Children Illegally Taken to Canada for Commercials!
ACTRA, September 15, 2000

General Electric was caught red-handed by Immigration Canada officials as they filmed a commercial in Pointe Claire, Québec. G.E., through Toronto-based production company Industry Films, requested foreign work-permits for five American performers.

Based on the recommendation of ACTRA, the union which represents Canadian performers working in English, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), the Federal Government department which processes such requests, refused to grant these permits. This refusal was based on the grounds that qualified Canadian talent was available to perform these roles, which had either no dialogue or a maximum of four words. Along with Industry Films, G.E. produced this commercial through BBDO, the world's third largest advertising agency.

"Over a dozen ACTRA members and representatives were on site to demonstrate their opposition to this commercial," explained ACTRA National President Thor Bishopric. "When it became clear that the producers had no intention of allowing ACTRA access to the performers and would not even let the MUC Police verify the citizenship of the performers, ACTRA informed the RCMP and the Immigration Inspectors."

Five Inspectors from Immigration Canada arrived on set in the afternoon. After the producers insisted that all performers involved in the commercial were present, an MUC Police officer who was on the set in the morning pointed out to the Immigration Inspectors that, in fact, several performers had recently left the area. Following much obfuscating from the producers, the Immigration Inspectors were able to find photographs of the performers in question, along with their New York addresses.

"The most blatant violation is the smuggling of illegal workers into Canada after their request was categorically refused by HRDC," explained Raymond Guardia, ACTRA's Eastern Regional Director. It seems that the commercial was an attempt by G.E. to avoid the legal strike in the United States by SAG and AFTRA, unions representing American performers. SAG/AFTRA performers are presently in the longest strike in their history to assure fair compensation for television and radio commercials.

Also, performers hired for the G.E. commercial were paid significantly less than industry standards. "Since two full baseball teams of children were used in the commercial, G.E paid sub-standard wages to children," pointed out Thor Bishopric. G.E. took in a $10,7 billion profit in 1999. ACTRA has pledged its full cooperation with the authorities involved in handling the matter and hopes that those guilty of wrongdoing are brought to justice.