Status for All Day
of Action Fighting for the Living -- Honouring the Dead 
November 1, 2020. Picket at Toronto office of the Minister of
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Día de los Muertos,
or "Day of the Dead," is celebrated throughout Mexico and Latin
America. It is a celebration of life and death. It was marked this year
across Canada with gatherings, pickets and rallies to honour migrant
workers who have died of COVID-19 while working in Canada, and to
celebrate the struggle to affirm that all human beings have rights,
under the slogan Status
for All! Actions were held in many
cities across Canada, including Halifax, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Toronto,
Niagara, Sudbury and Vancouver. The day of action was coordinated by
the Migrant Rights Network. In Toronto, more than
100 people gathered at Dufferin Park after dusk to remember and
celebrate the lives of migrant workers in Canada and around the world
who have died from COVID-19. A tent was erected with photographs of
those remembered by friends and family. Earlier in
the day a picket, organized by the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L), was
held in front of the constituency office of Marco Mendicino, the
federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, reiterating
the demand of Status for All. In
Montreal, people rallied outside Radio-Canada to highlight the
invisibility of the struggle of migrant workers for their rights in the
so-called mainstream media. In Niagara region a roadside memorial was
held for Zenaida, a 33-year-old migrant farm worker, a single mother
from Mexico, who was killed in a hit-and-run last year, after which
people rallied at a local Liberal MP's office and an ofrenda (altar) was
built for migrant workers. In Sudbury people gathered at Bell Park.
Between
50,000 and 60,000 migrant workers come to Canada every year under the
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and it is estimated that about
1,300 tested positive for COVID-19. Many have died and still these
workers are denied health care, access to emergency income supports,
decent working and living conditions. On October
28, migrant care worker organizations released a report documenting the
experiences of  hundreds of
migrant domestic workers during COVID-19. The report, "Behind Closed
Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19," can
be read here.
At the launch, Caregivers Action Centre leader Karen Savitra
said: "We should be given permanent residency upon arrival, along with
our families, so that there is no complication for anything. They
allowed us to come to Canada, we worked here, now we want fairness."
Migrant workers are an integral part of the Canadian working
class. The entire system of migrant and temporary worker programs
created by the Canadian state is designed to provide the agri-business
monopolies with cheap labour. It is an assault on the rights of the
most vulnerable, and on the rights of the working class as a whole.
Montreal,QC  
Toronto, ON
 
Peel Region, ON
Niagara, ON
 
Leamington, ON
  
Vancouver, BC
This article was published in
Number 75 - November 5, 2020
Article Link:
: Fighting for the Living -- Honouring the Dead
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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