Recently, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney seemed to downplay forced labor in China. When asked about the risks, he said some regions in China are “higher risk” and that it is an issue all around the world. His comments follow his colleague dismissing concerns about forced labor in China in a parliamentary hearing on March 26. Carney has defended Member of Parliament, Michael Ma, as well as the country’s efforts to keep forced labor out of its market.
But advocates are not convinced that Canada has “strong protections” in place as the Prime Minister insists. With forced labor import bans in the US and the EU, there are concerns that countries such as Canada can become potential dumping grounds. Further, Canada has previously taken a much stronger stance on forced labor in China.
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Canada has put measures in place aimed at blocking imports tied to forced labor. However, experts say these rules are rarely applied. Consequently, very few shipments are stopped at the border. Indeed, conservative MP Michael Chong, said Canada has a “terrible track record” of preventing the importation of products made with forced labor.
MP Chong told CBC, "I strongly disagree and I think many experts and many human rights groups would strongly disagree with the prime minister’s assessment that we have a rigorous system for preventing the importation of these products."
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This recent controversy comes after Michael Ma dismissed the legitimacy of evidence presented by experts as “hearsay.” The MP asked her repeatedly if she had seen forced labor with her own eyes. Since she cited reports by Human Rights Watch, Ma said, “I don’t believe reports, I only believe in things that I can see with my own eyes.”
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Chong called Ma’s performance at committee “incredibly damaging for Canada’s reputation.”
“It signals to the [People’s Republic of China] that they can intimidate the government of Canada into silence,” he said.
Ma later apologized for his comments. But PM Carney faced intense questioning throughout the week. At a news conference in Quebec, reporters asked if he agreed with a 2021 House of Commons motion declaring China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide. He refused to answer, instead telling reporters, “There are fundamental issues in terms of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in the past, and they’ve been rightly called out.”
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As recently as January 2026, UN experts raised renewed alarm about the Uyghur forced labor system in China. They noted that the “coercive elements” were “so severe” they amounted to “enslavement as a crime against humanity.”
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Meanwhile, after his China visit last week, Canadian Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne did not give straight answer on Chinese forced labour (video, 2 min, here is an alternative Invidious link).
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What about countries where, if you do not work, you do not live unless you either beg, or are a criminal, or you are in a family that can support you (i.e., without a job you are impoverished without a social safety net and starve to death)? Is that 'forced labor'? Like the typical right-wing talking point "You lazy indigent, either work or starve"? If you are paid, is it 'forced labor'? Otherwise, it is just 'slavery', not 'forced labor'.
What you are describing has nothing to do with the forced labour system in China. The comparison is disingenuous.
And it is by far not only a "right-wing talking point" as you say, as it is exactly China that creates such a system. China's Xi Jinping has been frequently denouncing “welfarism” as it "makes people lazy" (you'll easily find evidence across the web).
There is a strong faction within China that has definitely strongly right wing. China is a 'no party' system, where factions of all positions form the ruling government. This is very evident in the ruling bodies of many of the provinces, where many 'Communist party' governance bodies are very right-wing in many aspects. But overall, the general push in China is to more leisure time and a better work-life balance in the major high wealth cities. Forced labor does not make sense in a country with more workers than jobs available.
But please, explain exactly what your notion is of 'forced labor' in China? How is it different from, say, the labor practices of the 'right to work' States like Alabama, where the wages in a lot of workplaces are basically poverty-level, there is no State limit on hours worked or State minimum wage, and you have to work to survive? I really do not believe that those shouting 'forced labor' really have any concept of what it is, and generally apply the term as a general 'talking point' against the opposition. 'Forced labor' and 'poor working conditions' are not the same. Unions think ALL non-union non-management jobs are 'forced labor', because the worker has no say in the working conditions.
In Alabama, if there were no federal labor law, there would be no law at all. https://labor.alabama.gov/Wage_and_Hour_Info.pdf
Oh, another new account, just 14 days old, but permanently in defense of China.
The Brazilian government just blacklisted BYD over forced labour at BYD's plant there. Among others, the authorities listed some details at the BYD plant in Brazil:
Chinese workers worked seven days a week, including public holidays.
Chinese workers' passports were locked in an administrative cabinet labelled in Mandarin as "security"; some had been held since August 2024, leaving workers without access to their own travel documents on weekends and outside business hours
Armed private security guards enforced a lockdown, sealing the gates after dinner and forbidding workers from leaving without supervisor authorisation
Workers were housed in containers where beds lacked mattresses or rested on foam padding roughly three centimetres thick
Food was stored on the floor alongside personal belongings, with cockroaches and rats moving through sleeping areas
In one facility, 31 workers shared a single bathroom, forcing them to wake at 4am to queue before their 5.30am departure for the site, and the kitchen was deemed unfit for use by inspectors
On the construction site, there were only eight chemical toilets for the entire workforce, and workers had no sunscreen despite visible skin damage from prolonged sun exposure
Workers received only a nominal living allowance in Brazil, in some cases less than US$200 a month, disbursed only with supervisor approval, and investigators found that around 60% of their wages were withheld and remitted directly to accounts in China
This is by far not everything.