Justicia For Migrant Workers B.C.

Canadian public support for foreign worker program waning

More than half of Canadians oppose recruiting temporary workers overseas to boost workforce

More than half of Canadians are opposed to recruiting temporary workers overseas to help ease Canada's labour shortage, says a national poll released yesterday.

The Angus Reid poll for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a Vancouver-based think-tank on Asia, also found the majority of Canadians continue to welcome immigrants from Asia, though the goodwill has been waning, especially in Quebec, where support for Asian immigration has plummeted from 83 per cent a year ago to 44 per cent today.

While 60 per cent of respondents believe the rise of China is more of an opportunity for Canada than a threat, two in three raised concerns over Beijing's growing military modernization in the Asia Pacific region, according to the wide-ranging survey.

Of all the provinces, support for the federal government's temporary foreign worker program was highest in Alberta (58 per cent), Manitoba/Saskatchewan (55 per cent) and British Columbia (49 per cent).

However, in Ontario and Quebec, where people have been affected by a recent economic downturn and job losses, only 39 per cent of people were in favour of the program. Nationally, only 44 per cent supported the temporary worker program.

"Support for globalization tends to follow the state of the economy, and the survey results reflect current concerns about economic conditions," said Yuen Pau Woo, the foundation's president and co-CEO.

Although twice as many people – 59 per cent in favour to 31 per cent opposed – believed Canada would benefit from more Asian investment, 64 per cent also wanted Canada to restrict government-controlled foreign businesses in the country.

More than 70 per cent of Canadians, including 77 per cent of Quebecers and 71 per cent of Ontarians, said Canadian industries should be protected from imports from countries with very low wages. Only 18 per cent of Canadians feel that food products imported from China are as safe as those from other developing countries.

Over the sensitive human rights issue in China, only 37 per cent of Canadians feel that the condition there is better today than a decade ago, a drastic fall from a similar poll in 2006 when 63 per cent of people felt things were improving there.

"Canadians are clearly aware of the increasing economic and strategic importance of China. But at the same time, they are increasingly concerned about the challenges that the rise of global China poses," said foundation co-CEO Paul Evans.

"The chill in public perceptions is making the management of bilateral relations more complex than at any time since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 and is testing political leadership in Ottawa."

The survey of 2,659 respondents was conducted across the country and statistically weighted on education, age, gender and regional census data. It was taken between March 15 and 20, immediately after the Tibet uprising in China. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.

The foundation is a not-for-profit organization established to promote research on economic, security, political and social issues in the Asia Pacific. It is funded through an endowment from the federal government and a grant from British Columbia.

Mexican Migrant Workers File Complaints with UN Rapporteur
Canada's image as a safe and secure destination for foreign temporary workers is under fire, critics say

The government has been working hard in recent years to expand the number of temporary foreign workers who are allowed into Canada to ease what appears to be a growing labour shortage across the country.

But Canada's image as a great place to work and earn a living is being threatened as migrant workers from Mexico who say they are being mistreated are now reaching out to a United Nations special rapporteur for help.

In an interview last month, Jorge Bustamante, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, told Embassy that over the past six months, he has received about a half-dozen letters directly from Mexican migrant workers in Canada.

In the letters, the workers claim they are not receiving their proper wages and that their freedom of movement is being restricted.

The special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants position was established in 1999 by the former UN Commission on Human Rights.

The rapporteur's role is to enforce the full and effective protection of the human rights of migrants, and in some instances visit countries to further enforce legal frameworks in the interest of migrants.

Mr. Bustamante, who was appointed to the position in August 2005, said that before receiving the letters, he had thought the bilateral migrant worker agreement between Canada and Mexico, inked in 1974, set a good example, but now he has the opposite impression.

"The only thing is my feeling of regret that something that for so many years has gone on without complaints, now all of a sudden there are complaints," he said.

"This is something that was actually quite new to me, because before that I had the opposite impression [of Canada]. But recently I have heard reports from migrants in Canada that have complained about abuses of not allowing them to move from one job to another, their wages and things of that sort."

B.C. looking beyond Mexico to find fruit pickers
Thousands of workers from the Caribbean
will also head north this season

To cope with a continuing shortage in apple and cherry pickers, B.C. fruit growers are expecting to hire about 50 per cent more temporary foreign workers than they did last year.

And in an attempt to diversify this expanding pool, they are reaching beyond Mexico to find similar workers from the Caribbean.

Mike Wallace of the Western Agriculture Labour Initiative (WALI) said that while a contract with workers from Mexico is going into its fifth year, a new one with the Commonwealth of Carribean Islands was only hammered out at the end of July 2007.

By then, last year's picking season was already in full swing, so only 10 workers from the Caribbean were brought to B.C.

In total, Wallace expects that up to 3,000 workers from Mexico and the Carribean will be needed in B.C. for the 2008 season.

While 95 per cent of these workers will still be from Mexico, Wallace said that "you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket. There could be changes in politics or whatever."

However, he added that various bureaucratic stipulations make it difficult to look to other countries for seasonal agricultural workers.

B.C. fruit growers first started using temporary foreign workers in 2004, when the program was launched with just nine employers who hired 47 people from Mexico. By 2007, more than 200 employers were involved. "So, there has been phenomenal growth," said Wallace.

WALI was started two years ago based on a template used in Ontario and Quebec to bring much larger numbers of temporary foreign workers there.

Wallace noted that Jamaica now has a liaison office in Kelowna. Other countries in the Commonwealth include Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States: St. Martin, St. Vincent and St. Lucia. The first 10 workers last year, for example, were all from St. Martin, even though the Caribbean contract with B.C. is negotiated with all countries in the block.

Meanwhile, in Alberta, a labour-starved town is considering bringing in video-conferencing technology and a Spanish-speaking priest -- all in an effort to make life more comfortable for temporary workers from Mexico.

The first of more than 200 workers from the Chipala region, west of Mexico City, are due to arrive in Barrhead, Alta., about 100 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, where they will fill vacant jobs at BarrCana Home Manufacturing.

"These guys want to come right now and we want to bring them right now," BarrCana vice-president Richard Hadjuk said.

"But we don't want them to wake up in the morning, go to the plant and come back to their rooms. We want them to have a more satisfying experience."

The idea of bringing foreign workers from around the world to Alberta is not new. More than 1,200 Mexicans, for example, are already working in factories, restaurants, and the oilpatch.

The workers headed for Barrhead will earn $14 to $16.53 an hour at the manufactured-home plant, which is designed to produce about four to six houses a day. It currently operates with about 200 workers, but needs 450.

"In Mexico, they live on $400 to $800 a month, and these are people with families of four or five kids," Hadjuk said.

The company has constructed a camp for the Mexicans at the plant site, where they will live three to a room -- except for married couples, who will have a room to themselves.

Rents will be $400 and workers will buy their own food, which the company will purchase in bulk.

NEWS

Operator could face penalty of up to $500,000
Thursday, February 7, 2008
CBC News

A wide range of safety violations contributed to a deadly van crash in Chilliwack in March 2007 that killed three farm workers and injured 14 others, investigators allege.

Passenger overloading, poor tire maintenance, the lack of seatbelts, inadequate driver qualification, road conditions and vehicle instability all played a role in the incident, concluded the investigation released by WorkSafeBC on Thursday morning.

Roberta Ellis, the vice-president of the policy, investigations and review division of WorkSafeBC, said they are considering a penalty against the labour contractor who employed and transported the workers to farms in the Fraser Valley.

"The law allows for an administrative penalty of up to half-a-million dollars and so that's the next stage for us. Orders are issued to the employer, the employer is advised the officer is recommending a penalty," said Ellis

The report has also been submitted to the B.C. Coroners office, which is expected to conduct its own inquest later this year.

The 15-passenger van owned by RHA Enterprises Ltd was carrying 16 farmworkers plus the driver when it crashed on Highway 1 in Chilliwack during the early hours of March 7, 2007.

"The vehicle collided with two transport trucks, rolled and landed on its roof on the highway median. It was raining heavily at the time, visibility was poor, and the roads were very wet," said the report.

"The driver of the van held a B.C. Class 5 driver's licence; however the Motor Vehicle Act requires a commercial Class 4 licence to operate a commercial vehicle transporting more than 10, but fewer than 25 workers," said the report.

Statement from Justicia for Migrant Workers BC regarding the December 21, 2007 article in the Chilliwack Times entitled Housing for Farm Workers an Issue

January 3, 2008 – Justicia for Migrant Workers would like to express its disgust with the language used in the Dec. 21, 2007 article in the Chilliwack Times Housing for Farm Workers an Issue.

We believe the comments included in the article are offensive to the dignity of migrant and Indo-Canadian farm workers, and furthermore demonstrate a disturbing trend of racism, discrimination and intolerance that appears to be all too common in conservative Fraser Valley communities.

For example, in reference to the possibility of having 30 migrant workers, presumably Mexicans, living across the road from him, Chilliwack resident Bob Esau is quoted as saying "Who controls these workers after they are not working? That's a lot of people to put into a rural situation."

Migrant workers, like everyone else, are free human beings entitled to do whatever they want, short of breaking the law, on their free time. The suggestion that they should be “controlled” when they are not working is outrageous and recalls attitudes similar to those of plantation owners when speaking about slaves. It is racist, repugnant and highly offensive.

The owner of a farm on which worker housing is to be built, Stan Vander Waal, is quoted as saying migrant workers “have to conform to the rules of the property. If there are problems they have to live by the rules or we send 'em back."

Again, this language is suggestive of migrant workers as slaves with no rights. First of all it is not the employer who sets the “rules.” In the case of migrant farm workers it is the responsibility of the governments of Canada and Mexico to set and enforce the guidelines that govern the program, and which both employers and farm workers must follow. Furthermore it would be a grave injustice for an employer to have the right to arbitrarily deport a worker if he should deem the “rules” are not being followed, particularly in the absence of fair and neutral mediation.

It is our experience from our work on the ground that most of the time under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program it is the employers who "break the rules”, whether they be housing guidelines or terms of the work contract, and they are rarely, if ever, subjected to any sort of punishment for this. On the other hand workers who voice any concerns on issues of safety, housing, abuse, health, etc. are routinely punished by being threatened, deported and/or blacklisted.

Chilliwack Councilmember Sharon Gaetz is quoted as having concerns over "some dreadful experiences" with farm worker housing in the community. We can only surmise she means from the perspective of farm workers themselves, who often have to endure slum-like housing that would shock the average middle class Canadian, and that is completely unacceptable in a country such as this one.

Another council member, Mark Andersen, recalls a personal experience in which he and his family “basically became prisoners within our house because whenever we would step out onto our patio we had to endure 30 to 35 Indo-Canadian men staring at my wife." Once more, these comments suggest unacceptable racial and ethnic stereotyping, and it is shocking and shameful that in this day a person of authority would utter such words.

Comments like these, and the deep seated attitudes they reflect, are what one would expect from 1800’s deep south plantation owners, and it is a sad but all too real fact that they persist and are entrenched to this day in some retrograde sectors of Canadian society.

The reality is that farm workers, be they migrant or Indo-Canadian, endure the abysmal wages, living and working conditions of Canadian farms because they have to, and because the agricultural industry demands it. That these conditions persist in a supposedly rich country such as Canada is a continuing outrage and source of national shame. It is with sadness that we feel compelled to remind the people quoted in this article, and those who share their views, that farm workers are not slaves or indentured serfs. They are entitled to every single human right, and all the dignity and respect, in the highest current universal human and labor rights standards, including the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers (even if the Canadian government, in defiance of the global consensus, refuses to sign it).

Housing farm workers an issue
Paul J. Henderson
The Times
Friday, December 21, 2007

Chilliwack's first on-farm accommodation for seasonal farm workers will be created at Rainbow Greenhouses in the new year, but the owner's neighbours are less than enthusiastic about the idea.

"I'm not very excited about this project," Bob Esau said at a public hearing in council chambers Monday. Esau lives directly across South Sumas Road from the respected farm operation run by Stan Vander Waal.

"The major concern is we are small lot acreages, and to be inundated by 30 workers," Esau said. "Who controls these workers after they are not working? That's a lot of people to put into a rural situation."

The proposal is to convert an existing storage building into accommodation for up to 30 seasonal farm workers from Mexico and the Caribbean that are needed for Vander Waal's 31-acres of heated greenhouses under production. Rainbow Greenhouses currently employees more than 120 people brought in daily, but from the middle of February for eight months or so, Vander Waal wants to use the federal Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program to get consistent work from about 30 employees.

But neighbours are concerned about having the workers on site, particularly because the building to be converted is near the front of the property on South Sumas across the street from neighbours.

Vander Waal tried to put neighbours' concerns at rest explaining that he lives on the property himself with his wife and children.

"We have to live on the property with them," he said. "They have to conform to the rules of the property. If there are problems they have to live by the rules or we send 'em back."

Council eventually unanimously supported the Temporary Commercial Industrial Permit requested to allow for the housing, which will be revisited in two years so council can "look and ask, 'did it work,'" Mayor Clint Hames said. Coun. Sharon Gaetz suggested whatever is done should be the least disruptive as possible, and she also expressed her concerns over "some dreadful experiences" at other farms in the community where farm workers were housed.

However, because of Vander Waal's reputation, his living on the property as a family man, she was supportive and suggested he had a vested interest in seeing it go right.

"He's probably the best candidate to try to pull it off," she said. In September the issue of housing farm workers came to council as a staff report on housing for seasonal farm workers. It addressed approximately five nursery/greenhouse operations in Chilliwack that employ foreign workers, some in less than ideal circumstances.

Sixteen occupants were reported in one house in a bylaw complaint from 2006. Another rents local motel rooms, and a local crop farmer has converted a barn to house as many as 30 people and has built bunkhouses for even more with multiple cooking areas.

Currently the Indo-Canadian community is doing a lot of the work needed to be done by Fraser Valley agricultural operations, but given the hot economy, many are moving on to other work and are not available for the fields. Young people too just don't want the work anymore.

"We are looking at in Chilliwack as many as 1,000 to 2,000 [seasonal farm workers] in the future," Vander Waal said in September. "We find it increasingly more difficult to bring in the amount of people we need to get the work done." Coun. Mark Andersen supported Vander Waal's application at Monday's meeting, although during the discussion he suggested he was of two minds on the issue because of a personal experience he had many years ago where his property backed onto a farm where seasonal workers loitered after work.

"We had to endure seasonal workers," he said. "We basically became prisoners within our house because whenever we would step out onto our patio we had to endure 30 to 35 Indo-Canadian men staring at my wife."

British Columbia Federation of Labour condemns
expansion of temporary worker program

Vancouver-Today's latest expansion of the temporary foreign worker program means continued exploitation of foreign workers and fails to address the rights of vulnerable workers, says the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Despite previous calls from the Federation and other groups concerned about the exploitation of these vulnerable workers, again the federal government has failed to dedicate resources to enforcement and monitoring of fair housing and labour standards for temporary workers," said Federation President, Jim Sinclair.

" The federal government is rushing forward with a blind eye to the exploitation of workers despite repeated instances across Canada, where workers have been forced to pay thousands of dollars to so-called labour brokers. Or look here in BC, where even the BC Human Rights Tribunal has found that foreign workers employed on the RAV line construction project were victims of intimidation and coercion by their employer."

Sinclair also took the provincial government to task for failing to act, despite its mandate to monitor employment standards. "The provincial government has openly endorsed every expansion of this program, but also look the other way when it comes time to enforce standards. Even in Alberta, the provincial government has launched a special office to enforce employment standards and investigate complaints by foreign workers. It's time to do the same here in BC."

Sinclair reiterated the Federation's view that a long term labour force strategy should include immigration, with full rights for all workers. "On one hand we're seeing thousands of jobs disappear from the resource and manufacturing sector, but yet there's no discussion of where our economy is going and what the future holds for these displaced workers."

According to Statistics Canada's latest labour force data, BC lost 33,700 full time jobs in December 2007, and despite gains in part-time jobs, BC lost a net 7,000 jobs compared to the previous month.

The federal government has announced an expansion of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that adds 21 new occupations -- including some in the construction and manufacturing sectors -- to a list that employers can access.

"We're making it faster to hire foreign workers when no Canadian citizen or permanent resident can be found to do that job," Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg said in Vancouver Monday when announcing the expansion.

"[B.C.'s] strong economy has resulted in a significant labour shortage. Without these workers, deadlines won't be met. We want to cut the bureaucracy and paperwork, not to shortcut the process."

However, the executive-director of the B.C. and Yukon Building and Construction Trades Council said program not only undercuts B.C. workers' wages but is a recipe to exploit vulnerable workers.

" When you increase the wages, workers will come," said Wayne Peppard in an interview following Solberg's announcement. "Is there really a shortage of workers? We don't believe it's as acute as people think. We have workers in New Brunswick who would love to come to B.C. But if a company can go offshore and bring people here to work for less money, that's how they bring down labour costs. And it's getting in the way of the free market. [They're saying] it's okay when we're making money, but when we can't we want intervention."

Peppard maintained he is not opposed to foreign workers coming to Canada to work for fair wages, enjoy safe working conditions and have the right to become citizens, but said temporary foreign workers are vulnerable because they're indentured to one employer. He said some employers intimidate migrant workers to accept very low wages and poor working conditions.

Solberg, who said there are now about 100,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada, denied the program will keep wages down. "That's not borne out by the evidence. Wages are rising in this country." Solberg said the TFWP is an important way to meet B.C.'s labour shortage and that the Expedited Labour Market Opinion pilot project that makes it quicker for employers to hire foreign workers will be expanded. "The 33 occupations now included in this pilot represent 50 per cent of the total volume of labour market opinion applications from employers."

He said the pilot will run until September and that employers needing workers in the 33 occupations will receive Labour Market Opinions -- an assessment of the potential impact hiring a foreign worker will have on Canada's labour market -- much faster.

It originally covered 12 occupations, mainly in health care, hospitality and construction, but now includes more occupations in construction, as well as engineering, maintenance, sales and service and manufacturing.

New occupations include construction labourers, steamfitters and pipefitters, ironworkers, heavy-duty equipment mechanics, machinists, civil engineers, hotel front desk clerks, courier drivers, meat cutters, welders and roofers.

B.C. economic development minister Colin Hansen welcomed the project Monday, saying the province is short of workers and will need to attract 30,000 workers with specific skills each year to meet the labour shortage.

Manley McLachlan, president of the B.C. Construction Association, said: "The challenge is huge. But it won't be [alleviated] with one fix."

Asked if a growing reliance on temporary foreign workers might make young British Columbians think twice about a career in the trades, McLachlan replied: "The real message is there will be 35,000 openings [in the next five years]."

Canadian Labour Congress to Ministers Solberg and Finley:
Where are the Filipino 11?

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 27, 2007) - The Canadian Labour Congress calls for an immediate moratorium of the government's Temporary Foreign Worker Program until a comprehensive investigation of identified abuse and exploitation cases takes place. Full suspension of this program is necessary as the government officially acknowledges that it cannot "monitor the working conditions offered by the employer following entry into Canada" - that it cannot protect these workers.

Over two months ago, Canada's poorly regulated Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) enabled a labour broker to lure 11 skilled trades' people to Canada for non-existent jobs.

Those workers - known as the "Filipino 11" - became indentured labour after having to pay over $10,000 each in so-called administrative fees to labour brokers and intermediaries that thrive within the unregulated margins of the TFWP.

The temporary foreign workers pouring into Canada are often exploited
Illustration by Claudio Munoz

TIMES had caught up with the sprawling brewery in the town of Barrie, an hour's drive north of Toronto. Canadians were drinking less and less beer, especially the traditional mass-produced brands. So Molson, the biggest of them all, closed the brewery and sold the property. The new owners were soon pandering to a different vice—marijuana. When police raided the plant in 2004, it was producing four crops a year of 30,000 high-grade, hydroponically-grown plants, worth around C$100m ($102m).

Along with the “pot jungles” set up in 40 mammoth brewing tanks, police found a dingy windowless dormitory and living quarters for dozens of workers. The only people charged were nine “gardeners”; the owners escaped prosecution. They may be less lucky next time. The police have launched a new investigation into a bottled-water business they are now running out of the old brewery, involving another fast-growing, but even shadier, area of Canada's economy—the exploitation of temporary foreign workers.

Among the staff at the factory, police found 11 Filipinos, lured to Canada with the promise of jobs paying up to C$23 an hour. Some sold their homes or took out loans to cover C$10,000 or more in fees demanded by labour brokers. But once in Canada, they were “sold” to unscrupulous employers, kept in an isolated rural house, and forced to do menial jobs earning—if paid at all—a fraction of what they were promised. “They were economic slaves,” said a Barrie policeman who chanced upon them: “It turned my stomach.”

Interest in temporary migration programs has been rising across the globe. Economist Manolo Abella conservatively estimates that, since 2000, the temporary migration of foreign workers into high-income countries has grown at about 4 to 5 percent a year.

Compared with permanent forms of migration, policymakers consider temporary migration more attractive for a number of reasons. In particular, temporary migration permits greater flexibility in the labor market and can seem more acceptable to electorates that find permanent immigration "threatening."

Also, a legal channel for labor migration can reduce flows of unauthorized immigrants. A less considered reason among destination countries is the development impact of migrants remitting income.

The Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), which began over 40 years ago, is Canada's flagship temporary migration program (the newer Low Skilled Workers Pilot Program operates on a much smaller scale).

Widely recognized as one of the better administered temporary migration programs, SAWP involves multilateral cooperation between governments of origin countries and the Canadian government, and has stable and predictable levels of workers.

On Sunday October 7, 2007, at 6:30 am, a bus carrying South Asian farm workers was attacked with stones in Surrey, BC, by white males.

The media has reported this attack together with the beating on Wednesday, October 10, of two South Asian seniors in Bear Creek Park in Surrey, again by a group of white males. The assault took place in the same park where two South Asian seniors were beaten to death by white males in July 2005.

Community members have claimed these recent attacks are racially motivated hate crimes, although police deny this.

Regarding recent attacks against South Asian farm workers in Surrey, and the growth in anti immigrant sentiment in Canada

October 16, 2007 - Justicia for Migrant Workers is a group that works with temporary agricultural workers, mainly Mexicans who come under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, to defend and expand their rights.

On Sunday October 7, at 6:30 am, a bus carrying South Asian farm workers was attacked with stones in Surrey, by white males.

We as Justicia for Migrant Workers would like to express our disgust at the incident, as well as the police and media treatment of it. And also our solidarity with the victims of these attacks and South Asian agricultural workers in general, who we know have been on the front lines of exploitation and racism in this province for decades, if not longer.

From our point of view there is a strong indication that the attacks were racially motivated, and we don’t see these acts as isolated. We see them as part of a broader culture of racism that affects this society, and which appears to be growing in part due to the policies of right wing governments in Canada, as well as in the U.S. and Mexico.

In our work with Mexican migrant workers we see this every time we visit the places where they live and work. They often ask us why they are treated differently than “Canadians” – why they are denied permanent residence, why they have to live in sometimes shocking, slum like conditions, why they are denied social services which are their right, and why they have to put up with abuse by their employers and sometimes the general public.

They are just some of the victims of a pervasive culture of racism, expressed through notions of a “white” Canada, and the related so-called Canadian values promoted by right wing elements and accepted as fact by the mainstream. In reality it is clear they are not wanted as citizens, for they do not fit into the dominant vision of an imaginary Canada that has been in development since the time of colonization.

And we are further alarmed by anti immigrant moves by the Harper government that seems to support the idea of a shift in aggressiveness.

We see this reflected in the recent illegal deportations of asylum seekers in Quebec. And also in the arrest of a humanitarian worker, who brought a group of refugees to the U.S. Canada border, sending a chilling message that anyone who helps undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers can be arrested and charged under a flawed, and we believe illegal, interpretation of section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

The United Nations Refugee agency, Amnesty International, and other groups have denounced these actions as illegal under international law and contrary to Canada’s obligations to protect asylum seekers.

Part of the reason we see these incidents with concern is because we know that repression against undocumented immigrant communities in the United States has been increasing recently. This is manifested in the increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, raids and roundups, in renewed efforts by Homeland Security to target employers who hire undocumented people through Social Security No Match Letters, and in violent police attacks against peaceful immigrant rights marches. We worry that this will lead to a growing flood of immigrants trying to come to Canada as they flee the repression, only to meet similar policies of rejection and persecution, when they reach this border.

We also worry that the aggressive increase by the Canadian government in temporary workers programs will further entrench the culture of second class human beings, of course from racialized minorities, with its deeply rooted racist connotations.

These are just some examples of what we perceive as a broader, renewed shift to the racist right by elements in positions of power. Other manifestations of this include the shameful and symbolic rejection by the Canadian government of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Native People, increases in racial profiling, the persistence of fascist policies such as security certificates, and the ongoing wars of aggression against the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and other places.

Three agricultural workers killed in van accident
Employer & lack of government enforcement at fault
March 2007

Ripe for Abuse
Their ranks slashed, only three officers now investigate abuse against the 6,000 Indo-Canadian seniors picking fruit across the Lower Mainland. Expect a harsh season. A Tyee special report.

Justicia For Migrant Workers statement of solidarity with the victims (and their families) of the March 7, 2007 accident in Abbotsford, B.C.

March 20, 2007 (Vancouver) - As members of Justicia for Migrant Workers, we would like to take this opportunity to express our condolences to the family members of those who were injured and/or died as a result of the tragic accident that occurred on March 10, 2007. In this their time of need we want to respect their privacy as they mourn for their loved lost ones. However, we would like to express some of the overarching concerns that we have pertaining to how this issue has been portrayed by the media and the authorities.

Firstly Justicia for Migrant workers believes it is imperative to point out the historical role that the Indo-Canadian community has played with respect to this province's agricultural industry. For generations, South Asians have toiled in the fields of British Colombia sacrificing their lives through unsafe and exploitative conditions. Their suffering highlights the unequal power balances that have historically existed between employers and workers in agriculture which has not only fed Canadians but also provided the low cost labour that allows for massive profits for agrobusiness. Sporadic media coverage fails to portray the ongoing injustice that permeates this sector, paying very little attention to the gross violations of human rights that are responsible for the conditions that lead to this tragic accident.

Secondly, reports have individualized the causes that lead to the deaths of Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, Amarjit Kaur Bal, Sukhvinder Kaur Punia. To simply focus, as members of the RCMP have, on the role of seatbelt safety fails to address the larger systemic issues relating to workplace conditions, transportation and the blatant lack of safety that exists for farm workers across the province. To blame the victims, as has been done in this case, trivializes the issues and sidesteps the critical role that the Provincial Government has played in creating the conditions that lead to these tragic results. These conditions include: failing to provide safe vehicles for transport, lax enforcement of safety standards for farm workers, non existent legislation pertaining to the safe transport of agricultural labourers and the overcrowding of farm vehicles.

Thirdly we want to point out that both these labourers, as well as the contract workers employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, work under precarious conditions. These are not only due to workplace exploitation but also to an immigration system whereby both guest workers and recent immigrants are forced to survive by undertaking dangerous and life threatening work. As reported, many agricultural labourers are recent immigrants who due to their employment under the contractor system are forced to work and live in indentured conditions, something which workers in other industries do not have to endure. This type of exploitation must be addressed not by band aid solutions but by a long term commitment to eradicating the workplace abuses and unfair labour practices that have come to represent the agricultural industrial economy.

Finally Justicia for Migrant workers want to express our continued solidarity with Indo-Canadian farm labourers, whose conditions mirror those faced by Mexican, Caribbean and Guatemalan workers in Canada. Irrespective of the divides that come to signify labour divisions in the agricultural system, we believe that is imperative that together with other advocates for immigrant and migrant workers we realize that it is in our shared interests to continue to forge relationships based on solidarity and respect amongst our communities. Regardless of divisions on immigration status, racialized workers continue to toil in our fields and face severe repression if they stand up to speak about their experiences. As such we believe that we need to attack systemic and institutional practices and not workers for tragedies such as the events of March 10, 2007. However to address these concerns we must move beyond blaming the workers and confronting the system that continues to employ immigrant and migrant labour under precarious conditions.

J4MW at the Canadian Union of Public Employees
Human Rights Conference
Nov 23, 2006

Online Video "How Migrant Farm Workers (and non-unionized workers) are organizing" - Adriana Paz, Justicia for Migrant Workers, BC.

November 15, 2006 - Ottawa announced new immigration initiatives Wednesday that it says will make it easier for employers in labour-strapped provinces like Alberta and British Colombia to hire foreign workers...

Guest workers fall into a health care gap
By Tom Sandborn
Board member of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association

"B.C. alone among Canadian provinces is willing to accept guest workers admitted by the federal government to harvest our fields, but will not provide these workers with the level of health insurance protection they receive in other provinces."

Civil liberties group concerned about rights breach In exclusion of migrant workers from MSP coverage

The BC Civil Liberties Association has sent a letter to Hon. George Abbott, Minister of Health, Expressing concern about recent revelations that indicate B.C. Is the only province in Canada Denying immediate health insurance coverage to agricultural workers brought into the country Under the Federal Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program.

This exclusion represents a real threat to the health and security of workers brought into Canada Under federal sponsorship, and may represent a breach of the province's obligations under the Canada Health Act and the Charter of Rights.

The BCCLA is asking for a prompt meeting with the Minister to discuss these concerns.

For comment, media can contact Jason Gratl, BCCLA board president at 604-694-1919 or Tom Sandborn, BCCLA board member at 604-224-1182.

B.C.C.L.A Web Site

J4MW BC
October 2007:

Housing Conditions for Temporary Migrant Agricultural Workers in B.C.

Report in PDF format

RECENT EVENTS

Written and directed by Arturo Perez Torres, the film chronicles the perilous journey of migrants from Central America and Mexico as they make their way north to the US, along the way facing encounters with corrupt Mexican border guards, predatory Mara Salvatrucha gangs, and racist Minutemen vigilante groups.

Justicia for Migrant Workers BC presents the acclaimed NFB documentary "EL CONTRATO”, a powerful film that traces the lives of migrant Mexican farm workers in Ontario and their quest for dignity and respect amidst poor working conditions.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion about the ongoing struggles of migrant farm workers in BC.

J4MW BC and KAIROS presented the Vancouver screening of Borderless

Friday, June 2
7:00-9:00pm
St. Andrew's Wesley United Church
1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver

Borderless is a twenty-two minute documentary poem about migrants living and working without status in Canada. Told in their own voices, the stories of Geraldo, an undocumented Costa Rican construction worker, and Angela, a second-generation Caribbean domestic worker, bring to life serious problems of labour exploitation and family separation caused by restrictive immigration legislation. Viewers are introduced to an often invisible workforce and invited to reflect on the hidden costs of sustaining our first world economy.

Directed by Gemini nominated filmmaker Min Sook Lee and narrated by poet Dionne Brand, winner of the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award.

Borderless is a production of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.

The video will be followed by a moderated discussion about the exploitation of undocumented workers happening in cities like Vancouver and Toronto. The BC Launch of the video is hosted by KAIROS, Justicia for Migrant Workers-BC & the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada.

LETTER OF PROTEST BY MIGRANT WORKERS IN BC

This letter of complaints was written by the Mexican agricultural workers from the Golden Eagle Group farm in Pitt Meadows, BC, in response to the fact that a series of grave concerns have not been addressed by their employer nor by Mexican consular authorities. This in spite of repeated attempts by the workers to find a solution to their legitimate demands for:

1. Bathrooms, drinking water and a place were they can find cover from the rain while they eat during working days in the fields.

2. More working hours. Currently the workers are being given insufficient working hours that rarely cover the minimum living expenses in Canada, and leave little or nothing to send back to their families in Mexico, which is the main reason why the workers come here in the first place.

4. A response to their demands for medical attention without having to pay for it as they are not covered by B.C.'s Medical Services Plan but by RBC Insurance that is limited and insufficient.

5. Compliance with their written work contract which says that they were to work in a greenhouse and not in outdoor blueberry and cranberry farms.

The Mexican workers are employed under Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) negotiated between the governments of Canada and Mexico. Each worker has a contract and is in Canada on a temporary working visa. The migrant Mexican workers are compelled to come to work in Canada as a result of the devastating impact of economic agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the Mexican countryside. Upon arrival in Canada the workers often find themselves in precarious working, living and health situations and routinely face abuse and mistreatment from their employers, who appear to almost completely forget to respect the workers' fundamental labour, economic and human rights such the access to healthcare. The workers' complaints are rarely heard or addressed by either their employers or the Mexican consulate.

The situation exposed in this letter by the workers of Golden Eagle farms is not limited to this particular group of workers but can be considered part of a generalized condition of lack of justice, dignity and respect for the temporary agricultural workers that toil in the majority of Canadian farms, even when those workers come through programs negotiated between both governments to satisfy a need for labour in the agricultural sector. - J4MW BC

MEXICAN MIGRANT WORKER THREATENED WITH FORCED REPARTIATION FOR VOICING CONCERNS ABOUT WORKPLACE AND LIVING CONDITIONS

VANCOUVER - May 19, 2006) - Marcos Baac, a Mexican migrant farm worker who was employed by Golden Eagle Farms in Pitt Meadows through a contract under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, received notice on May 9th that he would be sent back to Mexico immediately.

Baac believes that this forced repatriation is a reprisal for being vocal in raising concerns about the farm’s poor working and living conditions. In April 2006, after failed attempts to bring their concerns directly to the employer and the Mexican consulate, Baac, along with 31 other workers at the farm, wrote a public letter outlining several workplace and living condition grievances.

BC PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT IS VIOLATING
CANADA HEALTH ACT

(Vancouver) - Migrant farm worker advocates are accusing the BC Liberals of violating Canada's Health care act by denying migrant farm workers access to health care in BC. Justicia for Migrant Workers, an advocacy group fighting for the rights of migrant farm workers in BC is demanding that migrant farm workers from Mexico be immediately included under the province's MSP health insurance scheme, so that they can be given basic health coverage. Mexican workers have already started to come back to BC for the third year in a row, and up to a couple thousand workers are expected this year throughout BC...

NEWS

RECENT EVENTS

LETTER OF PROTEST BY MIGRANT WORKERS IN BC

MEXICAN MIGRANT WORKER THREATENED WITH FORCED REPARTIATION FOR VOICING CONCERNS ABOUT WORKPLACE AND LIVING CONDITIONS

BC PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT IS VIOLATING CANADA HEALTH ACT

BC PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT IS VIOLATING
CANADA HEALTH ACT