TORONTO —
After migrant worker Luis Gabriel Flores Flores tested positive for COVID-19 following an outbreak at an Ontario produce farm, he turned to journalists to share his fears over what he described as unsafe working conditions.
A few weeks later — only one day after his bunkmate had died of COVID-19 — his employer came looking for Flores at the bunkhouse where the workers lived.
He was told that he, and three others who were suspected of speaking to press, were being fired.
They told Flores they would be “sending [him] back to Mexico at dawn,” he said.
These allegations, which the farm in question denies, are described in an 8-page legal complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and in a letter Flores delivered this week to the office of Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino in downtown Toronto.
The complaint alleges that Flores’s employment was terminated unjustly in a reprisal against him for speaking out about the poor working conditions his employer subjected him to. As part of his complaint, Flores is seeking $28,000 in damages for direct and future earning losses, as well as $10,000 for emotional pain and suffering he endured.
Flores and the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) held a press conference on Thursday to let the public know that Flores’s experience is one of many.
And they are raising an alarm in the hopes that the federal government will hear them.
“We’re here because we’re calling on the federal government of Canada to give full and permanent immigration status for all,” Syed Hussan, Executive Director of MWAC, said in the press conference.
“Migrant workers want to protect their health, want to protect their safety, but it’s federal immigration rules that make it impossible for them to do so.”
Three migrant workers have died of COVID-19 in Canada so far, Hussan said, and 1,100 are sick.
One of these deaths was Juan Lopez Chapparo, a 55-year-old father who worked and lived with Flores.
During the pandemic, the farms that many of these migrant workers were employed at were declared essential, and migrant workers were allowed to enter the country even when borders were closed to others.
But because seasonal migrant workers have such a precarious status within the country, it is harder for them to stand up to employers who take advantage of them or subject them to unjust working conditions, according to MWAC — a reality that the pandemic made even more dangerous.
Flores was in Canada on a restricted work permit, which meant his ability to remain in Canada was tied completely to the specific employer he had travelled to Canada to work with.
“One in 23 people in this country — or 1.6 million people in the country — don’t have permanent immigration status, can’t access basic health care, can’t access basic work, and they are fired when they speak out,” Hussan said.
Flores is 36 years old, and from Mexico City. He originally started travelling to Canada for seasonal work in 2014, and has worked four seasons in the country.
This year, he arrived in April to work at a Norfolk Country asparagus farm owned by the Scotlynn Group.
According to Flores’ letter, which he read out at the press conference, when they arrived at the farm, they found cramped, unsanitary housing conditions.
“There was very little space in the room, and in the houses,” he said. “It was impossible to keep distant.”
He added that protective gear such as face masks or hand sanitizer were not provided for workers.
Then, people began to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, including one of Flores’ roommates: Chapparo.
Workers told the foreman that there were sick people, Flores said, “and asked for them to get medical attention.
“They ignored us.”
Employers only began to pay attention to the outbreak when an ambulance had to be called for a worker who was seriously ill, according to Flores.
By the time the workforce was tested, 199 out of 221 workers had already contracted the virus and tested positive.
Flores was among them.
He was horrified by what had happened on the farm, and the working conditions that he and his fellow workers had been put through. So while he was going through his second quarantine, he spoke anonymously to press outlets about the outbreak and labour exploitation, in order to shine a light on the mistreatment migrant workers are facing during this pandemic.
When these allegations surfaced, Scott Biddle, President and CEO of Scotlynn Group, denied them, telling CTV News in early June that workers had been immediately taken to hospital for evaluations when they became sick.
After Flores returned to work, he said that even after the outbreak, “conditions really had hardly changed.”
On June 20, Flores and his coworkers were given the tragic news that Chapparo had died of COVID-19.
They were “shocked,” he said. “It left us very saddened and also afraid [for] our lives.
“I told the foreman the farm should take responsibility for what happened,” Flores said. “Perhaps Juan’s death and this illness could have been prevented if they had paid attention to us when we were asking for help.”
Flores alleges that the very next day, Biddle’s father, Robert Biddle Jr., fired him after accusing him of speaking to the media, and threatened him with deportation.
“Mr. Flores was fired as a sign,” Hussan said. “As a symbol from employers and from federal immigration laws that if you speak up in this country, you can be made homeless, you can be deported.”
Scotlynn Group declined an on-camera interview with CTV News, but said that Flores’ allegations are “totally false,” and that Flores was “never fired from the company or threatened to be deported.”
The prospect of being deported was frightening to Flores, who works in Canada to support his family. Back home, he has a wife, two daughters, and a mother with disabilities, who recently had a major operation that the family still owes money for.
It was then that he reached out to MWAC for help and temporary lodging.
“My story is a story of many others,” he said. “What happened to me can and does happen to many migrant workers.”
He is calling for a “comprehensive immigration solution
“We spend most of the year in Canada, more time than we spend home with our families. We are an essential part of this economy and society, and we deserve the same rights.”
Many Canadians agree that things need to change. Already, more than 10,000 have signed an online petition demanding permanent status for the farm workers who put food on our tables.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
