A Saint Lucian woman who spent nearly six months in the seasonal agricultural farm worker programme in Canada says she and other females experienced ill-treatment and disrespect, including being called ‘hungry dogs’.
Latoya Ben recalled earning around $700 a fortnight, from which taxes, rent and utilities had to be paid. “The money was not worth it,” she observed.
As a result of her experience, she has urged the authorities here to do a proper investigation before sending women to work on Canadian farms.
Nevertheless, Ben told St Lucia Times she appreciated the opportunity the government gave women.
But she said when they arrived on the farm to pick strawberries, what they expected did not materialise.
“Honestly, the housing was okay even though we had to pay for housing and utilities. But we didn’t know we had to work to pay ourselves. We didn’t know we had to be crawling on our knees 24-7 to make money to pay ourselves,” Ben explained.
Strawberries are harvested from the ground, with pickers usually resting their knees on a gardening pad.
“You have to be crawling on your knees the whole day,” Ben disclosed. She said the workers signed a contract to work for $13.35 an hour.
“When we arrived in Canada we signed another contract stating that we had to work to pay ourselves,” she told St Lucia Times.
According to Ben, the farm did not pay them for working extra time or on holidays. She recalled that both Saint Lucians and Jamaicans were impacted.
“They used to treat the Jamaicans like s***,” Ben said. She said Saint Lucia and Jamaica Liaison Officers visited to analyse the situation.
However, she said as soon as the Saint Lucia official, who did his best to assist, left after ensuring that everything went well, the disrespect resumed.
“He did very well. He tried to help us. He told us to finish the contract then he was going to see if he could try to set up another farm, but not all of us could have gone,” Ben explained.
She said she would welcome another opportunity to work with the seasonal Canadian agriculture workers programme, but not at the farm where she and others experienced ill-treatment.
Jamaica is reported to have withdrawn its workers from four Canadian farms since the start of this year due to unacceptable conditions.
In August, a migrant farm workers’ organization is speaking out against what it calls exploitative working conditions on some Ontario farms after the death of a Jamaican worker this month.
In a letter to the Jamaican Minister of Labour Karl Samuda, migrant farm workers detailed living in unsanitary conditions and facing verbal and physical abuse from employers at two Ontario farms.
“They say they’re being treated like mules, they’re living with pesticides, rats are eating their food,” Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday.
“They talk about how they feel like they are in prison and having talked to other co-workers of their organization and across the country, they say the seasonal agriculture workers program is systematic slavery and exploitation at a seismic level.”
Hussan called on the Canadian federal government to make changes that would allow temporary foreign workers to get permanent resident status, which he said would make them feel safer.
Garvin Yapp, a 57-year-old worker from Jamaica, died in a work-related accident, according to the Jamaican Ministry of Labour. Yapp worked on Berlo’s Best Farm in Southern Ontario and his death is currently being investigated by both the Ontario and Jamaican ministries of labour. The employer, the VanBerlo family, said they are devastated over Yapp’s death.
“Their relationship with Garvin was forged over 34 years of employment at their family farm. Accordingly, they are devastated by his death,” the family’s lawyer said in a statement to CTV News Kitchener.
Hussan said MWAC, the member-led organization, reported an additional three worker deaths in Ontario this week. CTVNews.ca has reached out to both the Ontario and Jamaican ministries of labour, but did not receive confirmation of those additional deaths by the time of publication.
Federal Minister of Employment Carla Qualtrough sent a statement to CTV’s Your Morning calling the mistreatment of migrant workers “unacceptable.”
“The experiences detailed in this letter are disturbing, inhumane and in violation of the regulations of this program,” the statement said.
“ESDC officials are in communication with the provincial government who oversees investigations into workplace complaints, on this matter.”
Hussan said this is a larger issue for the federal government to address the immigration statuses of temporary foreign workers.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2021 alone, nearly 600,000 temporary work permits were issued, double the permits issued between 2000 and 2004 when 357,000 permits were issued. Hussan said granting permanent resident status to temporary workers would allow them to speak out against employers without fear of deportation or losing their jobs.
“We have turned into a system of temporary work and temporary immigration status and when you have temporary immigration status, you can’t protect yourself,” he said.
“We’re calling on the federal government to give permanent resident status to every migrant in the country. A fairer society is one with equal rights and equal rights are only possible if everyone has the same permanent resident status.”
