“Migrant workers have been coming to Niagara for sixty years. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program began here in 1966. In six decades, Canada, Ontario and Niagara have used this program to drive the growth of large-scale farms and profits. Yet in all that time they have not built the road infrastructure, the transit, or the protections that would keep workers safe.”
A Call-Out from the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Posted July 9th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE — The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change has launched a petition, also endorsed by the Niagara Community Legal Clinic, demanding a response to the death of Sinhue Garcia, a migrant farmworker killed while cycling home in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The petition, at migrantworkersalliance.org/sinhue, calls on local MPPs, MP, the provincial and federal government, and every councilor and candidate in the town’s October municipal election, to unite to take action. Two weeks since Sinhue’s death, not one elected official at any level of government has publicly said a word.
On the night of Friday, June 26, Sinhue Garcia was cycling home along Concession 6 near Line 4 Road. A driver struck him and he died at the scene. He was 39 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two daughters in Mexico.
Sinhue Garcia worked at St. David’s Hydroponics. He came to Niagara every season to grow the food on Ontario’s tables. He died on a rural road with no street lights, no shoulder and no bike lane.
His death is not the first. It is part of a pattern that has been building for years.
In 2019, Zenaida, a Mexican farmworker and mother who worked at Tregunno Fruit Farms, was killed in a hit-and-run in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 2022, Fermin Soto Sanchez was killed and two of his co-workers were seriously injured when a driver struck them near St. Catharines.
That same year, Ceto Reid, a Jamaican farmworker, was badly hurt by a driver while cycling home from a laundromat. In 2023, a farmworker named Omar was injured in a hit-and-run on Lakeshore Road. The near-misses are countless.
Ghost bike for Sinhue Garcia
Migrant workers have been coming to Niagara for sixty years. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program began here in 1966. In six decades, Canada, Ontario and Niagara have used this program to drive the growth of large-scale farms and profits. Yet in all that time they have not built the road infrastructure, the transit, or the protections that would keep workers safe.
“The reason people keep dying is that governments have never treated migrant workers as full human beings,” says Kit Andres, of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “A neighbour’s life has been lost. His children have lost their father. And every politician who is supposed to represent this community has said nothing. Their silence tells migrant workers they are disposable.”
The petition demands a funded migrant worker safety and support plan. That includes safe and free transportation, urgent road safety improvements, emergency support for families after injuries and deaths, and permanent funding for legal support, health services, and community spaces for migrant workers. The petition also calls for permanent resident status, so that workers can report and refuse dangerous conditions without fear of losing their jobs, their housing, or their place in Canada.
“We are asking a simple question,” added Andres. “What are you willing to do so that no one else dies? Every candidate and level of government owes migrant workers an answer.”
Sinhue Garcia was a neighbour, a co-worker, a friend, and a father. He deserved to get home safely. So does every migrant worker who comes to Canada to work.
About the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change: The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a national migrant-led organization organizing with migrant workers for labour and immigration justice membership across the country including in Niagara, Ontario.
For more on the Migrant Workers Alliance, click on – https://migrantworkersalliance.org/
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