Abuse against foreign workers: proposed reforms could go further

A Senate report released last Tuesday documents the precarious situation and abuse suffered by foreign workers in Canada and calls for reform of the migrant labor program.

Aditya Rao, a human rights lawyer who is a board member of the New Brunswick-based Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre, is happy to see this issue brought to light and would like to see changes more in-depth than those recommended by senators.

The Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, which produced the report entitled Let’s act now – Solutions for Canada’s temporary and migrant workforce (New window)chose to examine the situation in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

From our point of view, it seems certain that they recognized that the workers [étrangers] New Brunswick, the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada are experiencing particularly pernicious thingsnotes Aditya Rao, who is cited in this report of more than 160 pages.

Particularly vulnerable in the Maritimes

Foreign workers in New Brunswick are particularly vulnerable to exploitation since they are often sent to rural, less populated regions, says the lawyer.

There is no access to public transport. They are therefore entirely dependent on their employers to go out and to get to the grocery store or to a doctor’s appointment.he explains.

The employer has complete and absolute control over the lives of workers [étrangers] in New Brunswick.

Observers of the situation of temporary foreign workers have long opposed work permits closedwhich link workers to specific employers.

Many foreign workers are afraid to report unsafe or abusive working conditions because maintaining their immigration status is closely associated with their employer.

Replace employer-linked work permits

The senators also believe that these closed permits should disappear. They suggest replacing them with work permits linked to sectors of activity and/or regions.

It is on this point that Aditya Rao would have liked the senators to go further. The type of permit they’re considering wouldn’t be much better than what exists now, he said.

Sincerely, we believe that the solution is to grant them permanent residence upon their arrival. The only way to end precarious employment and precarious immigration status is to give people permanent residencyhe insists.

We will spend another generation, I suppose, writing reports on the links between work permits linked to regions or sectors [d’activité] and abuses against foreign workers, because we know that it will happen with this type of permit toosays Mr. Rao.

Although he would like stricter measures, Migrant Justice Center representative Madhu Verma says he is happy that the Senate report sheds light on a real problem in Canada.

He likes some of the suggestions made there, such as surprise inspections of workplaces where migrant labor is employed to ensure that these people are being treated well. These unannounced visits, the senators recommended, must become Standard.

Ratna Omidvar of the Independent Senators Group is the chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, which wrote this report.

Senator René Cormier, from New Brunswick, and two senators from Nova Scotia, Wanda Thomas Bernard And Jane Cordy – the latter being the vice-president of the Committee – are among those who participated in this review.

In an interview this week on the radio of CBC has FrederictonRatna Omidvar pointed out that the foreign worker program has evolved to a remarkable level of complexity half a century after its inception.

The senators, she said, visited farms, seafood processing plants and manufacturing companies. They met with foreign workers and employers.

We have heard from workers that they endure abuse and mistreatment because they have a greater goal, to stay in Canada permanentlyshe said. They do not want to jeopardize their chances of obtaining permanent residence.

Senator Omidvar also mentioned that several business managers said they were very dependent on foreign workers, to the point where they would go out of business if they could no longer hire them.

The foreign worker program was created in 1973 and was intended to be a temporary solution to provide migrant labor as a last resort to Canadian employers.

Half a century later, this arrangement still exists and is an integral part of the labor market, particularly in health, agriculture and the fishing sector.

It is clear that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is neither temporary nor a solution of last resort. This program doesn’t work for migrant workers and could work better for employerswrite the senators in their report.

Among their recommendations, they would like to see the creation of a position of commissioner for migrant workers who would have the power to defend their rights, as well as a position of commissioner for employers.

The federal government now has 120 days to respond to the senators’ report and their recommendations.

According to the report of Sam Farley, CBC