CAUTION: CHILDREN AT WORK
‘Where did this come from and who made it?’ Canadians are unwittingly buying billions of dollars’ worth of goods that may have been made by child labourers. A new report is urging us to ask before we buy
Pineapples, coffee and shoes — all commodities taken for granted by Canadians — could be produced by children or those forced to work for a pittance, according to a report by World Vision Canada.
There has been an upswing of such items entering Canada over the past five years, according to the report released Monday. The country’s stock of “risky goods” totalled $34 billion last year — up by 31 per cent from 2012.
The lack of adequate information available to Canadians hin- ders their ability to make responsible purchases, said Simon Lewchuk, senior policy adviser at the advocacy organization and author of the report.
“It’s trending upwards and we’re seeing increased risk,” he said. “What is worth encouraging Canadians to do is to engage the companies that they’re buying from with some simple questions: ‘Where did this come from, who made it, and what assurances do we have that (people) were treated fairly?’ ”
Over 1,200 Canadian companies import goods that could have been produced through exploitive means, according to a report last year by the same organization. World Vision Canada is not attempting to single out establishments, said Lewchuk.
“It’s not to say that any one company is complicit in these labour challenges,” he said. “Nor is it to say that companies necessarily have child labour in their sup- ply chains. All we have to go on is what’s publicly available.”
It’s a complicated task to discern who handled a specific product because supply chains are long and convoluted, he added.
“There’s nothing really specific about these items, so they can be very hard to trace.”
“No one knows how many of those people are working in supply chains producing goods that end up back here in Canada or other developed countries. We’re just trying to look at the potential risk,” Lewchuk said.
The organization is urging Ottawa to make legislative change akin to international jurisdictions that require companies to make their supply chains public.
“We want the government to pass what’s called supply chain transparency legislation,” said Lewchuk. “This has been done, most notably, in the U.K. They have a law that requires companies over a certain size to post an annual statement, saying what it is exactly they’re doing to address the risks of, what they call, ‘modern slavery’ in supply chains. Having that information out there has been a catalyst for change.”
There is potential for further research and debate into the matter in Canada: The Commons subcommittee on International Human Rights will study child labour and slavery this fall.
The International Labour Organization reports there are roughly 168 million child workers around the world. Of that number, 85 million work in unsafe and unhealthy work environments. Children are also involuntary labourers: 5.5 million out 21 million people are kids.
World Vision Canada cross-referenced bilateral data, sifting through a list of 139 goods posted by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2016 redflagged as being likely produced by children or forced labourers. It then selected 50 “common items,” which included Christmas decorations, carpets or soccer balls, and ran them through Canadian trade data.
The report specifically draws attention to import surges from five countries, all under the “risky goods” designation. Palm oil from Indonesia increased by 8,852 per cent; there was a 124-per-cent jump in imports of India-made footwear; a 107-per-cent increase in coffee entering the country from the Dominican Republic; tomatoes from Mexico increased by 97 per cent; and a 42-per-cent increase in garment imports from Bangladesh.