The country’s migrant worker program is facing fresh scrutiny — this time from the auditor general of Canada, as the office delves into a series of massive COVID-19 outbreaks on Canadian farms that impacted more than a thousand workers and killed three.
Advocates from across the country will be consulted as part of the process next week, said Migrant Workers Alliance for Change executive director Syed Hussan. Interviews are expected to explore the adequacy of federally mandated quarantine measures, lax inspections and reprisals against migrant workers who report employers for abuse — as well as long-standing failures to address gaps in the temporary foreign worker program.
“The solution is clear. The case has been made. The facts have been revealed to everyone in the country. We have seen for the last 53 years that a system of temporariness means that people do not have the rights to protect themselves,” said Hussan in an interview with the Star.
Céline Bissonnette, a spokesperson for the auditor general’s office, did not confirm who else has been asked to participate in the review or details of its scope. The report is expected to be published next year.
“We are anticipating a number of audits that touch on the COVID-19 pandemic response,” Bissonnette said.
The Star has reported on complaints of poor living and working conditions in the lead up to massive outbreaks on farms across the province, as well as reprisal fears for workers raising safety issues.
According to a new case filed at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, migrant worker Gabriel Flores Flores was terminated and threatened with deportation after he voiced concern about an outbreak that claimed the life of his bunkmate, Juan Lopez Chaparro, at Scotlynn Growers. The Norfolk County area farm has denied the allegations.
Currently, migrant workers come to Canada on temporary, closed work permits — meaning that their right to be in the country is tied to their annual contract with a single employer. Hussan said advocates intend to highlight their concerns with that model next week, as they have for years.
“Without fundamentally having the right of (permanent residence) status, you can’t assert any other right that you have,” he said.
“Anyone raising their voices will have to contend with at least the threat of reprisals in the form of homelessness, deportation and the inability to return in the future.”
In July, the federal government announced $58.6 million in funding for migrant worker protections, and said it would “work to develop mandatory requirements to improve employer-provided accommodations, focusing on ensuring better living conditions for workers.”
As previously revealed by the Star, a 2018 study conducted for the federal government recommended the creation of a national housing standard for migrant workers, but the idea was scrapped following employer pushback.
Some $16 million of the funding announced in July is expected to go toward more inspections.
The federal government is also looking to improve its open work permit program, which provides an exit route for migrant workers who can document abuse at their workplace.
Critics have previously warned that the program should be an “interim step” only, because it fails to address the underlying dynamics that facilitate abuse in the first place: workers’ precarious immigration status.
“The current system of temporary, employer-specific work permits leaves labour and human rights beyond the reach of migrant workers in Canada,” says a 2017 submission to the federal government from a coalition of 20 advocacy groups.
Last week, the government announced it would create a “regularization” program for asylum seekers working in the health-care sector that would provide them with a pathway to citizenship. Advocates in 10 cities across Canada will rally Sunday calling for the program to extend to all workers with precarious immigration status, including migrant workers.
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“Every step forward where one family is more secure is worth celebrating. But millions are still living in uncertainty,” said Hussan.
“Status is not a gift. Rights are not a gift. Rights are needed for people to live and protect themselves and build a stronger society.”
