NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2018
Today, a group of 129 Canadian and global institutional investors with $2.3 trillion assets under management sent a statement to the Minister of Labour, Patty Hajdu, urging the Government of Canada to enact legislation to help identify and eliminate forced labour and child labour in supply chains through effective company due diligence and disclosure.
Last September, Canada joined with 36 other nations in committing to working with business to eliminate forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labour from global supply chains. That commitment was reiterated in the recent G7 Security Ministers’ Commitments paper in preparation for the upcoming G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec on June 8-9.
Other jurisdictions, including the UK, California, France, the Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland, have required or are in the process of requiring companies operating in their jurisdictions to disclose the steps their company is taking to ensure modern slavery is not present in their global supply chains.
Similar Canadian legislation would help investors to better assess human rights related risks of particular investments and to work with investee companies to improve human rights due diligence where appropriate.
“We consider a company’s management of environmental, social and governance risks – including human rights related risks – in our investment decision-making processes,” says the statement. “In order to do so, however, we require up-to-date, clear and comparable information from companies about their due diligence on priority issues like modern slavery and child labour in their supply chains.
See statement here:
https://share.ca/documents/policy_positions/2018/Modern_Slavery_Investor_Statement.pdf
Notes for Editors
Interviews available with Kevin Thomas, Executive Director, SHARE
Contact: Delaney Greig, 416-306-6463 or dgreig@share.ca
About SHARE (Shareholder Association for Research & Education)
SHARE is a Canadian leader in responsible investment services, research and education for institutional investors. Since its creation as a non-profit organization in 2000, SHARE has provided proxy voting analysis, shareholder engagement, education, policy advocacy, and practical research on issues related to responsible investment. SHARE’s clients include pension funds, mutual funds, foundations, faith-based organizations and asset managers across Canada with more than $22 billion in assets under management.
www.share.ca / @share_ca