Canada needs to address the issue of modern slavery
Resource Details
Author(s): Judy Fudge
Date: 2022
Few people want to buy goods made with forced labour. But given that most of the goods we consume are produced through international supply chains, it’s hard to avoid. We often do not know how these goods are made and how the people making them were treated.
Brands at the top of the chain enter into contracts with a myriad of contractors and suppliers located in countries where labour standards are low, weakly enforced or both. Little wonder there are repeated reports about forced labour making it into cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, palm oil from Indonesia, medical gloves from Malaysia and consumer goods that come from the Xinjiang region of China where the Uyghurs are repressed.
The Liberal government has thrown its support behind Senate Bill S-211, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. It is one of four similar bills before Parliament but it is as some suggest a modest proposal. The bill should be strengthened if it is to have any hope of success.
Brands at the top of the chain enter into contracts with a myriad of contractors and suppliers located in countries where labour standards are low, weakly enforced or both. Little wonder there are repeated reports about forced labour making it into cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, palm oil from Indonesia, medical gloves from Malaysia and consumer goods that come from the Xinjiang region of China where the Uyghurs are repressed.
The Liberal government has thrown its support behind Senate Bill S-211, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. It is one of four similar bills before Parliament but it is as some suggest a modest proposal. The bill should be strengthened if it is to have any hope of success.