Pineapples, coffee and shoes — all commodities taken for granted by Canadians could have a controversial story attached: they could be produced by children or those forced to work for a pittance at best.

There has been an upswing of such items entering Canada over the past five years, according to a report released Monday by World Vision Canada. The country’s stock of “risky goods” totalled $34 billion last year, up by 31 per cent from 2012.

The lack of adequate information available to Canadians hinders their ability to make informed, responsible purchases, said Simon Lewchuk, senior policy adviser at the advocacy organization and author of the report.

“It’s trending upwards and we’re seeing increased risk,” he said. “What is worth encouraging Canadians to do is to engage the companies that they’re buying from with some simple questions: ‘Where did this come from, who made it, and what assurances to do we have that (people) were treated fairly?’ ”

Over 1,200 Canadian companies import goods that could have been produced through exploitive means, according to a report last year by the same organization. World Vision Canada is not attempting to single out establishments, said Lewchuk.

“It’s not to say that any one company is complicit in these labour challenges,” he said. “Nor is it to say that companies necessarily have child labour in their supply chains. All we have to go on is what’s publicly available.”

It’s complicated to discern who handled a specific product because supply chains are long and convoluted, he added.

“There’s nothing really specific about these items, so they can be very hard to trace. No one knows how many of those people are working in supply chains producing goods that end up back here in Canada or other developed countries. We’re just trying to look at the potential risk.”

The organization is urging Ottawa to make legislative change akin to international jurisdictions that require companies to make their supply chains public.

“We want the government to pass what’s called supply chain transparency legislation,” said Lewchuk. “This has been done, most notably, in the U.K. They have a law that requires companies over a certain size to post an annual statement, saying what it is exactly they’re doing to address the risks of, what they call, ‘modern slavery’ in supply chains. Having that information out there has been a catalyst for change.”

There is potential for further research and debate into the matter in Canada: The subcommittee on International Human Rights will study child labour and slavery this fall.

The International Labour Organization reports there are roughly 168 million child workers around the world. Of that number, 85 million kids work in unsafe and unhealthy work environments. Children, along with adults, are involuntary labourers, too: 5.5 million out 21 million people are kids.

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World Vision Canada cross-referenced bilateral data, sifting through a list of 139 goods posted by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2016 that were red flagged as being likely produced by children or forced labourers. It then selected 50 “common items,” which included Christmas decorations, carpets or soccer balls and ran them through Canadian trade data.

The report specifically draws attention to import surges from five countries, all under the “risky goods” designation. Palm oil from Indonesia increased by 8,852 per cent; there was a 124 per cent jump in imports of India-made footwear; a 107 per cent increase in coffee entering the country from the Dominican Republic; tomatoes from Mexico increased by 97 per cent; and a 42 per cent increase in garment imports from Bangladesh.

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