Federal parliamentarians voted Wednesday to suppress modern slavery by supporting a bill requiring Canadian companies to ensure they do not use forced labor or exploitation of children as workers.
Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan has pledged government support for a private member’s bill requiring Canadian businesses and departments to review supply chains in a bid to protect workers.
Mr. O’Regan said Liberals are not only voting to support the bill, but want it to go to committee where they can strengthen it through changes in government.
For the Minister, this unanimous vote constitutes an important first step to eliminate forced labor in our supply chain.
The bill, introduced by Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, would require Canadian companies to verify that none of their products or ingredients are made in sweatshops that employ children, or people who are forced to work overtime for free. or in a small amount.
The senator warned that products such as coffee, cocoa and sugarcane could be linked to child labor or produced in factories in China’s Xinjiang region where forced labor by members of the Uyghur community is believed to be rampant.
The Slavery Ban Bill was unanimously supported on second reading in the Commons by the Conservatives, the NDPthe Greens and the Bloc Québécois, and it will now go to the Foreign Affairs Committee, another parliamentary stage before it becomes law.
Several initiatives over the past four years
This bill by Senator Miville-Dechêne is part of a series of similar initiatives undertaken by various elected officials over the past four years.
Liberal MP John McKay has offered a similar project, he who has long fought to ensure that products consumed in Canada are not the result of forced labor or children.
Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski also filed the same bill as his colleague, then the NDP cast two others in the same vein.
A report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights revealed in 2016 that approximately 4.3 million children were involved in the forced labor industry. A number described as an underestimated fact by the International Labor Organization.
The same report warns that child labor is often lowered to the lowest tier of the supply chain, away from the eyes of consumers, inspectors and consumers. In Asia and Southeast Asia, children are found in garment making, commercial fishing and seafood processing.
The document also specified that child labor prevents them from having access to an education, in addition to exposing them to toxic products and extreme temperatures. Children can sometimes become prisoners in their workplace or find themselves in a situation of slavery, where the whole family is forced to work to pay off debts.
Source: Radio-Canada
