Who in Canada is not familiar with the work of Craig Kielburger? Inspired at age 12 to fight child labour overseas, he and his brother Marc founded Free the Children to “empower children in North America to take action to improve the lives of fellow children overseas.”

But what happens when the child labour is happening right here at home?

In late 2003, the BC government changed child labour laws to allow children as young as 12 into the workplace. According to a new report, there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of child work-place injury claims accepted by WorkSafeBC, BC’s worker compensation body, since that change.

This information was released on October 8 by First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition in its report, What’s Happening to Our Children? A Look at Child Work-Related Injury Claims in BC over the Past 10 Years.

The report notes that the highest rates of injury occur in accommodation and food services, retail, agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, and — almost unbelievably — the construction industry.

It also identifies deficiencies in government oversight and protection of child labourers, a shifting of responsibility for assessing workplace safety onto parents, and a lack of reliable information on the number of children working in BC, since employers no longer require a permit to hire anyone over 12 years of age.

First Call recommends that:

- The BC government enact legislation to protect children from work-related injuries.
- The federal government set a higher standard for child labour in all provinces.
- A child-labour advisory group be struck, including both child/youth advocates and young workers from the higher injury jobs.

These would be the minimum measures required to bring Canada into compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — something few Canadians might think would be needed in the true north, strong and free.

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Tags: british columbia, child labour, employment

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Our Country, Provincial Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.