Regularization Assembly – Who Said What

Jane, Member of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

I came to Canada as a refugee expecting protection. At every level, my application for refugee status has been denied, including on humanitarian grounds. It has forced me to go underground and to live in fear. I decided to fight for regularization for all and join this movement. For me regularization means to have access to basic services, to have equal rights, to live without fear. To live with dignity.

Danilo de Leon, Chairperson, Migrante Canada

Regularization means that I will be able to see my daughter who I have not seen for more than 10 years. It would mean equality and dignity. This fight for regularization is important because human beings have rights. It is a violation of our rights to be uprooted from our homelands and it is unacceptable that we are deprived of our rights here in Canada as well. The fight for our rights is a fight for the rights of all workers in Canada.

Hardy Anne, Long-time Fighter for Regularization and Rights of Migrants

We took actions such as visiting MPs' offices. We held pickets and we phoned, and held vigils here in Montreal in freezing winter conditions to tell these politicians that we will not back down. This is a fight about human dignity and that they cannot play around with migrants' lives.

OJ, Former Agricultural Worker from Jamaica

The struggle is not easy. It is not easy for us to go for six or seven months to a foreign country to be abused, to live in cramped spaces with no privacy. They chartered a plane to bring us from Jamaica during the pandemic and when I got here everything was horrendous: the housing, the food, the treatment from the boss.

That letter we wrote, we wrote for all migrant workers, to all the bosses. The letter we wrote protesting our conditions and calling on the Jamaican and Canadian governments to act to protect us had a huge impact. It created an international outcry.

We have to continue to push – to fight. We want to tell the Canadian people when you go to your store to buy apples or peaches or your bottle of wine, think of us. We are fighting alone and we need you to investigate and find out what is happening to us migrant farm workers, all migrant workers and support us in our struggle.

Doris Gatawa, Caregiver in Vancouver

Canada has had caregivers come to help with childcare and the elderly for more than 100 years but has always changed the rules and regulations for entry. It makes it difficult for us to achieve permanent residency by putting a language requirement and obstacles in our way. Many people who have lived and worked here for decades helping Canadian families are deprived of the right to status and permanent residence. This is unfair. It is important to continue to fight together so that migrant workers have rights and dignity.

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This article was published in

Number 32 - June 26, 2023

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10323.HTM

Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca