{"id":4097,"date":"2013-10-21T16:08:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2013-10-21T16:08:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:08:31","slug":"discussion-led-by-ids-professor-to-explore-sweatshops-and-north-american-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2013\/discussion-led-by-ids-professor-to-explore-sweatshops-and-north-american-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion Led by IDS Professor to Explore Sweatshops and North American Clothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen Cheap Is Costly\u201d is the third of seven Face2Face events hosted by CMU<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

The April collapse of the Bangladeshi clothing factory, which produced for Loblaw\u2019s Joe Fresh label, and which killed more than 1,100 workers, raises important questions about where our clothes come from, and what conditions they are produced in.<\/p>\n

\"JF1\"With the publicity given to garment factories, like the Loblaw contract-location in Bangladesh, how can North Americans show concern in their consumer behaviours for workers overseas?<\/p>\n

Are we too concerned with fast fashion? Do constantly changing fashions trends encourage us to buy too many \u2018cheap\u2019 clothes that only need to last for a fashion season?<\/p>\n

What is the ethical responsibility of business people in how they source the goods they produce, as well as how they market and advertise them<\/p>\n

And how does social change happen for complex, diffuse problems like this?<\/p>\n

Ray Vander Zaag, Assistant Professor of International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), will discuss those questions and more during CMU\u2019s next Face2Face event exploring the intersection of faith and life.<\/p>\n

Vander Zaag will host a conversation, titled \u201cWhen Cheap Is Costly: Sweatshops and the Clothes I Buy,\u201d on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7:00 PM in CMU\u2019s Great Hall (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.). Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.<\/p>\n

Vander Zaag says he is interested in the topic because it links to Haiti, where he worked with his church\u2019s development agency\u00a0 from 1985 to 1993. Garment factories, some with poor working conditions, are common in the Caribbean country, and are still\u00a0 being promoted as a key development strategy for Haiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe topic of sweatshops affects my day-to-day life here in Winnipeg, because I do think about things like how many shirts I need to have in my closet,\u201d Vander Zaag says. \u201cIt\u2019s also interesting linking this topic to places I\u2019ve lived in and care about, like Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vander Zaag hopes his talk will lead to a nuanced discussion about the topic, because it is a complex issue with no easy answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s pretty clear that there are people being hurt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A lot can be, and is being done, to work toward solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are fair trade clothing shops in Winnipeg, there are advocacy groups working in solidarity with labourers in the global south, and Loblaw is concerned about this,\u201d Vander Zaag says. \u201cThere are many pieces to the puzzle of a fairer global garment industry, and all these initiatives can slowly make that ocean liner move in a new direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Cheap Is Costly: Sweatshops and the Clothes I Buy\u201d is the third of seven Face2Face events CMU will host during the 2013-14 school year.<\/p>\n

Face2Face events are a series of conversations with CMU faculty designed to engage the community on a wide variety of current events and issues at the intersection of faith and life.\u00a0For the complete Face2Face schedule, please visit www.cmu.ca\/face2face<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen Cheap Is Costly\u201d is the third of seven Face2Face events hosted by CMU The April collapse of the Bangladeshi clothing factory, which produced for Loblaw\u2019s Joe Fresh label, and which killed more than 1,100 workers, raises important questions about where our clothes come from, and what conditions they are produced in. With the publicity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,22,5],"tags":[460,122,466,467],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4097"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4102,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions\/4102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}