Canada Is Exploiting Migrant Agricultural Workers
Canada's migrant worker program is accused of being abusive, with workers reporting rat-infested rooms and verbal abuse. The program relies on migrant farmworkers from the Caribbean and Mexico, who face hazardous conditions and limited access to healthcare.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
Canada's migrant worker program is under fire for its treatment of workers, who report being subjected to verbal abuse and hazardous conditions. The program relies on migrant farmworkers from the Caribbean and Mexico, who face limited access to healthcare and hazardous conditions.
Imagine you're a worker from a faraway country who comes to Canada to pick fruits and vegetables. You're expected to work long hours for little pay and live in cramped rooms with no access to healthcare. This is the reality for many migrant farmworkers in Canada, who face abuse and exploitation. It's like being a slave, but instead of being owned by someone, you're owned by the system.
Analysis
Canada's Migrant Worker Program Is Dangerously Abusive
Canada's migrant worker program has been accused of being abusive, with workers reporting rat-infested rooms and verbal abuse. The program relies on migrant farmworkers from the Caribbean and Mexico, who face hazardous conditions and limited access to healthcare.
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) was established in 1966 and allows Canadian farms to employ migrant workers from 11 Caribbean countries and Mexico temporarily for periods of up to eight months. Every year, more than 27,000 migrant farmworkers come to Canada through the SAWP, and the workers accounted for nearly 25 percent of the total workforce in agriculture in 2022 alone.
But like Conwade Bramwell, a 23-year-old Jamaican, many of these migrant farmworkers face physical and verbal abuse, hazardous exposure, limited access to healthcare services, and even death risk. Employers, according to Bramwell and other workers, pay little heed to working conditions. Sometimes this can prove fatal.
In August 2022, Garvin Yapp, a Jamaican farmworker, died after collapsing at a farm in southern Ontario. The next year a young Jamaican farmworker working in Niagara-on-the-Lake died of unknown causes while sleeping in his bunkhouse, which his colleagues blamed on lack of access to healthcare.
The situation was exacerbated during the COVID pandemic, with the migrants working in harsh conditions often without health insurance or adequate protective gear. Bramwell said upon arrival in Canada, he and other migrant workers were told to sign a letter that exempted their employers and the Canadian government from any liability should they contract COVID.
A 2022 study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health found at least nine deaths among migrant agricultural workers in Ontario between 2020 and 2021 alone. One of the risks the study identified was barriers to accessing healthcare.
"We don’t have any benefits or insurance," said Bramwell, who worked for 10 hours each day for C$15.50 per hour. "We don’t have any sick days. We don’t get any holidays. Every day is the same."
Migrant farmworkers are speaking up. Shortly before the death of Yapp, Bramwell and other Jamaican migrant farmworkers in the Niagara region wrote an open letter to Jamaica’s then-minister of labour and social security, Karl Samuda, in August 2022 concerning the poor treatment they received at two farms in Ontario.
"We wrote the letter because of the injustice [on the farm]. We are not being treated well," Bramwell said. But after arriving in Canada and visiting the farms, Samuda said that he saw "no evidence of mistreatment." This quickly generated criticism from Jamaicans and migrant advocacy groups, forcing the minister to establish a special fact-finding team to investigate the workers’ working conditions on the farms.
In 2022, some Jamaican farmworkers were pulled from four farms, after it was discovered that they were being subjected to verbal abuse and poor living conditions. In May 2023, Samuda resigned, and Pear
Key points
- Canada's migrant worker program is accused of being abusive, with workers reporting rat-infested rooms and verbal abuse.
- The program relies on migrant farmworkers from the Caribbean and Mexico, who face hazardous conditions and limited access to healthcare.
- A 2022 study found at least nine deaths among migrant agricultural workers in Ontario between 2020 and 2021 alone.
- Migrant farmworkers are speaking up and demanding better treatment and working conditions.
- The Canadian government has been criticized for its handling of the situation and has established a special fact-finding team to investigate the workers’ working conditions on the farms.
If the Canadian government takes action to improve the working conditions and access to healthcare for migrant farmworkers, it could lead to better treatment and more respect for these workers. This could also lead to more migrant workers being willing to come to Canada and contribute to the agricultural sector.
If the Canadian government continues to ignore the plight of migrant farmworkers, it could lead to more deaths and injuries among these workers. This could also lead to a decline in the number of migrant workers willing to come to Canada, which could have negative consequences for the agricultural sector.
