50 Million Trapped In Slavery: Why This Canadian Entrepreneur Says Now Is The Time To Advocate For Them

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates nearly 50 million people are trapped in slavery.

That doesn’t sit right with Ben Samaroo, a Canadian entrepreneur and one of the few people of color who has served as CEO of a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Upon the Canadian government’s proclamation of a new king, shortly following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Samaroo went to online media, including Benzinga, to remind his fellow Canadians of Britain’s violent exploitation and generational traumas it inflicted on the country.

To Samaroo, the queen’s death is a timely catalyst to advocate for the 50 million trapped in slavery today and those still struggling generations later from traumas.

Here’s more of what Samaroo — co-founder, board director and former CEO at WonderFi — has to say.  

'An Inconvenient Truth'

In 2006, former Vice President Al Gore drew attention to the crisis of global warming through a movie titled "An Inconvenient Truth" — and many listened.

“It really made it part of the conversation,” Samaroo said to Benzinga about the movie playing a big role in an increased focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks guiding investments and leadership.

“To inflict change, there needs to be actual capital invested,” he said. It’s essentially putting your money where your mouth is. Charity initiatives do little to move the needle; the existing bar, with respect to slavery, is still too low for the mandates and frameworks that guide large-dollar investments, he said.

“We have yet to encounter the watershed moment, just like we did with climate change,” added Samaroo, noting it will likely take the next half-decade for “more scrutiny to develop.”

50 Million And Counting

Samaroo’s family fell victim to indentured servitude, the “rebranded slavery” that came as debt bondage, he said. Servants agreed to unpaid work in exchange for immigrating to places such as America and for basic necessities.

Today, slavery remains, albeit carrying different names. There’s state-imposed forced labor in places such as China, as well as forced marriage. A big driver of forced labor is poverty, and it also occurs in the developed world, but to a lesser extent.

“Eighty percent of modern slavery is this bonded, forced labor,” Samaroo said. “I’m a big believer that you don’t call business, modern business, or movies, modern movies. Slavery is slavery.

“You are promised a dream and enter into contractual debt you may not understand,” he added pointing to the ILO’s estimates that reveal recent world crises lending to a rise of 10 million more people in slavery since 2017 to 50 million and counting.

Recognition Of The Issue

“It may take a long time to come back to a baseline, even after the immediately affected are freed. They’re starting from scratch and don’t have the resources,” Samaroo said.

Samaroo is lucky, he said: “I won the lottery.”

His parents left Guyana with three kids and $100 to their name for England and ultimately landed in Canada, where they now reside, he told Benzinga.

Through what is colloquially referred to as scrappiness, Samaroo’s parents managed to shield him from their hardship.

“Not all parents are like that. These were huge risks my parents bore and I’m aware of the luck I am a recipient of,” he said. The struggles and hardships prompted growing desires for freedom that manifested in hard work “bringing me a bit closer to freedom, or so I thought.”

Further, the desire to make an impact and change course sprouted a decade ago when Samaroo traveled to Guyana and England, discovering his family’s ties to slavery.

“I’ve got this fire to move things forward and get things done, now. We have this opportunity to advance and bring good to the world.”

Putting Money Where One’s Mouth Is

“It’s a capital issue at the end of the day,” Samaroo said, though policy “leaves some to be desired.”

Actions are needed from the business world, he said, particularly with shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic pressuring low-cost production. At the end of the day, if unchecked, “executives may turn a blind eye and that’s how capitalism works.”

Though legislative penalties help, Samaroo said ESG coupled with rules at the exchange level when companies are seeking to issue equity, for instance, that may yield more impact.

“Some exchanges may not have mandated human rights policies. That would be a step in the right direction, coupled with knowing where your supply chain is coming from and contractor codes of conduct,” Samaroo said. 

Benzinga discussed with Samaroo the concept of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), as set forth by proponents such as James Felton Keith II, an award-winning engineer and economist. Essentially, Keith argued for collecting and distributing dividends from profitable, tax-paying institutions, as explained to Benzinga in 2019.

“That could be a really good idea,” Samaroo said.

Pooling and distributing the dividends from an equity stake in companies, particularly those that have benefitted from forced labor, is a step toward reconciliation, in his view. Canada separating its ties with the British monarchy is another.

“Renouncing my British citizenship is a start on my part, however,” Samaroo said. “As a senior public company official, working on human rights policies and advocating is the extension I take in addressing the generational traumas and ongoing exploitation of humans.”

Photo: Unsplash.