Slavery is alive and well in China and we are the beneficiaries

As reported on Saturday, global brands are employing Uyghur Muslims as forced labour in China. Following is a list of some of the brands identified as taking part of this scheme:

Acer, Adidas, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, Calvin Klein, Candy, Carter’s, Cisco,Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Gap, General Motors, Google, H&M, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Samsung, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Zara, Zegna, ZTE.

The entire list can be found here. Does this overwhelming information make you feel powerless to do anything about it? Fortunately, there are things we can do to spend our money in a more ethical way.

You could start by being more intentional and informed with your purchases, and consider the costs that goods or services have had on other humans and the environment that the purchase price does not factor in. As noted above, our purchases may be enabling China to commit cultural genocide by forcing Uyghurs to earn their freedom through forced labour. This obviously comes at great human cost. Buying from a local, trusted source doesn’t always guarantee an ethically-Made-in-Canada product, but it certainly increases the odds of it.

You could also let your Member of Parliament know that we need strict laws to ensure goods and services that are imported from other countries follow the same laws as Canadian companies must follow. If we are only asking for cheaper and cheaper goods and services, this will continue to force companies in a race to the bottom, inevitably resulting in human rights violations in the pursuit of profits and growth. If you are worried about the affordability of goods and services for yourself or others (as I often am), perhaps a better question is why have average incomes been stagnant for over three decades, while the minimum wage has barely kept up with the cost of living? If wages don't keep up with cost of living, then cheap goods are not going to make anyone's life better.

Finally, you could consider that you might not need to make the purchase at all. Capitalism requires constant growth to fulfill its goals but we are seeing more and more every day how unsustainable and impractical this pursuit is, how bad it is for the environment, and its effect on human psychology (as seen with the rise of mental illness, suicides and drug addiction). You might find that spending your money taking a friend out for dinner, or donating it to your local food bank, or putting it away for a future vacation when this pandemic eventually passes, could provide you a much more meaningful experience than adding to your collection of toys.

These are all good ways to start spending our money more ethically and intentionally but if the end result is to end human suffering, we have a lot of work to do beyond the above. Those of us who have a voice must keep fighting for those that don’t and I urge you to join me in whichever way you can.