Has Guess Canada done business with companies that use forced labor in China? That's what the Office of the Canadian Corporate Responsibility Ombudsman wants to know, which is launching an investigation into the retailer.
“Plaintiffs allege that Guess Canada has sourcing relationships with several Chinese companies that have been found to have used or profited from forced Uyghur labor,” said a report released Monday by the Office of the Canadian Corporate Responsibility Ombudsman (CORE). .
“They further claim that there is no evidence that Guess Canada has taken concrete steps to ensure beyond doubt that there is no forced Uyghur labor in its supply chain,” it says.
According to the complaint, Guess Canada has business relationships or affiliations with Shandong Zoucheng Guosheng, Luthai Textile Co. and Xinjiang Zhongtai Group, each of which is accused of using forced labor on Uighurs.
I guess Canada is defending itself
Guess Canada, for its part, vigorously denies these allegations. It believes that these assumptions are not credible and that “the Chinese companies identified in the reports are not included on its supplier list”.
“I suspect Canada’s response does not take into account the complexity of the apparel supply chain,” responds Ombudsman Sheri Meyerhoffer.
“Despite providing information regarding its due diligence policies, Guess Canada has not responded to the complaint filed against it. “That is why we will conduct an investigation based on independent factual investigation,” she says.
Zara also pointed
Recall that last month, the OCRE office also opened an investigation into allegations of Uyghur forced labor in the supply chain of retailer Zara Canada Inc., as Le Journal reports.
AFP
The company also completely rejected these allegations.
“Our group has a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of forced labor,” Zara assured the Journal.
More than $328 million from the fund
Last May, Le Journal reported that as of December 31, 2022, the Caisse de dépôt etplacement du Québec (CDPQ) had more than $328 million in investments in a dozen Chinese companies suspected of targeting the Uyghur minority to suppress Xinjiang.
“I think the fund is complicit in genocide [culturel des Ouïghours] because it is impossible to say: “I didn’t know,” denounced Mehmet Tohti of the Uyghur Rights Defense Project.
–In collaboration with Sylvain Larocque