Citizenship and Immigration committee  There is definitely a possibility of that, but once again, we need to think about the hundreds if not thousands of workers who previously worked in Canada. That is not thinking about the current workers, but many workers, through no fault of their own, are not able to work in Can

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —finally, that our immigration laws not be used by employers to divide workers based on race.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are a couple of things they have told us. They want to live as equals, they want decent housing, they want decent wages, they want fair working conditions, and they want to be treated with respect by their employers and by the community and, to the same extent, by the gover

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In our experience, no, nothing has changed. The structure of the program continues—the tied work permit. This weekend we were dealing with dozens of workers who were repatriated. Many of these workers have gone from a terrible situation to another terrible situation. The fact tha

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have to value the workers from working class communities who have been coming to Canada. These are the workers who have been coming for generations from Mexico and the Carribean. If we think about abolishing the program, my concern is that all of these workers who have contri

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we have to acknowledge and recognize that we need to expand immigration policies, and also to understand the connection between the racialization of labour, particularly in agriculture sector. Farm workers have never been able to live as permanent residents. If we do go f

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much for that question. There is definitely a concern. In Ontario we're seeing that occupational health and safety laws, or residential tenancy acts of each jurisdiction or each province, should be the area responsible for housing. What's happening is that we have

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If we look at previous components of our history, Dutch farm workers came in with full status. Many of them have laid roots in the communities. Many of them are farmers today. It's about providing the settlement supports. It's about providing the resources. Every week I get cal

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for providing us with the opportunity today to speak before this committee. Justicia for Migrant Workers is an activist group based in Toronto that has been organizing with migrant workers, particularly farm workers, for the last 20 years. To

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Once again, with the temporary workers, with the live-in caregivers, the meat packers, the agricultural workers, we're also seeing about status. Whether the workers choose to or not, if they desire, they should have a right to apply for status here in Canada. You have many of the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess on a separate thing, from what I'm hearing there's some frustration in that a lot of us are focusing on the live-in caregiver and seasonal agricultural programs. That's kind of your litmus test, right? The history behind the experiences we're talking about hasn't been dea

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. My challenge back to this committee is that excluded in this discussion are those temporary workers, right? We're talking about backlogs, but we also have to talk about repatriation and deportation of these migrant agricultural workers, live-in caregivers, and other t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Many of the same promises--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. I want to thank this committee for providing Justicia for Migrant Workers with the opportunity to present to you about the conditions of migrant agricultural workers in Canada. Many members of Justicia have been organizing the fields of southern Ontario for more

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right. To put it simply, we are not interested in you, the elected officials, using this as an opportunity to expand indentureship and exploitation. Nor are we here to support the expansion of employer-driven programs, which by their very nature lead to the countless testimo