In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

— Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Believe it or not, Premier Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals are about to bring child labour back to British Columbia after it had been banned by the province since the Depression years of the 1930s.

In early December, the Liberals will put in place regulations filling in the details of Bill 37, legislation passed in October that amends the Employment Standards Act to allow children as young as 12 years to work full-time.

These regulations are, appropriately, being implemented as our thoughts turn back to the time of Charles Dickens, who not only penned A Christmas Carol but also wrote about the terrible conditions of child labour in the time of the Industrial Revolution in England.

The child labour that the B.C. Liberals intend to permit isn’t the innocent sort, like a paper route or a little help for the family business. A child as young as 12 years old will be allowed to work full-time at any occupation under provincial jurisdiction, no matter how dangerous, with only the consent of one parent. That includes farm labour, and working in a paint plant, gas station, restaurant, or door-to-door sales.

Graham Bruce, the minister of skills development and labour who introduced the legislation, told the legislature on October 6 that Bill 37 allows children to work up to seven hours a day and up to 35 hours per week when not in school, and up to four hours a day and up to 20 hours per week when school is in session.

Graeme Moore is deeply concerned about these changes. Moore spent 21 years working for the Employment Standards Branch, the last seven as a program director, but he is no longer with the government.

“I resigned in disgust,” Moore said in an interview with the Georgia Straight. “We’re not talking about the girl or boy next door babysitting; we’re talking about children working dawn to dusk, full-time. It’s extraordinarily long hours for children as young as 12 years old.”

Moore says that unless something changes, B.C. will be the most child labour friendly jurisdiction in all of North America. And he expects things to get even worse under the Campbell government.

“We’re living in an increasingly regulationless society. This is a libertarian government, not a liberal government,” Moore said.

The idea that parental consent means children will not be abused in the workplace is a nonstarter with Moore. “We know from history that parental consent did not keep children out of coal pits, out of cotton mills,” he said.

But those terrible conditions and their modern equivalents are apparently far from the thoughts of Graham Bruce.

“We are changing the rules to better focus on protecting children but still ensuring they can take a job when they want. The solution is to require only written consent of a parent or guardian to employ a child aged 12 to 15 and to back that up with clear standards for those workplaces that employ kids,” Bruce told the legislature on October 8.

Moore, now a consultant on employment issues, says that in the absence of regulations that guard children against exploitation in the workplace, British Columbians should take action themselves.

“There has to be a boycott of businesses using child labour. Consumers should be aware that some of the places they patronize could be using child labour,” he said. “I hope B.C. parents who get upset about children in Pakistan or Bangladesh who are making soccer balls will get equally upset about children the same age working here.”

Although the legislation to allow child labour applies to most workplaces, Moore says it is particularly designed for one purpose: to allow children to work as farm labourers.

“The inside story on farm labour is quite sordid,” he said. “Berry crops are not viable unless they are subsidized by cheap labour. The B.C. Agricultural Council wants to import Mexican labour. Graham Bruce does not want that, so he is meeting their need for subsidized labour by changing employment standards to provide cheap labour, including child labour.”

It’s likely no coincidence that just 10 days after Bill 37 was introduced, Bruce signed a “partnership agreement” with the B.C. Agricultural Council to “help protect vulnerable workers”.

The May 15 news release concluded with this clunker, which shows how much protection farm workers really got from the deal: “Bruce also announced changes to the employment standards regulation. Effective tomorrow, farm workers are excluded from hours of work, overtime and statutory holiday pay.”

Break out the champagne, sisters and brothers, we can work as long as we like without getting overtime or holiday pay! What a great government this is for us farm workers!

But it isn’t just the agricultural industry that benefits from child labour. The other reason for allowing children to work is cuts to welfare. Parents who can no longer collect social assistance will be under enormous pressure to have their children work to feed the family and pay the bills.

“I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I’m convinced we’re living out a social-engineering plan mapped out by the [right-wing] Fraser Institute,” Moore concludes.

Conspiracy theory? Let me see… The B.C. Liberals do a sleazy deal with farmers who need workers on the cheap, cut welfare payments and impose time limits on collecting them, and then overturn 70 years of protection against the use of child labour. Nah, no connection there.

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