UPDATE: Canadian-owned face mask factory says they did not use Chinese slave labour

Shanghai Daily had previously reported that convicts were assigned to the Medicom plant, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

Original article below.

Chinese prison labour was assigned to work at a Canadian-owned mask factory in Shanghai, according to the Communist Party press.

The Department of Public Works had previously said it does not know if it purchased slave-made goods, Blacklock’s Reporter says.

Prisoners worked at a Shanghai factory owned by AMD Medicom Inc., a contractor headquartered in Montreal that received large federal orders for pandemic masks, including a $19,922,868 contract to supply surgical masks from its production facilities outside Canada back in March.

According to Medicom VP, Gayle Padvaiskas, "The factory in question was under government appropriation at the time." Medicom has, in the past, refused to identify shareholders in their privately-held company.

The Shanghai Municipal Government said that they "thought this might be a good chance for people under community correction to reintegrate into society." The local government expropriated local Medicom production February 2.

At a July 23 government operations committee, department managers said they could not tell if the masks for Canadian consumers were made with slave labour or not. Deputy Minister of Public Service & Procurement, Bill Matthews told the committee "getting line of sight into these types of questions is not an easy thing to do."

Matthews told the committee that the department asked Chinese manufacturers for “self-certification” that they did not use any form of slave labour.