Canadian MPs back bill requiring companies to crack down on forced labour – National

Members of Parliament unanimously voted Wednesday to clamp down on trendy slavery by backing a invoice requiring Canadian firms to make sure they aren’t utilizing compelled labour or exploiting little one staff abroad.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan ensured authorities backing for the personal member’s invoice that might make Canadian corporations and authorities departments scrutinize provide chains with the purpose of defending staff.

O’Regan stated the Liberals need the invoice, launched by a senator, to go to committee the place it might be strengthened additional with authorities amendments.

In a vote within the Home of Commons on the invoice’s second studying, it was backed unanimously by MPs, together with the Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Greens.

Most personal member’s payments – launched by people relatively than the federal government – don’t obtain ministerial backing, parliamentary time or proceed via all of the parliamentary phases wanted to grow to be legislation.

O’Regan stated the vote was an “necessary first step” in tackling “compelled labour in our provide chains.”

“We voted to ship this invoice to committee. There we’ll take a look at amendments to strengthen it,” he stated.

The invoice, tabled within the Senate by Sen. Julie Miville-Dechene, would make Canadian corporations examine that none of their merchandise or parts are made in sweatshops using kids or adults compelled to work extreme hours without cost or for paltry pay.

The senator has warned that quite a few merchandise bought in Canada, together with espresso, cocoa and sugarcane, could also be linked to little one or compelled labour. She has additionally warned about imports of merchandise made in factories within the Xinjiang area of China the place members of the Uyghur neighborhood have been compelled to work.

The senator’s invoice is considered one of quite a few personal payments cracking down on compelled labour in provide chains that politicians have tried to get backing for prior to now 4 years.

They embody a invoice tabled by Liberal MP John McKay, who has lengthy argued for motion to make firms guarantee their merchandise should not produced abroad by compelled labour or kids.

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski not too long ago tabled the identical invoice as McKay’s and the NDP have tabled two comparable payments.

The senator’s invoice, often called Invoice S-211 in Parliament, will now transfer to the international affairs committee for scrutiny, an extra parliamentary stage earlier than changing into legislation.

A report by the Home of Commons worldwide human rights subcommittee stated that in 2016 some 4.3 million kids had been concerned in compelled labour, a determine the Worldwide Labour Group warned was an underestimate.

The report warned that little one labour most frequently happens on the lowest tiers of the provision chain out of the sight of patrons, inspectors and customers. In South and Southeast Asia, kids have been discovered making garments, fishing and processing seafood.

The report discovered little one labour interferes with younger folks’s educations and might contain work in hazardous situations, together with with poisonous substances or at excessive temperatures.

It might probably additionally embody confinement at work websites and indentured labour, the place complete households are compelled to work to repay money owed.

Rocio Domingo Ramos, enterprise and human rights coverage and analysis officer at Anti-Slavery Worldwide, has warned that Canada is lagging behind international locations reminiscent of France, Germany and Norway which have already launched legal guidelines requiring corporations to examine their provide chains to verify their merchandise should not made utilizing compelled labour.

In 2020, the Canadian authorities prohibited importation of products produced by compelled labour beneath the customs tariff.

Miville-Dechene has warned that a minimum of 90 million kids and adults all over the world could possibly be concerned in compelled labour, together with to supply low-cost merchandise for rich international locations reminiscent of Canada.