Here is an alternative Invidious link: https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=T51yekxcXCE
“We’re going against our own Canadian values.”
A tense moment in Ottawa as a witness for Clean Energy Canada is pushed to explain why we should allow Chinese EVs into our market despite major human rights concerns. If the “economic choice” relies on forced labour, is it even a choice at least some Canadians are willing to make?
These are the Canadian values, right Scotty?
- UN expert sounds alarm over ‘contemporary forms of slavery’ in Canada https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1140437
- Systemic racial discrimination via discriminatory funding causing “Millennium Scoop” class action certified; long-term reform negotiations ongoing. https://decisions.chrt-tcdp.gc.ca/chrt-tcdp/decisions/en/item/521231/index.do?iframe=true
- Crisis fueled by human trafficking linked to resource extraction “man camps”; systemic inaction continues. https://afn.ca/all-news/press-releases/assembly-of-first-nations-afn-releases-2025-progress-report-on-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-mmiwg-calls-for-justice-highlighting-human-trafficking-crisis/#to-top
- Failure to legislate a human right to safe water and diversion of settlement funds from critical services. https://siksikanation.com/carney-government-reaches-new-low-on-first-nation-safe-drinking-water/
- Slavery charges against Canadian mining company settled on the sly https://theconversation.com/slavery-charges-against-canadian-mining-company-settled-on-the-sly-148605
…American forced prison labour has entered the chat
At this point, I would rather be driving Chinese slave labour over American ‘definitely not slave’ labour.
At least China is trying to reduce it, instead of filling up prisons and granting billions of dollars to modern day Gestapo against court order specifically to make the slavery legal.
You know, I hear there are several things other than electric cars that Canada also imports from China. Enough so that all the focus on EVs looks a little sus.
We don’t use slave labour in Canada. We just ignore a whole shitload of people who slip through the cracks because of little opportunity and they end up drug addicted in the center of most small towns and cities. We are morally superior. /s
GSI-Snapshot-Canada.pdf https://share.google/aMyAD16rjlpgY208L
Modern slavery in Canada.
Not or mention that we were all OK with slave-made shoes, clothes, appliances, toys, etc. As long as our consumer habits are satisfied.
and shrimp, don’t forget the shrimp. Probably a lot of seafood in general
Westerners are just trying to come up with as much bullshit as possible to convince each other to take a bad deal.
Cocoa, cobalt, and coffee are okay. But god forbid anyone buys anything that interferes with the profits of our rulers.
Meanwhile as posted on Lemmy major NA and Japanese car ceo’s are crying they can’t compete with the automation out of China. https://moneywise.com/auto/auto/toyota-honda-ford-ceos-warning-china-portfolio
So I’m less inclined to believe there’s as much of a forced labor issue as claimed.
Who do you think made the onboard chip of your truck or your Tesla ? Now let’s talk about the anti suicide net in the Apple Chinese factories
There are human rights concerns in almost every product we import, this is a weird spot to draw the line.
I’m sure that there is an American auto company’s PR arm clinging to the bottom of the rock and hoping that it can scuttle away before anyone flips it over.
(Seriously, anything with a screen in it likely has some parts that were made by Chinese forced labour, including whatever device you’re reading this on.)
Does Samsung use Chinese factories to make their screens?
If it has a screen in it, it also contains basic electronic components—capacitors, resistors, diodes, etc. And unless something’s changed in the last few years, those are mostly made in China.
It doesn’t even need to be imported. We have tfw’s with sketchy work conditions here in Canada. If you eat meat or vegetables or wear clothing produced in North America there is a chance it has some part done by not strictly legal labour. Most Canadians are happy not to think about why Walmart is able to ‘roll the price back’ or $stores can sell that stuff even cheaper.
Nothing says Canadian Values like the noble TFW program that has for sure never been used to exploit cheap foreign labour.
It’s so great of a fit then. Canadian values appear to be using migrant wage slaves, so this goes hand in hand.
After watching it, it looks like a non-issue. Clean Energy Canada agrees with no forced labour but disagrees with blanket banning China and going for a targeted approach on Chinese companies that don’t follow – like the Clean Energy Canada lady said about iPhones and everything else.
How convenient it’s supposed to be a “good first step” when we’ve walked a goddamn mile in this already. Let’s do this when we need it for this specific use-case and not a moment beforehand.
Well, the word “robot” has it’s linguistic root in the Slavic word “rab” meaning “slave”, so yeah, there’s that.
And in Hungarian “rab” is prisoner. So prison labour being slave labour, we’ve come full circle.
