In the News June 9

Justice for Temporary Migrant Workers

Constitutional Challenge Being Prepared to Employer-Specific Work Permits

Workers’ Forum is reproducing in the articles below, information taken from the website of the Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers (RHFW), as well as from a presentation made by its Executive Director, Eugénie Depatie-Pelletier, during a conference at Université Laval entitled Justice and Rights for Temporary Migrant Workers. The conference took place on April 28 and was hosted by the Canada Research Chair in Global Migration Dynamics, Danièle Belanger.

The Association has as its present priority the recognition of the right of all household and farm workers, including those working in Canada as temporary foreign workers, to change employers. The Canadian government prohibits many of them from exercising that right.

The RHFW is preparing a constitutional challenge to the employer-specific work permit next year, as a step towards ensuring that the state respects household and farm workers’ constitutional rights to fundamental liberty, security of the person, and access to justice.

Workers’ Forum wishes the RHFW every success in this challenge.

(Workers’ Forum, posted June 9, 2022)