![life-sciences-and-healthcare-drugs-medicine](https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/-/media/images/nrf/hero/life-sciences-and-healthcare-drugs-medicine.jpg?w=265&revision=9f3cea56-c166-4216-9ca8-dbe4bb564eb0&revision=5249112351827387904&hash=1035EF8DABF9CFFBF10FE58D9254EC8F)
Publication
Author:
Canada | Publication | October 2, 2024
Public Safety Canada has published its inaugural annual report about the first year of reporting under Canada’s new modern slavery legislation.
The Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (the Act) requires certain entities to report annually on the steps taken during the previous financial year to prevent and reduce the risk that forced labour or child labour is used at any step in the production of goods that they produce or import into Canada. The Act applies to entities that meet certain size and connection-to-Canada tests and that produce, sell or distribute goods or import goods into Canada.
The Act came into force on January 1, 2024, with the first reports due by May 31, 2024. A total of 5,560 reports from entities (other than government institutions) were received by Public Safety Canada prior to the deadline.
The Act requires Public Safety Canada to provide to Parliament an annual report that includes the following information about the previous reporting period:
The first annual report from Public Safety Canada was tabled in Parliament on September 27 (the 2024 Annual Report). It is largely based on data collected through the online questionnaires that entities were required to complete at the time they filed their modern slavery reports, supplemented by a review of a sample of the filed reports.
The following are some of the key findings noted by Public Safety Canada regarding the reports received from entities prior to the 2024 reporting deadline:
Information about the entities that filed reports
Identification of risks of forced labour and child labour
Steps taken to assess and reduce risks of forced labour and child labour
Remediation efforts
Consistent with Public Safety Canada’s comments in early 2024 that the government would take a more educational approach in this first year of reporting, the 2024 Annual Report confirms that no enforcement orders were made or charges laid to date under the Act.
The 2024 Annual Report is available from the Library of Parliament and we understand will be made accessible on the Public Safety Canada website in the coming weeks.
Public Safety Canada first published guidance to help organizations comply with the requirements of the Act in December 2023, which was updated in March 2024. Following this first reporting period, we anticipate that the ministry will publish further amended guidance later this fall.
The next annual reports by entities are due by May 31, 2025.
Publication
Marta Giner Asins and Arnaud Sanz of our Paris office are the authors of a chapter on product denigration that has been published in the third edition of the Global Competition Review’s The Guide to Life Sciences.
Publication
Miranda Cole, Julien Haverals and Emma Clarke of our Brussels/ London offices are the authors of a chapter on procedural issues in merger control that has been published in the third edition of the Global Competition Review’s The Guide to Life Sciences. This covers a number of significant procedural developments that have affected merger review of life sciences transactions.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2023