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June 11, 2020 - No. 40
Demand Dignified Working and
Living Conditions, Health Care and
Status for Migrant Workers!
Rights
for Migrant Workers NOW!
• Stand Up for
Dignity Mobile Rally in Montreal
• Migrant Worker Defence
Organizations Call for Permanent Resident
Status in the Face of Mounting Abuse
- Diane Johnston
• Unacceptable Deaths of
Migrant Farm Workers in Southwestern Ontario
• Conditions Faced by
Migrant Farm Workers and Others Working in the
Sector in Southwestern Ontario -
Margaret Villamizar
• Demand for Safe
Working and Living Conditions and Status for
Migrant Farm Workers - Steve
Rutschinski
• Windsor Law Students
Call for Concrete, Practical Steps to Ensure
the Safety, Health and Rights of Migrant
Workers
• "Canadian-Owned"
Greenhouse Operation Hotbed of COVID-19 in
New York State
Rights for Migrant Workers NOW!
On Saturday, June 6, for the second time in
just over two weeks, activists in Montreal,
despite the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic,
rallied to the call of the organization Stand Up
for Dignity in support of rights for migrant
workers. In the space of just two weeks,
the number of people participating in this
mobile demonstration had tripled, with around
300 present in the parking lot beside Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau's Papineau riding
offices on Crémazie Boulevard East.
 They came with
Haitian flags and a Mexican flag, banners,
placards and posters, shouting over and over:
"Good Enough to Work -- Good Enough to Stay!";
"Quebec-Haiti: Solidarity!"; "Solidarity with
Refugee Claimants!"; "Permanent Residency for
All Essential Workers Now!"
They were joined by a number of political
personalities. Alexandre Boulerice, NDP MP for
Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, was present, as he
was at the first action. Boulerice had presented
a motion in the House of Commons on May 25
calling for status for hundreds of refugee
claimants deemed essential workers in
recognition of the contributions. That motion
was defeated by the Conservatives. Quebec
National Assembly Independent Member for
Marie-Victorin, Catherine Fournier, was also
present. On May 13 she had tabled a motion in
the Quebec National Assembly calling for the
recognition of hundreds of asylum seekers
working in Quebec's long-term residences and
seniors' homes and requesting that the Canadian
government quickly recognize their immigration
status. That motion was defeated by the ruling
coalition CAQ. Québec Solidaire Member of
the Quebec National Assembly for Laurier-Dorion,
Andrés Fontecilla was in attendance, as was
Parti Québécois (PQ) Interim Leader and Member
of the National Assembly for Matane-Matapédia,
Pascal Bérubé and PQ President Dieudonné Ella
Oyono. Members of the PMLQ and CPC(M-L) were
also present. Markedly absent were federal and
Quebec Liberal Party representatives of ridings
in which the Haitian community has a large
presence.
With flags flying, banners waving, posters,
placards and slogans in support of essential
workers without status, activists then took to
the street in a march, bicycle and motor convoy.
For over an hour they made their way through a
large residential neighbourhood, passing in
front of Jean-Talon Hospital, shouting slogans
and generally raising the roof to alert the
residents of the importance of the contribution
and sacrifice of our essential workers and for
the demand to grant them permanent residency
NOW! They were warmly greeted all along the
route with recurring thumbs up, applause, fists
raised and flags waved. It was truly a sight to
be seen!
 Once they had
made their way back to where they started, Dr.
Wilner Cayo, President of Stand Up for Dignity,
the organizer of the action, said: "We are
profoundly touched by this show of solidarity on
the part of Quebeckers." "No one should forget
the fight that many essential workers continue
to wage to save lives in our hospitals, our
seniors' residences, our CHSLDs [residential and
long-term care centres]," Dr. Cayo said. A
tribute was then paid to all those who had died
in the fight against the coronavirus.
In reference to the many essential workers also
waging a battle for permanent residency, he
said: "They're afraid of being deported once the
pandemic is over. They're in need of allies."
"Together," he said, "we can turn things in the
right direction." He pointed out that
"forty-eight hours after our first
demonstration, the culminating point of many
other efforts, [Quebec Premier] François Legault
felt obliged to initiate a major political
about-face. Let's not kid ourselves! The reality
hasn't changed. We're here to continue the
struggle." "It's because of you Quebeckers with
a heart, the community organizations and groups,
elected representatives and pressure groups,
protestors, the people who believe in human
dignity!"
Dr. Cayo explained that Legault's statement
about wanting to thank refugee claimants had
been met with a sigh of great relief by
exhausted asylum seekers working in CHSLDs, who
felt that their sacrifice was finally being
acknowledged by the government. "Then, when he
announced his plan to create 10,000 well-paying
orderly positions along with all the social
benefits, our people began to dream."
 "Then came Black
Tuesday [in reference to the announcement made
by Premier Legault on Tuesday, June 2 when he
stated that 'citizenship status is required to
register']. In one fell swoop," Dr. Cayo
commented, our people "have again become
undesirable!"
"When it was an issue of the CHSLDs, of
counting on work akin to modern slavery, these
people were needed. When it was about working
for starvation wages, [...] of risking one's
life and even dying at work, these [...] refugee
claimants were humanitarian workers. When the
working conditions in the CHSLDs were abhorrent,
they were good enough to work! Despite their
experience and expertise, once the conditions
become humane, they're no longer good enough to
deserve them.
"The response was unequivocal. [...] These
essential workers will not be participating in
the orderly training program.
"François Legault is sending a clear message!
If you are a racialized woman, particularly if
you have been rendered even more fragile as a
result of your precarious migratory status, even
if you have sacrificed yourself for Quebec, you
should not expect anything from Quebec!
"There's no humanity towards the most
disadvantaged, no recognition! Only petty
electioneering with no compassion, indifference
towards the cries and pain of essential workers.
"Premier Legault's callousness is not worthy of
Quebeckers' human values. Why keep these people
in such dismal working conditions?" Dr. Cayo
demanded to know. He then addressed himself to
the Premier: "Through a measure falling under
your own jurisdiction, you could have set aside
places for these people who are already in the
system and have been holding it up. It's a
matter of common sense!
 "They devotedly
took care of our seniors at the pandemic's peak
[...] at the risk of their lives! Don't leave
them now to fend for themselves and at the mercy
of predatory agencies that continue to pay them
half the wages others are earning!
"These people," Dr. Cayo continued, "are
already working, they're already committed.
[...] They're already taking care of us in our
grocery stores, slaughterhouses, meat-processing
plants, private seniors' residences, CHSLDs.
They're the orderlies, the clerks of all kinds,
the security guards and others identified by you
as essential workers.
"Your case-by-case policy [...] continues to be
a policy of exclusion! We're not interested!
We're requesting that the government consider
the contribution these essential workers have
made [and ...] that it make a humanitarian
gesture towards them in the form of an
exceptional measure under its own jurisdiction
by receiving them as immigrants, [...] by
according them [Quebec] selection certificates."
Then, addressing himself to Prime Minister
Trudeau, Cayo demanded that he turn his words
into deeds and grant "these people permanent
residency." "It's a matter of dignity," he
asserted.
  
Quebec Independent MNA Catherine Fournier noted
that "For days now we've been talking about
discrimination and it's part of the struggle we
are waging today, because one has to reflect on
the fact that when groups, minorities, are made
vulnerable as a result of being left in the
employ of often malevolent employment agencies,
this also contributes to systemic discrimination
within the society."
"We must absolutely continue to wage this
struggle, which has resulted in a change of tune
following the motion I tabled, through
extraordinary citizen mobilization," Fournier
said. "Now it's up to Quebec to assume its full
leadership. We're done with waiting on Canada
and its inhumane Refugee Board delays. Quebec
must assume its full leadership in immigration
and offer, once and for all, the status of
Quebec resident to all the guardian angels
presently working with the most vulnerable,"
Fournier concluded.
 
- Diane Johnston -
On June 8, the Migrant Workers Alliance for
Change (MWAC) released a 28-page report of
complaints on behalf of over 1,000 workers
entitled: Unheeded
Warnings: COVID-19 and Migrant Workers in
Canada. The report documents
complaints of these workers that have gone
unheeded by federal and provincial authorities
and consulates in advance of the recent COVID-19
outbreaks that have led to two workers' deaths
and at least two in Intensive Care.[1]
Co-author and MWAC campaigns coordinator Karen
Cocq noted in a press release the same day:
"Most of the workers we spoke to knew they would
fall sick because of their living and working
conditions but could not speak up because doing
so means termination, homelessness, loss of
income, deportation and not being able to come
back in the future." She concludes that "To stop
this grave crisis from worsening, it is
necessary that all migrants be given permanent
resident status immediately."
The report situates these abuses within the
decades long history of unheeded warnings made
by migrant workers about Canada's temporary
immigration and labour laws.
 Through the press
release, we learn that "The biggest COVID-19
outbreaks have taken place at Scotlynn Farms,
one of the largest farming operations in
Ontario." One migrant worker said, "They treat
us like robots. They only care about the work we
do and the money they make because of our
labour. Scotlynn Farms is saying that they took
care of us, but when the first worker fell sick
here, they didn't do anything. We workers got
together and called the ambulance." The worker
added: "It's not fair that they treat us like
this. We need equal rights and permanent
resident status."
Says MWAC organizer Sonia Áviles, who staffs
one of the hotlines where the complaints were
made: "The federal government has given nearly a
billion dollars to agri-food businesses, while
migrants who actually grow the food are falling
sick and dying." What is needed, she adds, is
for "the federal and provincial government to go
in and see what's going on, and fix things to
ensure workers are protected before more people
die -- that means snap inspections, social
distancing measures and permanent resident
status."
The press release also informs that in 2017,
migrant workers accounted for 41.6 per cent of
all agricultural workers in Ontario and over 30
per cent of those in Quebec, British Columbia
and Nova Scotia.
"Employers are using COVID-19 to lock migrant
workers up, refusing to let them leave even to
get groceries or send remittances home, while
threatening them," notes MWAC organizer Kit
Andres, who staffs the English hotline where the
complaints were received. "Workers," she stated,
"need permanent resident status so they can
assert their rights."
The MWAC has sent several letters regarding
migrants to the federal government that have
also gone unanswered.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, notes the
communiqué, over 6,000 people have signed on to
a petition here
calling for full immigration status on arrival.
The Migrant Rights Network has also sent several
letters regarding migrants to the federal
government that have been ignored.[2]
Some of the key findings of the report are
that:
- Lack of permanent resident status makes it
impossible for workers to assert their rights;
- Employers are not taking COVID-19
precautions;
-Wage theft is commonplace, in the form of
deductions and unpaid wages;
- Border closures resulted in loss of income,
and workers were coerced to travel to Canada
because no income supports were available;
- Workers could not socially distance and did
not receive decent food, income or health
information during quarantine;
- Housing conditions worsened dramatically
after quarantine and greater limits have been
placed on worker mobility;
- Intimidation, surveillance, threats and
racism have greatly increased; and
- Work has intensified greatly during COVID-19.
The Migrant Rights Network is organizing a
digital rally for Full Immigration Status for
All on June 14 at noon. See calendar of events
above and for further information, click
here.
Notes
1. The Migrant Workers
Alliance for Change (MWAC) is an organization
and a coalition. As a coalition, 28 member
organizations support worker self-organizing,
share resources and advocate together for
changes to immigration and labour policy. MWAC
is a coalition of grassroots migrant-led bodies
of farm workers, careworkers, undocumented
people and international students and local and
national organizations. As an organization, MWAC
supports migrant workers self-organizing in
unorganized areas or sectors. Currently, MWAC is
focused on supporting migrant worker
self-organizing in the Niagara region, and
migrant student organizing. MWAC is a member of,
and forms the secretariat of the Migrant Rights
Network - Canada's largest migrant justice
coalition.
2. The Migrant Rights Network defines itself as
a "Cross-Canada alliance to combat racism and
fight for migrant justice." It describes itself
as "a network of self-organized groups of
refugees and migrants and allies."
An increasing number of farm workers in
Southwestern Ontario have become infected with
COVID-19, especially migrant workers on the
federal government's two-year Temporary Foreign
Worker Program or its Seasonal Agricultural
Worker Program (SAWP). As of June 10, over 200
farm workers in Essex County are reported to
have tested positive for the virus and two have
died. Another two workers are in the Intensive
Care Unit at Windsor Regional Hospital. Farm
workers are said to represent around 22 per cent
of all positive cases in the Windsor-Essex
region. On June 8 and 9, there were 81 new
COVID-19 cases reported in Windsor-Essex; 72 of
these were farm workers. On June 10,
Windsor-Essex Medical Officer of Health Dr.
Wajid Ahmed said that these results are still
from testing done before organized mass testing
of farm workers began in Leamington on June 9.
He further stated, "We would expect to see more
cases as we expand the testing because now we
are actively looking for cases. The impact of
those cases, I think, is yet to be seen."
The health unit in neighbouring Chatham-Kent
has reported a total of 148 cases of COVID-19,
over 100 of them linked to an outbreak at
Greenhill Produce. Two of those cases remain
active, according to Chatham-Kent Public Health.
There has also been a large outbreak among
migrant workers at Scotlynn Farms in Norfolk
County and another one at Pioneer Flower Farms
in Niagara.
On May 30, Bonifacio Eugenio Romero, a 31-year
old worker employed at Woodside Greenhouses in
Kingsville, became the first migrant worker to
die of COVID-19 in Canada. Five days later, on
June 5, 24-year-old Rogelio Muñoz Santos also
died in hospital, the youngest person to die in
Windsor-Essex. Both workers were from Mexico. Workers'
Forum sends heartfelt condolences to the
families and loved ones, fellow workers and
friends of Bonifacio Eugenio Romero and Rogelio
Muñoz Santos for their tragic and needless
deaths.
 According to news
reports, Bonifacio was initially taken to the
hospital by his employer on May 21 after he
reported having symptoms. After being tested he
was moved from the bunkhouse where he and his
co-workers were being housed into a single hotel
room to self-isolate and given some instructions
to follow. Two days later, when his results came
back postive for COVID-19, his close contacts
were also moved into hotel rooms. During this
time the Windsor-Essex Health Unit checked up
"almost on a daily basis" on Bonifacio and the
others, presumably over the phone. After a week
spent this way Bonifacio called for help on May
31, saying he had trouble breathing. He was
taken to the hospital by Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) where he died within 30 minutes
of arriving. The circumstances surrounding the
tragic death of this worker, who had no known
underlying health problems, suggest it could
well have been avoided had he been afforded the
kind of care, monitoring and treatment he needed
instead of being dumped in a hotel room on his
own, far from home and family.
Right after Bonifacio's death was made public
it was announced that Erie Shores Health Care in
Leamington and the Windsor-Essex EMS had put
together two migrant worker assessment outreach
teams to provide in-person assessments, and in
some cases testing, for migrant workers at 15
different farms and greenhouses in Windsor-Essex
County, and at hotels where some of them were
self-isolating. The visits began the week of
June 1 and are being carried out by a team that
includes a nurse practitioner, a registered
nurse, a paramedic and Spanish translator. As a
result of their hands-on assessments, several
workers were sent to the Leamington hospital and
Windsor Regional Hospital for further assessment
and treatment.
 Rogelio Muñoz
Santos is reported to have been diagnosed and
hospitalized for COVID-19 in early May but was
eventually deemed to have recovered and was
released. However he continued to experience
complications and became weaker, returning to
Windsor Regional Hospital on his own, before the
outreach teams began their work of actually
carrying out in-person visits and check-up of
these workers. He was admitted to the ICU and
died a few days later. A GoFundMe campaign begun
on June 8 to help repatriate Rogelio's body to
Mexico and contribute towards funeral costs
described him as an honest, hard-working and
loving person whose dream was to be able to help
his family pay off its debts, but because of the
pandemic, he was left without work and without
money. By June 10 the campaign had surpassed its
goal of $10,000 and raised over $13,000.
The tragic and unnecessary deaths of these two
young workers has moved many people and alerted
them to the need for governments to be held to
account for what happened. For example at
the June 9 meeting of the Windsor and District
Labour Council, it was announced that the
Executive had voted to support the fight of
migrant workers for their rights, and to commit
$1,000 to the cause. Affiliated unions and
community groups will be informed of this
decision and encouraged to also do what they can
to support the cause of these workers.
It is of note that all incoming temporary
foreign workers and seasonal workers were
required to spend 14 days in quarantine before
starting work this year to ensure they were free
of the virus. Employers were given $1,500 per
worker by the federal government to cover the
cost of wages and food for the workers during
this period. Migrant workers that have
contracted COVID-19 are therefore assumed to
have acquired it in Canada. This should surprise
no one, given the often cramped, communal living
quarters many are provided by employers, and
workplaces some of them also have to navigate
without proper PPE or provisions for physical
distancing.
The initiation of mass
testing of migrant farm workers in Essex
County this week, along with certain other new
measures announced by the Windsor-Essex Health
Unit in the wake of the deaths of these two
young workers are positive first steps. Other
measures include a workplace being declared
"under outbreak" when two or more workers
contract COVID-19. If the workplace is deemed
to be putting the public or its staff at risk,
it will be shut down until the infection is
under control. Dr. Ahmed said a list of
workplaces that are currently under outbreak
will be provided on the health unit's website
sometime this week. Much more is still
required, particularly of senior levels of
government to urgently address the living
conditions of migrant workers as well as the
working conditions of all workers on these
farms and other agri-food establishments.
The deplorable
circumstances under which two workers have now
died, with a still unknown number also
infected and countless more put at risk are
totally unacceptable and must be addressed --
not as a policy objective for when it is
"realistic" as Premier Doug Ford has said, but
immediately.
- Margaret Villamizar -
Essex County in Southwestern Ontario, with the
largest concentration of greenhouses in Canada,
is a large fruit and especially vegetable
growing and distribution centre. Over 8,000
temporary and seasonal agricultural workers work
in greenhouses, fields, orchards and packing
facilities every year. Domestic workers also
work in the sector, as do some international
students. Several thousand international
students, mainly from India and China, attend
St. Clair College and the University of Windsor
on study permits. In April the federal
government announced that during the pandemic,
these students whose visas restrict them to
working a maximum of 20 hours a week would have
this condition lifted until August 31 if they
worked in "essential industries" such as food
services, health care, infrastructure, or the
supply of any other critical goods. These
students can therefore be found working
alongside other temporary and local workers in
the agri-food industry in Essex County. There
are reports of some of them moving from Windsor
into crowded, overpriced units such as basement
suites in places like Leamington in order to be
close to their workplaces.
 Almost 8,000
international students were enrolled at the
University of Windsor and St. Clair College for
the 2019-20 academic year. A minority of the St.
Clair College students, many of whom are from
India, are enrolled in programs at the
Chatham-Kent campus. These students are a cohort
of the 640,000 international students who came
to study in Canada during 2019, and who are
estimated to contribute around $33 billion
annually to Canada's economy. They pay high
tuition fees and must cover their living
expenses in cities where rental costs have shot
up dramatically the last few years, even in
traditionally low cost areas like Windsor-Essex.
The students may also be indebted to parasitic
"immigration consultants" and recruiters who
they paid to handle their visa applications with
the lure of a two-year Canadian college
certificate being a ticket to permanent
residency, despite there being no assurance of
any such thing. Like migrant workers whose
ability to remain in or return to Canada for the
next growing season depends on them not falling
out of favour with the employers to whom they
are tied, international students also are
subject to economic pressures that keep them
from reporting unsafe and exploitative working
conditions at the best of times, let alone
during a pandemic when the risks are much
higher.
The person said to be in charge of "the
facilitation of temporary foreign workers to
Woodside Greenhouses," the pepper farm in
Kingsville where Bonifacio Eugenio Romero, the
young Mexican migrant worker who died of
COVID-19, worked, was quoted in a news report on
the worker's tragic death saying that workers
are often reluctant to report symptoms for fear
of losing pay if they are required to go into
quarantine. What is this if not an indictment of
an abusive practice that these workers who are
touted as essential for Canada's food supply are
not all guaranteed that if they are sick,
possibly with COVID-19, and have to take time
off work for everyone's good, they will still be
paid?
While some employers may be covering workers'
wages while they self-isolate, there is no
requirement in Ontario for employers to provide
any paid sick days for workers. One of the first
things Premier Doug Ford did when his party came
to power was repeal legislation introduced by
the previous Liberal government that called for
employers to provide a meagre two paid sick days
a year to workers. It is all the more egregious
that these workers who are housed together in
close quarters, putting them at high risk of
getting infected, should also feel pressured to
keep on working even if they have symptoms, so
as not to lose any pay.
 Ford appeared
"dismayed" at his press briefing on June 1 when
the topic of migrant workers' living
arrangements was raised. His first response was
to say all these workers need to be tested. When
pressed about how he was going to address the
problem of the bunkhouses that serve as their
living quarters, Ford said that it was something
that "can be put on the table," He further said,
"I've been there and seen the congregate living
on these farms. Can we do it a month or so? I
just don't think that's a reality."
The issue of migrant workers being forced to
live in unregulated, substandard, cramped
quarters is not something new. Workers and their
advocates have complained about it for years,
with no action being taken at the government
level. For Ford to say there is not enough time
to fix the problem now, when the added risks
were known as soon as it became apparent a
pandemic was on its way and had to be prepared
for, is disingenuous. Clearly, to him and his
government the lives and safety of these
"essential" workers are not essential. These
farms produce for export. It is just the
industry and the profits of the owners of the
farms and greenhouses that are essential.
The time is now to demand that all these
workers who play an essential role in providing
Canadians and others with safe and healthy fresh
food be without exception guaranteed dignified
working and living conditions and health care at
a Canadian standard. Anything less is
unacceptable.
- Steve Rutschinski -
 As COVID-19
spreads in the migrant farmworker population of
southern Ontario, demands for safe working and
living conditions and status for migrant farm
workers increase. As of June 2, Justice for
Migrant Workers reports that there were more
than 500 confirmed infections: more than 200 at
17 different farms in Windsor-Essex; 164 of the
216 migrant workers at Scotlynn Group in
Vittoria; 102 at Greenhill Produce in
Chatham-Kent; 60 at Pioneer Flower Farms in the
Niagara region.
Justice for Migrant Workers has issued an
appeal for people to call on Scotlynn Group to
pay the workers full wages during their
quarantine, to commit to not repatriate injured
and sick workers so they receive full access to
our health care system [and do not spread
contagion to their home countries -- Ed. Note],
and to rehire all the workers next year if they
choose to return. [1]
Santiago Escobar, national representative for
the United Food and Commercial Workers union in
Canada, recently told CBC he wants the public to
know which farms have outbreaks, something the
Windsor-Essex Health Unit will not do. "We have
spoken about these issues in the past," he said.
"We think we have witnesses that employers are
not providing enough information and personal
protective equipment and also these workers are
not able to practice social distancing."
Escobar pointed to overcrowded housing which
fails to meet federal housing standards as
living conditions in which COVID-19 can easily
spread. "Unfortunately we're witnessing that a
lot of employers are not complying with the
regulations they are supposed to follow," he
said, adding that many workers from the
Windsor-Essex region have reached out because
they do not feel safe at their jobs.
 Jade Guthrie, a
food justice advocate and member of Justice for
Migrant Workers, recently voiced again the
demand for permanent status, a demand which
migrant workers and advocate groups have been
making for decades. "These workers pay taxes and
into social benefits programs, but cannot access
these services without status. They return every
year, proving that the work they do is not
'temporary' but rather is a permanent and
critical part of our economy. And perhaps most
impossible to ignore, they put food on the
tables of Canadian households," she said.
"The COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased
concerns around food security and supply
shortages, has underscored just how essential
these workers are. Permanent status must be
extended in order to ensure their safety and
well-being, particularly at a time when they are
risking their lives working on the frontline.
The Canadian government needs to recognize that
migrant workers are not disposable -- the fruits
of their labour are quite literally those that
feed us," Jade said.
Note
1. Details can be found
on the Justice
for Migrant Workers Facebook page.
On 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,
 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.
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.
While it is not something that has made the
news in Canada, it turns out that a major
COVID-19 outbreak among migrant farm workers in
the U.S. has a Canadian connection, and to
Southwestern Ontario specifically. This year the
largest greenhouse grower in Essex County,
Mastronardi Produce, with its headquarters in
Kingsville, opened what is on track to be the
biggest greenhouse in all of North America, in
upstate New York. Green Empire Farms located on
the outskirts of the city of Oneida, is
Mastronardi's seventh operation in the U.S. The
company, which specializes in gourmet tomatoes,
peppers, berries and other specialty produce,
has operations in other countries as well, and
big plans for further expansion on a global
scale.[1]
Media in the Syracuse area of New York state
report that as of May 19, 168 of the around 300
migrant workers at Mastronardi's Green Empire
Farms had tested positive for COVID-19, turning
it into a hot spot for the virus. It is
generally believed that the outbreak did not
originate in the mammoth new greenhouse where
sanitation and distancing measures were said to
be in place, so much as in the cramped,
substandard living quarters the company provided
for the workers. They were housed four or more
to a room and even two to a bed at three hotels
the company arranged for them to stay at since
the company's own residences next to its
greenhouse were said to be still under
construction. These conditions were in place
before the pandemic was announced and continued
during it.
A longtime employee who cleaned the workers'
rooms of one of the hotels became infected with
COVID-19 and transmitted it to her husband, who
died. She has no doubt she contracted the virus
at her place of work. The owner of the hotel
also became infected. The woman said the migrant
workers told her they were scared. One young
worker asked her not long after he arrived, "How
can they make us sleep together in the bed?" She
told him she did not know, that it was not up to
her boss, but his boss, the one that hired him
and brought him there to work. The worker told
her he was afraid he would get sent home if he
spoke up, and that he needed to work.
Dun and Bradstreet, a firm
that provides financial profiles on
businesses, indicates on its website that
Mastronardi Produce has annual revenues of
over U.S.$946 million. A report by the New
York State media company CNY-Central indicates
that the company received a total of $15.3
million in tax breaks and grants from the
State of New York, Madison County and
Excelsior tax credits to open its giant new
Empire Farms greenhouses. Excelsior tax
credits provide eligible companies with either
6.85 or 7.5 per cent of wages per net new jobs
created. The report states that the Canadian
owner promised that Green Empire Farms would
create 200 new full-time jobs, at least 175
construction jobs, and a private sector
investment of U.S.$120 million. It notes
however, that answering questions about the
health and safety of workers and the community
was not part of any deal, and for nearly two
weeks after the COVID-19 outbreak became
known, CNY-Central's calls to Green Empire
Farms had not been returned: "We've sent them
emails and messages through social media. You
can see that someone read the message, but no
one replied.”
Mastronardi's website boasts that for 10
consecutive years it has been designated one of
Canada's "best managed companies." Peter Brown,
a partner with Deloitte and co-leader of the
Canada's Best Managed Companies program was then
quoted as saying, "Well-run companies are
important to the economic health of our country.
These companies serve as role models to help
make all Canadian businesses better."
It's doubtful the migrant workers and others
who have paid the price for the abuse they
suffered at the hands of this global monopoly
that touts its owners' passion for giving people
greater "access to local, sustainably grown
fruits and vegetables," would agree on it being
any kind of a role model.
Note
1. For example, in an
August 2019 promotional piece in the industry
magazine Greenhouse Canada, Mastronardi
Produce announced a new venture called Green
International Ventures LLC (GIVE) formed in
partnership with a U.S. investor. GIVE's first
project, planned for an unnamed country in the
Middle East, is slated to be "the world’s
largest and most technologically advanced indoor
farming project." CEO Paul Mastronardi says it
"will allow us to reach over half the world's
population in less than eight hours, and this is
just the start."
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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