House of Commons Debates

Friday, October 3, 1997

CHILD LABOUR

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In what the front page of the New York Times calls “a child labour victory”, the U.S. Congress is set to ban the importation of goods made by bondaged child labourers.

In light of the fact that there is an estimated 15 million children working in Southeast Asia and in light of the fact that the APEC conference seeks to increase our trade with these countries, will the minister use the weight of his office to pass comparable legislation that would outlaw the importation and sale of goods manufactured by child labour?

Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, while I compliment the member on question, I would like to remind him that last year we set up a special fund to encourage Canadian enterprises and organizations to come forward with a series of initiatives to deal with the importation of products made by child labour.

Second, we are now working with the ILO to come up with a new draft convention dealing with children working in hazardous industries.

Third, as he probably knows, Canada is one of the few countries which has passed legislation that gives us the right to prosecute Canadian citizens who go abroad to exploit children.

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the White House has also initiated a process that has led to a workplace code of practice for monitoring the garment industry in that country. In our country some garment contractors use sweatshops and homeworkers on piece work often in violation of wage and labour standards.

Will the minister and his cabinet colleagues commit to develop a similar code of conduct to end the exploitation of sweatshop workers and to help the many fair Canadian manufacturers who suffer from this unfair competition?

Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would like to give the hon. member three pieces of information. First, we are working actively to have an international standard through the Oslo convention. Canada is sponsoring one of the founding meetings that is leading toward that international code.

Second, we have worked to develop a code of conduct for private businesses. They announced it about a month ago and our department was very much involved in pulling it together.

Third, we are attempting to develop specific projects overseas through the work of CIDA to help remove children from hazardous child labour and provide alternative working opportunities for them in company with local NGOs in those areas.