Clark would like to see companies move their sourcing to other places to let the government of China know that human rights abuses are repugnant to Canadians. Increasing economic ties with China is not likely to bring about any change in the forseeable future, so economic sanctions, like those used with South Africa, should be attempted. Clark acknowledges that Canadian consumers are confronted with a vast array of products from China, and the cheap prices are a huge selling point. Everyone trades with China, she says. A huge percentage of all the stuff in stores in Canada is made in China.
People ask all the time where the watches are made.
For the most part, people like the cheap price. She adds that as Canadians, there s going to be something offensive with about 50 percent of the countries we deal with. Linda Yanz, of the Maquila Solidarity Network, a Toronto-based group that advocates ethical standards in the garment industry, believes that for monitoring of production facilities to really have credibility, there needs to be outside verification. There are a lot of entrepreneurs trying to do the right thing, but for consumers or human rights advocates to know what conditions are like and whether a company is abiding by a code of conduct, this needs to be verified by outside groups. It doesn t have to be complicated to implement this.