The U.S. imposed a 10% tariff on Canada over forced labour concerns, but pays incarcerated workers as little as 12 cents an hour. Seventy-six percent of U.S. prison workers are compelled to work, while Canada has already passed legislation against forced labour that the U.S. hasn't matched.
Chapters
Ah, the irony is thick this morning. The United States just put another tariff on its own citizens and businesses who want to buy Canadian products. 10%. Why? Well, do you want the real reason or the reason Trump says? The real reason is that the US Supreme Court struck down many of Trump's previous tariffs, so he's just digging out new laws in the Chesterfield cushions to try those out for a while. But his version would be funny if it weren't so serious. It's because he says Canada and a handful of other countries affected by this new tariff, aren't doing enough to stop forced labor. Canada, the country that passed the Fighting Against Forced Labor and Child Labor in Supply Chains Act 2 years ago, the country that has an outright ban on importing goods produced in any way by forced labor. It also requires companies and government bodies to report annually on even the risk of it happening in their supply chain. The US doesn't require anything like that. Canada is also a signatory to all of the UN's forced labor conventions. The US still hasn't bothered to ratify even just the core forced labor convention. So why? Why would a country which has the largest economy in the world, it's the world's largest importer, controlling the world's most dominant reserve currency, home to two of the largest stock exchanges, why is America so afraid to honor international standards against forced labor? The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution permits slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime. It's still on the books. And you might say, well, I mean, there's lots of laws technically on the books, but forced labor isn't really happening. More than 76% of incarcerated workers in the US say they are required to work or face additional punishment. Solitary confinement, loss of family visits, sentence extensions. At least 22 states have programs where for-profit companies run factories inside prisons. We are being lectured about labor exploitation by a country where prison workers earn as little as 12 cents an hour or nothing, can't refuse to work, and have no meaningful protection under federal labor law. Look, even if you agree that prisoners should be treated that way, even if you don't care, that 33% of American prisons are filled with Black people despite making up only 13% of the population, even if the people are there not because they were convicted of a crime but because they just can't afford the bail bond, even you have to admit that is the literal definition of forced labor. Look, we have our own issues. Enforcement on that supply chain law has been spotty at times, but Canadians do one thing the US— lately— hasn't bothered to do, we try. We see injustice and we try to fix it. We don't always do it the right way. Sometimes it takes us a century to start walking that road, but we try. Canada is a country that keeps score on itself, that writes the law even before the problem is solved, that signs the convention even if it's inconvenient. Now call that virtue signalling if you must, But that's just virtue.
