UN Special Rapporteur report should be a wake-up call for Canada to protect migrant worker rights

A United Nations report has called Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Canada’s response so far: No more temporary foreign workers in low-wage jobs in areas of higher unemployment.

Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, in his report on Canada, says the Temporary Foreign Worker Program “institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.”

An alarming description, and yet it surprises no one working on migrant rights in Canada.

The report’s recommendations are clear: End closed work permits that tie workers to one employer and grant permanent residency status to temporary foreign workers.

Will the government of Canada finally listen? Or will they continue to tweak a 60-year-old program that endangers migrant workers for yet another generation? Or will they continue closing borders to migrant workers?

On Monday, the Trudeau government announced it will not be approving new temporary foreign workers in low-wage jobs in areas where unemployment is six per cent or higher.

To be clear, neither the Special Rapporteur, nor migrant advocates are calling for the closing of the border to migrant workers. In fact, the Special Rapporteur criticized Canada’s policy shift to reduce the number of temporary residents, saying it will not address the challenges faced by temporary foreign workers.

During Obokata’s investigation last summer, he heard from migrant workers across Canada, including more than a dozen migrant workers at New Brunswick’s lobster plants. Summarized in his report are disturbing testimonies of migrant workers also shared in the film, Chaos and Control, produced by the New Brunswick-based Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre.

“Psychological abuse is the daily bread,” testified one worker in the film, who said her health suffered due to harassment at work. “We are under threat all the time.”

The migrant worker goes on to explain how differently they are treated compared to Canadian citizens, reprimanded for taking bathroom breaks and humiliated. She says her employer opens their mail.

When employers do not follow the rules, migrant workers are told to complain but they are often too afraid. They have risked too much, invested too much to complain. Complaining could mean being forced onto a flight back home or no offer to work next season.

When migrant workers in northern New Brunswick filed a complaint on the government tip line about dangerous housing conditions last year, their employer was alerted of the complaint and the upcoming inspection. The supervisor told the workers to clean up the mold in their housing.

Migrant workers do many jobs. Carrying the burden for employer non-compliance should not be one of them. That’s the government’s job. They need to replace their ad-hoc inspections with a robust inspection system that catches danger and abuse before it injures or kills a worker.

While the Madhu Centre has supported dozens of victims of workplace abuse to obtain an open work permit for vulnerable workers so they could work elsewhere, we agree with the Special Rapporteur that “this does not provide an effective solution.”

The fact that the open work permit for vulnerable workers exists is an admission of the hyper-precariousness baked into the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The application process is needlessly bureaucratic and arduous, and flags to future employers that this worker is a ‘troublemaker.’

Immigration Minister Marc Miller has said sectoral work permits will replace closed work permits, but again that is not a solution. The Special Rapporteur noted in his report: “Since employers within specific sectors often know one another, workers with sectoral permits that attempt to change jobs may not be successful due to stigmatization. The best approach is to give workers the freedom to choose their own employers in any sector.”

We congratulate the Special Rapporteur on his comprehensive report and sound recommendations.

Now is not the time to play nice with racists and xenophobes by taking a hard line on immigration. The unfounded notion that ‘immigrants are stealing our jobs’ belongs in the ignorant past and yet it is back on the lips of people vying to lead this country.

It is past time to end the closed work permit system and grant migrant workers the same rights as everyone else, including the freedom to choose one’s employer.

A worker is a worker, no matter their nationality.

Tracy Glynn and Aditya Rao are founders of the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre. 

This commentary was first published by The Hill Times on August 28, 2024.