The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that a watchdog created by the federal government to probe corporate wrongdoing abroad says it is opening investigations into whether Walmart, Hugo Boss and Diesel are selling products made in China with Uyghur forced labour. The Globe's Steven Chase and Susan Krashinsky write that these are the fourth, fifth and sixth investigations announced by the office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) since it began accepting complaints in March, 2021. China's Xinjiang region, which produces one-fifth of the world's cotton, has been the focus of reports that Beijing has committed grave human-rights violations against the region's largely Muslim Uyghur population. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Labour said an estimated 100,000 Uyghurs and other members of ethnic minorities in China may have been working in conditions of forced labour after having been detained. The complaint to CORE cited a Australian Strategic Policy Institute report, which identified two Chinese companies operating factories in Walmart Canada's supply chain. Those facilities, the report said, were subjecting Uyghurs to work under conditions "that strongly suggest forced labour."