WEBVTT 00:00:06.665 --> 00:00:11.817 This mountain of rubble is a monument to the 1100 lives lost here last April, 00:00:13.487 --> 00:00:16.576 when this garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, 00:00:18.297 --> 00:00:22.255 unleashing the stories that has long been locked inside. 00:00:22.255 --> 00:00:27.002 A thousand people died and no one said a thing. 00:00:27.002 --> 00:00:29.143 Do you recognize these shorts? 00:00:29.143 --> 00:00:32.236 We meet the people who make your clothes, 00:00:33.396 --> 00:00:36.110 and find out where those cloths were made. 00:00:36.110 --> 00:00:39.061 This your address. This is where this came from. 00:00:40.111 --> 00:00:43.319 The truth that retailers don't want you to know. 00:00:43.319 --> 00:00:46.608 You've been hit.　You've been hit. 00:00:46.608 --> 00:00:52.533 Do any of you worry that one day you may die in your factory? 00:00:52.533 --> 00:00:55.306 Of course. Of course. 00:00:55.306 --> 00:00:57.382 Dangerous factories. 00:00:57.382 --> 00:00:59.617 And dark secrets. 00:01:02.507 --> 00:01:05.662 Hi, I'm Mark Kelly and welcome to "The Fifth Estate." 00:01:05.662 --> 00:01:09.295 I'm standing by the rubble of what was once Rana Plaza. 00:01:09.295 --> 00:01:11.881 When the 8-story factory collapsed in April, 00:01:11.881 --> 00:01:14.430 a frantic search for survivors began. 00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:16.824 So too did the search for answers. 00:01:16.824 --> 00:01:20.358 How, the world wondered, could a disaster like this happen? 00:01:20.358 --> 00:01:23.869 We'll join that search when we learned many of the victims 00:01:23.869 --> 00:01:27.242 died here making cloths for Canadian consumers. 00:01:27.242 --> 00:01:31.220 Along the way, we uncovered this ledger pulled from the rubble 00:01:31.220 --> 00:01:33.460 and using the information inside here 00:01:33.460 --> 00:01:36.218 we spent months piecing together clues 00:01:36.218 --> 00:01:40.146 that would reveal how and where your cloths are being made. 00:01:40.146 --> 00:01:42.550 And what we would also discover is that 00:01:42.550 --> 00:01:45.667 the disaster that happened here was no accident. 00:01:48.177 --> 00:01:52.985 Fashion is built on an image of beauty, glamour and style. 00:01:54.695 --> 00:01:58.413 Creations that not only make you look good, but feel good. 00:01:59.813 --> 00:02:02.078 Cloths without a conscience. 00:02:02.688 --> 00:02:06.735 The reality of the fashion industry is far less glamorous. 00:02:06.735 --> 00:02:10.577 A reality Canadian retailers don't want you to know about. 00:02:11.457 --> 00:02:16.549 It's known as the race to the bottom, where the cheapest prices win. 00:02:16.549 --> 00:02:20.478 A race that created fast fashion. 00:02:20.478 --> 00:02:23.172 And that's why today, many of your cloths 00:02:23.172 --> 00:02:26.767 bear the label made in Bangladesh. 00:02:29.937 --> 00:02:32.407 It was that glamour of the fashion industry 00:02:32.407 --> 00:02:34.456 that spoke to Sujeet Sennik. 00:02:34.456 --> 00:02:38.288 Even as a teenager Growing up in the suburb in Toronto. 00:02:39.048 --> 00:02:40.725 I'm from a South Asian family. 00:02:40.725 --> 00:02:42.339 My father is a doctor. 00:02:42.339 --> 00:02:46.420 And they wanted me to sort of follow that path. 00:02:46.420 --> 00:02:50.523 I was super creative, so it was a way for me to say, 00:02:50.523 --> 00:02:52.483 hey listen, there's a job for me. 00:02:52.483 --> 00:02:55.167 It's an actual commercial career. 00:02:55.167 --> 00:02:59.627 He went to a couture school and turned a dream into a dream job: 00:02:59.627 --> 00:03:04.368 designing for Christian Dior and Balenciaga in Paris. 00:03:05.758 --> 00:03:09.410 It was like a fish finding a pond. 00:03:09.410 --> 00:03:14.344 It gave me a way out, a way to, you know, lead my own life. 00:03:14.344 --> 00:03:18.376 It gave me my freedom, and it gave me everything. 00:03:18.376 --> 00:03:22.126 But the growing popularity and increasing demand for fast fashion 00:03:22.126 --> 00:03:26.961 led him back to Toronto to design $20 blouses for Walmart. 00:03:26.961 --> 00:03:31.561 Instead of Paris, his fashion focus was Bangladesh. 00:03:31.561 --> 00:03:34.218 There was a natural flow towards Bangladesh 00:03:34.218 --> 00:03:38.019 because of fast fashion in the last ten years. 00:03:38.019 --> 00:03:41.384 And trying to get clothes cheaper and cheaper. 00:03:41.384 --> 00:03:45.168 But I think when the recession hit people ran for the price, 00:03:45.168 --> 00:03:47.617 you know, it was Mecca. 00:03:47.617 --> 00:03:49.485 It was Mecca. 00:03:50.315 --> 00:03:54.322 But the road to Mecca decimated Canada's garment industry. 00:03:54.322 --> 00:04:00.459 From 2001 to 2010, 75,000 jobs were lost here. 00:04:00.459 --> 00:04:03.790 Many deep-rooted manufacturers had a stark choice... 00:04:03.790 --> 00:04:06.383 Move or close. 00:04:06.383 --> 00:04:09.621 My great-grandfather was a rag dealer. 00:04:09.621 --> 00:04:14.910 He used to go from Sherbrooke to Montreal in a horse and buggy, 00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:18.585 buying rags from the farmers. 00:04:19.227 --> 00:04:22.165 Barry Laxer's family has been in the garments business 00:04:22.165 --> 00:04:24.706 in Montreal and Toronto for 3 generations 00:04:24.706 --> 00:04:27.921 but he was forced to pack it all up for price. 00:04:28.931 --> 00:04:31.548 My single largest customer that at the time in Canada 00:04:31.548 --> 00:04:34.667 accounted for over 50% of our volume 00:04:34.667 --> 00:04:37.473 told us that to continue doing business 00:04:37.473 --> 00:04:41.857 we need to find a lower cost manufacturing base somewhere else. 00:04:41.857 --> 00:04:43.364 And that was Bangladesh. 00:04:43.368 --> 00:04:45.475 It turned out to be Bangladesh. 00:04:47.455 --> 00:04:51.490 Companies around the world were now beating a path to Bangladesh. 00:04:51.490 --> 00:04:55.426 From H&M to Walmart, Nike and the GAP. 00:04:56.626 --> 00:04:59.707 Barry Laxer joined that garment Gold Rush. 00:04:59.707 --> 00:05:02.417 Today, his company Radical Designs 00:05:02.417 --> 00:05:06.279 runs two factories outside Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. 00:05:07.999 --> 00:05:12.021 At least half the machines in this factory all came from Canada. 00:05:12.021 --> 00:05:14.920 We had like 80 containers of machinery that came here. 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.042 You just rushed it over here to do business. 00:05:17.042 --> 00:05:20.294 We just, it wasn't doing anything in Toronto. 00:05:20.294 --> 00:05:23.165 Now he employed more than 1000 people 00:05:23.165 --> 00:05:27.170 and he pays them 3 times the minimum wage. 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:28.768 When you own a factory, 00:05:28.768 --> 00:05:32.682 nothing is better than walking through and seeing it full. 00:05:32.682 --> 00:05:33.772 And busy. 00:05:33.772 --> 00:05:35.360 And busy, yeah. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.307 You've built quite an empire here, Barry. 00:05:38.307 --> 00:05:41.425 What's the allure for companies to come to Bangladesh? 00:05:41.425 --> 00:05:44.127 Here, the real allure is labour. 00:05:44.127 --> 00:05:49.915 The workers will work for wages that most countries won't, 00:05:49.915 --> 00:05:51.797 because there's no alternative. 00:05:51.797 --> 00:05:56.851 Working for next to nothing is better than working for nothing. 00:05:57.931 --> 00:06:02.138 In real terms, next to nothing is $38 a month... 00:06:02.138 --> 00:06:04.200 or 24 cents an hour. 00:06:04.200 --> 00:06:08.389 The lowest garment worker wage on the planet. 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:13.769 The floodgates for Canadian business opened 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:18.446 when Ottawa dropped import duties from Bangladesh in 2003. 00:06:18.446 --> 00:06:22.810 Canadian companies like Lululemon, HBC and Walmart Canada 00:06:22.810 --> 00:06:26.171 climbed aboard the Bangladeshi band wagon. 00:06:26.171 --> 00:06:30.515 The result, imports grew by 618%. 00:06:32.325 --> 00:06:34.807 Some say the front-runner in the race to the bottom 00:06:34.807 --> 00:06:37.495 was Loblaw brand Joe Fresh. 00:06:37.495 --> 00:06:42.351 These TV ads shows the appeal of its cheap and cheerful clothing line. 00:06:42.351 --> 00:06:45.700 The line has bounced its way to one of the top spots 00:06:45.700 --> 00:06:49.285 in the children's wear market in Canada. 00:06:50.415 --> 00:06:53.652 Speaking to the CBC in 2010 the company president said 00:06:53.652 --> 00:06:56.822 he's just giving consumers what they want. 00:06:56.822 --> 00:06:58.379 They wanted fashion, 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:00.772 and they wanted fashion that would play across the country 00:07:00.772 --> 00:07:03.766 and they needed it at amazing price points. 00:07:05.086 --> 00:07:08.607 Joseph Mimran was now a fast fashion icon. 00:07:08.607 --> 00:07:11.912 But just how low could prices go? 00:07:12.762 --> 00:07:15.478 Well look at this TV Ad for Walmart. 00:07:15.478 --> 00:07:17.876 Clearly, the lower the better. 00:07:17.876 --> 00:07:20.612 Now more styles, and more stylish 00:07:20.612 --> 00:07:22.609 all at unbelievable prices 00:07:22.609 --> 00:07:25.186 Exclusively at Walmart. 00:07:25.186 --> 00:07:27.657 For designers like Sujeet Sennik, 00:07:27.657 --> 00:07:30.859 beauty took a backseat to price. 00:07:30.859 --> 00:07:34.735 What was the pressure put on you to make cheaper and cheaper clothes? 00:07:34.735 --> 00:07:37.188 Price is the starting point. It's everything. 00:07:37.188 --> 00:07:38.787 It was down to... 00:07:38.787 --> 00:07:41.795 You got 6 buttons on your shirt, take it down to 5. 00:07:41.795 --> 00:07:44.060 Can we take it down to 4? 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:47.935 Sennik says he felt the pressure from retailers to cut costs, 00:07:47.935 --> 00:07:50.211 and so did the factory owners. 00:07:50.211 --> 00:07:54.403 They can't say no to, to a hundred thousand units. 00:07:54.403 --> 00:07:56.141 That means a very long time that 00:07:56.141 --> 00:08:00.106 the factory is going to be sitting idle if they don't get that order. 00:08:00.106 --> 00:08:01.420 So they needed you. 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:03.501 They need you. They need you. 00:08:03.501 --> 00:08:07.712 And, you know, at the end of the day, that's not my decision, 00:08:07.712 --> 00:08:10.802 but, like... 00:08:10.802 --> 00:08:13.755 I started wondering, Mark, I really started wondering, 00:08:13.755 --> 00:08:19.399 how is it possible for clothing to be made at these low prices? 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:20.949 It's a good question. 00:08:20.949 --> 00:08:26.893 Because while price was the priority, there was signs worker safety was not. 00:08:26.893 --> 00:08:30.737 In the decade before Rana Plaza, hundreds of people died 00:08:30.737 --> 00:08:35.258 in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh. 00:08:36.748 --> 00:08:39.529 Tragedy after tragedy, year after year, 00:08:39.529 --> 00:08:42.508 and no one in Canada seemed to notice. 00:08:42.508 --> 00:08:45.533 That changed in the morning of April 24, 00:08:49.953 --> 00:08:54.318 when the eight-storey Rana Plaza collapsed. 00:08:58.202 --> 00:09:01.666 More than 1100 people were killed. 00:09:03.512 --> 00:09:06.309 Hundreds are still missing, 00:09:07.596 --> 00:09:10.233 believed to be buried in the rubble. 00:09:11.761 --> 00:09:15.284 Tell me what happened when you learned about Rana Plaza. 00:09:15.284 --> 00:09:20.316 It was like, if you start having nightmares 00:09:20.316 --> 00:09:23.535 and then they become real, 00:09:23.535 --> 00:09:27.150 that was what Rana Plaza was for me. 00:09:27.930 --> 00:09:31.769 The search for survivors seemed to drag on and on. 00:09:33.439 --> 00:09:36.236 Save us brother, I beg you brother. 00:09:36.236 --> 00:09:38.518 I want to live. 00:09:38.518 --> 00:09:40.652 Sujeet remembers being called into 00:09:40.652 --> 00:09:42.903 one particular meeting after the collapse, 00:09:42.903 --> 00:09:46.223 where profits were put ahead of people. 00:09:46.633 --> 00:09:51.167 We were in a room full of people when we were told we were connected. 00:09:51.167 --> 00:09:55.493 And no one said anything about 1000 people. 00:09:55.493 --> 00:09:59.835 1000 people died, no one said a thing. 00:09:59.835 --> 00:10:02.441 They didn't, they didn't say anything about them, 00:10:02.441 --> 00:10:06.300 they just talked about their -- the loss in terms of units, 00:10:06.300 --> 00:10:08.553 how are they going to make up their margins. 00:10:08.553 --> 00:10:10.272 People were talking about that. 00:10:10.272 --> 00:10:13.838 And I sat there, I said nothing. 00:10:15.848 --> 00:10:18.437 Shame on me. 00:10:20.117 --> 00:10:22.774 Walmart was just one of dozens of companies 00:10:22.774 --> 00:10:24.685 that had used Rana Plaza. 00:10:24.685 --> 00:10:27.915 At the time of the collapse the biggest company in the building 00:10:27.915 --> 00:10:30.687 was making clothes for Joe Fresh. 00:10:30.687 --> 00:10:33.909 Their pink and red pants were found in the rubble 00:10:33.909 --> 00:10:37.352 along with the bodies of the workers who made them. 00:10:42.662 --> 00:10:44.339 One week after the collapse, 00:10:44.339 --> 00:10:47.563 Joseph Mimran and Loblaw chairman Gale Weston 00:10:47.563 --> 00:10:49.404 faced the glare of the media. 00:10:49.404 --> 00:10:53.162 This has been a -- quite a tragic event... 00:10:53.162 --> 00:10:57.358 ummm, and it's something that has touched all of our hearts -- 00:10:57.358 --> 00:11:00.321 It's been a very difficult week for everybody. 00:11:00.321 --> 00:11:03.592 I'm troubled that despite a clear commitment 00:11:03.592 --> 00:11:06.586 to the highest standards of ethical sourcing 00:11:06.586 --> 00:11:11.796 our company can still be a part of such an unspeakable tragedy. 00:11:11.796 --> 00:11:15.426 But just how deep was that commitment to ethical sourcing? 00:11:15.426 --> 00:11:17.746 What did Canadian companies know about 00:11:17.746 --> 00:11:20.869 how their clothes were being made in Bangladesh. 00:11:20.869 --> 00:11:23.953 And what did they do to find out? 00:11:27.348 --> 00:11:29.498 Sujeet wanted to find the truth. 00:11:29.498 --> 00:11:33.635 So he made a life-changing decision and quit his job. 00:11:33.635 --> 00:11:37.353 I thought, I don't want to be a part of this anymore. 00:11:37.353 --> 00:11:39.470 I can't be a part of this. 00:11:39.470 --> 00:11:41.893 So, I stopped. 00:11:43.763 --> 00:11:45.073 When we come back, 00:11:45.073 --> 00:11:46.583 Sueet's journey. 00:11:46.583 --> 00:11:53.142 Are we sending people to factories knowing that there's a huge danger? 00:11:53.142 --> 00:11:57.172 And a teenaged garment worker who survived the collapse. 00:12:12.733 --> 00:12:17.699 Welcome to the wild west of the global garment industry. 00:12:18.409 --> 00:12:21.891 Bangladesh has one of the world's densest populations, 00:12:21.891 --> 00:12:26.029 political instability and world class corruption. 00:12:26.029 --> 00:12:29.493 And since the 90's, the economy has grown by double digits, 00:12:29.493 --> 00:12:32.718 fueled by fast fashion. 00:12:32.718 --> 00:12:34.359 Factories sit unfinished, 00:12:34.359 --> 00:12:38.956 Just waiting for new floors to be added to accommodate new business. 00:12:38.956 --> 00:12:44.827 And every morning, scenes like this play out through the capital Dhaka, 00:12:44.827 --> 00:12:49.177 as 4 million garment workers quietly file into work. 00:12:53.607 --> 00:12:58.051 They carry with them memories of Rana Plaza, 00:12:59.621 --> 00:13:03.683 wondering if a tragedy like this could happen to them. 00:13:13.863 --> 00:13:17.163 The Rana collapse put Sujeet Sennik on a mission. 00:13:17.163 --> 00:13:20.001 The former fashion designer from Walmart Canada 00:13:20.001 --> 00:13:22.286 now wanted to learn the truth 00:13:22.286 --> 00:13:25.900 about how the clothes he designed were made. 00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:28.208 I had to find out for myself. 00:13:28.208 --> 00:13:31.441 Is this what my industry has been doing? 00:13:31.441 --> 00:13:33.704 Are we doing this on purpose? 00:13:33.704 --> 00:13:37.839 Are we sending people to factories 00:13:37.839 --> 00:13:41.505 knowing that there's a huge danger? 00:13:41.505 --> 00:13:44.615 Sujeet traveled with us to Bangladesh. 00:13:44.615 --> 00:13:47.976 First stop, a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, 00:13:47.976 --> 00:13:52.419 an unlikely backdrop for the deadliest accident in the garment industry 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:55.461 before Rana Plaza. 00:13:55.461 --> 00:13:57.765 This is Tazreen. 00:14:01.455 --> 00:14:03.392 It's massive. 00:14:04.722 --> 00:14:07.104 November 2012. 00:14:07.104 --> 00:14:11.093 Fire broke out in the Tazreen fashion factory, 00:14:11.093 --> 00:14:17.000 a 9-storey building, though the owner only had a permit for 3 storeys. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:18.909 There were no fire escapes. 00:14:18.909 --> 00:14:21.657 Many doors were blocked by boxes. 00:14:21.657 --> 00:14:24.366 Windows were barred shut. 00:14:24.366 --> 00:14:25.787 Months before the blaze, 00:14:25.787 --> 00:14:30.367 the factory's fire safety certificate had been revoked. 00:14:30.367 --> 00:14:35.346 Most of the 112 victims here were burned alive. 00:14:37.066 --> 00:14:41.797 When the Tazreen factory fire happened, I was horrified. 00:14:41.797 --> 00:14:44.460 All these fingers were pointing all everywhere, 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:46.986 and no one was saying, hey listen, maybe, 00:14:46.986 --> 00:14:51.398 maybe, we might have just a little bit to do with this. 00:14:52.408 --> 00:14:56.206 Walmart did indeed have something to do with this factory. 00:14:56.206 --> 00:15:00.700 Their Faded Glory shorts were pulled from the ashes. 00:15:00.700 --> 00:15:03.615 The company tried to distance itself from the tragedy, 00:15:03.615 --> 00:15:08.593 insisting Tazreen was not an authorized Walmart factory. 00:15:09.243 --> 00:15:12.592 There's bars on every single window. 00:15:12.592 --> 00:15:15.959 How were these people supposed to get out of here? 00:15:15.959 --> 00:15:18.352 There's no escaping. 00:15:27.205 --> 00:15:29.044 I wonder for you, Sujeet, 00:15:29.044 --> 00:15:34.105 what is this building..., what is this a symbol of to you? 00:15:34.105 --> 00:15:36.093 I think it's shame. 00:15:36.093 --> 00:15:42.355 We should be ashamed of ourselves to let something like this happen. 00:15:42.355 --> 00:15:45.038 How was it possible that people didn't know that 00:15:45.038 --> 00:15:49.129 this factory was built this way? 00:15:50.439 --> 00:15:52.780 This woman emerged from the crowd of the curious 00:15:52.780 --> 00:15:54.249 to tell us her story 00:15:54.249 --> 00:15:56.691 how workers knocked out a ventilation fan, 00:15:56.691 --> 00:16:01.007 and how she survived by jumping 3 stories to the ground. 00:16:01.007 --> 00:16:02.592 Will you ever work again? 00:16:02.592 --> 00:16:04.726 Will you ever have another job after your injuries here? 00:16:05.806 --> 00:16:07.578 How am I supposed to work? 00:16:07.578 --> 00:16:10.793 I'm afraid to work and no one wants to take me. 00:16:10.793 --> 00:16:13.470 I cannot sit or lie down for a long time. 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:16.461 I get better when I take medicine, 00:16:16.461 --> 00:16:19.432 but when I don't it's painful. 00:16:19.432 --> 00:16:20.916 With few prospects, 00:16:20.916 --> 00:16:26.089 she appears as disposable as the fast fashion she once made here. 00:16:27.959 --> 00:16:30.319 This could have been one of my prints. 00:16:30.319 --> 00:16:32.876 You know, snakeskin's in. 00:16:32.876 --> 00:16:35.909 There it is. 00:16:35.909 --> 00:16:40.794 It could have been a shirt, a dress. 00:16:40.794 --> 00:16:44.250 Is it that important that you have to bar people 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.122 into a building to meet our deadlines? 00:16:47.122 --> 00:16:49.837 It's not, not for me. 00:16:49.837 --> 00:16:52.518 It's disgusting. 00:16:54.168 --> 00:16:58.190 So how did Walmart's clothes end up at such a dangerous factory? 00:16:58.190 --> 00:17:01.679 An investigation by Walmart concluded one of its suppliers 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:07.160 subcontracted part of the order to Tazreen without their permission. 00:17:11.070 --> 00:17:14.184 But how hard would it be for Canadian retailers to find out 00:17:14.184 --> 00:17:16.962 where their clothes are being made? 00:17:16.962 --> 00:17:18.401 We wanted to find out, 00:17:18.401 --> 00:17:22.596 so we bought a Walmart shirt in Canada that Sujeet had designed. 00:17:22.596 --> 00:17:27.254 Shipping records led us to a factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. 00:17:28.395 --> 00:17:32.386 The record named the factory: Hasan Tanvir. 00:17:32.386 --> 00:17:36.286 Walmart publishes a list of banned factories in Bangladesh, 00:17:36.286 --> 00:17:39.425 factories that have failed the company's audits. 00:17:39.425 --> 00:17:43.373 And this factory has been on that list since June. 00:17:44.023 --> 00:17:47.068 We made repeated requests to visit the factory, 00:17:47.068 --> 00:17:50.012 but it wasn't until we showed up with our camera 00:17:50.012 --> 00:17:52.236 that the manager would even talk to us. 00:17:52.236 --> 00:17:54.726 Hi, my name is Mark. I'm from Canada. 00:17:54.726 --> 00:17:56.787 Canadian television, how are you? 00:17:56.787 --> 00:17:58.014 Fine. 00:17:58.014 --> 00:18:00.178 We want to see where our clothes are being made 00:18:00.178 --> 00:18:03.261 and how they are being made. And that's why we came over here. 00:18:03.261 --> 00:18:05.344 I want to go inside and visit. 00:18:05.344 --> 00:18:07.134 But even he wouldn't let us in. 00:18:07.134 --> 00:18:10.057 Instead, he passed us off to another manager. 00:18:10.057 --> 00:18:12.873 Have you made this here? 00:18:20.093 --> 00:18:25.081 We have a shipping record here that shows that it was made here. 00:18:25.081 --> 00:18:27.816 Hasan Tanvir Fashion Wears. 00:18:27.816 --> 00:18:30.818 This is your address. This is where this came from. 00:18:30.818 --> 00:18:33.348 That's not mine. 00:18:33.348 --> 00:18:34.747 Hello? 00:18:39.522 --> 00:18:40.912 Excuse me. 00:18:45.897 --> 00:18:49.367 He says he's never seen this before, doesn't recognize it, 00:18:49.367 --> 00:18:53.470 despite the fact that we showed it was in fact made 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:57.842 right there at Hasan Tanvir Fashion Wears. 00:18:58.572 --> 00:19:00.171 Walmart puts it this way: 00:19:00.171 --> 00:19:03.228 they do make shirts here, but not our shirt. 00:19:03.228 --> 00:19:06.499 In fact 3 months after blacklisting this factory, 00:19:06.499 --> 00:19:09.994 Walmart admits they are still making clothes here... 00:19:09.994 --> 00:19:12.980 one last order they say. 00:19:19.443 --> 00:19:21.918 Since we couldn't get in to meet the workers, 00:19:21.918 --> 00:19:26.378 then we would take Sujeet to meet them at home after work. 00:19:28.788 --> 00:19:31.312 In this entire area here, 00:19:31.312 --> 00:19:35.440 everyone who lives here works in a garment factory. 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:37.926 It's like a compound of garment factory workers, 00:19:37.926 --> 00:19:41.410 so we're going to go in and meet some of them tonight. 00:19:41.410 --> 00:19:42.378 Okay. 00:19:43.978 --> 00:19:45.451 We'll be there tonight. 00:19:45.451 --> 00:19:47.955 Wow. 00:19:47.955 --> 00:19:53.351 These are, 9 people who work at the factory. 00:19:53.906 --> 00:19:55.940 They asked us to hide their faces, 00:19:55.940 --> 00:20:00.033 fearing they'd lose their jobs simply for talking to us... 00:20:00.033 --> 00:20:03.180 I want to know who are you making garments for now 00:20:03.180 --> 00:20:05.201 inside the factory. 00:20:05.201 --> 00:20:08.169 Canada, Canada, Canada. 00:20:08.169 --> 00:20:11.567 We hear that there are problems working inside Hasan Tanvir 00:20:11.567 --> 00:20:15.710 and we had reports that there was a fire at the factory recently. 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:17.789 Can they tell us what happened? 00:20:18.899 --> 00:20:22.072 When the fire really started to spread, 00:20:22.072 --> 00:20:24.379 all the workers started to protest, 00:20:24.379 --> 00:20:26.377 they broke the gates and escaped. 00:20:26.377 --> 00:20:28.048 They didn't wanna let us out. 00:20:28.048 --> 00:20:29.560 They never wanna let us out. 00:20:29.560 --> 00:20:32.624 They just want to turn off the lights and keep us in there 00:20:32.624 --> 00:20:35.404 and say "sit down, shut up and work." 00:20:35.404 --> 00:20:41.939 Do any of you worry that one day you may die in your factory? 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:45.801 Of course. Of course. 00:20:45.801 --> 00:20:48.534 And it happened all the time. It happened regularly. 00:20:48.534 --> 00:20:53.400 Yeah, it happened all the time. Every few days there's a fire. 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:56.287 I want to know if... if you recognize this shirt? 00:20:56.287 --> 00:21:03.209 If any of you recognize having made this shirt over the past few months? 00:21:03.209 --> 00:21:05.901 Is this something that you made in the factory? 00:21:05.901 --> 00:21:09.686 We showed them Sujeet's shirt that we bought in Canada. 00:21:11.836 --> 00:21:14.664 Yeah, it's from the 5th floor. 00:21:14.664 --> 00:21:20.893 I made it when I used to work on the 5th floor. 00:21:20.893 --> 00:21:24.275 So she worked on this garment? 00:21:24.275 --> 00:21:26.285 Yes. 00:21:26.285 --> 00:21:33.173 I designed this garment. I drew this garment. 00:21:33.173 --> 00:21:37.578 Look, I did this... 00:21:37.578 --> 00:21:43.786 So you put these two pieces together. So you put the sleeve in. 00:21:43.786 --> 00:21:46.637 Thank you. 00:21:48.567 --> 00:21:52.727 How do you feel meeting the woman who made your design? 00:21:52.727 --> 00:21:56.030 I'm grateful to meet you. 00:21:56.030 --> 00:21:58.884 I wanted to meet you. 00:22:02.144 --> 00:22:08.459 It's nice to finally be able to see you 00:22:08.459 --> 00:22:14.660 and tell you that I think that you should have a better life. 00:22:19.491 --> 00:22:22.047 Coming up... 00:22:22.047 --> 00:22:28.102 Why were Joe Fresh clothes being made in the death trap that was Rana Plaza? 00:22:28.102 --> 00:22:33.372 We go inside a prison in Bangladesh looking for answers. 00:22:53.197 --> 00:23:00.368 Every piece of clothing we wear has a silent story stitched into it. 00:23:00.368 --> 00:23:05.786 The story of who made it and where. 00:23:05.786 --> 00:23:11.441 When Rana Plaza collapsed in April, those stories came spilling out. 00:23:11.441 --> 00:23:17.343 So, did the clothes from the ill fated factory ever make it to Canada? 00:23:17.343 --> 00:23:22.049 Well, we visited 6 stores in the Toronto area, with a hidden camera, 00:23:22.049 --> 00:23:26.128 3 months after the Rana Plaza collapse. 00:23:26.128 --> 00:23:30.976 We found clothes made in Rana Plaza, in sore after store. 00:23:30.976 --> 00:23:32.544 So I have a question... 00:23:32.544 --> 00:23:35.450 But you wouldn't know it by asking the sales associates. 00:23:35.450 --> 00:23:38.313 There was really like, there was really only one product 00:23:38.313 --> 00:23:40.927 that we were making in that particular factory. 00:23:40.927 --> 00:23:43.259 It was like this line of pants that we did 00:23:43.259 --> 00:23:45.239 We never ended up getting them. Like obviously, 00:23:45.239 --> 00:23:48.494 like we just like, got rid of it and everything. 00:23:48.494 --> 00:23:51.390 It's doubtful that it was from that factory. 00:23:51.390 --> 00:23:55.124 That stuff that was made in that place never even made it here. 00:23:55.554 --> 00:23:59.041 Loblaw's shipping records revealed all these styles, 00:23:59.041 --> 00:24:04.237 hundreds of thousands of garments were made in Rana Plaza before the collapse, 00:24:04.237 --> 00:24:08.080 and sold in Joe Fresh sores this summer. 00:24:13.080 --> 00:24:16.088 So how did clothes for Joe Fresh end up beingmade 00:24:16.088 --> 00:24:18.439 in the death-trap that was Rana Plaza? 00:24:18.439 --> 00:24:20.672 Well, that's a question we had for the factory owner. 00:24:20.672 --> 00:24:23.003 The problem is he's behind bars, 00:24:23.003 --> 00:24:25.705 charged with negligence in the deaths of the workers. 00:24:25.705 --> 00:24:28.601 So "The Fifth Estate" petitioned the Bangladeshi government 00:24:28.601 --> 00:24:30.142 for permission to speak with him. 00:24:30.142 --> 00:24:33.582 The government eventually agreed but with one condition. 00:24:33.582 --> 00:24:37.259 Our camera would not be allowed inside the prison. 00:24:39.006 --> 00:24:44.302 As public outrage grew after the collapse, Bazlus Adnan surrendered to police. 00:24:44.302 --> 00:24:48.895 His three factories occupied almost half of Rana Plaza. 00:24:48.895 --> 00:24:53.438 We arrived at Dhaka Central Jail, where he's waiting trial. 00:24:53.438 --> 00:24:55.068 He began our interview saying 00:24:55.068 --> 00:24:59.266 how he parlayed an $8000 loan from his dad in 1992, 00:24:59.266 --> 00:25:02.768 and turned it into a $15 million a year business, 00:25:02.768 --> 00:25:07.360 thanks in large part to his best customer, Joe Fresh. 00:25:07.360 --> 00:25:12.328 Joe Fresh was my biggest client, about $6 million year. 00:25:12.328 --> 00:25:14.634 That is why I was going bigger. 00:25:14.634 --> 00:25:17.519 He says he was eager to please his biggest client, 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:23.066 so work had begun on Rana Plaza to add a ninth floor for his booming business. 00:25:23.066 --> 00:25:26.882 I asked whether he was under pressure to make clothes cheaper... and faster... 00:25:26.882 --> 00:25:28.878 Everybody is doing this. 00:25:28.878 --> 00:25:30.703 They all squeezed me. 00:25:30.703 --> 00:25:33.134 But Joe Fresh was a very good customer. 00:25:33.134 --> 00:25:36.927 Their policy was just ship it on time. 00:25:37.597 --> 00:25:39.554 Before my time was up for the interview, 00:25:39.554 --> 00:25:42.114 I asked him to name one Loblaw employee 00:25:42.114 --> 00:25:47.280 who had ever visited his factory at Rana Plaza before the collapse. 00:25:48.460 --> 00:25:50.532 He couldn't. 00:25:51.862 --> 00:25:55.004 This ledger helps explain how that could happen. 00:25:55.004 --> 00:25:58.059 From the entries here, we learned Loblaw placed orders 00:25:58.059 --> 00:26:00.888 with a buying house in India called House of Pearl, 00:26:00.888 --> 00:26:06.194 who, in turn, placed Joe Fresh orders with the factory at Rana Plaza. 00:26:06.194 --> 00:26:07.834 House of Pearl, we learned, 00:26:07.834 --> 00:26:12.173 hired inspectors to check the quality of the clothes made in Rana Plaza, 00:26:12.173 --> 00:26:15.815 but not to inspect building safety. 00:26:17.705 --> 00:26:20.798 Outsourcing ethical responsibilities to third parties, 00:26:20.798 --> 00:26:24.292 enables companies like Loblaw to distance themselves 00:26:24.292 --> 00:26:26.705 from the work being done on the ground, 00:26:26.705 --> 00:26:30.283 according to our Canadian factory owner Barry Laxer. 00:26:30.963 --> 00:26:34.167 You know, after Rana Plaza happened all these realities were saying, 00:26:34.167 --> 00:26:35.683 "well we didn't know." 00:26:35.683 --> 00:26:39.143 Is that true? Did they not know what was going on in this country? 00:26:39.143 --> 00:26:42.514 A lot of companies just want cheap manufacturing. 00:26:42.514 --> 00:26:45.461 So, they don't really look. 00:26:47.301 --> 00:26:48.815 Or ask the tough questions. 00:26:48.815 --> 00:26:51.156 Or ask the questions, because if you don't ask the questions, 00:26:51.156 --> 00:26:53.049 you don't get the answers that you don't want to hear. 00:26:53.049 --> 00:26:56.177 Was the Rana Plaza collapse a wakeup call? 00:26:56.177 --> 00:26:58.969 I mean, do you really believe this going to change anything here? 00:26:58.969 --> 00:27:03.008 I think in the end a lot of companies are continuing 00:27:03.008 --> 00:27:06.497 just to look for margin and cost. 00:27:06.497 --> 00:27:10.037 And -- and... 00:27:10.037 --> 00:27:12.033 Ultimately that's why they're here, right? 00:27:12.033 --> 00:27:13.533 That's why they're here. 00:27:13.533 --> 00:27:15.446 If that wasn't the issue, 00:27:15.446 --> 00:27:19.783 they could be buying products made in the United States or Canada. 00:27:23.373 --> 00:27:28.294 We wanted to know more about the working conditions inside Rana Plaza. 00:27:28.754 --> 00:27:32.404 Who better to tell us than the people who worked there. 00:27:33.134 --> 00:27:34.547 After the collapse, 00:27:34.547 --> 00:27:38.955 cameras captured this footage of survivors recovering in a hospital. 00:27:40.105 --> 00:27:45.149 We were intrigued by this girl, who was trapped in the rubble for three days 00:27:45.149 --> 00:27:48.762 pinned under two dead bodies. 00:27:48.762 --> 00:27:51.513 She lost her mother, as well as her leg. 00:27:53.023 --> 00:27:58.403 Both mother and daughter were making clothes for Joe Fresh. 00:28:06.413 --> 00:28:10.448 Months after the collapse, we finally found her. 00:28:10.448 --> 00:28:12.516 Her name is Aruti. 00:28:12.516 --> 00:28:18.019 She tells us she is 17, though her grandmother says she is really 15. 00:28:18.019 --> 00:28:21.279 A kid making kids clothes for Canadians. 00:28:23.969 --> 00:28:26.742 Do you recognize these shorts? 00:28:26.742 --> 00:28:28.884 Like these shorts. 00:28:30.004 --> 00:28:32.557 Yeah. These pants were there. 00:28:32.557 --> 00:28:37.083 She sewed pocket seams, 150 pockets an hour. 00:28:38.063 --> 00:28:41.411 How do you feel when you look at these pants? 00:28:44.571 --> 00:28:46.070 I feel sad. 00:28:46.070 --> 00:28:51.870 If I didn't work in that factory, this would not have happened. 00:28:51.870 --> 00:28:55.075 I feel very bad seeing these pants. 00:28:55.465 --> 00:28:58.892 She says she's been working in the industry for three years, 00:28:58.892 --> 00:29:02.230 meaning she started when she was just 12. 00:29:02.230 --> 00:29:06.088 Like many women in Bangladesh, she felt it was her only hope. 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. 00:29:13.280 --> 00:29:17.306 If you study, you have a job, a doctor, a teacher. 00:29:17.306 --> 00:29:19.506 You can have any job. 00:29:19.506 --> 00:29:24.324 But I couldn't do it, because I'm poor, I have to work to eat. 00:29:24.324 --> 00:29:27.700 That's why I went into garment work. 00:29:28.560 --> 00:29:33.418 Aruti's shift was punishing, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. 00:29:33.418 --> 00:29:37.398 And when a rush order was placed, overtime was demanded. 00:29:37.398 --> 00:29:41.233 How did your bosses treat you and the other workers? 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. 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. 00:29:53.060 --> 00:29:56.158 I would feel really bad. 00:29:59.348 --> 00:30:03.944 She also remembers how cracks had been spotted inside Rana Plaza 00:30:03.944 --> 00:30:05.947 the day before the tragedy. 00:30:05.947 --> 00:30:07.778 The building was evacuated. 00:30:07.778 --> 00:30:09.879 She didn't believe the building owner, 00:30:09.879 --> 00:30:14.330 who insisted everything was safe, just hours before the collapse. 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:19.608 This is not a crack, it's just that the plaster came off 00:30:19.608 --> 00:30:23.578 a little bit. They made it seem a big thing. 00:30:25.778 --> 00:30:29.768 The next day, April 24th, her boss phoned her home 00:30:29.768 --> 00:30:33.880 and ordered her to get back to work, or she'd be fired. 00:30:34.560 --> 00:30:37.767 On that day that they told you to go back to work, 00:30:37.767 --> 00:30:40.930 were you afraid? Were you worried that that building was dangerous? 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:46.616 There were many of us who didn't want to go. 00:30:46.616 --> 00:30:49.273 But they forced us. They said, 00:30:49.273 --> 00:30:55.033 "Don't worry, nothing will happen. And if you die we'll die, too." 00:30:55.033 --> 00:30:57.291 But they didn't go inside. 00:30:57.291 --> 00:31:00.213 They made us to start work and then left. 00:31:00.213 --> 00:31:01.852 I was scared. 00:31:01.852 --> 00:31:04.018 But there was nothing I could do. 00:31:04.018 --> 00:31:09.109 If I stopped working, the line would stop, and I would be in trouble. 00:31:12.179 --> 00:31:14.525 She and her fellow workers returned. 00:31:14.525 --> 00:31:18.947 An hour later, the building collapsed. 00:31:18.947 --> 00:31:22.806 Aruti was on the 6th floor. 00:31:23.326 --> 00:31:27.260 What do you remember about the moment the building collapsed? 00:31:28.500 --> 00:31:31.917 When it collapsed, I thought, I wouldn't survive. 00:31:31.917 --> 00:31:36.415 Two dead bodied fell on my leg and my leg was stuck there. 00:31:36.415 --> 00:31:39.791 The roof fell on top of the bodies. 00:31:39.791 --> 00:31:44.598 I didn't know then that I would actually come out alive. 00:31:46.578 --> 00:31:49.518 Her family received some compensation from the government 00:31:49.518 --> 00:31:52.610 for the death of her mother and the loss of her leg. 00:31:52.610 --> 00:31:55.430 When asked what she received from Loblaw, 00:31:55.430 --> 00:31:58.180 she told us she is still hoping. 00:32:00.341 --> 00:32:01.701 When we come back, 00:32:01.701 --> 00:32:06.956 we expose an even uglier side of the fashion industry in Bangladesh. 00:32:08.436 --> 00:32:11.188 You've been hit. You've been hit. 00:32:22.606 --> 00:32:24.650 After the collapse of Rana Plaza, 00:32:24.650 --> 00:32:29.591 the Bangladeshi government scrambled to assure nervous retailers and consumers 00:32:29.591 --> 00:32:33.239 that the country was a safe place to do business. 00:32:34.709 --> 00:32:35.849 But even Loblaw, 00:32:35.849 --> 00:32:39.571 who had been making Joe Fresh clothes in this country for 7 years, 00:32:39.571 --> 00:32:42.205 wondered how garment workers could be exposed 00:32:42.205 --> 00:32:45.537 to what it called unacceptable risk. 00:32:46.577 --> 00:32:50.443 So we took a closer look... and discovered within 3 hours, 00:32:50.443 --> 00:32:55.333 how easy it was to find the ugly side of fast fashion. 00:32:57.253 --> 00:33:02.382 A factory dumping technicolored waste water directly into a river. 00:33:06.062 --> 00:33:08.947 A river that now runs black. 00:33:11.617 --> 00:33:16.239 Then we saw a jute factory with an open door that caught our eye. 00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:20.414 Inside, the air was tick with dust; 00:33:21.674 --> 00:33:24.304 dust from a toxic dye. 00:33:24.574 --> 00:33:27.644 Yet no one here wore a mask. 00:33:31.344 --> 00:33:35.669 Within minutes, we were kicked out by the owner and his thugs. 00:33:38.099 --> 00:33:42.121 Finally, we went into one last factory with a hidden camera. 00:33:42.661 --> 00:33:45.824 I'll show you a very good factory. Everything in one place. 00:33:46.484 --> 00:33:49.925 And found these children operating looms. 00:33:49.925 --> 00:33:55.138 One manager admitted some factory owners hire kids under the age of 10 for menial jobs, 00:33:55.138 --> 00:33:57.978 and paid them about a dollar a day. 00:33:59.478 --> 00:34:03.806 The garment industry has made some people in this country fabulously rich, 00:34:04.486 --> 00:34:07.911 but poverty is still everywhere you look. 00:34:09.061 --> 00:34:13.547 Some of the poorest are these squatters who live next to the railway tracks, 00:34:13.547 --> 00:34:16.202 in the shadow of wealth. 00:34:18.762 --> 00:34:22.423 This gleaming tower is home to the BGMEA. 00:34:22.423 --> 00:34:25.240 That's the business group that represents the titans 00:34:25.240 --> 00:34:27.964 of the garment industry in Bangladesh. 00:34:32.024 --> 00:34:36.692 We arrived to find a thousand angry workers protesting outside. 00:34:37.482 --> 00:34:41.171 They say they haven't been paid by their employer in a month. 00:34:42.241 --> 00:34:45.027 They work for a factory that, until last fall, 00:34:45.027 --> 00:34:47.547 made clothes for Canadians. 00:34:49.777 --> 00:34:51.230 So what happened? 00:34:51.230 --> 00:34:52.891 Shoom, shoom, shoom. 00:34:52.891 --> 00:34:55.016 You've been hit. You've been hit. 00:34:55.016 --> 00:34:56.629 He'd been hit. 00:34:56.629 --> 00:34:59.081 He'd been hit. He'd been hit. 00:34:59.081 --> 00:35:00.638 Who did this to you? 00:35:00.638 --> 00:35:01.427 Bamboo. 00:35:01.427 --> 00:35:02.578 Yes, yes, bamboo. 00:35:02.578 --> 00:35:03.578 Who did this? 00:35:03.578 --> 00:35:05.324 The owners hired gangsters? 00:35:05.324 --> 00:35:06.573 Yes, yes, gangster. 00:35:06.573 --> 00:35:08.010 And what were you doing? 00:35:08.010 --> 00:35:09.613 You were just protesting? 00:35:09.613 --> 00:35:10.325 Yes. 00:35:10.325 --> 00:35:13.793 You were protesting because you wanted your back-wages. 00:35:13.793 --> 00:35:14.434 Yes. 00:35:14.434 --> 00:35:16.690 And you make clothes for Canada? 00:35:16.690 --> 00:35:17.904 Yes. 00:35:19.524 --> 00:35:23.219 We had some questions for the powerful head of the garment industry, 00:35:23.219 --> 00:35:26.500 the top man Canadian retailers deal with. 00:35:26.500 --> 00:35:30.349 Atiqul Islam is a prominent factory owner in his own right. 00:35:30.349 --> 00:35:34.579 He's made clothes for Walmart Canada, Loblaw and HBC. 00:35:35.359 --> 00:35:38.884 I asked him about the protest outside his window. 00:35:40.034 --> 00:35:42.557 This is completely open industry. 00:35:42.557 --> 00:35:45.602 If you don't like there you can go the other work there. 00:35:45.602 --> 00:35:49.958 We have a 25% worker shortage in the industry, still today. 00:35:49.958 --> 00:35:52.800 In other words, if workers are abused, 00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:55.984 his advice? Quit and work somewhere else. 00:35:55.984 --> 00:35:58.984 When I ask him about the bad factories we saw, 00:35:58.984 --> 00:36:02.957 the child labor, the pollution, the dangerous working conditions, 00:36:02.957 --> 00:36:04.772 he wasn't alarmed. 00:36:04.772 --> 00:36:07.047 A lot of factories that are state of the art. 00:36:07.047 --> 00:36:09.948 We've seen the nice ones. We've seen the state of the art. 00:36:09.948 --> 00:36:13.297 We've seen the example of where the industry is moving. 00:36:13.297 --> 00:36:15.070 But you're at a point right now 00:36:15.070 --> 00:36:17.546 where there are some shining examples but... 00:36:17.546 --> 00:36:18.639 So for that, 00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:21.988 sometimes the shiny is covered by the cloud of this kind of thing. 00:36:21.988 --> 00:36:25.151 So we need to clean the cloud. 00:36:25.451 --> 00:36:27.963 But what about illegal subcontracting, 00:36:27.963 --> 00:36:31.329 when one factory gives order to another without approval? 00:36:31.749 --> 00:36:35.451 If the factories are overbooked, they must say no, I'm overbooked. 00:36:35.451 --> 00:36:38.647 And as well as from the outside, the retailers side also. 00:36:38.647 --> 00:36:40.413 But you're a businessman. 00:36:40.413 --> 00:36:43.267 Are they really going to say I'm overbooked and I can't take the business? 00:36:43.267 --> 00:36:44.211 Yah, yah, yah. 00:36:44.211 --> 00:36:45.353 Everybody wants the business. 00:36:45.353 --> 00:36:46.873 No, no, no. It's not like that. 00:36:46.873 --> 00:36:49.412 Things are completely changed. It is not like that. 00:36:49.412 --> 00:36:53.126 We had spoken with some sources who work for Walmart Canada. 00:36:53.126 --> 00:36:56.023 They placed an order with your group, 00:36:56.023 --> 00:36:59.185 and they said that that order was then ended up being 00:36:59.185 --> 00:37:02.326 made at factory that was not approved. 00:37:02.326 --> 00:37:04.269 Hasan Tanvir. 00:37:04.269 --> 00:37:05.123 Hasan? 00:37:05.123 --> 00:37:06.363 Hasan Tanvir. 00:37:06.363 --> 00:37:08.573 Remember that Walmart shirt -- 00:37:08.573 --> 00:37:12.110 Well, we had questions about who exactly made it. 00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:20.348 We showed it to workers and they said "yah", they made it. 00:37:20.348 --> 00:37:27.385 It is very difficult for me to know whether I'm making this, number one. 00:37:27.385 --> 00:37:30.965 And number two, there's no way that we're giving the goods to the outside. 00:37:30.965 --> 00:37:36.737 It's absolutely no way. Our all garments is made in our factory. 00:37:36.737 --> 00:37:42.384 But Walmart told us Mr. Islam did indeed have the contract to make Sujeet's shirt. 00:37:42.384 --> 00:37:46.071 But at his own factory, not not Hasan Tanvir. 00:37:47.181 --> 00:37:50.646 Thank you. Thank you, I'll take that. 00:37:50.646 --> 00:37:52.254 You don't need that. 00:37:52.254 --> 00:37:55.804 Can I just see this one thing. Just have a seat and I, uh.... 00:37:55.804 --> 00:37:56.779 Absolutely. 00:37:56.779 --> 00:38:02.113 And then something extraordinary happened after our interview wrapped up... 00:38:02.113 --> 00:38:03.515 Look in the background, 00:38:03.515 --> 00:38:09.009 as Mr. Islam conceals the garment behind his desk with a pen in hand. 00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:20.019 After we left we noticed the tag on the shirt had been defaced. 00:38:20.019 --> 00:38:24.490 The barcode and the Canadian import number that could connect 00:38:24.490 --> 00:38:27.972 their shirt to Atiqul Islam's company were blacked out. 00:38:27.972 --> 00:38:32.385 We asked him the next day if he did it. He denied it. 00:38:33.655 --> 00:38:37.556 As for Loblaw and Joe Fresh -- the Canadian company insists 00:38:37.556 --> 00:38:41.622 it will help lead lead the way to clean up the industry in Bangladesh. 00:38:41.622 --> 00:38:45.253 Our industry can be a force for good. 00:38:45.253 --> 00:38:51.141 Properly inspected, well built factories play (an) important role 00:38:51.141 --> 00:38:54.663 in the development of countries such as Bangladesh. 00:38:55.263 --> 00:38:59.469 Did Loblaw properly inspect before Rana Plaza before the collapse? 00:38:59.469 --> 00:39:02.205 They say they did visit the factory. 00:39:02.205 --> 00:39:05.235 So why were they still making clothes there? 00:39:06.005 --> 00:39:08.578 That's what we wanted to ask Joe Mimran, 00:39:08.578 --> 00:39:12.269 but we were told he wasn't available for an interview. 00:39:12.849 --> 00:39:15.991 I am troubled by the deafening silence 00:39:15.991 --> 00:39:19.430 from other apparel retailers on this issue. 00:39:19.430 --> 00:39:22.515 And while Loblaw CEO Galen Weston 00:39:22.515 --> 00:39:25.821 publicly criticizes other companies for their deafening silence, 00:39:25.821 --> 00:39:29.144 he declined to be interviewed for this story. 00:39:32.204 --> 00:39:33.931 Loblaw did send us an email 00:39:33.931 --> 00:39:37.000 outlining their efforts to help workers in Bangladesh. 00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:38.575 They say since the collapse 00:39:38.575 --> 00:39:41.646 they've contributed a million dollars to two charities, 00:39:41.646 --> 00:39:44.475 and joined a compliance accord with other retailers 00:39:44.475 --> 00:39:48.308 aimed at improving working conditions in Bangladesh, 00:39:48.308 --> 00:39:51.173 and the company will now put "boots on the ground" 00:39:51.173 --> 00:39:54.610 somewhere "in the region" to inspect factories. 00:39:57.110 --> 00:39:58.633 But there's another way. 00:39:58.633 --> 00:40:01.945 Canadian factory owner Barry Laxer wanted a safe factory, 00:40:01.945 --> 00:40:03.625 so he built one. 00:40:03.625 --> 00:40:06.383 It's run by a Canadian team. 00:40:06.383 --> 00:40:09.323 And he visits it regularly. 00:40:09.803 --> 00:40:15.206 But what are the effects then of paying the cheapest possible price 00:40:15.206 --> 00:40:17.321 in a country like Bangladesh? 00:40:17.321 --> 00:40:19.557 Sooner or later there'll be another Rana Plaza. 00:40:19.557 --> 00:40:20.996 It's just a matter of time. 00:40:20.996 --> 00:40:23.826 Sooner or later there'll be another fire somewhere 00:40:23.826 --> 00:40:25.865 that will claim more lives. 00:40:25.865 --> 00:40:30.066 Because Bangladesh is just the floor and the testing ground 00:40:30.066 --> 00:40:33.951 for how cheap products can be sold. 00:40:36.241 --> 00:40:39.816 Before former Walmart designer Sujeet Sennik left Bangladesh, 00:40:39.816 --> 00:40:42.906 we had one more stop to make. 00:40:43.666 --> 00:40:46.568 There's one last thing I wanted to show you before you go. 00:40:47.558 --> 00:40:51.143 This is where Rana Plaza once stood. 00:40:53.123 --> 00:40:55.038 Oh my god. 00:40:57.428 --> 00:40:59.279 There's nothing left. 00:40:59.999 --> 00:41:01.623 There are people walking around. 00:41:01.623 --> 00:41:07.847 And in Canada wearing clothes that were made by these people who died here. 00:41:08.757 --> 00:41:12.662 This is kind of a monument to greed. 00:41:15.532 --> 00:41:18.924 This is a product of the race to the bottom. 00:41:21.194 --> 00:41:23.242 So what are consumers to do? 00:41:23.242 --> 00:41:26.244 Boycott clothes made in Bangladesh? 00:41:26.244 --> 00:41:30.277 The jobs are pulling millions of women out of poverty. 00:41:31.207 --> 00:41:37.040 Like Aruti who, despite her loss, knows has to go back to work. 00:41:37.040 --> 00:41:39.381 Especially now that her mother is gone 00:41:39.381 --> 00:41:43.188 and she'll have to support her younger sisters and her grandmother. 00:41:44.878 --> 00:41:49.451 Do you want to go back and work inside a garment factory now? 00:41:50.071 --> 00:41:52.856 If I wanted to work in the factory, 00:41:52.856 --> 00:41:57.934 it's not possible to walk back and forth and go up and down the stairs. 00:41:57.934 --> 00:42:02.342 I can't do it yet. That's the issue now. 00:42:02.342 --> 00:42:04.988 I will be able to go back, 00:42:04.988 --> 00:42:08.898 but I'm afraid. 00:42:14.109 --> 00:42:15.745 Well, after watching tonight's episode, 00:42:15.745 --> 00:42:17.720 you may be wondering more about the clothe you buy 00:42:17.720 --> 00:42:19.748 and how they were made. 00:42:19.748 --> 00:42:22.087 Well for some of the brands and lines of clothing 00:42:22.087 --> 00:42:24.108 that we mentioned on tonight's program, 00:42:24.108 --> 00:42:27.373 you can find out more information by going to our website. 00:42:27.373 --> 00:42:30.359 That's at cbc.ca/fifth. 00:42:30.359 --> 00:42:32.704 Of course we'll continue to update that website 00:42:32.704 --> 00:42:36.309 with the developments on this story in the weeks and months ahead. 00:42:36.309 --> 00:42:39.144 Stay with us. We'll be right back after this.