Child Labour in Toronto

This dude drove up my street with his three children running after the mini van, darting left then right and throwing bundles of flyers hither and yon. He bellowed at them to hurry up, to get moving, to pick up the pace. The kids ranged in ages from maybe 9 to 13 (it was hard to tell and I am useless at figuring out how old children old). The kids had to keep running back to the van to get more bundles from the open side door. I was amazed that he didn't drive over some little feet.

I know that many children choose to work, even some very young children, but this seemed wrong to me. Maybe I misread the situation, but I thought that this guy saw a good opportunity to make a quick buck at the expense of his (I think they were his) children. He acted like an impatient slave driver.

A few months back, I saw a similar situation. It was a woman with her daughter. They looked totally impoverished, but were delivering flyers from a shopping cart. Part of the problem is that these people are paid by the number of flyers they deliver, which explains why a childhood friend dumped hundreds of flyers near a river and collected pay for work he never did.

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