Vendors who sold billions in goods to Canada lacked child labour policies: report

In January, Ottawa announced new measures to address human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China, including an approach to defend the rights of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

A federally commissioned report looking at vendors who sold billions of dollars in goods to the government found the vast majority lacked adequate policies to prevent human and labour rights risks in their supply chains.

The report recommends several ways the government can work with suppliers to avoid complicity in human trafficking, forced labour and child labour, such as favouring companies with a clear understanding of the problems and appropriate policies to address them.

The report was completed for the government in May by Rights Lab, a multidisciplinary group knowledgeable about human trafficking, based at the University of Nottingham in England.

The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain a public copy — as well as a heavily censored, classified version — and an internal briefing note summarizing the government’s intended response.

“Canada is taking a leading position by exposing its procurement to this scrutiny — an important and required first step,” the report says. “This enables effective learning and creates the visibility and foundations necessary for improvement.”

The federal government acknowledges that the global nature of supply chains means there is a risk the goods it buys have been produced using forced labour or human trafficking.

Since receiving the report findings, the government has updated its Code of Conduct for Procurement to incorporate human and labour rights expectations for vendors and their sub-contractors.

In January, Ottawa announced new measures to address human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China, including an approach to defend the rights of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.