Does Canada discriminate against low-skilled workers?

Jamaican migrant workers in Ontario compare their lives to "systematic slavery.

Jamaican migrant farm workers wrote an open letter to the Jamaican Ministry of Labour asking for more support in the face of what they called "systematic slavery". A few days after that, an accident occurred: a tobacco picker died at Berlo's Best Farm, two hours southwest of Toronto.

In a statement on August 16, the Jamaican Ministry of Labour expressed "deep sadness" and said that Labor Minister Carl Samuda will visit farms in Canada that employ Jamaican workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). Meanwhile, the Canadian government has expressed its condolences to the family of the deceased and added that the investigation into the death is a provincial matter.

Jamaican immigrants wrote an open letter stating:

"As it currently stands, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) is systematic slavery."

Workers described terrible living conditions: rats eat their food, they live in overcrowded rooms with no privacy, and they lack dryers to dry their clothes after the rain.

Regarding working conditions, Jamaicans wrote that they were "treated like mules" and punished for lack of speed. They are also concerned about being exposed to dangerous pesticides without proper protection, and their superiors insult them.

The letter was published in the Jamaica Observer. The workers said they were afraid to appeal directly to the Jamaican Secretary of Labor because they feared they would be kicked out of the program. They also pointed out that workers from Mexico and the Philippines had the same grievances.

Santiago Escobar, national representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, says this is a national problem. He asked the federal government to make union representation a condition of issuing temporary permits to foreign workers:

"With a union, these workers could exercise their labour and human rights."

He also asks the provincial government to include agricultural workers in its labour laws and to offer workers a flexible route to permanent residency.