1 00:00:06,665 --> 00:00:11,817 This mountain of rubble is a monument to the 1100 lives lost here last April, 2 00:00:13,487 --> 00:00:16,576 when this garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, 3 00:00:18,297 --> 00:00:22,255 unleashing the stories that has long been locked inside. 4 00:00:22,255 --> 00:00:27,002 A thousand people died and no one said a thing. 5 00:00:27,002 --> 00:00:29,143 Do you recognize these shorts? 6 00:00:29,143 --> 00:00:32,236 We meet the people who make your clothes, 7 00:00:33,396 --> 00:00:36,110 and find out where those cloths were made. 8 00:00:36,110 --> 00:00:39,061 This your address. This is where this came from. 9 00:00:40,111 --> 00:00:43,319 The truth that retailers don't want you to know. 10 00:00:43,319 --> 00:00:46,608 You've been hit.　You've been hit. 11 00:00:46,608 --> 00:00:52,533 Do any of you worry that one day you may die in your factory? 12 00:00:52,533 --> 00:00:55,306 Of course. Of course. 13 00:00:55,306 --> 00:00:57,382 Dangerous factories. 14 00:00:57,382 --> 00:00:59,617 And dark secrets. 15 00:01:02,507 --> 00:01:05,662 Hi, I'm Mark Kelly and welcome to "The Fifth Estate." 16 00:01:05,662 --> 00:01:09,295 I'm standing by the rubble of what was once Rana Plaza. 17 00:01:09,295 --> 00:01:11,881 When the 8-story factory collapsed in April, 18 00:01:11,881 --> 00:01:14,430 a frantic search for survivors began. 19 00:01:14,430 --> 00:01:16,824 So too did the search for answers. 20 00:01:16,824 --> 00:01:20,358 How, the world wondered, could a disaster like this happen? 21 00:01:20,358 --> 00:01:23,869 We'll join that search when we learned many of the victims 22 00:01:23,869 --> 00:01:27,242 died here making cloths for Canadian consumers. 23 00:01:27,242 --> 00:01:31,220 Along the way, we uncovered this ledger pulled from the rubble 24 00:01:31,220 --> 00:01:33,460 and using the information inside here 25 00:01:33,460 --> 00:01:36,218 we spent months piecing together clues 26 00:01:36,218 --> 00:01:40,146 that would reveal how and where your cloths are being made. 27 00:01:40,146 --> 00:01:42,550 And what we would also discover is that 28 00:01:42,550 --> 00:01:45,667 the disaster that happened here was no accident. 29 00:01:48,177 --> 00:01:52,985 Fashion is built on an image of beauty, glamour and style. 30 00:01:54,695 --> 00:01:58,413 Creations that not only make you look good, but feel good. 31 00:01:59,813 --> 00:02:02,078 Cloths without a conscience. 32 00:02:02,688 --> 00:02:06,735 The reality of the fashion industry is far less glamorous. 33 00:02:06,735 --> 00:02:10,577 A reality Canadian retailers don't want you to know about. 34 00:02:11,457 --> 00:02:16,549 It's known as the race to the bottom, where the cheapest prices win. 35 00:02:16,549 --> 00:02:20,478 A race that created fast fashion. 36 00:02:20,478 --> 00:02:23,172 And that's why today, many of your cloths 37 00:02:23,172 --> 00:02:26,767 bear the label made in Bangladesh. 38 00:02:29,937 --> 00:02:32,407 It was that glamour of the fashion industry 39 00:02:32,407 --> 00:02:34,456 that spoke to Sujeet Sennik. 40 00:02:34,456 --> 00:02:38,288 Even as a teenager Growing up in the suburb in Toronto. 41 00:02:39,048 --> 00:02:40,725 I'm from a South Asian family. 42 00:02:40,725 --> 00:02:42,339 My father is a doctor. 43 00:02:42,339 --> 00:02:46,420 And they wanted me to sort of follow that path. 44 00:02:46,420 --> 00:02:50,523 I was super creative, so it was a way for me to say, 45 00:02:50,523 --> 00:02:52,483 hey listen, there's a job for me. 46 00:02:52,483 --> 00:02:55,167 It's an actual commercial career. 47 00:02:55,167 --> 00:02:59,627 He went to a couture school and turned a dream into a dream job: 48 00:02:59,627 --> 00:03:04,368 designing for Christian Dior and Balenciaga in Paris. 49 00:03:05,758 --> 00:03:09,410 It was like a fish finding a pond. 50 00:03:09,410 --> 00:03:14,344 It gave me a way out, a way to, you know, lead my own life. 51 00:03:14,344 --> 00:03:18,376 It gave me my freedom, and it gave me everything. 52 00:03:18,376 --> 00:03:22,126 But the growing popularity and increasing demand for fast fashion 53 00:03:22,126 --> 00:03:26,961 led him back to Toronto to design $20 blouses for Walmart. 54 00:03:26,961 --> 00:03:31,561 Instead of Paris, his fashion focus was Bangladesh. 55 00:03:31,561 --> 00:03:34,218 There was a natural flow towards Bangladesh 56 00:03:34,218 --> 00:03:38,019 because of fast fashion in the last ten years. 57 00:03:38,019 --> 00:03:41,384 And trying to get clothes cheaper and cheaper. 58 00:03:41,384 --> 00:03:45,168 But I think when the recession hit people ran for the price, 59 00:03:45,168 --> 00:03:47,617 you know, it was Mecca. 60 00:03:47,617 --> 00:03:49,485 It was Mecca. 61 00:03:50,315 --> 00:03:54,322 But the road to Mecca decimated Canada's garment industry. 62 00:03:54,322 --> 00:04:00,459 From 2001 to 2010, 75,000 jobs were lost here. 63 00:04:00,459 --> 00:04:03,790 Many deep-rooted manufacturers had a stark choice... 64 00:04:03,790 --> 00:04:06,383 Move or close. 65 00:04:06,383 --> 00:04:09,621 My great-grandfather was a rag dealer. 66 00:04:09,621 --> 00:04:14,910 He used to go from Sherbrooke to Montreal in a horse and buggy, 67 00:04:14,910 --> 00:04:18,585 buying rags from the farmers. 68 00:04:19,227 --> 00:04:22,165 Barry Laxer's family has been in the garments business 69 00:04:22,165 --> 00:04:24,706 in Montreal and Toronto for 3 generations 70 00:04:24,706 --> 00:04:27,921 but he was forced to pack it all up for price. 71 00:04:28,931 --> 00:04:31,548 My single largest customer that at the time in Canada 72 00:04:31,548 --> 00:04:34,667 accounted for over 50% of our volume 73 00:04:34,667 --> 00:04:37,473 told us that to continue doing business 74 00:04:37,473 --> 00:04:41,857 we need to find a lower cost manufacturing base somewhere else. 75 00:04:41,857 --> 00:04:43,364 And that was Bangladesh. 76 00:04:43,368 --> 00:04:45,475 It turned out to be Bangladesh. 77 00:04:47,455 --> 00:04:51,490 Companies around the world were now beating a path to Bangladesh. 78 00:04:51,490 --> 00:04:55,426 From H&M to Walmart, Nike and the GAP. 79 00:04:56,626 --> 00:04:59,707 Barry Laxer joined that garment Gold Rush. 80 00:04:59,707 --> 00:05:02,417 Today, his company Radical Designs 81 00:05:02,417 --> 00:05:06,279 runs two factories outside Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. 82 00:05:07,999 --> 00:05:12,021 At least half the machines in this factory all came from Canada. 83 00:05:12,021 --> 00:05:14,920 We had like 80 containers of machinery that came here. 84 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,042 You just rushed it over here to do business. 85 00:05:17,042 --> 00:05:20,294 We just, it wasn't doing anything in Toronto. 86 00:05:20,294 --> 00:05:23,165 Now he employed more than 1000 people 87 00:05:23,165 --> 00:05:27,170 and he pays them 3 times the minimum wage. 88 00:05:27,170 --> 00:05:28,768 When you own a factory, 89 00:05:28,768 --> 00:05:32,682 nothing is better than walking through and seeing it full. 90 00:05:32,682 --> 00:05:33,772 And busy. 91 00:05:33,772 --> 00:05:35,360 And busy, yeah. 92 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,307 You've built quite an empire here, Barry. 93 00:05:38,307 --> 00:05:41,425 What's the allure for companies to come to Bangladesh? 94 00:05:41,425 --> 00:05:44,127 Here, the real allure is labour. 95 00:05:44,127 --> 00:05:49,915 The workers will work for wages that most countries won't, 96 00:05:49,915 --> 00:05:51,797 because there's no alternative. 97 00:05:51,797 --> 00:05:56,851 Working for next to nothing is better than working for nothing. 98 00:05:57,931 --> 00:06:02,138 In real terms, next to nothing is $38 a month... 99 00:06:02,138 --> 00:06:04,200 or 24 cents an hour. 100 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:08,389 The lowest garment worker wage on the planet. 101 00:06:10,899 --> 00:06:13,769 The floodgates for Canadian business opened 102 00:06:13,769 --> 00:06:18,446 when Ottawa dropped import duties from Bangladesh in 2003. 103 00:06:18,446 --> 00:06:22,810 Canadian companies like Lululemon, HBC and Walmart Canada 104 00:06:22,810 --> 00:06:26,171 climbed aboard the Bangladeshi band wagon. 105 00:06:26,171 --> 00:06:30,515 The result, imports grew by 618%. 106 00:06:32,325 --> 00:06:34,807 Some say the front-runner in the race to the bottom 107 00:06:34,807 --> 00:06:37,495 was Loblaw brand Joe Fresh. 108 00:06:37,495 --> 00:06:42,351 These TV ads shows the appeal of its cheap and cheerful clothing line. 109 00:06:42,351 --> 00:06:45,700 The line has bounced its way to one of the top spots 110 00:06:45,700 --> 00:06:49,285 in the children's wear market in Canada. 111 00:06:50,415 --> 00:06:53,652 Speaking to the CBC in 2010 the company president said 112 00:06:53,652 --> 00:06:56,822 he's just giving consumers what they want. 113 00:06:56,822 --> 00:06:58,379 They wanted fashion, 114 00:06:58,379 --> 00:07:00,772 and they wanted fashion that would play across the country 115 00:07:00,772 --> 00:07:03,766 and they needed it at amazing price points. 116 00:07:05,086 --> 00:07:08,607 Joseph Mimran was now a fast fashion icon. 117 00:07:08,607 --> 00:07:11,912 But just how low could prices go? 118 00:07:12,762 --> 00:07:15,478 Well look at this TV Ad for Walmart. 119 00:07:15,478 --> 00:07:17,876 Clearly, the lower the better. 120 00:07:17,876 --> 00:07:20,612 Now more styles, and more stylish 121 00:07:20,612 --> 00:07:22,609 all at unbelievable prices 122 00:07:22,609 --> 00:07:25,186 Exclusively at Walmart. 123 00:07:25,186 --> 00:07:27,657 For designers like Sujeet Sennik, 124 00:07:27,657 --> 00:07:30,859 beauty took a backseat to price. 125 00:07:30,859 --> 00:07:34,735 What was the pressure put on you to make cheaper and cheaper clothes? 126 00:07:34,735 --> 00:07:37,188 Price is the starting point. It's everything. 127 00:07:37,188 --> 00:07:38,787 It was down to... 128 00:07:38,787 --> 00:07:41,795 You got 6 buttons on your shirt, take it down to 5. 129 00:07:41,795 --> 00:07:44,060 Can we take it down to 4? 130 00:07:44,060 --> 00:07:47,935 Sennik says he felt the pressure from retailers to cut costs, 131 00:07:47,935 --> 00:07:50,211 and so did the factory owners. 132 00:07:50,211 --> 00:07:54,403 They can't say no to, to a hundred thousand units. 133 00:07:54,403 --> 00:07:56,141 That means a very long time that 134 00:07:56,141 --> 00:08:00,106 the factory is going to be sitting idle if they don't get that order. 135 00:08:00,106 --> 00:08:01,420 So they needed you. 136 00:08:01,420 --> 00:08:03,501 They need you. They need you. 137 00:08:03,501 --> 00:08:07,712 And, you know, at the end of the day, that's not my decision, 138 00:08:07,712 --> 00:08:10,802 but, like... 139 00:08:10,802 --> 00:08:13,755 I started wondering, Mark, I really started wondering, 140 00:08:13,755 --> 00:08:19,399 how is it possible for clothing to be made at these low prices? 141 00:08:19,399 --> 00:08:20,949 It's a good question. 142 00:08:20,949 --> 00:08:26,893 Because while price was the priority, there was signs worker safety was not. 143 00:08:26,893 --> 00:08:30,737 In the decade before Rana Plaza, hundreds of people died 144 00:08:30,737 --> 00:08:35,258 in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh. 145 00:08:36,748 --> 00:08:39,529 Tragedy after tragedy, year after year, 146 00:08:39,529 --> 00:08:42,508 and no one in Canada seemed to notice. 147 00:08:42,508 --> 00:08:45,533 That changed in the morning of April 24, 148 00:08:49,953 --> 00:08:54,318 when the eight-storey Rana Plaza collapsed. 149 00:08:58,202 --> 00:09:01,666 More than 1100 people were killed. 150 00:09:03,512 --> 00:09:06,309 Hundreds are still missing, 151 00:09:07,596 --> 00:09:10,233 believed to be buried in the rubble. 152 00:09:11,761 --> 00:09:15,284 Tell me what happened when you learned about Rana Plaza. 153 00:09:15,284 --> 00:09:20,316 It was like, if you start having nightmares 154 00:09:20,316 --> 00:09:23,535 and then they become real, 155 00:09:23,535 --> 00:09:27,150 that was what Rana Plaza was for me. 156 00:09:27,930 --> 00:09:31,769 The search for survivors seemed to drag on and on. 157 00:09:33,439 --> 00:09:36,236 Save us brother, I beg you brother. 158 00:09:36,236 --> 00:09:38,518 I want to live. 159 00:09:38,518 --> 00:09:40,652 Sujeet remembers being called into 160 00:09:40,652 --> 00:09:42,903 one particular meeting after the collapse, 161 00:09:42,903 --> 00:09:46,223 where profits were put ahead of people. 162 00:09:46,633 --> 00:09:51,167 We were in a room full of people when we were told we were connected. 163 00:09:51,167 --> 00:09:55,493 And no one said anything about 1000 people. 164 00:09:55,493 --> 00:09:59,835 1000 people died, no one said a thing. 165 00:09:59,835 --> 00:10:02,441 They didn't, they didn't say anything about them, 166 00:10:02,441 --> 00:10:06,300 they just talked about their -- the loss in terms of units, 167 00:10:06,300 --> 00:10:08,553 how are they going to make up their margins. 168 00:10:08,553 --> 00:10:10,272 People were talking about that. 169 00:10:10,272 --> 00:10:13,838 And I sat there, I said nothing. 170 00:10:15,848 --> 00:10:18,437 Shame on me. 171 00:10:20,117 --> 00:10:22,774 Walmart was just one of dozens of companies 172 00:10:22,774 --> 00:10:24,685 that had used Rana Plaza. 173 00:10:24,685 --> 00:10:27,915 At the time of the collapse the biggest company in the building 174 00:10:27,915 --> 00:10:30,687 was making clothes for Joe Fresh. 175 00:10:30,687 --> 00:10:33,909 Their pink and red pants were found in the rubble 176 00:10:33,909 --> 00:10:37,352 along with the bodies of the workers who made them. 177 00:10:42,662 --> 00:10:44,339 One week after the collapse, 178 00:10:44,339 --> 00:10:47,563 Joseph Mimran and Loblaw chairman Gale Weston 179 00:10:47,563 --> 00:10:49,404 faced the glare of the media. 180 00:10:49,404 --> 00:10:53,162 This has been a -- quite a tragic event... 181 00:10:53,162 --> 00:10:57,358 ummm, and it's something that has touched all of our hearts -- 182 00:10:57,358 --> 00:11:00,321 It's been a very difficult week for everybody. 183 00:11:00,321 --> 00:11:03,592 I'm troubled that despite a clear commitment 184 00:11:03,592 --> 00:11:06,586 to the highest standards of ethical sourcing 185 00:11:06,586 --> 00:11:11,796 our company can still be a part of such an unspeakable tragedy. 186 00:11:11,796 --> 00:11:15,426 But just how deep was that commitment to ethical sourcing? 187 00:11:15,426 --> 00:11:17,746 What did Canadian companies know about 188 00:11:17,746 --> 00:11:20,869 how their clothes were being made in Bangladesh. 189 00:11:20,869 --> 00:11:23,953 And what did they do to find out? 190 00:11:27,348 --> 00:11:29,498 Sujeet wanted to find the truth. 191 00:11:29,498 --> 00:11:33,635 So he made a life-changing decision and quit his job. 192 00:11:33,635 --> 00:11:37,353 I thought, I don't want to be a part of this anymore. 193 00:11:37,353 --> 00:11:39,470 I can't be a part of this. 194 00:11:39,470 --> 00:11:41,893 So, I stopped. 195 00:11:43,763 --> 00:11:45,073 When we come back, 196 00:11:45,073 --> 00:11:46,583 Sueet's journey. 197 00:11:46,583 --> 00:11:53,142 Are we sending people to factories knowing that there's a huge danger? 198 00:11:53,142 --> 00:11:57,172 And a teenaged garment worker who survived the collapse. 199 00:12:12,733 --> 00:12:17,699 Welcome to the wild west of the global garment industry. 200 00:12:18,409 --> 00:12:21,891 Bangladesh has one of the world's densest populations, 201 00:12:21,891 --> 00:12:26,029 political instability and world class corruption. 202 00:12:26,029 --> 00:12:29,493 And since the 90's, the economy has grown by double digits, 203 00:12:29,493 --> 00:12:32,718 fueled by fast fashion. 204 00:12:32,718 --> 00:12:34,359 Factories sit unfinished, 205 00:12:34,359 --> 00:12:38,956 Just waiting for new floors to be added to accommodate new business. 206 00:12:38,956 --> 00:12:44,827 And every morning, scenes like this play out through the capital Dhaka, 207 00:12:44,827 --> 00:12:49,177 as 4 million garment workers quietly file into work. 208 00:12:53,607 --> 00:12:58,051 They carry with them memories of Rana Plaza, 209 00:12:59,621 --> 00:13:03,683 wondering if a tragedy like this could happen to them. 210 00:13:13,863 --> 00:13:17,163 The Rana collapse put Sujeet Sennik on a mission. 211 00:13:17,163 --> 00:13:20,001 The former fashion designer from Walmart Canada 212 00:13:20,001 --> 00:13:22,286 now wanted to learn the truth 213 00:13:22,286 --> 00:13:25,900 about how the clothes he designed were made. 214 00:13:25,900 --> 00:13:28,208 I had to find out for myself. 215 00:13:28,208 --> 00:13:31,441 Is this what my industry has been doing? 216 00:13:31,441 --> 00:13:33,704 Are we doing this on purpose? 217 00:13:33,704 --> 00:13:37,839 Are we sending people to factories 218 00:13:37,839 --> 00:13:41,505 knowing that there's a huge danger? 219 00:13:41,505 --> 00:13:44,615 Sujeet traveled with us to Bangladesh. 220 00:13:44,615 --> 00:13:47,976 First stop, a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, 221 00:13:47,976 --> 00:13:52,419 an unlikely backdrop for the deadliest accident in the garment industry 222 00:13:52,419 --> 00:13:55,461 before Rana Plaza. 223 00:13:55,461 --> 00:13:57,765 This is Tazreen. 224 00:14:01,455 --> 00:14:03,392 It's massive. 225 00:14:04,722 --> 00:14:07,104 November 2012. 226 00:14:07,104 --> 00:14:11,093 Fire broke out in the Tazreen fashion factory, 227 00:14:11,093 --> 00:14:17,000 a 9-storey building, though the owner only had a permit for 3 storeys. 228 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:18,909 There were no fire escapes. 229 00:14:18,909 --> 00:14:21,657 Many doors were blocked by boxes. 230 00:14:21,657 --> 00:14:24,366 Windows were barred shut. 231 00:14:24,366 --> 00:14:25,787 Months before the blaze, 232 00:14:25,787 --> 00:14:30,367 the factory's fire safety certificate had been revoked. 233 00:14:30,367 --> 00:14:35,346 Most of the 112 victims here were burned alive. 234 00:14:37,066 --> 00:14:41,797 When the Tazreen factory fire happened, I was horrified. 235 00:14:41,797 --> 00:14:44,460 All these fingers were pointing all everywhere, 236 00:14:44,460 --> 00:14:46,986 and no one was saying, hey listen, maybe, 237 00:14:46,986 --> 00:14:51,398 maybe, we might have just a little bit to do with this. 238 00:14:52,408 --> 00:14:56,206 Walmart did indeed have something to do with this factory. 239 00:14:56,206 --> 00:15:00,700 Their Faded Glory shorts were pulled from the ashes. 240 00:15:00,700 --> 00:15:03,615 The company tried to distance itself from the tragedy, 241 00:15:03,615 --> 00:15:08,593 insisting Tazreen was not an authorized Walmart factory. 242 00:15:09,243 --> 00:15:12,592 There's bars on every single window. 243 00:15:12,592 --> 00:15:15,959 How were these people supposed to get out of here? 244 00:15:15,959 --> 00:15:18,352 There's no escaping. 245 00:15:27,205 --> 00:15:29,044 I wonder for you, Sujeet, 246 00:15:29,044 --> 00:15:34,105 what is this building..., what is this a symbol of to you? 247 00:15:34,105 --> 00:15:36,093 I think it's shame. 248 00:15:36,093 --> 00:15:42,355 We should be ashamed of ourselves to let something like this happen. 249 00:15:42,355 --> 00:15:45,038 How was it possible that people didn't know that 250 00:15:45,038 --> 00:15:49,129 this factory was built this way? 251 00:15:50,439 --> 00:15:52,780 This woman emerged from the crowd of the curious 252 00:15:52,780 --> 00:15:54,249 to tell us her story 253 00:15:54,249 --> 00:15:56,691 how workers knocked out a ventilation fan, 254 00:15:56,691 --> 00:16:01,007 and how she survived by jumping 3 stories to the ground. 255 00:16:01,007 --> 00:16:02,592 Will you ever work again? 256 00:16:02,592 --> 00:16:04,726 Will you ever have another job after your injuries here? 257 00:16:05,806 --> 00:16:07,578 How am I supposed to work? 258 00:16:07,578 --> 00:16:10,793 I'm afraid to work and no one wants to take me. 259 00:16:10,793 --> 00:16:13,470 I cannot sit or lie down for a long time. 260 00:16:13,470 --> 00:16:16,461 I get better when I take medicine, 261 00:16:16,461 --> 00:16:19,432 but when I don't it's painful. 262 00:16:19,432 --> 00:16:20,916 With few prospects, 263 00:16:20,916 --> 00:16:26,089 she appears as disposable as the fast fashion she once made here. 264 00:16:27,959 --> 00:16:30,319 This could have been one of my prints. 265 00:16:30,319 --> 00:16:32,876 You know, snakeskin's in. 266 00:16:32,876 --> 00:16:35,909 There it is. 267 00:16:35,909 --> 00:16:40,794 It could have been a shirt, a dress. 268 00:16:40,794 --> 00:16:44,250 Is it that important that you have to bar people 269 00:16:44,250 --> 00:16:47,122 into a building to meet our deadlines? 270 00:16:47,122 --> 00:16:49,837 It's not, not for me. 271 00:16:49,837 --> 00:16:52,518 It's disgusting. 272 00:16:54,168 --> 00:16:58,190 So how did Walmart's clothes end up at such a dangerous factory? 273 00:16:58,190 --> 00:17:01,679 An investigation by Walmart concluded one of its suppliers 274 00:17:01,679 --> 00:17:07,160 subcontracted part of the order to Tazreen without their permission. 275 00:17:11,070 --> 00:17:14,184 But how hard would it be for Canadian retailers to find out 276 00:17:14,184 --> 00:17:16,962 where their clothes are being made? 277 00:17:16,962 --> 00:17:18,401 We wanted to find out, 278 00:17:18,401 --> 00:17:22,596 so we bought a Walmart shirt in Canada that Sujeet had designed. 279 00:17:22,596 --> 00:17:27,254 Shipping records led us to a factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. 280 00:17:28,395 --> 00:17:32,386 The record named the factory: Hasan Tanvir. 281 00:17:32,386 --> 00:17:36,286 Walmart publishes a list of banned factories in Bangladesh, 282 00:17:36,286 --> 00:17:39,425 factories that have failed the company's audits. 283 00:17:39,425 --> 00:17:43,373 And this factory has been on that list since June. 284 00:17:44,023 --> 00:17:47,068 We made repeated requests to visit the factory, 285 00:17:47,068 --> 00:17:50,012 but it wasn't until we showed up with our camera 286 00:17:50,012 --> 00:17:52,236 that the manager would even talk to us. 287 00:17:52,236 --> 00:17:54,726 Hi, my name is Mark. I'm from Canada. 288 00:17:54,726 --> 00:17:56,787 Canadian television, how are you? 289 00:17:56,787 --> 00:17:58,014 Fine. 290 00:17:58,014 --> 00:18:00,178 We want to see where our clothes are being made 291 00:18:00,178 --> 00:18:03,261 and how they are being made. And that's why we came over here. 292 00:18:03,261 --> 00:18:05,344 I want to go inside and visit. 293 00:18:05,344 --> 00:18:07,134 But even he wouldn't let us in. 294 00:18:07,134 --> 00:18:10,057 Instead, he passed us off to another manager. 295 00:18:10,057 --> 00:18:12,873 Have you made this here? 296 00:18:20,093 --> 00:18:25,081 We have a shipping record here that shows that it was made here. 297 00:18:25,081 --> 00:18:27,816 Hasan Tanvir Fashion Wears. 298 00:18:27,816 --> 00:18:30,818 This is your address. This is where this came from. 299 00:18:30,818 --> 00:18:33,348 That's not mine. 300 00:18:33,348 --> 00:18:34,747 Hello? 301 00:18:39,522 --> 00:18:40,912 Excuse me. 302 00:18:45,897 --> 00:18:49,367 He says he's never seen this before, doesn't recognize it, 303 00:18:49,367 --> 00:18:53,470 despite the fact that we showed it was in fact made 304 00:18:53,470 --> 00:18:57,842 right there at Hasan Tanvir Fashion Wears. 305 00:18:58,572 --> 00:19:00,171 Walmart puts it this way: 306 00:19:00,171 --> 00:19:03,228 they do make shirts here, but not our shirt. 307 00:19:03,228 --> 00:19:06,499 In fact 3 months after blacklisting this factory, 308 00:19:06,499 --> 00:19:09,994 Walmart admits they are still making clothes here... 309 00:19:09,994 --> 00:19:12,980 one last order they say. 310 00:19:19,443 --> 00:19:21,918 Since we couldn't get in to meet the workers, 311 00:19:21,918 --> 00:19:26,378 then we would take Sujeet to meet them at home after work. 312 00:19:28,788 --> 00:19:31,312 In this entire area here, 313 00:19:31,312 --> 00:19:35,440 everyone who lives here works in a garment factory. 314 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,926 It's like a compound of garment factory workers, 315 00:19:37,926 --> 00:19:41,410 so we're going to go in and meet some of them tonight. 316 00:19:41,410 --> 00:19:42,378 Okay. 317 00:19:43,978 --> 00:19:45,451 We'll be there tonight. 318 00:19:45,451 --> 00:19:47,955 Wow. 319 00:19:47,955 --> 00:19:53,351 These are, 9 people who work at the factory. 320 00:19:53,906 --> 00:19:55,940 They asked us to hide their faces, 321 00:19:55,940 --> 00:20:00,033 fearing they'd lose their jobs simply for talking to us... 322 00:20:00,033 --> 00:20:03,180 I want to know who are you making garments for now 323 00:20:03,180 --> 00:20:05,201 inside the factory. 324 00:20:05,201 --> 00:20:08,169 Canada, Canada, Canada. 325 00:20:08,169 --> 00:20:11,567 We hear that there are problems working inside Hasan Tanvir 326 00:20:11,567 --> 00:20:15,710 and we had reports that there was a fire at the factory recently. 327 00:20:15,710 --> 00:20:17,789 Can they tell us what happened? 328 00:20:18,899 --> 00:20:22,072 When the fire really started to spread, 329 00:20:22,072 --> 00:20:24,379 all the workers started to protest, 330 00:20:24,379 --> 00:20:26,377 they broke the gates and escaped. 331 00:20:26,377 --> 00:20:28,048 They didn't wanna let us out. 332 00:20:28,048 --> 00:20:29,560 They never wanna let us out. 333 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,624 They just want to turn off the lights and keep us in there 334 00:20:32,624 --> 00:20:35,404 and say "sit down, shut up and work." 335 00:20:35,404 --> 00:20:41,939 Do any of you worry that one day you may die in your factory? 336 00:20:43,839 --> 00:20:45,801 Of course. Of course. 337 00:20:45,801 --> 00:20:48,534 And it happened all the time. It happened regularly. 338 00:20:48,534 --> 00:20:53,400 Yeah, it happened all the time. Every few days there's a fire. 339 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,287 I want to know if... if you recognize this shirt? 340 00:20:56,287 --> 00:21:03,209 If any of you recognize having made this shirt over the past few months? 341 00:21:03,209 --> 00:21:05,901 Is this something that you made in the factory? 342 00:21:05,901 --> 00:21:09,686 We showed them Sujeet's shirt that we bought in Canada. 343 00:21:11,836 --> 00:21:14,664 Yeah, it's from the 5th floor. 344 00:21:14,664 --> 00:21:20,893 I made it when I used to work on the 5th floor. 345 00:21:20,893 --> 00:21:24,275 So she worked on this garment? 346 00:21:24,275 --> 00:21:26,285 Yes. 347 00:21:26,285 --> 00:21:33,173 I designed this garment. I drew this garment. 348 00:21:33,173 --> 00:21:37,578 Look, I did this... 349 00:21:37,578 --> 00:21:43,786 So you put these two pieces together. So you put the sleeve in. 350 00:21:43,786 --> 00:21:46,637 Thank you. 351 00:21:48,567 --> 00:21:52,727 How do you feel meeting the woman who made your design? 352 00:21:52,727 --> 00:21:56,030 I'm grateful to meet you. 353 00:21:56,030 --> 00:21:58,884 I wanted to meet you. 354 00:22:02,144 --> 00:22:08,459 It's nice to finally be able to see you 355 00:22:08,459 --> 00:22:14,660 and tell you that I think that you should have a better life. 356 00:22:19,491 --> 00:22:22,047 Coming up... 357 00:22:22,047 --> 00:22:28,102 Why were Joe Fresh clothes being made in the death trap that was Rana Plaza? 358 00:22:28,102 --> 00:22:33,372 We go inside a prison in Bangladesh looking for answers. 359 00:22:53,197 --> 00:23:00,368 Every piece of clothing we wear has a silent story stitched into it. 360 00:23:00,368 --> 00:23:05,786 The story of who made it and where. 361 00:23:05,786 --> 00:23:11,441 When Rana Plaza collapsed in April, those stories came spilling out. 362 00:23:11,441 --> 00:23:17,343 So, did the clothes from the ill fated factory ever make it to Canada? 363 00:23:17,343 --> 00:23:22,049 Well, we visited 6 stores in the Toronto area, with a hidden camera, 364 00:23:22,049 --> 00:23:26,128 3 months after the Rana Plaza collapse. 365 00:23:26,128 --> 00:23:30,976 We found clothes made in Rana Plaza, in sore after store. 366 00:23:30,976 --> 00:23:32,544 So I have a question... 367 00:23:32,544 --> 00:23:35,450 But you wouldn't know it by asking the sales associates. 368 00:23:35,450 --> 00:23:38,313 There was really like, there was really only one product 369 00:23:38,313 --> 00:23:40,927 that we were making in that particular factory. 370 00:23:40,927 --> 00:23:43,259 It was like this line of pants that we did 371 00:23:43,259 --> 00:23:45,239 We never ended up getting them. Like obviously, 372 00:23:45,239 --> 00:23:48,494 like we just like, got rid of it and everything. 373 00:23:48,494 --> 00:23:51,390 It's doubtful that it was from that factory. 374 00:23:51,390 --> 00:23:55,124 That stuff that was made in that place never even made it here. 375 00:23:55,554 --> 00:23:59,041 Loblaw's shipping records revealed all these styles, 376 00:23:59,041 --> 00:24:04,237 hundreds of thousands of garments were made in Rana Plaza before the collapse, 377 00:24:04,237 --> 00:24:08,080 and sold in Joe Fresh sores this summer. 378 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,088 So how did clothes for Joe Fresh end up beingmade 379 00:24:16,088 --> 00:24:18,439 in the death-trap that was Rana Plaza? 380 00:24:18,439 --> 00:24:20,672 Well, that's a question we had for the factory owner. 381 00:24:20,672 --> 00:24:23,003 The problem is he's behind bars, 382 00:24:23,003 --> 00:24:25,705 charged with negligence in the deaths of the workers. 383 00:24:25,705 --> 00:24:28,601 So "The Fifth Estate" petitioned the Bangladeshi government 384 00:24:28,601 --> 00:24:30,142 for permission to speak with him. 385 00:24:30,142 --> 00:24:33,582 The government eventually agreed but with one condition. 386 00:24:33,582 --> 00:24:37,259 Our camera would not be allowed inside the prison. 387 00:24:39,006 --> 00:24:44,302 As public outrage grew after the collapse, Bazlus Adnan surrendered to police. 388 00:24:44,302 --> 00:24:48,895 His three factories occupied almost half of Rana Plaza. 389 00:24:48,895 --> 00:24:53,438 We arrived at Dhaka Central Jail, where he's waiting trial. 390 00:24:53,438 --> 00:24:55,068 He began our interview saying 391 00:24:55,068 --> 00:24:59,266 how he parlayed an $8000 loan from his dad in 1992, 392 00:24:59,266 --> 00:25:02,768 and turned it into a $15 million a year business, 393 00:25:02,768 --> 00:25:07,360 thanks in large part to his best customer, Joe Fresh. 394 00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:12,328 Joe Fresh was my biggest client, about $6 million year. 395 00:25:12,328 --> 00:25:14,634 That is why I was going bigger. 396 00:25:14,634 --> 00:25:17,519 He says he was eager to please his biggest client, 397 00:25:17,519 --> 00:25:23,066 so work had begun on Rana Plaza to add a ninth floor for his booming business. 398 00:25:23,066 --> 00:25:26,882 I asked whether he was under pressure to make clothes cheaper... and faster... 399 00:25:26,882 --> 00:25:28,878 Everybody is doing this. 400 00:25:28,878 --> 00:25:30,703 They all squeezed me. 401 00:25:30,703 --> 00:25:33,134 But Joe Fresh was a very good customer. 402 00:25:33,134 --> 00:25:36,927 Their policy was just ship it on time. 403 00:25:37,597 --> 00:25:39,554 Before my time was up for the interview, 404 00:25:39,554 --> 00:25:42,114 I asked him to name one Loblaw employee 405 00:25:42,114 --> 00:25:47,280 who had ever visited his factory at Rana Plaza before the collapse. 406 00:25:48,460 --> 00:25:50,532 He couldn't. 407 00:25:51,862 --> 00:25:55,004 This ledger helps explain how that could happen. 408 00:25:55,004 --> 00:25:58,059 From the entries here, we learned Loblaw placed orders 409 00:25:58,059 --> 00:26:00,888 with a buying house in India called House of Pearl, 410 00:26:00,888 --> 00:26:06,194 who, in turn, placed Joe Fresh orders with the factory at Rana Plaza. 411 00:26:06,194 --> 00:26:07,834 House of Pearl, we learned, 412 00:26:07,834 --> 00:26:12,173 hired inspectors to check the quality of the clothes made in Rana Plaza, 413 00:26:12,173 --> 00:26:15,815 but not to inspect building safety. 414 00:26:17,705 --> 00:26:20,798 Outsourcing ethical responsibilities to third parties, 415 00:26:20,798 --> 00:26:24,292 enables companies like Loblaw to distance themselves 416 00:26:24,292 --> 00:26:26,705 from the work being done on the ground, 417 00:26:26,705 --> 00:26:30,283 according to our Canadian factory owner Barry Laxer. 418 00:26:30,963 --> 00:26:34,167 You know, after Rana Plaza happened all these realities were saying, 419 00:26:34,167 --> 00:26:35,683 "well we didn't know." 420 00:26:35,683 --> 00:26:39,143 Is that true? Did they not know what was going on in this country? 421 00:26:39,143 --> 00:26:42,514 A lot of companies just want cheap manufacturing. 422 00:26:42,514 --> 00:26:45,461 So, they don't really look. 423 00:26:47,301 --> 00:26:48,815 Or ask the tough questions. 424 00:26:48,815 --> 00:26:51,156 Or ask the questions, because if you don't ask the questions, 425 00:26:51,156 --> 00:26:53,049 you don't get the answers that you don't want to hear. 426 00:26:53,049 --> 00:26:56,177 Was the Rana Plaza collapse a wakeup call? 427 00:26:56,177 --> 00:26:58,969 I mean, do you really believe this going to change anything here? 428 00:26:58,969 --> 00:27:03,008 I think in the end a lot of companies are continuing 429 00:27:03,008 --> 00:27:06,497 just to look for margin and cost. 430 00:27:06,497 --> 00:27:10,037 And -- and... 431 00:27:10,037 --> 00:27:12,033 Ultimately that's why they're here, right? 432 00:27:12,033 --> 00:27:13,533 That's why they're here. 433 00:27:13,533 --> 00:27:15,446 If that wasn't the issue, 434 00:27:15,446 --> 00:27:19,783 they could be buying products made in the United States or Canada. 435 00:27:23,373 --> 00:27:28,294 We wanted to know more about the working conditions inside Rana Plaza. 436 00:27:28,754 --> 00:27:32,404 Who better to tell us than the people who worked there. 437 00:27:33,134 --> 00:27:34,547 After the collapse, 438 00:27:34,547 --> 00:27:38,955 cameras captured this footage of survivors recovering in a hospital. 439 00:27:40,105 --> 00:27:45,149 We were intrigued by this girl, who was trapped in the rubble for three days 440 00:27:45,149 --> 00:27:48,762 pinned under two dead bodies. 441 00:27:48,762 --> 00:27:51,513 She lost her mother, as well as her leg. 442 00:27:53,023 --> 00:27:58,403 Both mother and daughter were making clothes for Joe Fresh. 443 00:28:06,413 --> 00:28:10,448 Months after the collapse, we finally found her. 444 00:28:10,448 --> 00:28:12,516 Her name is Aruti. 445 00:28:12,516 --> 00:28:18,019 She tells us she is 17, though her grandmother says she is really 15. 446 00:28:18,019 --> 00:28:21,279 A kid making kids clothes for Canadians. 447 00:28:23,969 --> 00:28:26,742 Do you recognize these shorts? 448 00:28:26,742 --> 00:28:28,884 Like these shorts. 449 00:28:30,004 --> 00:28:32,557 Yeah. These pants were there. 450 00:28:32,557 --> 00:28:37,083 She sewed pocket seams, 150 pockets an hour. 451 00:28:38,063 --> 00:28:41,411 How do you feel when you look at these pants? 452 00:28:44,571 --> 00:28:46,070 I feel sad. 453 00:28:46,070 --> 00:28:51,870 If I didn't work in that factory, this would not have happened. 454 00:28:51,870 --> 00:28:55,075 I feel very bad seeing these pants. 455 00:28:55,465 --> 00:28:58,892 She says she's been working in the industry for three years, 456 00:28:58,892 --> 00:29:02,230 meaning she started when she was just 12. 457 00:29:02,230 --> 00:29:06,088 Like many women in Bangladesh, she felt it was her only hope. 458 00:29:08,038 --> 00:29:13,280 When I was little, I thought I would grow up, go to school, study, and have a job. 459 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,306 If you study, you have a job, a doctor, a teacher. 460 00:29:17,306 --> 00:29:19,506 You can have any job. 461 00:29:19,506 --> 00:29:24,324 But I couldn't do it, because I'm poor, I have to work to eat. 462 00:29:24,324 --> 00:29:27,700 That's why I went into garment work. 463 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:33,418 Aruti's shift was punishing, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. 464 00:29:33,418 --> 00:29:37,398 And when a rush order was placed, overtime was demanded. 465 00:29:37,398 --> 00:29:41,233 How did your bosses treat you and the other workers? 466 00:29:43,233 --> 00:29:48,040 If the others didn't know how to do the work, they used to yell and swear. 467 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:53,060 If I can't work fast enough and meet the target, they'll swear at me as well. 468 00:29:53,060 --> 00:29:56,158 I would feel really bad. 469 00:29:59,348 --> 00:30:03,944 She also remembers how cracks had been spotted inside Rana Plaza 470 00:30:03,944 --> 00:30:05,947 the day before the tragedy. 471 00:30:05,947 --> 00:30:07,778 The building was evacuated. 472 00:30:07,778 --> 00:30:09,879 She didn't believe the building owner, 473 00:30:09,879 --> 00:30:14,330 who insisted everything was safe, just hours before the collapse. 474 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,608 This is not a crack, it's just that the plaster came off 475 00:30:19,608 --> 00:30:23,578 a little bit. They made it seem a big thing. 476 00:30:25,778 --> 00:30:29,768 The next day, April 24th, her boss phoned her home 477 00:30:29,768 --> 00:30:33,880 and ordered her to get back to work, or she'd be fired. 478 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,767 On that day that they told you to go back to work, 479 00:30:37,767 --> 00:30:40,930 were you afraid? Were you worried that that building was dangerous? 480 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,616 There were many of us who didn't want to go. 481 00:30:46,616 --> 00:30:49,273 But they forced us. They said, 482 00:30:49,273 --> 00:30:55,033 "Don't worry, nothing will happen. And if you die we'll die, too." 483 00:30:55,033 --> 00:30:57,291 But they didn't go inside. 484 00:30:57,291 --> 00:31:00,213 They made us to start work and then left. 485 00:31:00,213 --> 00:31:01,852 I was scared. 486 00:31:01,852 --> 00:31:04,018 But there was nothing I could do. 487 00:31:04,018 --> 00:31:09,109 If I stopped working, the line would stop, and I would be in trouble. 488 00:31:12,179 --> 00:31:14,525 She and her fellow workers returned. 489 00:31:14,525 --> 00:31:18,947 An hour later, the building collapsed. 490 00:31:18,947 --> 00:31:22,806 Aruti was on the 6th floor. 491 00:31:23,326 --> 00:31:27,260 What do you remember about the moment the building collapsed? 492 00:31:28,500 --> 00:31:31,917 When it collapsed, I thought, I wouldn't survive. 493 00:31:31,917 --> 00:31:36,415 Two dead bodied fell on my leg and my leg was stuck there. 494 00:31:36,415 --> 00:31:39,791 The roof fell on top of the bodies. 495 00:31:39,791 --> 00:31:44,598 I didn't know then that I would actually come out alive. 496 00:31:46,578 --> 00:31:49,518 Her family received some compensation from the government 497 00:31:49,518 --> 00:31:52,610 for the death of her mother and the loss of her leg. 498 00:31:52,610 --> 00:31:55,430 When asked what she received from Loblaw, 499 00:31:55,430 --> 00:31:58,180 she told us she is still hoping. 500 00:32:00,341 --> 00:32:01,701 When we come back, 501 00:32:01,701 --> 00:32:06,956 we expose an even uglier side of the fashion industry in Bangladesh. 502 00:32:08,436 --> 00:32:11,188 You've been hit. You've been hit. 503 00:32:22,606 --> 00:32:24,650 After the collapse of Rana Plaza, 504 00:32:24,650 --> 00:32:29,591 the Bangladeshi government scrambled to assure nervous retailers and consumers 505 00:32:29,591 --> 00:32:33,239 that the country was a safe place to do business. 506 00:32:34,709 --> 00:32:35,849 But even Loblaw, 507 00:32:35,849 --> 00:32:39,571 who had been making Joe Fresh clothes in this country for 7 years, 508 00:32:39,571 --> 00:32:42,205 wondered how garment workers could be exposed 509 00:32:42,205 --> 00:32:45,537 to what it called unacceptable risk. 510 00:32:46,577 --> 00:32:50,443 So we took a closer look... and discovered within 3 hours, 511 00:32:50,443 --> 00:32:55,333 how easy it was to find the ugly side of fast fashion. 512 00:32:57,253 --> 00:33:02,382 A factory dumping technicolored waste water directly into a river. 513 00:33:06,062 --> 00:33:08,947 A river that now runs black. 514 00:33:11,617 --> 00:33:16,239 Then we saw a jute factory with an open door that caught our eye. 515 00:33:17,359 --> 00:33:20,414 Inside, the air was tick with dust; 516 00:33:21,674 --> 00:33:24,304 dust from a toxic dye. 517 00:33:24,574 --> 00:33:27,644 Yet no one here wore a mask. 518 00:33:31,344 --> 00:33:35,669 Within minutes, we were kicked out by the owner and his thugs. 519 00:33:38,099 --> 00:33:42,121 Finally, we went into one last factory with a hidden camera. 520 00:33:42,661 --> 00:33:45,824 I'll show you a very good factory. Everything in one place. 521 00:33:46,484 --> 00:33:49,925 And found these children operating looms. 522 00:33:49,925 --> 00:33:55,138 One manager admitted some factory owners hire kids under the age of 10 for menial jobs, 523 00:33:55,138 --> 00:33:57,978 and paid them about a dollar a day. 524 00:33:59,478 --> 00:34:03,806 The garment industry has made some people in this country fabulously rich, 525 00:34:04,486 --> 00:34:07,911 but poverty is still everywhere you look. 526 00:34:09,061 --> 00:34:13,547 Some of the poorest are these squatters who live next to the railway tracks, 527 00:34:13,547 --> 00:34:16,202 in the shadow of wealth. 528 00:34:18,762 --> 00:34:22,423 This gleaming tower is home to the BGMEA. 529 00:34:22,423 --> 00:34:25,240 That's the business group that represents the titans 530 00:34:25,240 --> 00:34:27,964 of the garment industry in Bangladesh. 531 00:34:32,024 --> 00:34:36,692 We arrived to find a thousand angry workers protesting outside. 532 00:34:37,482 --> 00:34:41,171 They say they haven't been paid by their employer in a month. 533 00:34:42,241 --> 00:34:45,027 They work for a factory that, until last fall, 534 00:34:45,027 --> 00:34:47,547 made clothes for Canadians. 535 00:34:49,777 --> 00:34:51,230 So what happened? 536 00:34:51,230 --> 00:34:52,891 Shoom, shoom, shoom. 537 00:34:52,891 --> 00:34:55,016 You've been hit. You've been hit. 538 00:34:55,016 --> 00:34:56,629 He'd been hit. 539 00:34:56,629 --> 00:34:59,081 He'd been hit. He'd been hit. 540 00:34:59,081 --> 00:35:00,638 Who did this to you? 541 00:35:00,638 --> 00:35:01,427 Bamboo. 542 00:35:01,427 --> 00:35:02,578 Yes, yes, bamboo. 543 00:35:02,578 --> 00:35:03,578 Who did this? 544 00:35:03,578 --> 00:35:05,324 The owners hired gangsters? 545 00:35:05,324 --> 00:35:06,573 Yes, yes, gangster. 546 00:35:06,573 --> 00:35:08,010 And what were you doing? 547 00:35:08,010 --> 00:35:09,613 You were just protesting? 548 00:35:09,613 --> 00:35:10,325 Yes. 549 00:35:10,325 --> 00:35:13,793 You were protesting because you wanted your back-wages. 550 00:35:13,793 --> 00:35:14,434 Yes. 551 00:35:14,434 --> 00:35:16,690 And you make clothes for Canada? 552 00:35:16,690 --> 00:35:17,904 Yes. 553 00:35:19,524 --> 00:35:23,219 We had some questions for the powerful head of the garment industry, 554 00:35:23,219 --> 00:35:26,500 the top man Canadian retailers deal with. 555 00:35:26,500 --> 00:35:30,349 Atiqul Islam is a prominent factory owner in his own right. 556 00:35:30,349 --> 00:35:34,579 He's made clothes for Walmart Canada, Loblaw and HBC. 557 00:35:35,359 --> 00:35:38,884 I asked him about the protest outside his window. 558 00:35:40,034 --> 00:35:42,557 This is completely open industry. 559 00:35:42,557 --> 00:35:45,602 If you don't like there you can go the other work there. 560 00:35:45,602 --> 00:35:49,958 We have a 25% worker shortage in the industry, still today. 561 00:35:49,958 --> 00:35:52,800 In other words, if workers are abused, 562 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,984 his advice? Quit and work somewhere else. 563 00:35:55,984 --> 00:35:58,984 When I ask him about the bad factories we saw, 564 00:35:58,984 --> 00:36:02,957 the child labor, the pollution, the dangerous working conditions, 565 00:36:02,957 --> 00:36:04,772 he wasn't alarmed. 566 00:36:04,772 --> 00:36:07,047 A lot of factories that are state of the art. 567 00:36:07,047 --> 00:36:09,948 We've seen the nice ones. We've seen the state of the art. 568 00:36:09,948 --> 00:36:13,297 We've seen the example of where the industry is moving. 569 00:36:13,297 --> 00:36:15,070 But you're at a point right now 570 00:36:15,070 --> 00:36:17,546 where there are some shining examples but... 571 00:36:17,546 --> 00:36:18,639 So for that, 572 00:36:18,639 --> 00:36:21,988 sometimes the shiny is covered by the cloud of this kind of thing. 573 00:36:21,988 --> 00:36:25,151 So we need to clean the cloud. 574 00:36:25,451 --> 00:36:27,963 But what about illegal subcontracting, 575 00:36:27,963 --> 00:36:31,329 when one factory gives order to another without approval? 576 00:36:31,749 --> 00:36:35,451 If the factories are overbooked, they must say no, I'm overbooked. 577 00:36:35,451 --> 00:36:38,647 And as well as from the outside, the retailers side also. 578 00:36:38,647 --> 00:36:40,413 But you're a businessman. 579 00:36:40,413 --> 00:36:43,267 Are they really going to say I'm overbooked and I can't take the business? 580 00:36:43,267 --> 00:36:44,211 Yah, yah, yah. 581 00:36:44,211 --> 00:36:45,353 Everybody wants the business. 582 00:36:45,353 --> 00:36:46,873 No, no, no. It's not like that. 583 00:36:46,873 --> 00:36:49,412 Things are completely changed. It is not like that. 584 00:36:49,412 --> 00:36:53,126 We had spoken with some sources who work for Walmart Canada. 585 00:36:53,126 --> 00:36:56,023 They placed an order with your group, 586 00:36:56,023 --> 00:36:59,185 and they said that that order was then ended up being 587 00:36:59,185 --> 00:37:02,326 made at factory that was not approved. 588 00:37:02,326 --> 00:37:04,269 Hasan Tanvir. 589 00:37:04,269 --> 00:37:05,123 Hasan? 590 00:37:05,123 --> 00:37:06,363 Hasan Tanvir. 591 00:37:06,363 --> 00:37:08,573 Remember that Walmart shirt -- 592 00:37:08,573 --> 00:37:12,110 Well, we had questions about who exactly made it. 593 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,348 We showed it to workers and they said "yah", they made it. 594 00:37:20,348 --> 00:37:27,385 It is very difficult for me to know whether I'm making this, number one. 595 00:37:27,385 --> 00:37:30,965 And number two, there's no way that we're giving the goods to the outside. 596 00:37:30,965 --> 00:37:36,737 It's absolutely no way. Our all garments is made in our factory. 597 00:37:36,737 --> 00:37:42,384 But Walmart told us Mr. Islam did indeed have the contract to make Sujeet's shirt. 598 00:37:42,384 --> 00:37:46,071 But at his own factory, not not Hasan Tanvir. 599 00:37:47,181 --> 00:37:50,646 Thank you. Thank you, I'll take that. 600 00:37:50,646 --> 00:37:52,254 You don't need that. 601 00:37:52,254 --> 00:37:55,804 Can I just see this one thing. Just have a seat and I, uh.... 602 00:37:55,804 --> 00:37:56,779 Absolutely. 603 00:37:56,779 --> 00:38:02,113 And then something extraordinary happened after our interview wrapped up... 604 00:38:02,113 --> 00:38:03,515 Look in the background, 605 00:38:03,515 --> 00:38:09,009 as Mr. Islam conceals the garment behind his desk with a pen in hand. 606 00:38:15,639 --> 00:38:20,019 After we left we noticed the tag on the shirt had been defaced. 607 00:38:20,019 --> 00:38:24,490 The barcode and the Canadian import number that could connect 608 00:38:24,490 --> 00:38:27,972 their shirt to Atiqul Islam's company were blacked out. 609 00:38:27,972 --> 00:38:32,385 We asked him the next day if he did it. He denied it. 610 00:38:33,655 --> 00:38:37,556 As for Loblaw and Joe Fresh -- the Canadian company insists 611 00:38:37,556 --> 00:38:41,622 it will help lead lead the way to clean up the industry in Bangladesh. 612 00:38:41,622 --> 00:38:45,253 Our industry can be a force for good. 613 00:38:45,253 --> 00:38:51,141 Properly inspected, well built factories play (an) important role 614 00:38:51,141 --> 00:38:54,663 in the development of countries such as Bangladesh. 615 00:38:55,263 --> 00:38:59,469 Did Loblaw properly inspect before Rana Plaza before the collapse? 616 00:38:59,469 --> 00:39:02,205 They say they did visit the factory. 617 00:39:02,205 --> 00:39:05,235 So why were they still making clothes there? 618 00:39:06,005 --> 00:39:08,578 That's what we wanted to ask Joe Mimran, 619 00:39:08,578 --> 00:39:12,269 but we were told he wasn't available for an interview. 620 00:39:12,849 --> 00:39:15,991 I am troubled by the deafening silence 621 00:39:15,991 --> 00:39:19,430 from other apparel retailers on this issue. 622 00:39:19,430 --> 00:39:22,515 And while Loblaw CEO Galen Weston 623 00:39:22,515 --> 00:39:25,821 publicly criticizes other companies for their deafening silence, 624 00:39:25,821 --> 00:39:29,144 he declined to be interviewed for this story. 625 00:39:32,204 --> 00:39:33,931 Loblaw did send us an email 626 00:39:33,931 --> 00:39:37,000 outlining their efforts to help workers in Bangladesh. 627 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:38,575 They say since the collapse 628 00:39:38,575 --> 00:39:41,646 they've contributed a million dollars to two charities, 629 00:39:41,646 --> 00:39:44,475 and joined a compliance accord with other retailers 630 00:39:44,475 --> 00:39:48,308 aimed at improving working conditions in Bangladesh, 631 00:39:48,308 --> 00:39:51,173 and the company will now put "boots on the ground" 632 00:39:51,173 --> 00:39:54,610 somewhere "in the region" to inspect factories. 633 00:39:57,110 --> 00:39:58,633 But there's another way. 634 00:39:58,633 --> 00:40:01,945 Canadian factory owner Barry Laxer wanted a safe factory, 635 00:40:01,945 --> 00:40:03,625 so he built one. 636 00:40:03,625 --> 00:40:06,383 It's run by a Canadian team. 637 00:40:06,383 --> 00:40:09,323 And he visits it regularly. 638 00:40:09,803 --> 00:40:15,206 But what are the effects then of paying the cheapest possible price 639 00:40:15,206 --> 00:40:17,321 in a country like Bangladesh? 640 00:40:17,321 --> 00:40:19,557 Sooner or later there'll be another Rana Plaza. 641 00:40:19,557 --> 00:40:20,996 It's just a matter of time. 642 00:40:20,996 --> 00:40:23,826 Sooner or later there'll be another fire somewhere 643 00:40:23,826 --> 00:40:25,865 that will claim more lives. 644 00:40:25,865 --> 00:40:30,066 Because Bangladesh is just the floor and the testing ground 645 00:40:30,066 --> 00:40:33,951 for how cheap products can be sold. 646 00:40:36,241 --> 00:40:39,816 Before former Walmart designer Sujeet Sennik left Bangladesh, 647 00:40:39,816 --> 00:40:42,906 we had one more stop to make. 648 00:40:43,666 --> 00:40:46,568 There's one last thing I wanted to show you before you go. 649 00:40:47,558 --> 00:40:51,143 This is where Rana Plaza once stood. 650 00:40:53,123 --> 00:40:55,038 Oh my god. 651 00:40:57,428 --> 00:40:59,279 There's nothing left. 652 00:40:59,999 --> 00:41:01,623 There are people walking around. 653 00:41:01,623 --> 00:41:07,847 And in Canada wearing clothes that were made by these people who died here. 654 00:41:08,757 --> 00:41:12,662 This is kind of a monument to greed. 655 00:41:15,532 --> 00:41:18,924 This is a product of the race to the bottom. 656 00:41:21,194 --> 00:41:23,242 So what are consumers to do? 657 00:41:23,242 --> 00:41:26,244 Boycott clothes made in Bangladesh? 658 00:41:26,244 --> 00:41:30,277 The jobs are pulling millions of women out of poverty. 659 00:41:31,207 --> 00:41:37,040 Like Aruti who, despite her loss, knows has to go back to work. 660 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,381 Especially now that her mother is gone 661 00:41:39,381 --> 00:41:43,188 and she'll have to support her younger sisters and her grandmother. 662 00:41:44,878 --> 00:41:49,451 Do you want to go back and work inside a garment factory now? 663 00:41:50,071 --> 00:41:52,856 If I wanted to work in the factory, 664 00:41:52,856 --> 00:41:57,934 it's not possible to walk back and forth and go up and down the stairs. 665 00:41:57,934 --> 00:42:02,342 I can't do it yet. That's the issue now. 666 00:42:02,342 --> 00:42:04,988 I will be able to go back, 667 00:42:04,988 --> 00:42:08,898 but I'm afraid. 668 00:42:14,109 --> 00:42:15,745 Well, after watching tonight's episode, 669 00:42:15,745 --> 00:42:17,720 you may be wondering more about the clothe you buy 670 00:42:17,720 --> 00:42:19,748 and how they were made. 671 00:42:19,748 --> 00:42:22,087 Well for some of the brands and lines of clothing 672 00:42:22,087 --> 00:42:24,108 that we mentioned on tonight's program, 673 00:42:24,108 --> 00:42:27,373 you can find out more information by going to our website. 674 00:42:27,373 --> 00:42:30,359 That's at cbc.ca/fifth. 675 00:42:30,359 --> 00:42:32,704 Of course we'll continue to update that website 676 00:42:32,704 --> 00:42:36,309 with the developments on this story in the weeks and months ahead. 677 00:42:36,309 --> 00:42:39,144 Stay with us. We'll be right back after this.