44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 21, 2022
- 04:47:21 p.m.
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Good afternoon. Thank you very much for the invitation to be here.
My name is Emily Dwyer. I'm the policy director at the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, or CNCA.
We are grateful to parliamentarians for taking this issue seriously, and we urge them to act swiftly to address the many reports of human rights violations in Canada's global supply chains.
Modern slavery exists, and some Canadian companies are profiting from it. Canadians from coast to coast to coast want Canada to take decisive action to eradicate forced labour and other human rights abuses from Canadian supply chains, but in its current form, Bill S-211 would not prevent exploitation and abuse. Bill S-211 would do more harm than good.
Our network of 40 organizations and unions from across the country was formed in 2005 to collectively call for mandatory measures to require companies to respect human rights and the environment in their global operations. We represent the voices of millions of Canadians, and our members have long-standing relationships with communities, women, indigenous peoples and workers around the world.
Our membership does not support Bill S-211, because the bill as currently drafted would allow Canadian companies to continue to profit from human suffering and environmental damage. The harm we're talking about is not trivial. It ranges from forced labour to land and water contamination, workers' rights violations, killings and gang rapes, many of these linked to Canadian mining and oil and gas operations abroad.
Canada needs the right legislation if we are serious about tackling corporate abuse. Simply put, a law that requires you to report but does not require you to stop the harm you're causing may be easy to pass with all-party support, but it is also meaningless.
What is needed is a law that goes beyond a basic reporting requirement.
To get widespread support of civil society and to catch up to global momentum, supply chain legislation should, first, focus on preventing and remedying harm, rather than reporting; second, help impacted people access remedies; and third, apply to all human rights.
At best, Bill S-211 is meaningless, as it will not improve the situation for those who are harmed. At worst, the bill is damaging because it creates the appearance of action to end modern slavery without actually having any such effect.
Bill S-211 does not require companies to stop using or to stop profiting from child or forced labour. It does not require companies to take any steps to identify whether slave labour is in their supply chains. It does not require company directors to certify that their supply chains are free of forced labour.
If companies do make use of child or forced labour, the bill doesn't offer help to the victims at all. This means that a company could comply with Bill S-211 by taking no steps or by taking patently inadequate steps, remaining wilfully blind and continuing business as usual.
The evidence from other countries confirms that reporting-only laws have not been effective in addressing corporate abuse. For example, a five-year review of the U.K.'s modern slavery reporting registry “revealed no significant improvements in companies' policies or practice” and also said that it “failed to be an effective driver of corporate action to end forced labour”.
Europe is moving away from reporting-only approaches towards mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence laws. Canada should do the same.
It is urgent that communities and workers harmed in Canadian supply chains be protected from abuse and have access to remedy in Canada. We hope the process currently under way will ultimately lead to such a result, but we want to be very clear: Our network's position is that if Bill S-211 as currently drafted were to go to a vote today, we would be advising MPs to vote no.
We also believe that this committee needs to hear directly from impacted people and workers, and we note their absence from the speakers list. Kalpona Akter, herself previously a child worker and today a world-renowned labour rights activist from Bangladesh, joins me today and can intervene during the question and answer period.
We hope the committee will expand the number of sessions it holds so that it can hear directly from the directly impacted people around the world.
Thank you for your time.
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- 05:07:17 p.m.
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The evidence in other jurisdictions where this kind of modern slavery reporting law has been brought forward is that it hasn't had an impact in changing corporate behaviour. It hasn't had an impact in helping to root out or deal with forced labour abuses. So it doesn't help solve the problem, and at the same time it has also quashed momentum towards more effective laws.
If you look at the situation in the United Kingdom or in Australia, their civil society space to move forward other laws closed. The time for Parliament to speak about those issues closed. So by making it look like the government is doing something, because there's a law on the table, the momentum towards more effective legislation gets pushed back.
I think there's a parallel that we can put in place with the situation in Canada. It's almost five years since the Government of Canada announced the creation of an ombudsperson's office to independently investigate, and we're still waiting for that to happen.
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- 05:11:33 p.m.
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Would you prefer that I answer in French?
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- 05:11:40 p.m.
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Because of the time, I'll be faster in English.
In terms of the laws that you put forward, both Germany and France.... Just to put it out there, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability put out a model law in May 2021 that studied the legislation that has advanced across Europe, consulting with other partners—
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- 05:12:05 p.m.
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It should apply to Canadian companies and those importing into Canada—those who are doing business here.
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- 05:12:10 p.m.
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The obligation to respect human rights according to the UN guiding principles and the OECD guidelines that Canada has signed on to applies to companies of all sizes.
We have recommended that this obligation be placed squarely on all companies, and if there are going to be exclusions for companies of smaller sizes, that it be done via regulation in low-risk sectors, for example.
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- 05:14:02 p.m.
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In fact, we must recognize that our basic mission is to ask parliamentarians to put in place legislative mechanisms to hold companies accountable. So it's difficult for us, as a network and as a civil society, to do otherwise; we have to ask you to support and implement such legislation. It is urgent that Canada act. However, we want the proposed legislation to address the problem. We don't want legislation that won't address the abuses.
I think we've been very clear about the three elements we think are essential for this legislation to be effective. First, it must require companies to prevent human rights violations. Second, it must help victims access remedies. Third, it must apply to all human rights, not just one.
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- 05:15:39 p.m.
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The two pieces of legislation that would be enacted could be complementary. Just because a piece of legislation exists doesn't mean that another can't be passed.
International experience to date has shown us that none of the countries that have passed legislation requiring reporting on modern slavery have taken the second step of passing due diligence legislation or legislation that requires companies to respect human rights and provides access to remedies. That's why we're urging the government not stop at legislation that only requires companies to report.
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- 05:17:09 p.m.
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As you said, the Minister of Labour's mandate letter is clear. His parliamentary secretary is here with us today, so I think the minister is very interested in our discussions to come up with something fairly ambitious and robust in Canada as well. We hope that will be the case.
The Canadian government hasn't taken a position on whether new legislation will be introduced or whether it would use a bill that has already been introduced in Parliament. We don't think it's important if it's done through a bill—
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- 05:17:57 p.m.
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- 05:29:57 p.m.
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I would repeat that, for us, effective legislation is legislation that requires companies to actually take action and not only report, that helps people to access Canadian courts, and that applies to all human rights. That is represented in Bill C-262 and it is not represented in Bill S-211.
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