Human rights groups criticize Canada Soccer for staying silent on Qatar human rights abuses

By Mitchell Consky

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    TORONTO (CTV Network) — Human rights organizations say Canada Soccer has been “missing in action” when it comes to speaking out against human rights abuses in Qatar ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Throughout the last year, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other groups have reached out to the 32 national football associations who have qualified to compete in the Qatar World Cup.

“We think it’s especially important that football associations and countries who have human rights at the centre of their policies to speak out,” Minky Worden, director of Global Initiatives for Human Rights Watch, told CTV News on Thursday.

Given labour rights violations that have severely harmed – and killed – migrant workers, and a lack of LGBTQ2S+ and women rights, Worden said it’s crucial for countries who oppose these injustices to articulate their stance.

Recently, 16 players from the Australian men’s soccer team issued a three-minute video highlighting Qatar’s human rights record, while demanding genuine reform.

Worden pointed out that seven countries – including Germany, U.S, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands – have also spoken out against the human rights violations, which include forced labour, unpaid wages, and negligent construction zones that put workers in life-threatening situations. Other cruelties include a limited press and a lack of women rights.

But Canada, Worden said, has been “shockingly” quiet, and “completely missing in action” when it comes to vocalizing opposition towards these injustices.

“Human Rights Watch has written to Canada Soccer a half a dozen times since April requesting a meeting to inform [the organization] about these terrible human rights abuses,” Worden said.

With US$220 billion going towards Qatar infrastructure over the last 12 years, Worden noted that the next World Cup is the most expensive sporting event of all time.

“The cost has not just been financial,” she said. “[The cost] has actually been in workers’ lives.”

She explained that workers who migrated from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Kenya have been working in Qatar for more than a decade, building eight new stadiums, airport expansions, new roads, and a revamped metro system.

“These are workers who left home to build better lives for themselves and for their children. But in too many cases they have returned home in coffins.”

Although the World Cup will be proceeding in Qatar, Worden said “there’s still a lot we can do” to remedy some of the harm.

“It’s possible for FIFA and Qatar to set up a remedy fund so that these families, the children of these workers, could have a chance to go to school so they don’t end up themselves as the next generation of migrant workers without basic human rights.”

According to Amnesty International’s website, the Qatar government signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization in 2017, promising to align its laws with international labour standards.

Worden explained that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has called for FIFA and the Qatari government to set aside no less than US$440 million dollars as a remedy fund to compensate migrant workers.

“It’s the equivalent to the prize money for the World Cup,” she said.

Canada Soccer did not respond to multiple emails today asking for comment and neither FIFA nor the Qatari government have committed to supporting the fund.

With files from CTV News’ Heather Wright

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