Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's an excellent question. I think companies are increasingly accepting the fact that they have responsibility throughout their supply chain and not just for their direct operations or their direct suppliers. Some companies are looking to cut out some of the middlemen and lookin

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  One good example of traceability is a Swiss jewellery company that invested for three years with several artisanal mines in Latin America, helping them improve their standards, reach fair trade certification, and then source from those mines. They know exactly where their gold is

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Briefly, child labour is usually understood to mean work that is either hazardous for children under the age of 18 or work that's done by children who are too young, generally under the age of 15. You make a good point, and I think there's a broad consensus around forced labour.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. Some of these interventions can be very low cost, and you've put your finger on poverty as the main driver. For example, we found that free lunches at schools are often enough to lower child labour rates, because families know that if they send their child to school, they'

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The mining example is very pertinent, and what we found is that in the industrial sector—which, of course, is what most Canadian mining is—we don't find problems with child labour or forced labour. Where we find child labour in mining is in the artisanal and small-scale sector.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It was just an example. My example is meant to say that greater government oversight and regulation in general is good. There are jewellery companies in Canada that may be importing gold from countries such as Ghana, so they want some assurance that their gold is responsibly sour

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, sure. I think any law related to mandatory human rights due diligence should include a compliance component that provides penalties for companies that don't comply. That's certainly an incentive. Then there should be a block on the import of goods. It wouldn't necessarily pe

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sure—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We would welcome legislation that has a broader focus, because if it's narrowly focused just on slavery and forced labour, you're going to miss out on a lot of child labour situations, for example, or other human rights violations that occur. I'll confess that I'm not an expert

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I would. When you have voluntary initiatives, what you end up with is companies adopting policies that look good on paper or developing industry associations that give them a bit of a fig leaf to make them look like they're doing something. There are individual companies tha

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Should I answer now, or are you—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —asking me additional questions? Okay. Thanks for that. I would agree with the authors that transparency alone is not enough, that you do need to motivate companies to fully investigate their supply chains all the way through. For example, in our current engagement with the jewe

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Good afternoon. Thanks very much for the opportunity to speak with you today to discuss child and forced labour in global supply chains. We really welcome the Government of Canada's interest in taking further action to address these abuses. Today I thought I would give you a b