Honourable senators, I rise today to add my voice in support of Bill S-211, the Modern Slavery Act.

I want to commend Senator Miville-Dechêne for her leadership in sponsoring this important bill and bringing to our attention the modern-day travesty of widespread forced labour and the extensive use of child workers in our global supply chains.

Slavery was officially abolished in 1981 when Mauritania finally outlawed the practice. Forced labour itself was first tackled by the International Labour Organization in 1957, when they passed the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention. But we know it still exists today in many forms; some more hidden and subtle than others. Many view this as a problem for less developed countries, but complex supply chains are reinforcing the practice around the world.

As the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre report noted:

In fact, modern-day slavery is everywhere: from the construction of World Cup stadiums in Qatar to the cotton farms of Uzbekistan, from cattle ranches in Paraguay to fisheries in Thailand and the Philippines to agriculture in Italy, from sweatshops in Brazil and Argentina to berry pickers in Sweden. The production chains of clothes, food and services consumed globally are tainted with forced labour.

In Senator Boyer’s recent speech in support of this bill, she reminded us of the scourge of human trafficking in our own country, particularly the sexual exploitation of Indigenous women and girls.

Knowing for certain that no slavery was involved in the final product we buy, or service we pay for, is far more difficult than one may think. A final product may go through several producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. And any type of stress on the supply chain could lead to rush orders and subcontract work.

Finding out what company produced your favourite T-shirt is a lot simpler than knowing what types of labour practices are in place on a cotton farm.

However, companies have a moral obligation to understand their own supply chain and take steps to ensure that no slavery is involved in the production of their products.

There have been recent media accounts of shocking allegations of coerced labour and child labour.

The Guardian reported earlier this month that:

High street coffee shop giant Starbucks has been caught up in a child labour row after an investigation revealed that children under 13 —

— some as young as 8 —

— were working on farms in Guatemala that supply the chain with its beans.

Channel 4’s “Dispatches” filmed the children working 40-hour weeks in gruelling conditions for a daily wage little more than the price of a latte. The beans are also supplied to Nespresso, owned by Nestlé. Hollywood’s Nespresso marketing face, George Clooney, has indicated a concern with the findings of the investigation, as have both companies, of course.

The Globe and Mail reported earlier this month that:

Bombardier Inc. says it is concerned about a new report —

— by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute —

— that links it and other companies to the evident forced labour of Muslim minorities in China.

In a recent CBC “Sunday Edition” segment, Clare Church of the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development, raised a red flag on the issue of green conflict minerals.

According to Ms. Church:

Demand for green energy technologies—and corresponding demand for the materials needed to build, transport and install these technologies—is predicted to increase dramatically in the years and decades ahead.

Demand for materials like cobalt, lithium and rare earth ore is expected to grow at unprecedented rates due to their strategic role in the production of wind turbines, electric vehicles and energy storage. Unfortunately, not all strategic reserves of these minerals are found in countries applying international best practices to mining sector management. On the contrary. The mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has so often been connected to violence that the mineral has been dubbed the “blood diamond” of this decade. Further, some rare earth mines have been called sites of exploitation due to incidents of child labour, high levels of exposure to toxic substances and dangerous working conditions.

Ms. Church says that with many of the world’s mining companies headquartered in Canada, and with Toronto seen as the top global hub for mining finance, that Canada could be a huge force for change. Canada could be a leader.

As Senator Lankin. in her recent speech on this bill said:

However, the more access to information consumers and investors have, the more socially responsible behaviour they can demand of the companies they buy from and invest in.

A House of Commons report on child labour found that, in 2016, 1 in 10 children had been part of some form of child labour. This represents 152 million children around the world.

Senator Omidvar provided us with a devastatingly clear picture of the nature and extent of the international modern slavery tragedy in her speech earlier this week, and she reminded us that women and children account for 71% of modern slaves.

As signatories to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada agrees with Article 32 and recognizes that children have the right:

. . . to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

In 2016, World Vision published a Supply Chain Risk Report for Canada. It found that:

Canadian imports of 50 common products at risk of child and forced labour were worth $34.3 billion in 2015.

These products include items such as: bananas, I had one this morning; blueberries, I had some today; fireworks; minerals; silk; and toys. Hope to be playing with some of those next week.

There are at least 1,264 companies operating in Canada with links to goods and countries with high incidences of child and forced labour.

Colleagues, when we know better, we must do better.

Bill S-211 will go a long way in addressing this systemic issue. It is not the only step needed, of course. Work must continue to empower governments and communities to take the necessary actions to protect their children. But it represents a step in the right direction.

To quote Senator Miville-Dechêne:

It is a bill that will help Canada to more strictly adhere to the letter of its international commitments.

It does this by introducing requirements for large companies to produce an annual report that they will publish on their website and file with the Minister of Public Safety on how they are preventing and reducing the risk of forced or child labour in their supply chains.

This bill also details the penalties for non-compliance with the reporting requirements; a necessary step in ensuring our supply chains are free from child and forced labour.

Other governments, such as those in the United Kingdom and Australia, have introduced similar bills. These legislative measures relate to information disclosed by companies to report any increased risk in their supply chains and any changes to their supply chains, if the information indicates cases of abuse.

One of the goals with this reporting is to leverage the information gathered in the hopes that suppliers choose to change their practices at the risk of losing their contracts.

This is not a new practice, colleagues. Non-financial corporate reporting has been increasing over the past few years, and in 2017, 78% of the world’s largest companies disclosed some form of non-financial information within their annual reports. In many instances, this came from pressure from the stock market as a desire for corporate responsibility increased.

Private corporations have already started working with civil society groups to address problems in their supply chains and have already introduced voluntary measures to address those problems. Moreover, several Canadian companies are already obligated to report on their supply chains as they operate in jurisdictions with supply chain transparency legislation, including the U.K., California, and Australia.

Canada has committed to eliminating modern slavery by 2030, along with human trafficking, forced labour and child labour, as part of our commitment to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

In line with this commitment and in response to the report of the House Subcommittee on International Human Rights, entitled, A Call to Action: Ending the Use of all Forms of Child Labour in Supply Chains, last June Canada began a consultation process on labour exploitation in global supply chains.

Bill S-211 is not perfect, and there are areas of further study that will be helpful to explore to make this legislation stronger. We received a submission on this subject from the International Justice and Human Rights Clinic of UBC’s law school. Examining and recommending improvements is what the committee will be charged to do.

In closing, I would like to quote Aminata Diallo, the main protagonist in Lawrence Hill’s brilliant tome, The Book of Negroes: “That, I decided, was what it meant to be a slave: your past didn’t matter, in the present you were invisible and you had no claim on the future.”

Colleagues, let’s support this next step on our complicated human path towards justice to ensure that all women, men and children everywhere can value their past, be alive and visible in the present and can count on a future free of bondage and exploitation.

I support Bill S-211, and I hope you will agree to send it to committee as soon as possible.

Thank you, wela’lioq.