Lawyers urge federal ban on U.S. forced labour imports, cars built by prisoners

Canada Border Services Agency officers listen during an announcement about a seizure of opium, in Tsawwassen, B.C., Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA — Human rights lawyers are calling on Ottawa to ban American imports that stem from forced labour linked to automotive firms using prisoner work in Alabama, under the same law meant to block products made through exploitative practices in China.

“Forced or coercive labour can exist anywhere when people lack real choice protection or power,” said Sandra Wisner, director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto.

“Discussions about forced labour tend to focus on global supply chains in the Global South, so in factories in Southeast Asia or agricultural fields in Latin America. But the use of forced or prison labour in the U.S., including under deeply coercive and abusive conditions, receives far less attention, especially here in Canada.”

Wisner’s team submitted a detailed complaint this month to the Canada Border Services Agency asking it to block goods made with forced labour coming in from the United States.

Nabila Khan, a researcher who co-authored the complaint, said her team of fellow lawyers examined reports from government and citizen groups in the U.S. about prisoners being coerced into working on parts for Hyundai and Genesis vehicles and Dorsey Trailer products. The also conducted interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated workers.

Khan said they examined Alabama Department of Corrections records on prison labour and cross-referenced them with data from companies listed as suppliers to specific auto manufacturers. She said they then tracked vehicles from these work sites to Toronto dealerships, using vehicle identification numbers.

“It shouldn’t be that hard to confirm what goods are getting into Canada, but there is an absence of that kind of data available,” said Khan.

In a statement, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama insisted it does not use forced labour.

“Consistent with the standard and values to which we hold ourselves as a company, we mandate that our suppliers strictly adhere to the law, and we have an established track record of acting when alleged violations occur,” wrote spokesman Scott Posey.

The company in 2023 stopped using a subsidiary that had employed child refugees to operate heavy equipment.

Posey provided a link to a code of conduct for suppliers which says it expects its suppliers to “support” its commitment to “ensuring that no products entering its supply chain are mined, produced, or manufactured, in whole or in part, with forced, imprisoned, indentured, or indentured child labour.”

Public Safety Canada has referred questions from The Canadian Press to the CBSA. The U.S. Department of Labour did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did Dorsey Trailer and its Canadian vendor KID.

The researchers said Ottawa must consistently block products that stem from slavery and prison labour, regardless of their countries of origin.

“Canada’s credibility depends on enforcing its laws consistently, not selectively,” Wisner said. “Our everyday purchases like vehicles, trailers (and) building materials are tied to very complex supply chains.”

Last fall, Wisner’s team issued a report that noted similar concerns about products from other American auto plants, food from prison farms across the U.S., balloons and playground equipment.

They said the broader issue is a lack of transparency in Canada’s supply chains, particularly in sectors deeply integrated with the U.S.

“This isn’t about consumer guilt,” Wisner said. “It’s about whether governments and companies are doing their jobs. Canadians expect that goods sold here comply with our laws and our values."

The U.S. Constitution bans slavery and involuntary servitude, except when used as punishment for a crime — leading to so-called chain gangs of shackled prisoners performing road construction.

American academics have argued that using prisoners for labour is not appropriate when they are denied health and safety protections afforded to regular employees, and when private corporations running prisons punish and reward inmates based on the quality of their work output.

Last fall’s report noted that the percentage of Alabama prisoners granted parole has dropped from more than half in 2018 to less than 10 per cent in 2023, amid an increase in prison labour.

Khan noted that Canada bars all products made through prison labour, regardless of whether any foreign laws allow for it.

For years, Washington has been pushing Canada to do more to weed out products of forced labour from countries such as China, and launched a probe in March that could be used to justify tariffs.

The lawyers’ complaint to the CBSA cites regulations that came into force under commitments Ottawa agreed to in the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, the free trade deal brokered by Washington to replace NAFTA.

“We’re worried that there’s a real risk that forced labour becomes a part of a tariff strategy and the danger is that enforcement becomes selective or politicized. The reality is that forced labour isn’t one-sided,” Wisner said.

Earlier this month, a multi-party group of parliamentarians urged Ottawa to step up its efforts to stop Canadian companies from profiting from slavery in their operations abroad and through imports.

Researchers have found that despite Canadian companies and government institutions being required to report annually on efforts to prevent or mitigate child labour or forced labour, these corporate filings offer little detail and Ottawa is not applying a 2023 law to entire industries.

Ottawa has also faced sustained criticism for not appointing a new federal corporate watchdog, a position that has been vacant for nearly a year as complaints touching on multiple industries sit idle.

Parliament passed the Supply Chains Act after the United Nations reported in 2022 that China had committed serious human rights violations in Xinjiang against its Uyghur minority. The report said those violations “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” Beijing firmly rejects these claims.

The issue of Xinjiang forced labour was at the centre of a heated exchange at a House committee last month, when Liberal MP Michael Ma asked a witness whether her evidence on forced labour in Chinese aluminum supply chains could be “hearsay.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press