for those violating companies,' she said.
Against that backdrop, the CORE is also rudderless. Since May, there has been no ombudsperson at the organization to investigate allegations, and the federal government has no immediate plans to do anything about it.
A spokesperson for the CORE said due to confidentiality obligations it could not comment on the status of the ReconAfrica investigation. It confirmed that there is currently no ombudsperson at the organization, after the interim ombudsperson's mandate expired in May.
Former ombudsperson, Sheri Meyerhoffer, said she stands by sharp critiques of the CORE she made in March 2024 where she said if Canada is to hold companies responsible, watchdogs need stronger investigatory powers, like the ability to compel documents and testimony. Without those powers, companies can simply ignore the CORE's questioning.
The federal government launched a review of the CORE in the fall of 2024, but did not offer any details about what reforms might be implemented.
'We look forward to confirming a future direction for the office in due course, as part of ensuring that Canada's approach and tools for promoting responsible business conduct remain robust and fit-for-purpose,' said John Babcock, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.
A reputation for human rights concerns
Previously, ReconAfrica has enjoyed at least tacit support from the federal government. In 2021 as a flurry of articles from National Geographic and the Globe and Mail exposed the environmental harms and global outcry against the company, Global Affairs set up at least one meeting with Canada's top diplomat, Bob Rae. Internal emails obtained by Canada's National Observer show Rae encouraged meetings with UN representatives in Namibia and Botswana to help overcome the PR troubles.
ReconAfrica's alleged abuses are part of a pattern of Canadian companies violating rights abroad, experts say. In 2016, a study termed it the 'Canada Brand' where 28 companies were found to be involved in 44 deaths, 403 injuries, 709 cases of criminalization and 'widespread' violence.
In recent months and years, the concerns keep piling up.
In June, civil society organizations wrote to Canada's Ambassador to Ecuador about 'deep concern over the systematic criminalization of human rights and nature defenders' relating to a mining project owned by Curimining S.A., a subsidiary of Canadian companies Silvercorp Metals and Salazar Resources.
Similar human rights concerns from Canadian companies relate to forced evictions and 'high levels of violence' at a mine in Tanzania owned by Barrick Gold; water contamination threatening people's health at a Barrick-owned mine in Argentina; and The Metals Company, a deep sea mining company headquartered in Vancouver, that is accused of violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
'There's this really widespread systemic problem of abuse linked to Canadian companies all over the world,' said Aiden Gilchrist-Blackwood, coordinator with the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability.
'People have put their trust in [the CORE], and they've often gone to great risk to bring cases forward to this institution,' he said. 'To now have this office that is sitting there without even a person in the post, I mean it's just so deeply concerning.'
'I certainly hope that Carney will step up and fulfill this longstanding commitment to empower the office, but I would say signs right now are really worrying,' he added. 'There's been a real lack of transparency around the government's intentions to the future of the office at this moment."
'If it was not in Africa they could not do what they are doing'
Those standing in the way of ReconAfrica say they have been threatened, intimidated and had property damaged by the company.
In an affidavit filed with the ReconAfrica complaint, one individual describes being made to fear for his 'privacy and safety' after meeting with someone from the company. Farmers say their homes have been destroyed by the thundering seismic drills, while crops have been destroyed, pushing people further into poverty and hunger, and land has allegedly been seized with little or no compensation — six witnesses said they received no compensation, while another received the equivalent of $81.
'A representative from ReconAfrica approached me with her phone during this meeting and showed me that she had private intercepted communications between myself and a colleague from an ally organization. However, she refused to explain how my private messages came into her possession,' the affidavit from Thomas Muronga, the chair of the Kapinga Kamwalye Conservancy, reads.
Another affidavit from a local farmer, whose name was redacted, describes ReconAfrica using his land to conduct seismic testing, a technique used to explore for oil and gas reserves. The farmer says he told an employee to leave and fix any damages, but the employee refused.
The farmer says the company destroyed his field to the point animals didn't have enough grass to graze, and the company cut down trees, ruined fruit plants and caused the walls of his home to crack. He was offered no compensation, he says.
'Given that my family and I rely on our crops and animals for food, we have not had enough food to feed my family,' the affidavit reads. 'We have tried to buy food from shops but we do not have enough money to buy enough food for the family… My family and I have gone hungry.'
Muyemburuko Max Kangwaka, chairperson of the Kavango East and West Regional Conservancy and Community Forestry Association, told Canada's National Observer in a phone interview that affected land owners did not give ReconAfrica permission to drill and people's homes, made of wood and mud, were cracked by the seismic drilling.
'As I'm speaking now, less than a month [after] we went to the village to visit [them], their house is not going to last two to three years,' he said. 'Soon it is going to collapse.'
Kangwaka said he's deeply disappointed that the company has not been held to account.
'We know that if it was not in Africa … they could not do what they are doing right now,' he said.
Kangwaka toured researchers from the University of Toronto around the affected sites in preparation for the CORE complaint, with the expectation Canada would take action.
'Since then we never got any response, and we still need assistance on this so that the company can be held accountable,' he said. 'Maybe it will give a bad image to [Canada]; maybe that is why they are not acting.'
Regardless of the reason, 'we are not happy,' he said. 'What they told us is they're going to open a case, an investigation with the [CORE] but we can't see any waves.'
ReconAfrica did not return a request for comment.
Violating local laws
Since that complaint was filed, the company has continued drilling exploration wells. Its most recent drilling program was announced on July 31; the planned well is expected to stretch 3.8 kilometres underground by the end of November. In April, the company also signed an MOU with Angola's oil and gas regulator to jointly explore in the Etosha-Okavango Basin, a region the company expects is connected to the deposit it is probing in Namibia.
Last month, Eneas Emvula, a Namibian member of parliament with the Landless People's Movement, called for an independent parliamentary investigation of ReconAfrica that could slap a moratorium on the company's operations while the investigation is carried out. He will formally table a motion for investigation in September.
In an interview with Canada's National Observer, Emvula said he wants what's best for the country and is generally supportive of oil exploration, but it shouldn't be at the expense of human rights and environmental laws.
'When somebody comes around with the intent to exploit the natural resources the whole due process must [abide] by the law,' he said. 'ReconAfrica has not done so.'
Emvula said many land owners have not been compensated, some of their properties have been damaged and ReconAfrica 'bypassed acquiring informed consent.' The company has 'been fiddling with the integrity of the country,' he said.
'I think all efforts really need to be made in order to get these guys, not to their knees, but to get these guys to comply with the laws and procedures to conduct business.'
Emvula said a standing committee on natural resources report found significant misconduct from ReconAfrica and provided 19 recommendations but none have been implemented because the report was buried.
'They shelved the report somewhere in the parliament archives, and it just sat there until I went to get it myself,' he said.
Specifically, the report found that ReconAfrica only began consultations 'long after' it began operations, which would violate Indigenous communities' right to free, prior and informed consent. The committee found that the company also drilled 'unsanctioned boreholes' without holding the necessary water permits 'in clear contravention of the Water Act.'
The report also describes ReconAfrica refusing entry to government officials at its drill site.
'The Committee is extremely dismayed and condemn the attitude [ReconAfrica] displayed for refusing entry to the Ministry Officials to the drilling sites,' the report said.
Previously, a ReconAfrica spokesperson told Canada's National Observer the company acts in accordance with Namibian laws and self-imposes additional buffer zones to avoid environmentally sensitive areas.
Wisner said that's not enough because the CORE's mandate is to hold Canadian companies to international human rights standards, not the standards of any specific country.
August 11th 2025
John Woodside
Ottawa Bureau Chief
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