The Commons passed a bill that calls out Canadian companies bringing in slave-made products.. Shipping containers .One MP said finding the items in Canada's stores is common..“These people are harvesting our coffee or the sugar we eat or making the clothes we wear,” Conservative MP Arnold Viersen (Peace River-Westlock, AB) said in the Third Reading debate on the bill..“While we will finally be updating our laws to prohibit imports made from slavery, our enforcement to this point has been terrible.”.“No one is suggesting this bill is the only step Canada needs to take,” said Viersen, co-chair of an all-party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery..“But it is an important step nonetheless.”.Bill S-211 An Act to Amend the Customs Tariff mandates annual reporting by importers with a minimum of $40 million in revenues on measures taken to ensure goods are not slave-made..Penalties for non-disclosure are $250,000. The bill passed the Senate April 28, 2022..“The moral argument is blindingly obvious,” said Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, ON), sponsor of the bill..“No Canadian should be buying slave products, period. The economic argument is blindingly obvious. Canadian workers cannot compete with slaves.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, since 2018, McKay sponsored and co-authored private bills to restrict slave-made imports..“Getting worthwhile initiatives across the line is exceedingly difficult,” said McKay..The Commons passed the bill by a vote of 271 to 57. New Democrat and Bloc Québécois MPs opposed the bill as ineffectual..“It is an empty shell,” said New Democrat MP Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, BC). .“It does nothing to change the situation of people experiencing systemic human rights violations.”.“Bill S-211 falls so far short,” Julian told the Commons..“It is just an empty box that asks a few companies to prepare some kind of report. It does not hold them liable. It does not hold them to account. It does not force them to stop the most egregious human rights violations that are taking place in their operations on their property.”.Bloc MP Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint Hyacinthe-Bagot, QC) also opposed the bill..“Does it require companies to respect human rights? In the case of Bill S-211 unfortunately the answer is no,” said Savard-Tremblay..“The bill requires companies to report annually on whether they took steps to identify and prevent the use of forced labour and what they found. It does not require companies to respect human rights.”
