UN Report Paints Shameful Picture of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program as a ‘Breeding Ground for Contemporary Forms of Slavery’

For Years, Advocates for Migrant Workers in Niagara and Other Regions of Canada Have Pressed Senior Levels of Government for Just and Fair Working Conditions. Most, If Not All of this Advocacy Has So Far Fallen on Deaf Ears

Some  Introductory Comments from Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper followed by a media  release on this UN Report from Canada’s Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Posted August 13^th, 2024 on Niagara At Large

From Doug Draper – More than a decade ago and about a decade after I decided to leave my job at what was left of the once-proud St. Catharines Standard, I was asked to write a review for a now-defunct news magazine called Pulse Niagara on a film documentary TV Ontario would be airing on the poor conditions foreign farm workers were suffering in Ontario.

What I saw when I watched a review copy of the documentary horrified me.

Much of the documentary focused on temporary workers from the Caribbean and other poor-off regions of the world toiling 10 or more hours a day on tomato farms in the Leamington area near Windsor, Ontario.

Not only were most, if not all of them paid less than the province’s minimum wage, but they were constantly being hounded by farm operators to work at break-neck speed in the summer heat before bedding down for the night in crammed quarters you might not want to keep livestock in.

For the few free hours they were allowed each week to go into town, they often found themselves the targets of racial slurs from the white residents they crossed paths with.

This Canadian-born journalist, who came of age believing (rather naively as it turned out) that relative to many other countries in the world, we had a human rights record we could, for the most part, be proud of.

Now I wanted to know more about what I viewed in that documentary and not long after it aired on TVO, a Niagara residents who at that time was a mayor of one of our region’s local municipalities, told me that their church was providing sanctuary to temporary foreign workers complaining of the same kind of abuse featured in the film.

I asked if I could interview some of those workers and was told they were afraid to be interviewed for fear of being expelled from Canada and forced to pay their own way back home with money they had earned to support their families.

In 2020, a group called of area citizens who were members of the Niagara Migrant Workers Interest Group held a rally in front of the constituency office of St. Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle where they outlined much of the same exploitation and abuse I viewed in that film.

A representative form that Niagara group said they had asked, more than once, for a meeting with Bittle to press for better conditions for these workers but up to that point, had not received an affirmative word back.

Fast forward to this August 2024 and out comes a United Nations report, the contents of which all Canadians should feel ashamed of.

And so should our political leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has frequently circulated glowing statements on Canada’s record on human rights in the world but has done little or nothing about this.

Now here is a media  release on that report, circulated this August 13 by the Migrant Workers Alliance For Change, a migrant-led organization in Canada, pressing for labour justice –

UN Report Says Permanent Resident Status For Migrants Is Solution To Exploitation

 A  Media Release from Migrant Workers Alliance For Change

Toronto, August, 2024 – The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change welcomes the final report by United Nations Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Professor Tomoya Obokata, in which he reiterated that Canada’s immigration systems are a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” and that “the structural precarity for temporary foreign workers would be mitigated by systematically providing workers with a pathway to permanent residence”.

The UN Special Rapporteur echoed the migrant justice movement’s demand for Status for All, saying “clear status for all migrant workers would provide them with a secure footing on which to enjoy the full spectrum of their human rights, while continuing to contribute to Canadian society.”

Regarding the government’s current and proposed policy measures, the UN rapporteur:

• Criticized “the recent policy shift to reduce the number of temporary residents [which] will not address the challenges faced by those who continue to enter through the same program”;
• Recommended that Canada “regularize workers who have lost status” – a promise made by PM Trudeau in December 2021, on which Immigration Minister Marc Miller has recently begun to backtrack in response to rising xenophobia;

• Rejected sectoral-specific work permits, insisting that “shifting from employer-specific to sector-specific work permits is, on its own, unlikely to significantly improve conditions for workers”; 
• Concluded that the Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers “does not provide an effective solution” to the abuse workers face.

“The UN Report calls for permanent resident status for all migrants, criticizing the government’s piecemeal attempts to address the exploitation built into the immigration system and its focus on numbers and caps – rather than rights – in the face of rising anti-immigrant sentiment. 

The question now is: will Prime Minister Trudeau continue to bow to xenophobia and racism, or ensure rights and dignity for racialized workers who have been made exploitable because they have been denied permanent resident status?” said Syed Hussan, executive director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The UN Rapporteur visited Canada on a country mission in August 2023 and met with migrants, including 40 members of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

In his End of Mission press conference in September 2023, Professor Obokata said that he was “disturbed” that “certain categories of migrant workers are made vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery in Canada by the policies that regulate their immigration status, employment, and housing in Canada,” and that he was “particularly concerned that this workforce is disproportionately racialized, attesting to deep-rooted racism and xenophobia entrenched in Canada’s immigration system”. 

Background:

• Visit to Canada – Final Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, August 2024: https://www.undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F57%2F46%2FAdd.1&Language=E&DeviceType=Mobile&LangRequested=False
• End of mission statement by UN Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, September 6, 2023: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/canada-anchor-fight-against-contemporary-forms-slavery-human-rights-un   

About Migrant Workers Alliance for Change – Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a migrant-led, membership based organization of farmworkers, fishery workers, care workers, undocumented people and current and former international students uniting for immigration and labour justice. 

For more, click on  the workers alliance, click on – www.MigrantWorkersAlliance.org 

About Niagara Migrant Workers Interest Group – Niagara Migrant Workers Interest Group (NMWIG)  – It’s our mission to improve the lives and working conditions of migrant workers in Niagara through organized community support and resources.

The Niagara Migrant Workers Interest Group (NMWIG) was formed by representatives of not-for-profit community organizations. Together with our members, it’s our mission to address the needs of agricultural migrant workers in the Niagara Region through the provision of services in advocacy, health, safety, and language and education.

You can click on a recent CP 24 television network news report on this issue by clicking on the screen immediately below –

For related news on this issue, click on the following links –

Canada’s temporary foreign worker program a ‘breeding ground’ for modern slavery, UN report concludes – The Globe and Mail

Modern ‘slavery’ faced by Canada’s migrant workers: UN report | CBC.ca

Canada’s temporary foreign worker program promotes contemporary forms of slavery: UN investigator – The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)

Caravan of Activists Rally in Niagara in Support of Fair Treatment for Migrant Farm Workers | Niagara At Large

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