Child labour behind every Canadian’s grocery haul, and it may get worse: World Vision
Posted February 3, 2021 12:47 pm.
A new report from World Vision warns that Canadians could be contributing to child labour with every grocery order.
The report, titled “Risky Goods,” estimates more than $3.7-billion worth of products involved child labour in 2019.
Warning: your groceries may contain #childlabour. Watch the stories of three coffee and sugarcane child workers from Mexico, told in their own words. #NoChildForSale https://t.co/eBuFgPYLow
— World Vision Canada (@worldvisioncan) February 3, 2021
“From seafood slave boats to plantation abuses, Canada has a growing connection to child and forced labour,” says Simon Lewchuk, policy advisor for World Vision Canada, and author of the report. “Mexico for example, serves up a nearly one-billion-dollar platter of low-cost food items to our grocery aisles and restaurants each year that may contain child labour. This compromises children’s health, safety, and education. And COVID-19 is making the problem worse. It’s time for Canada to stop dragging its heels and introduce legislation requiring companies to take action against child labour and other human rights abuses in their supply chains.”
The report says imports from Mexico account for the largest value of risky products, with $965 million in 2019.
Word Vision adds the problem is only getting worse because of the pandemic and its economic aftershocks. The report says the economic pressures of the pandemic are forcing more children to harvest and produce much of Canada’s food imports.
Canadian imports of food products at risk of being produced by children was $3.7 billion in 2019, a 63% increase over the past decade. And the #COVID19 pandemic is making the problem worse. #NoChildForSale https://t.co/jQqF8nKqc4 pic.twitter.com/jcT1uUN9R4
— World Vision Canada (@worldvisioncan) February 3, 2021
Previous research by World Vision estimates that the pandemic has pushed as many as eight million boys and girls into labour.
Lewchuk says COVID-19 is undermining previous gains that had reduced those numbers since 2000.
