Windsor Law Students Call for Concrete, Practical Steps to Ensure the Safety, Health and Rights of Migrant WorkersOn behalf of law students across Canada, and particularly law students at the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Marco Mendicino's alma mater, Windsor Law, students from Windsor Law drafted an open letter to call attention to the situation of migrant farmworkers, and migrant workers in general, who have been deemed "essential workers" in the COVID-19 crisis. They urged the Minister to take concrete, practical steps in ensuring their safety, health, and rights are protected now and into the future. ***Dear Minister Mendicino,
As we congratulate you on your appointment as the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, we also want to remind you that in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to protect migrant farmworkers, who continue to take care of our needs, especially when not enough Canadians want to take up the work. Migrant farmworkers come to Canada on employer-specific work permits, which prohibit them from changing employers without permission, even if they are facing abuse and mistreatment. There are also few benefits to reporting abuse because workers can simply be terminated and repatriated to their home countries. The structural inequalities created through the program have been well-documented and recognized by Canadian courts. In Hosein v Ontario (Community Safety and Correctional Services), the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario recognized that migrant workers are socially and geographically isolated in Canada and " . . [face] structural barriers and social marginalization common to all migrant workers." Despite efforts to raise awareness around these issues, many migrant workers continue to live in conditions not fit for any human being, including crowded bunkhouses with little privacy, insect infestations, and non-functioning plumbing. These conditions also make workers vulnerable to COVID-19 transmission, as we have seen in outbreaks in Kelowna, BC and Windsor and Chatham-Kent, Ontario. If workers become ill, they should have the same access to health care as other Canadians, which they do not currently have, even with enhanced access under COVID-19 conditions. During this pandemic, no one should be prevented from accessing health care because of precarious immigration status. Although health care does not fall within federal jurisdiction, the federal government does have the power to stop the repatriation and deportation of migrant workers. This will help reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. All workers should especially have access to Employment Insurance in this period of uncertainty. These efforts will not only improve the safety of migrant workers; it will contribute to wider efforts of controlling the pandemic and the risk it poses to all of us. We know the Canadian government places a particular focus on this latter goal. Finally, as migrant workers are susceptible to the spread of the pandemic as a result of poor working and living conditions, the federal government should stop the repatriation and deportation of migrant workers. For decades, migrant worker advocates have urged the federal government to provide permanent status on arrival to farm workers to acknowledge their critical contributions to our society. We echo that demand. Tied work permits perpetuate a power imbalance that deny migrant workers the ability to exert their rights in their workplaces. During this pandemic, we believe the federal government should provide open work permits to all agricultural migrant workers. This will reduce their vulnerability, and allow them to choose employers that treat them with respect, and increase their likelihood of finding employment if they are laid off, as many cannabis workers are at this time. There is already a pilot project which allows some workers to apply for open work permits, but the process has proved excessively burdensome, especially due to the paperwork, language barriers, and difficulty in proving abuse. By extending the open-work permit to all migrant workers, the pilot project will ensure that all migrant workers are able to work in Canada with dignity and safe working conditions. Our demands: 1. Permanent status on arrival for migrant workers. This is a critical time for migrant workers who still need to provide for their families and provide for ours. Granting them permanent residency status on arrival will allow them to choose safer workplaces where their rights are respected, and more broadly, will help control the transmission of COVID-19. 2. Stop the deportation and repatriation of migrant workers. Moving them across borders unnecessarily creates risk of COVID-19 transmission for them, and for other workers. 3. Issue open work permits to migrant workers rather than employer-specific work permits. When migrant workers have to ‘prove' abuse in order to obtain open work permits, it creates more difficulties as they must gather documents and other evidence they may not have, all while dealing with a complex immigration system in a language they may not know. Considering their value to Canada, their rights should be protected before they have the need to apply. This is especially important now, when migrant workers are more vulnerable than ever in the current COVID-19 pandemic. This will also benefit employers as they will save money and time in submitting LMIA applications. 4. Make Employment Insurance and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit available to migrant farmworkers whether they are in Canada or in their home countries. Migrant workers also contribute to the Canadian economy. If they lose their jobs in this pandemic, they should have access to funds that will sustain their needs like any other Canadian or permanent resident. They pay taxes as well. 5. Implement a Low-Paid Essential Worker support benefit to support migrant farmworkers. Migrant workers are designated essential workers who secure Canada's food supply chain. Canadians depend on their labour to buy fresh Canadian produce. The support benefit will help flatten the Covid-19 curve by paying essential workers with fair wages. We urge you to take these meaningful and concrete steps to address the conditions of migrant workers in Canada and protect them in this period of uncertainty. As Canadians, we have responsibilities towards migrant workers as their labour and hard work sustains our economy, and our communities. Others are invited to sign on to the letter here.
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We are writing to
you as current and former Windsor Law students,
faculty, and members of the Windsor community.
We are also writing to you as current and former
students from across Canada who are concerned
about the plight of migrant farmworkers during
this difficult and stressful time. The work that
migrant farmworkers do is particularly important
to those of us in Windsor-Essex because, as you
may know, thousands of migrant farmworkers come
to work here every year. These workers are the
backbone of the Canadian economy as they provide
us with food security.