BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article titled 'VIEWPOINT: Migrant workers become extension of the farm family' published on June 21.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to reform the temporary foreign workers program and provide better protections for foreign farm workers in our country is not worth the paper it is written on. It is the latest example of systemic racism brought to light in Canada and another black mark on our supposedly ‘multicultural’ nation.
The question to ask is why Mexico, Jamaica, et al., did not sanction Canada a generation ago when they knew their citizens brought here as farm labourers are being mistreated? Specifically, foreign labourers are racially abused, paid much less than Canadians, and denied sick leave.
They’re working in overcrowded conditions, living in cramped quarters, and deported for failure to meet unreasonable quotas.
Many were exposed, locally, to coronavirus. Is this how you treat workers “like family?” Mexico is not entirely innocent, as one wonders why they are only now protesting against this mistreatment long after the fact. They want us to quell the outbreaks before they send more workers.
Why doesn’t the Ontario Federation of Agriculture show us a plan to crack down on operators who abuse their hired foreign workers? Ottawa must intervene by reforming the temporary foreign workers program and by legislating offences for operators who violate the UN-protected human rights of the hired help.
Provinces must inspect these operators to ensure compliance with health regulations and monitor violations of the Employment Standards Act and human-rights laws. The temporary foreign worker is of economic benefit to smaller countries, but hiring Canadians is preferable.
Our agricultural sector is corrupted by a few ‘bad apples’ taking advantage of the anti-Hispanic racism that pollutes Canada and the United States.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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