Video: Protecting human rights in federal procurement
As the Government of Canada’s central buyer, PSPC is committed to working with the supplier community to prevent forced labour, child labour and human tracking in public procurement.
Transcript: Protecting human and labour rights in Canadian supply chains
[Music plays.]
(Text on screen: Public Services and Procurement Canada)
[Image: the screen becomes light blue. A lighter circle appears, representing a stylized room. In the middle of the circle, shopping bags are shown.]
Do you pay attention to the origins of the things you buy?
[Image: A family appears in the foreground: a man with a little girl in his arms and a woman with a piece of paper in her hands. Dialogue bubbles appear above the man and the woman. While zooming in on the family, question marks and images of protective gloves and a face shield, as well as a dollar sign, appear in the background.]
Do you know if the workers who made them had decent working conditions?
[Image: The screen clears. An easel with a white board appears. A red maple leaf and the words "Code of conduct" appear on the white board. A man is gesticulating and talking beside the white board while one woman makes a gesture. Another woman in a wheelchair is taking notes on a laptop, and another man is standing beside her.]
As the Government of Canada's central buyer, Public Services and Procurement Canada expects suppliers to apply the highest ethical standards across their supply chains.
[Image: The screen clears. A scale appears, with an adult worker sitting on the right side, with two children. The three look dirty and tired, the sun is shining behind them. Items such as computer chips and motherboards appear on the left side of the scale and tip it down.]
(Text on screen: Preventing forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking)
This means ensuring the goods we buy are free from forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking.
[Image: The scale and text disappear. In the background, chimneys and industrial buildings appear. On top of the screen, there is a dial with the arrow at the lowest position. Two workers appear on the left, one is pushing a cart with coal or ore, and the other is leaning on the cart. Both are dirty and wear protective equipment. A third worker appears on the right, sitting and wiping his forehead. The word "Risk" appears in the middle of the dial while the arrow moves up.]
Forced labour is present all over the world.
[Image: The screen clears. A woman appears sitting at a table with an open laptop in front of her.]
(Text on screen: Political instability, natural disasters, economic hardships, lack of social safety nets)
[Image: A white bubble appears in front of the woman. In the bubble, a woman carrying a bag and holding a little boy by the hand, and a white-haired man with a cane appear. As the woman moves her arm, the word "Debt" is revealed on the bag.]
Political instability, natural disasters, economic hardship, or a lack of social assistance can make people vulnerable to unethical practices.
[Image: The images disappear. A world map appears, with location pins in several continents. Boxes with maple leaf labels are shown on both sides of the map. Lines appear connecting several of the location pins. The globe turns and the pins disappear. An assembly line appears in front of it with boxes, and a man with a hard hat takes notes on a clipboard. This image shrinks and moves to the top of the screen. A boat, a plane, a truck and a van appear successively on the lower part of the screen, connected with a dotted line.]
Even when a Canadian company follows our laws and labour standards, they may still unknowingly contribute to human rights violations in their supply chains.
[Image: The image scrolls up so that the transportation images are at the top of the screen. Below, an open laptop appears in the middle. On its right, a man in office attire takes notes on a clipboard. On the left, a man in a hardhat holds a sheet of paper and points to it. There are shipping boxes with maple leaf labels on both sides. In the middle, under the laptop, three checkboxes appear and checkmarks are added one by one.]
Modern supply chains are complex, and it can be difficult to know the origin of a product and all of its components.
[Image: A woman appears standing on the left and holding an open laptop.]
Let's use a laptop as an example.
[Image: The shapes of the continents appear in the background. Location pins appear one by one, with shipping boxes beside them.]
Our fictional laptop is assembled in Canada, but its battery is made in another country.
[Image: Airplanes and boats start moving between the location pins.]
The components of the battery - lithium, graphite, and cobalt - also come from different countries.
[Image: The map disappears. A boat, a plane, a truck and a van appear on top of the screen, connected with a dotted line. Behind the woman, white lines grow in irregular intertwining shapes, with arrows pointing in different directions. A globe appears on the right of the lines.]
The microchip and motherboard, manufactured in other parts of the world, contain silicon from quartzite, fiberglass, and copper from various factories.
It's clearly complicated.
[Image: The woman with the laptop moves to the left and all other images disappear. On the right, a white circle with a laptop in it appears. Next to the laptop, two arrows point to factory buildings. Two arrows appear next to each factory building, pointing to different computer parts. An arrow appears next to each of the four parts, pointing to a manufacturing facility. Beside the facilities, labels appear, from top to bottom: "Country A", "Country B", "Country C", "Country D"]
For most products, it can be difficult, or sometimes impossible, to trace supply chains in their entirety. Modern supply chains are spread out around the world with many steps in the production.
[Image: Location pins appear in each country label. All arrows disappear. Red dots appear on the country labels. The arrows reappear in reverse, pointing left from the facilities to the computer parts and factories. Red dots appear on some of the computer parts, then the factories, and then a few red dots appear on the laptop.]
Abuses are often concealed near the beginning of the supply chain, the furthest from the buyer and consumer's awareness.
[Image: A shape showing the world map appears in the middle and expands to fill the screen. Location pins and boxes appear in different continents, then airplanes and boats begin moving between the locations.]
Knowing your supply chains is the first step towards understanding the real or potential risks of forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking.
[Image: The map images fade into the background while two location pins from different continents zoom in. In the left pin, a man wearing a hardhat is shown, holding a mobile phone. In the right pin, a man holds a pen and talks on the phone. A laptop appears in the foreground and communication wave symbols appear and disappear between the two location pins.]
Affecting change starts with getting curious about the impacts of your own activities or business.
[Image: The screen fades away. A stylized desk appears with an open laptop, and a few cog wheels surround the laptop screen. A stylized image of a web page appears on the laptop screen.]
Governments, non-government organizations, and industry associations all work to create tools and resources that are made available to help you better understand supply chains.
[Image: The screen clears. A stylized office appears, with a white board on an easel. On the whiteboard, the words "Code of conduct" and a maple leaf appear. Around the whiteboard, three people gesture and converse. Two thought bubbles appear above the characters, one containing a red heart and the other a red maple leaf.]
[Image: The characters move away. The office furniture and whiteboard move to the sides. A man holding a clipboard and a woman with a handbag appear and shake hands.]
Public Services and Procurement Canada is committed to working with the supplier community to prevent forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking in public procurement.
[Image: The screen clears. A stylized desk appears with an open laptop, and a few cog wheels surround the laptop screen. On the laptop screen, a stylized canada.ca web page appears.]
Please explore our webpage on Canada.ca for up-to-date resources and information.
[Music stops.]
(Text on screen: Check us out, Facebook: /PSPC.SPAC, Instagram: @pspc_spac, X: @pspc_spac, YouTube: PSPC_SPAC.)
(Text on screen: ISBN: 978-0-660-70370-1, Catalogue: P4-133-3034E-MP4)
[Music stops]
(Public Services and Procurement Canada signature)
(Canada Wordmark)
End of video