A corporate watchdog was still accepting complaints right up until the point Prime Minister Mark Carney announced its dissolution — seemingly out of nowhere — despite saying the decision to discontinue the office was made “months” earlier.

The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) was introduced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2019 to investigate potential human rights abuses committed by Canadian companies operating abroad.

During an unrelated news conference last month, Carney mentioned in passing that the government had decided to eliminate the role, claiming it was ineffective.

“Part of government is to look at things and see whether or not they’re effective and try to improve it,” the prime minister said at the time.