Thank you.
It is very hard for us to speak up when we have a bad employer or if we are not getting our full wages. Imagine how much harder it is when speaking up doesn't just mean losing your job, but it means being forced to leave the country. Imagine how hard it is when your employer controls your housing, and your contract is not enforceable.
What is worse is that employers know that, and bad bosses are pushing workers to work harder for less pay.
In my work with migrant farm workers there are 13 tall, wide, deep and huge dark sides of the program. I can only highlight a few of them because of the pressure of time.
One of them is that the occupational health and safety handbook of Ontario contains a lot of guidelines that came about as a result of several coroners' inquests into non-agricultural work-related deaths. To date not one has been carried out for migrant farm workers who have died in work-related accidents anywhere in Canada.
Migrant workers contribute consistently to EI every week. However, we can't access any of these benefits. The one we can access has been revised downwards in such a manner that whatever we are getting is next to nothing.
There are so many issues.
Ultimately, migrant workers are physically separated from their families and loved ones. This contributes to family breakdown of the migrant worker and a vicious cycle of poverty and social ills. Spending time with our families is more important than spending money on them. We cannot bring our families with us to Canada.
It is very clear that all of these conditions do not reflect a modern 21st century Canada. It does not reflect good jobs or jobs with good conditions, but a dark, artificial system seeking to perpetuate 18th-century working conditions.
Canada has been a developed country that prides itself as a place of safe refuge. Canada prides itself as a place of diversity and inclusiveness. Canada prides itself as a place where human rights are guaranteed to all. We call on this Canada today to grant fairness to all workers. We ask Canada to grant fairness to migrant workers because we deserve the same rights as every worker in Canada. We ask Canada today to grant migrant workers their opportunity and ability to unionize and bargain collectively. We ask Canada to grant migrant farm workers open work permits.
Ultimately, we ask Canada to grant migrant farm workers permanent status on arrival. Permanent status on arrival removes the differential treatment of migrant workers. It ensures equal access to health care and social protection, and being united with our families.
In a nutshell, this is our recommendation, but a more detailed list of recommendations will be submitted in writing to this most esteemed parliamentary committee.
Thank you.