Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to present.

My remarks are going to be about seafood supply chains, distant-water fishing boats, forced labour—or what one might call modern slavery—and migrant workers coming from Southeast Asia.

Much of the seafood eaten in Canada is either caught on those boats—the main distant-water fleets are Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese or Korean—think tuna, think squid—or processed in Asian seafood processing hubs, with migrant workers coming from the Philippines and Indonesia to work in these hubs in China, but also in Thailand and Vietnam.

In Canada, we're really implicated by this. The working conditions are generally really problematic. Work in fishing is problematic, and we know that's true even here in Canada. However, it's particularly problematic for migrant workers, who face many serious labour violations on these distant-water boats: violence on the boats, both verbal and physical; unpaid wages; long hours while fishing. For example, on the longliners that catch raw tuna for sushi or poke bowls, it's not uncommon to work 18 to 20 hours a day, for days on end, when the fish are running.

Contracts are one to two years. Some of these boats do not come back to port. It's because of transshipment at sea. This means that migrant workers are on boats for a year or two at a time, without any Wi-Fi. Isolation is a real issue for these workers. They're very isolated, and they're at the mercy of their captains. We've seen this all around the globe. There are very few high-seas inspections that actually take place.

At the same time, migrant workers, again from the Philippines or Indonesia, want these jobs, because it's better than what's going on in sending countries. They're making little, given the value of seafood—$500 a month, if they're paid. There are cases where workers get far less. I've heard about cases of $200 a month, and I've heard of a few cases where people have been managing this job for a long time and are making more money.

Shutting down the industry is not the answer, but changing working conditions is critical. Migrant workers on fishing vessels get the most attention, but seafood processing hubs are also an issue. Recent work by Ian Urbina, a U.S. journalist, was able to show how thousands of Uyghur workers and North Korean women were found in Chinese seafood processing hubs, basically imprisoned, with North Korean women being subjected to sexual abuse.

Some of the worst abuses on a larger scale are in China, but it's important to emphasize that unacceptable working conditions are a problem within most seafood supply chains. It's not an Asian problem. Investigative reporting has documented the abuse of migrant workers from Southeast Asia in U.K. or Irish fishing, and research here in Canada has focused on our own temporary foreign worker program and problems in Atlantic Canada and seafood processing.

The industry is based on cheap labour. It's a problem. I think Canadian policy-makers do have a role to play in this, and there is a link with ASEAN and with the Indo-Pacific strategy. I think there are options that are worth pursuing and promising avenues, in fact, supporting labour reforms in distant-water fishing fleets. Taiwan is a great example of a fleet that has really improved in the last few years, with better pay and more inspections, and by taking allegations of labour abuse on fleets very seriously.

We know far less about the Chinese fleet. It would also be really important to think about actually following labour brokers in sending countries like Indonesia or the Philippines.

Another area is due-diligence policy. Due diligence requires companies to be accountable, ensure quality in supply chains and have a system of fines and remedies. Right now, Canada's forced labour policy serves as a checkbox exercise, without companies actually having serious accountability. It would be a game-changer for the seafood industry if we actually had such accountability. The EU is a good model of that.

With regard to import restrictions, we can do more with allegations of forced labour. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has good policy on that and provides an interesting example. For example, customs officials can issue an order to not allow imports of products and publish the names of companies on a public website—again, something we could be doing.

Something we are doing that I think is really positive is high-seas patrolling. I understand, in talking with the folks at the DFO, that the DFO's Operation North Pacific Guard did patrolling last summer in the north Pacific, and the Canadian crew interacted with over 400 migrant workers. It's an example of fishing policy for illegal fishing really intersecting nicely with labour policy. I think more could be done here as part of the Indo-Pacific strategy.