Parliament will soon vote on Bill S-211, a corporate reporting law meant to "fight" forced and child labour in supply chains. Experts who’ve weighed in on the law have said it will do little, if anything, to achieve that aim.
How are Canadian firms responding to reports of forced labour in their supply chains? We asked dozens of companies whose suppliers have faced high-profile allegations of abuse. More than half of them didn’t reply.
Governments in Europe are legally requiring businesses to respect human rights in their supply chains. Instead of following their lead, Canada is expected to adopt a law that will merely require companies to say what they're doing, if anything, to reduce the risk that they're sourcing goods produced by forced labour.
At last year’s UN climate conference in Glasgow, Canada joined dozens of countries in pledging to end its international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. With mere weeks remaining before the deadline, however, the government has yet to release its plan for implementing the commitment.
Problems in the construction of a hydroelectric dam financed in part by Canada led to a flooding disaster in northwestern Colombia in 2018, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Four years later, locals are still suffering the consequences, with no remedy from Canada in sight.
Broad support is building for due diligence legislation in Canada, placing the topic firmly within policy debates on Parliament Hill. Tomorrow human rights defenders from the Global South will remind us why such a law is urgently needed.
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