Virgil Grandfield was featured in the national media last week when Radio Canada’s TV documentary series Enquette broke the story about extensive use of modern slave labour in the Canadian Red Cross’ rebuilding projects in 2004-tsunami-struck Indonesia. An English CBC TV report and national print media articles followed, as well as a radio magazine report on CBC’s The Current.
A press conference in Ottawa with Green Party leader Elizabeth May is scheduled early this week (March 30th) and a new Facebook group is gathering attention: Trafficking is not Canadian, Red Cross: Pay Tsunami Workers. Two one-hour radio interviews with Virgil Grandfield were scheduled on campus radio in Ottawa (CHUO 89.1 FM) on March 25th and April 1st 2010: Train Radio podcast and live-stream.
Virgil Grandfield is a Canadian international aid worker. In 1999-2000, he worked with a project evaluation unit for the Disasters Emergency Committee (the UK funding agency for disasters) in Central America after Hurricane Mitch. He became an Overseas Delegate for the Canadian Red Cross in 2002, after serving as Red Cross team leader on floods on the Blood Reserve in Standoff, Alberta. In 2003-2004 he researched a cover story on migrant worker issues on the U.S.-Mexico border for Red Cross Red Crescent magazine. In 2005-2006, he was Information Delegate for the tsunami operation of the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies in Aceh, Indonesia. He returned to Aceh in 2007 to work for the Canadian Red Cross and resigned as a delegate in 2008.
Grandfield quit the Canadian Red Cross in 2008 after many efforts to have his internal complaints addressed that contractors hired by the Red Cross to rebuild after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami used slave labor in which workers were brought in from distant jurisdictions using false recruitment, were retained by geographical distance and deception, were not paid, and were subjected to harsh conditions; and after he was told in writing by the Red Cross that the corporation would no longer communicate with him about his complaints.
Grandfield has stated that he has been consistently motivated by a moral duty to protect exploited groups and that he feels compelled to help the abused workers and their families to obtain justice and regain their dignity. After leaving the Red Cross, he mortgaged his house and returned to Aceh in 2009 with an investigative and advocacy organization that he organized called Brigade Cahaya (“The Light Brigade”) which has been responsible for uncovering and making public the human rights disaster in which some 50,000 or more Javanese construction workers were victims of human trafficking on UN, Red Cross and other NGO tsunami projects in Aceh, as amply reported in the leading national media in Indonesia (e.g., print media [1][2][3][4]).
The Canadian Red Cross’ corporate communication reaction in the scandal has been shameful. The Red Cross has gone as far as to state that most of Grandfield’s statements about the Red Cross are simply untrue allegations and that only 40 workers under the Red Cross were affected, while at least one of the corporation’s own internal reports based on an inadequate investigation conveys larger numbers. It appears that the Red Cross is in cover up mode – trying to portray the problem as an unfortunate accident that escaped its normal vigilance – rather than being genuinely interested in finding the truth, recognizing the problem, and doing the necessary to never allow this to occur again.
In an particularly unprincipled display of irresponsibility the Red Cross has attempted to trade off the harm done to the slave labourers against the benefits from the houses built for the the tsunami victims. The Enquette documentary shows that the villagers themselves in their new houses witnessed and are deeply concerned about how the underfed transported workers were treated during construction.
As an experienced international aid professional, Grandfield is making concrete recommendations for reforms that would bring the Canadian aid industry/enterprise in line with the better international standards practiced by other Western nations. The Red Cross needs reform and oversight. Grandfield hopes Canadians will be given more opportunity to learn how their aid dollars are spent and that Members of Parliament will help move us towards a more Canadian way.
[Note: Some sections of the present report are modified and/or taken from the Wikipedia article about Virgil Grandfield contributed by Wikipedia editor Denis Rancourt.]
- Author Denis Rancourt is a member of Canadian for Accountability.
(For all the posts by Canadians for Accountability Blog contributor Denis Rancourt click the label “DENISR“.)
