Apparel lie lets us down

Last week, Queen’s No Sweat obtained documents showing that not all pieces of Queen’s Athletics apparel are made in Canada, contrary to the University’s claim when it signed a contract with adidas in September.

According to the documents, 162 of the 342 items are produced by Saxon Manufacturing in Brantford, Ontario, and the remaining 180 items are produced in factories in Asia and South America.

It’s disappointing the office of student affairs would try to pull the wool over our eyes after promising that athletics uniforms would be produced in Canada.

Dean of Student Affairs Jason Laker said it’s a question of semantics, because athletes’ uniforms are made in Canada and the items produced internationally are training gear. But because athletes are mandated to only wear the new adidas gear, they essentially have uniforms for on and off the playing field.

Varsity athletes were required to purchase new training gear and uniforms with the adidas logo.

One of the reasons Queen’s didn’t re-sign the contract with Russell Athletics was ostensibly due to concerns about the unethical treatment of factory employees in El Salvador, where Russell outsourced the production of some of its garments.

Although manufacturing items in Canada doesn’t guarantee they were made under fair working conditions, and overseas factories may not necessarily have poor working conditions, the Canadian manufacturing agreement was something of a compromise for the University not signing onto the designated suppliers program that promotes ethical purchasing.

But it becomes harder to justify the switch from an ethical perspective if adidas’ practices are now being called into question.

Perhaps adidas was a more ethical option than Russell; it may also have been that adidas was chosen simply to raise the University’s profile. The adidas contract has helped give Queen’s a more branded, established look.

If the latter is the case, students should have been informed from the beginning.

The student affairs office’s underhanded move disrespects students who have devoted their time to ethical purchasing issues.

Laker must acknowledge that he misled students and be more upfront about ethical purchasing in the future.

It’s unfortunate that we aren’t surprised by this type of behaviour from Laker’s office.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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