Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I will.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to address the subcommittee about Canada's efforts to eliminate the use of child labour. I'm going to provide an overview of the labour program's international efforts and in so doing I may tou

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, we have been asked to look at various options for legislation and we are working with partners across government in looking at what those options would be, as both Ms. Moran and I explained, I think, in our remarks. We do know—and as you've heard from witnesses—there are a

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it would be premature for me to say what would work best for Canada. I would say that there are pros and cons to each of the models, as you have heard. The range runs from the California model, and the U.K. model is also quite similar, with the voluntary reporting mechani

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sure. Our colleagues from Public Services and Procurement Canada, who are responsible for government procurement, as you know, are in the process of putting this into place, so I can't expand a great deal beyond the surface knowledge that I have of it. What that basically amou

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm sure. Basically they asked for input from the apparel industry within Canada to develop guidelines looking at ethical procurement of apparel when the government is procuring apparel. Suppliers who sell to the government need to go through this process of self-certifying to

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, I don't believe so. I don't know with certainty, but I don't believe so. Are you talking about compliance by the private sector?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, a legislative structure—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the U.K. model is precisely that, the idea of voluntary reporting. But the challenge is that I think it's a little premature to see how effective the U.K. model is going to prove to be. California has had similar legislation in place for a number of years and I think th

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The incident you are referring to, I believe, would probably be the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, where there were some Canadian companies that were involved in manufacturing there. Following that collapse, in fact just last year, Canada joined with the U.S., the European Un

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, we haven't. We know that the European Union has been quite heavily engaged in the Thai fishing industry in particular in addressing issues around child labour there. We have not been directly involved in that, though.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I can give a shot at answering that, and my colleagues from Global Affairs can feel free to jump in as well, of course, if they like. In a nutshell, ESDC and the labour program in ESDC is responsible for labour laws, labour legislation, and working with partner countries in imp

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On labour rights internationally...?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It would depend on the issue, but on technical issues of labour it would usually be ESDC that would take the lead.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I apologize. I don't know if I'd be able to say with any certainty whether that particular section of the Criminal Code applies to corporations that are importing goods made with forced labour. We would have our colleagues from Justice Canada review that to see if that is applica