In this letter to the new prime minister of Canada, Above Ground and other members of the Coalition Against Forced Labour in Trade call for action to end forced labour in Canada’s global supply chains.
May 15, 2025
The Right Honourable Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Cc: The Honourable Maninder Sidhu
Minister of International Trade
Dear Prime Minister Carney,
The Coalition Against Forced Labour in Trade (CAFLT)[i] would like to congratulate you on your election as Member of Parliament for Nepean and as Prime Minister of Canada.
The CAFLT is an international network of 18 civil society organisations working to introduce and enforce import bans of goods made using forced labour. Our members are active in Canada, the US, Mexico, Chile, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the UK and EU. We are writing to urge you to honour Canada’s commitment to eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains, including through improved enforcement of Canada’s forced labour import ban.
Close to 28 million people are victims of forced labour on any given day, according to the most recent figures from the International Labour Organization.[ii] Public concern over Canadian business ties to forced labour abroad has intensified in recent years, as one investigation after another[iii] has found instances of Canadian companies sourcing goods allegedly produced by forced workers. There is concern that Canadian companies and consumers are benefiting from human rights abuse in Canada’s supply chains, and that forced labour is driving down labour standards for all workers, in Canada and abroad.[iv]
Canada pledged to ban the importation of all products of forced labour when it signed the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement in 2018. The prohibition was added to Canada’s Customs Tariff and came into effect in July 2020. However, Canada has been criticized for failing to enforce the import ban.[v] Since 2021, Canadian border agents have reportedly intercepted a mere fifty shipments of goods on suspicion that they were products of forced labour,[vi] and only a single shipment was ultimately denied entry into Canada.[vii] Several US members of Congress,[viii] a US undersecretary of state,[ix] and the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery[x] have called on Canada to step up its enforcement of the ban.
The Canadian government committed to improving enforcement of the ban in the 2023[xi] and 2024[xii] budgets. In the 2024 Fall Economic Statement, the government proposed to do this by introducing legislative amendments, “including increasing the onus on importers to demonstrate that their supply chains are free of forced labour,” and allocating additional resources to Global Affairs Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.[xiii]
We call on you to ensure that Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu and all other relevant ministers take these proposals forward. We encourage you to include specific instructions to this end in your ministerial mandate letters.
In recent years, more countries have begun exploring import bans as a strategy for tackling forced labour in their supply chains. The US has been actively enforcing a forced labour import ban for a decade.[xiv] Mexico adopted its ban in 2023,[xv] and in 2024, the EU adopted a regulation to ban products made with forced labour from the EU single market.[xvi] Similar bans are being discussed in Australia, the UK, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere.
In this context, Canada has an opportunity to lead. By enforcing the Canadian import ban in an effective manner – including by providing adequate resources – the Canadian government would help set a higher level of ambition for other jurisdictions. It would demonstrate that a “Canada Strong” agenda includes Canadian global leadership to protect the rights of workers worldwide.[xvii]
We would greatly appreciate meeting with you in the coming weeks to share our coalition’s recommendations for strong import bans, to discuss how Canada can encourage forced labour import bans in future trade negotiations and at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Alberta, and to determine how we can work together to eradicate forced labour from Canada’s supply chains.
We look forward to your reply to this letter.
Sincerely,
Karen Hamilton
Director of Above Ground
On behalf of the Coalition Against Forced Labour in Trade:
[i] Read more about our coalition here.
[ii] The International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free Foundation and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimate that, as of 2021, 27.6 million people were trapped in forced labour worldwide (Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage – Executive Summary, September 2022, p.2). This is up from 25 million in 2016. (ILO, Walk Free Foundation and IOM, “40 million in modern slavery and 152 million in child labour around the world,” ILO, 19 September 2017).
[iii] See, for example, Rachel Gilmore, “Solar power supply chain could be tainted with Uyghur forced labour, report says,” Global News, 28 May 2021; Ryan Tumilty, “Your breakfast may be made with child labour,” National Post, 11 May 2023; and Tavia Grant, “Federal government urged to take action against eight Chinese seafood companies over alleged abusive labour practices,” The Globe and Mail, 11 September 2024.
[iv] Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne and former Member of Parliament John McKay shared these concerns in their opinion piece “It’s time for Canada and the G7 to make the fight against modern slavery a priority,” Hill Times, 2 June 2021: “We can no longer turn a blind eye, because collectively we are benefiting from this shameless exploitation elsewhere in the world to obtain cheap products in our markets,” and “Canadian companies and Canadian workers cannot compete with slave labour. […] [N]o one can compete with the prices of companies that profit from slave labour.”
[v] See, for example, Above Ground’s report Enforcing Canada’s Forced Labour Import Prohibition: Key Challenges and Recommended Reforms, 16 May 2024; Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project’s report Uyghur Rights Advocacy in Action: Flight Uyghur Forced Labour, 2024, p.16; and Walk Free’s post “Canada needs a stronger forced labour import ban,” 26 November 2024.
[vi] In contrast, US authorities have intercepted thousands of shipments during the last year alone. See US Customs and Border Protection, “Trade: Forced Labor – FY 2025 Statistics,” last updated 23 April 2025.
[vii] Steven Chase and Tavia Grant, “Canada plans oversight body to ensure businesses, governments crack down on forced labour,” The Globe and Mail, 19 December 2024 and Darryl Greer, “Canada’s border agency detained dozens of ‘forced labour’ cargo shipments. Now it’s being sued,” The Globe and Mail, 21 November 2024.
[viii] Alexander Panetta, “Canada’s failure to block forced-labour imports draws US scrutiny” CBC, 5 June 2024 and Alexander Panetta, “US politicians press Canada in writing on Anti-forced-labour failure,” CBC, 23 September 2024.
[ix] Robert Fife and Steven Chase, “US urges Canada to work together to curtail imports of forced-labour goods from China,” The Globe and Mail, 12 March 2024.
[x] Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Visit to Canada: Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, UN General Assembly, 22 July 2024.
[xi] Government of Canada, Budget 2023: A Made-in-Canada Plan, 28 March 2023.
[xii] Government of Canada, Budget 2024: Fairness for every generation, 16 April 2024.
[xiii] Government of Canada, 2024 Fall Economic Statement, December 2024.
[xiv] See Library of Congress, “Section 307 and Imports Produced by Forced Labor,” 12 November 2024.
[xv] See Secretaría del Trabajo y Precisión Social, Gobierno de México, “Comunicado: Entra en vigor el Acuerdo para prohibir la importación de mercancías producidas con trabajo forzoso,” 18 May 2023.
[xvi] See European Union, EUR-Lex, “Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 (Text with EEA relevance), PE/67/2024/REV/1, 12 December 2024.
[xvii] Liberal Party of Canada, Canada Strong: Mark Carney’s Plan, April 2025.