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February 15, 2021 - No. 6
Decisive Role of Workers in Flattening
Curve of COVID-19 Contagion
Olymel Workers Affirm Their
Right to Decide
- Peggy Morton -
 
Canada Must Provide Status for All
• Migrant Workers
Alliance for Change Demands Action to Protect
Migrant Workers
• Trudeau Government's
Gross Disregard for Human Life: End All
Removals Now! - Diane Johnston
• Refugee Lawyers'
Association Opposes Deportation of Refugees
During Pandemic
Decisive Role of Workers in
Flattening Curve of COVID-19 Contagion
- Peggy Morton -
Despite growing numbers of workers who have
contracted COVID-19 at the Olymel pork
processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta the
company has refused to comply with the demand of
the workers for a two-week "circuit breaker"
shutdown. There are 1,850 workers at the Olymel
plant, where 10,000 pigs are slaughtered and
processed daily.
There
were 315 COVID-19 cases linked to the plant on
February 14, with 194
active cases, more than double the number the
previous week. A young
worker, only 30 years of age, tragically died
from COVID-19 on January
28.
 Local 401 United
Food and Commercial Workers President Tom Hesse
called for a temporary shutdown with full
compensation for the workers on February 6 after
consulting with the workers. Eighty-one per cent
of the workers who responded to a survey said
they did not feel safe at work, and 87 per cent
supported a temporary shutdown. Local 401 also
demanded an immediate joint meeting with union
officials, an independent health expert or
experts, and government officials from
Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) and
Alberta Health Services (AHS).
"We urge you to act on these three points with
the greatest urgency. Every infection carries
the risk of death or serious, long-lasting
health consequences we are only beginning to
understand. We cannot afford to wait," the
letter to Olymel management from Local 401
President Thomas Hesse and Secretary-Treasurer
Richelle Stewart stated.
The Olymel workers base their conclusion that
they are not safe on the conditions they face
every day. The fight waged by the workers has
led to measures such as provision of proper
personal protective equipment, plexiglass
barriers, and increased cleaning, but these
measures alone cannot stop a large outbreak with
1,850 workers packed together and working at
breakneck speed.
More than three weeks after a "new cluster" of
COVID-19 cases began, the Olymel spokesperson
says they are still investigating how the
"cluster" began but that "We hope the numbers
come down this week for the sake of our
employees." Both AHS and OH&S continue to
claim that the situation is "under control."
The
workers do not accept these assurances any more
than the Cargill
workers did when they finally forced the closure
of their plant last
May, after receiving repeated claims that the
workplace was safe as the
number of cases spiraled. In that outbreak 950
workers were infected
and there were three deaths. Olymel workers are
speaking out and
demanding concrete measures including immediate
closure and full
compensation.
The experience of workers in the packing plants
and other industries has shown that it is the
efforts of the workers themselves and their
collective action which has been responsible for
success in containing outbreaks and safeguarding
the workers. This is why they must have the
final say in determining if their working
conditions are safe, and the right to have an
effective voice and the power to decide what
serves the interests of working people and the
broad interests of society.
Canada Must Provide Status for
All
On January 11 the Migrant Workers Alliance for
Change called on the Ontario government to
respond to the rising number of COVID-19 cases
with urgent action, focusing on the sites of
largest outbreaks: congregate living and working
sites. Their statement reads as follows:
"Long-term care homes, farms with migrant
workers, manufacturing sites, warehouses,
bakeries, prisons are the centres of crisis.
Many of the workers, and those housed or
imprisoned there, are low-waged, racialized and
migrant. We deserve immediate changes.
"We need #PaidSickDays and #NoEvictions. ALL
workers deserve higher wages, emergency income
support, and universal access to healthcare --
migrants must not be left behind.
"Just as one example: We proposed specific
changes to stop outbreaks in farms in June of
2020. Over six months later, nothing has been
done but outbreaks continue TODAY.
"We urge Premier Ford to ensure worker and
migrant justice, instead of ensuring profit for
the few."
- Diane Johnston -
In spite of restrictions on airline flights to
Mexico and the Caribbean, forced quarantine of
returning travelers and repeated appeals from
the Prime Minister and other government and
public health officials that now is not the time
for international travel, the Canada Border
Services Agency (CBSA) has stepped up
deportations since the end of November. This
ended the temporary suspension of most
deportations that was instituted by the CBSA in
March 2020. Immigration lawyers were advised on
November 30, 2020 of the immediate resumption of
removals for all inadmissible foreign nationals
in Canada. The announcement came on the day that
7,681 COVID-19 infections had been reported
across the country, the highest single-day count
since the pandemic had begun, and 98 people had
died, the highest daily death toll in almost six
months.
From March to December the CBSA claimed that it
had prioritized deportations for reasons of
"serious" inadmissibilities, those found under
s.34 (security), s.35 (human rights violations)
and s.36 (criminality) of the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act. The latest
report on removals in the 2020-2021 fiscal year
(year ending on March 31, 2021) on the CBSA
website is that as of July 30, four months into
the fiscal year, the total number of enforced
removals was 2,438. The total number of enforced
removals in 2019-2020 was 11,465. In 2018, the
CBSA set a target of 10,000 removals for
2018-2019, with even higher targets for
subsequent years, aiming for 15,500 by 2022, so
is under pressure to ramp up the number of
removals before the end of the fiscal year on
March 31.
 The
report of the Auditor-General presented to
Parliament on July 8 last
year was critical of the failure of the CBSA to
increase the number of
removals and proposed various "improvements"
including increased
incentives for "voluntary removals." News media
report that the number
of "voluntary removals" has significantly
increased. Incentives include
government-paid airfare at an often inflated
price which has to be
repaid should the person who is removed want to
return to Canada in the
future.
One of the reasons the CBSA has advanced for
its change in policy was "the emergence of
viable vaccination options" despite the fact
that when it resumed removals at the end of
November, no vaccine had been approved in
Canada. It also claimed that the decision to
halt many removals during the pandemic "was an
exceptional measure that was not shared by the
international community."
Migrants' rights organizations, the Canadian
Bar Association, the Canadian Association of
Refugee Lawyers and many others have spoken out
in opposition to the resumption of removals and
called on the government to reinstate the
moratorium. They point out the danger to people
being removed from Canada and to the CBSA
employees that are required to travel with some
people to their destinations. People who are
under removal orders have to report, sometimes
more than once, to CBSA offices and go into the
community to make other arrangements for leaving
Canada, all of which put them in increased
danger of contracting COVID-19. Travel is no
less dangerous for these individuals and the
CBSA employees that accompany them, in the
airports, in the planes and at their
destinations, than for any Canadian who has been
warned not to travel abroad. The Canadian Bar
Association asks that the "CBSA ... adopt and
follow a clear policy deeming all removal orders
unenforceable due to public health risks."
Undocumented workers are often reported to the
CBSA by police and have to avoid situations in
which they could have to show identification to
police. In Quebec the curfew imposed by the
Legault government has created an impossible
situation for many workers who are legitimately
on the streets going to their jobs but whose
lives could be turned upside down if police stop
them.
Let us all join with migrants' rights
organizations and advocates in calling for an
end to deportations and for an end to unjust
denials of rights of migrant workers to
permanent residence status in Canada!
The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers
(CARL), in a letter to Bill Blair, Minister of
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and
John Ossowski, President of the Canada Border
Services Agency (CBSA), states that the decision
of the CBSA to unilaterally abandon its policy
with regard to deportations "is unsound and
places public health in jeopardy." It further
notes that the agency failed to identify "any
material change in circumstances that would
warrant a decision to recommence removals of all
foreign nationals -- especially those subject to
non-serious inadmissibilities -- at the same
time as the country is dealing with the worst
days of the pandemic."[1]
"To legally compel individuals to board
international flights at this time -- in many
cases requiring them to remain in sealed spaces
with upwards of hundreds of other individuals
for hours on end -- is dangerous and
unnecessary," CARL points out.
The Trudeau Liberal government's double
standard goes like this: it advises its own
citizens and permanent residents to avoid
non-essential travel outside Canada until
further notice and resumes the removal of a
record number of people.
 In an article
published in The Lawyer's Daily on
December 11, CARL President Maureen Silcoff
wrote that "Most people who are the subject of
removal orders under the Immigration and
Protection Act (IRPA) pose no risk to
society. They are simply people whose status in
Canada has expired. They include visitors,
failed refugee claimants, temporary foreign
workers and international students. Perhaps they
were dropping off groceries on your porch or
cleaning hospital emergency rooms before they
were told to leave Canada."
She adds that when someone is the subject of a
removal order they have no choice but to report
and the CBSA website makes it clear what happens
if a person decides that doing so is too risky
in terms of their health or the health of people
they live with. The CBSA website says "If you
fail to appear for a removal interview or a
scheduled removal date, the CBSA will issue a
Canada-wide warrant for your arrest. Once
arrested, the CBSA may detain you in a holding
facility before removal. In order to ensure you
leave Canada, the CBSA may assign an escort
officer to accompany you on your departure."
In response to the CBSA's claim that
individuals have recourse to "appeals, judicial
reviews, and permanent resident applications on
humanitarian and compassionate grounds," Silcoff
points out that "Many people whom CBSA directs
to report for removal cannot hire a lawyer. They
are at the end of their immigration process,
with little money left for additional legal
fees. Yet without a lawyer, deportation is
practically impossible to stop. Applying for a
'deferral' of removal to suspend deportation is
a discretionary measure that is not known to
most unrepresented people, and done properly,
involves written submissions accompanied by
evidence. Seeking a stay of removal at the
Federal Court is even more out of reach for an
unrepresented person."
She concludes: "The solution is clear. Until
COVID-19 is under control, CBSA must revert to
its original pandemic policy," i.e. the policy
of reduced removals put in place in March 2020.
Note
1. Canadian
Association of Refugee Lawyers, Letter to the
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness and the President of the CBSA,
December 2, 2020.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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