Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
A 2006 report by The Future Group, a Canadian humanitarian organization dedicated to combatting human trafficking and the child sex trade, ranked eight industrialized nations on the issue. The report, Falling Short of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims, gave Canada an F rating. The United Kingdom received a D, while the United States received a B+, and Australia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy all received grades of B or B-.
“Every day, all over the world, people are coerced into bonded labour, bought and sold in prostitution, exploited in domestic servitude,
enslaved in agricultural work and in factories, and captured to serve unlawfully as child soldiers.”
Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the U.S.
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,
in presenting a U.S. State Department report
on human trafficking,
June 2007
enslaved in agricultural work and in factories, and captured to serve unlawfully as child soldiers.”
Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the U.S.
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,
in presenting a U.S. State Department report
on human trafficking,
June 2007
It is estimated that two-
MINES AFFECT
RIGHTS OF
NATIVE PEOPLE
A human rights group reported in 2007 that Canadian companies are endangering the rights of Indigenous People in three major investment projects in Asia and Africa.
The projects include two Canadian-owned mining operations in The Philippines and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as a Canadian telecommunications company in Tibet.
While one of the mining projects, an open-pit gold and silver mine on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, created hundreds of jobs in a poor region, it also displaced many families. As well, it divided the Indigenous People, hurt the local small-scale miners, damaged a mountain that is considered sacred to the people, and caused pollution that harmed the livelihoods of fishermen and rice farmers, according to the report.
The study also said the Canadian company involved hired a paramilitary security force that contributed to militarization in the area.
And, it also pointed a finger at the Canadian government, saying that it supported the project through its embassy, and channelled funds through the company for local projects. The company dismissed the report as wrong, from start to finish, though it did agree on the use of paramilitary security forces and said the area should be demilitarized.
A copper and cobalt mine in the Congo, which the report says is also supported by the Canadian embassy, risks contaminating the local water supply, which provides drinking water to 70 percent of the nearest city’s population.
The projects include two Canadian-
While one of the mining projects, an open-
The study also said the Canadian company involved hired a paramilitary security force that contributed to militarization in the area.
And, it also pointed a finger at the Canadian government, saying that it supported the project through its embassy, and channelled funds through the company for local projects. The company dismissed the report as wrong, from start to finish, though it did agree on the use of paramilitary security forces and said the area should be demilitarized.
A copper and cobalt mine in the Congo, which the report says is also supported by the Canadian embassy, risks contaminating the local water supply, which provides drinking water to 70 percent of the nearest city’s population.
Men are at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work predominantly involving forced labour which globally generates $31 billion, according to the International Labour Organization.