I think one of the reasons the CLC calls for access to permanent residency is that one of the features of the temporary foreign worker program that makes workers vulnerable is the employer-specific, or tied, work permits. What happens is that everything depends on that one relationship with that one employer. That's great, if the employer is great, but if things go wrong, there is no avenue to appeal. There's no avenue to have a voice to say, “I'm being exploited. This is abusive.”
The ask for the permanent residency, or pathway to permanent residency, is to take apart that employer-specific work permit element. Doing so will allow people to exercise for themselves some decisions around their own protections of their labour rights, as well as their human rights.
In your example of the seasonal worker, one of the features of the seasonal agricultural worker program that is horrible is that we have bilateral agreements with these countries, and the workers don't volunteer or queue up to come. Their government has to nominate them.
Of course, that adds a whole other layer of compliance, and people have been badly hurt because employment standards, and health and safety standards weren't adhered to. No one is going to say much. If they say anything, they don't get to come back.
There are so many ways in this program, the temporary foreign worker program, that create situations and vulnerabilities for migrant workers that they cannot.... On paper, they have rights, but in exercising them, not so much.