Front Burner - Modern ‘slavery’ faced by Canada’s migrant workers: UN report

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

“A breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” That’s how a statement from a UN special rapporteur described Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program last week, focusing particularly on low-wage and agricultural workers. The TFWP allows Canadian employers to bring in workers from abroad if they couldn’t fill a position domestically, and Canada has recently expanded the program to allow more workers to stay longer. But migrant workers have complained about abuse and exploitation, as well as a reliance on employers that can leave them powerless. Today, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoyo Obokata explains his findings from two weeks on a fact-finding mission in Canada, and why some migrant workers’ situations amount to debt bondage and slavery. Transcripts of this series are available here

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Tamara Kandaker. Whether it's to work at farms, hotels, warehouses, restaurants or private homes, more and more workers are coming into Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, a program that a U.N. special rapporteur warned last week is a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery. Tomoya Obokata says he heard accounts of exploitation and abuse from migrant workers during a two-week fact-finding mission to Canada.

There were so many indicators of forced labor. For 50 years now, Canadian employers have been able to use this program to fill positions when they say they can't find citizens or permanent residents to do them. Recently, Ottawa expanded the program to hire more workers for longer, citing a labor shortage. citing a labor shortage. Last year, Canada approved over 200,000 workers, nearly 70% more than a year before. And now we're moving even faster.

Some of those workers get paid below a province's minimum wage. But the treatment of agricultural workers has been especially controversial. Jamaican migrant workers were sent back to the Caribbean from an Ontario farm after holding a strike in protest of their workplace conditions. Some in B.C. even reported having to continue working during heat and smoke from wildfires. So today I'm speaking with the U.Napporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery to discuss the forces keeping these workers in situations that could violate their human rights. Tomoya Obokata joins me from Manchester, England. Hi, Mr. Obokata. Thank you so much for doing this.

You're very welcome. centuries of violent exploitation of Black people and the legacy of that. But you've used it in reference to the exploitation of some workers under Canada's temporary foreign worker program. Why do you think that exploitation can be called that? Yes. In legal terms, slavery connotes the most severe form of control exercised by an exploiter over a victim. And when I heard stories from migrant workers themselves, in some cases, the degree of control I found was quite severe. So, for example, they were prohibited from going outside of their housing and there's excessive surveillance, physical violence, and sometimes sexual violence for female workers. And all of these factors combined may amount to the

most severe form of exploitation, which is slavery. So there is a breadth of ways Canada uses temporary foreign workers, but it's worth noting that they make up around 15% of all agricultural workers. What are the sectors in which we might see this kind of slavery? Sure. There are other sectors such as seafood processing, construction, services, hospitality, and so-called caregiving or domestic work. These so-called low-skilled sectors where the risk of exploitation and abuse are likely to be quite high. Right. And it's worth noting also that the population we're talking about is disproportionately racialized, right? Oftentimes, people from ethnic minority background or migrant workers tend to feel a labor shortage in these type of sectors, yes. I want to pull apart some of the exploitation that you just mentioned, starting with the conditions that people are coming to work under.

So you've said in the report the workers in this program are given closed work permits, which is something that our government disagrees with. But what do you mean by closed here? Initially, then they're tied to a single employer so that they cannot freely change the jobs even if they want to. So that's what we mean by a closed permit. Oftentimes, victims or the workers are afraid to report instances of abuse because they are afraid that they may lose their job and immediately deported. So in one instance, I heard from about 10, 15 migrant workers in one part of Canada, they were instantly dismissed when they tried to negotiate their rights, like salaries and working conditions.

And what that means then is that if they don't have a work permit and they have to normally go back to their own countries. Now the government says that they can remain as long as their permit is valid and that may be the case but finding an alternative employer can cost money because they have to file another impact assessment and you have to find the employer willing to employ those workers but oftentimes these workers are regarded as troublemakers because they lose their state you know status or lose their job because they try to assert their rights if a worker is abused or exploited then they can opt for this open work permit but that process as I heard from a large number of migrant workers it is quite an onerous process. And during that time, then they don't have a proper status, you see, so they cannot work.

And so what happens then? If they don't have a means to support themselves, they are reliant on civil society organizations. You also write in your report that some workers are effectively in debt bondage. And explain that for me. What does debt bondage mean in the context of a worker coming to Canada? What that basically means is that they have to pay a large amount of fee to so-called recruitment agencies back home in Mexico, Ecuador, and so on. And so that means they are penniless when they arrive to Canada. So in a way,

they are not actually saving money by working in farms and factories, but they are simply trying to repay their debt they accumulated before coming to Canada. So the full amount total was $30,000. That's the price an immigration consultant charged Pawan, a young woman from India. She was promised a job attached to a labor market impact assessment. I didn't have any knowledge about any LMI or how this process works. From what I have heard from like my co-workers, from my friends, that for LMIs, you have to pay this much amount. But I understand last year, Canada banned employers or recruiters acting on behalf of them from charging these fees. So why hasn't that fixed the problem?

Well, absolutely. I mean, so you mentioned that you're talking about agencies in Canada, not outside of Canada. You see that Canada does not have a jurisdiction to prosecute and punish recruitment agents in Mexico. For example, it is up to those countries to prosecute and punish. And that's where the difficulty lies, that it may not be a direct responsibility of Canada to regulate those contacts, but many people are tricked by the so-called recruitment agents. Let's talk about the actual working conditions. So I know you spoke with a lot of migrant workers for this report, and you mentioned dangerous tasks and tasks outside of their contracts that workers have been made to do.

Can you just give us some examples of that? Well, I mean, the very dangerous jobs in agricultural shellfish industries, you can probably imagine what type of like physically demanding jobs that they may have to undergo, machines picking up fruits and processing seafood and so on but on top of that and there are other issues i discover such as excessive working hours it felt like we're machines you know we're just there to work work work work work work hard work hard. Don't question anything, you know. Just keep on doing that. Low pay or even less than minimum pay and threat and physical and sexual violence sometimes. And access to healthcare is extremely limited.

So what I've heard from various workers is that they are discouraged from seeking medical attention because employers have to pay the insurance premium, which they do not want to do. So oftentimes they have to work even if they are ill or injured and I found that quite appalling. Now I'm not necessarily saying that this is a widespread and systematic problem in all parts of Canada. I'm not saying that. I'm sure there are good employers also and I'm sure that many migrant workers are quite happy with the employers,

but the people that I met, unfortunately, are victimized in exploitation and abuse. Some days you're working, some days you're not. You don't pick and choose the days you want to work. That's not the way this works. In a video obtained by CTV News Toronto, a man can be seen shouting and swearing at workers over their refusal to work. And then you mentioned some of these encounters between employers and employees. I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit on that. Is there any one story of their work experience that stood out to you? Yes. I had a chance to speak to female migrant workers, and I also got emotional because they were telling me the stories about how their employers, some of them are Canadian, but some of them are supervisors, migrant workers themselves, making sexual advance, sexual harassment during the working hours. And that is not being properly checked.

And I find that quite, again, troubling. Yeah. I also wanted to talk about where these workers are living while they're here. So some employers who use the temporary foreign worker program are also required to have living arrangements for the workers. And what kind of conditions have you heard about workers living in? Yes. Again, my experience is limited to the people that I've spoken to directly and organizations that represent their interests. But some of the working conditions are quite horrible.

For example, in one instance, I heard that the house is staffed by up to 40 migrant workers, which is completely, again, unsafe and sanitary. And you have to share toilets or shower with so many people. And it's just that there's no sanitation. This video allegedly showing a cramped bunkhouse in Windsor was shared by advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers in 2020. One room, 12 people, barely any privacy. A previous video posted on social media shows a row of overflowing toilets

with shower curtains acting as doors. There's no gender sensitive arrangement either. Both male and female workers may have to live together. Sometimes that may be fine in certain cultures, but not in others. Particularly if you come from Asian and African countries, living with male workers is not necessarily an ideal condition. But all of these combined, I think it's also unsafe. Yeah. And then there's also a bit of a power imbalance that's created when the employer is controlling

workers' housing, right? Can you talk a bit about that? Absolutely. And according to some of the stories I've heard, there's some surveillance going on, making sure that they do not leave from their house after working hours. So they're prohibited. The freedom of movement is restricted in some cases.

And then when it comes to labor inspections, they are told to clean their houses so that their accommodation looks clean and spotless. So they are exploited in that regard as well. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

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That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. The provincial and federal governments, they're supposed to perform inspections of the conditions for foreign workers. So why aren't those inspections catching these problems? Yes, the government disputes this as well and claiming that they do conduct inspections. And I do believe that they do

conduct inspection. I don't know how many times, but what I've heard from workers themselves and other organizations is that many of these are pre-announced so that employers know exactly when they're coming so that they can prepare. So this is where they force workers to clean their places, clean the workplaces, or they are told to go away so that they are not interviewed by inspectors. And those who are interviewed are oftentimes the new newcomers so that they do not exactly know what's happening. So their answer will be more positive than negative. So these are some of the stories I've heard from workers directly. In theory, the workers can also file complaints with the provincial or federal government. But why might they not be able to?

And first and foremost, access to information is limited. And so that workers don't even know that they can complain. And that's a serious problem. So I think the provincial and federal governments must do more to inform all workers of avenues to complain in case of abuse and exploitation. And also language can be an issue as well. Oftentimes they have to report in English or French. It may be easy for Canadian nationals, but not for someone from South America, for example. And I do appreciate that some provincial authorities,

and they do provide information in Spanish and so on. But many of these information are on the website, which is not always accessible if you have to work in the rural and remote areas of Canada. I've heard that internet access is not as easy as the urban areas. So these are some of the technical difficulties that they face. And then they will be threatened with dismissal and deportation by the employer. So they're naturally reluctant. Right. So we talked about all the different ways that Canada is using migrant workers, and you highlighted how the contributions that they're making are vital to Canada's economy.

And there's a pretty consistent demand for the labor that they're providing. And to me, it makes sense that if we need someone's labor for most of the year, every year, we might let them officially live here. So given that, how easy is it for these workers to become permanent residents? Well, at current moments, the avenues are limited, according to the information I've received. But there's an avenue for if you are a caregiver or domestic workers, because of the historical issues from certain regions of the world, I think that Canada has decided to open the avenue for permanent residency for domestic workers, but that's not the case for other sectors. So it is, in most cases,

no, there's no chance. Why do you view this as a kind of discrimination, one that's sort of baked into our immigration system? Again, workers are racialized. So there is that element of perhaps like institutional racism and so on that may be preventing, you know, the governments or freely allowing workers to come and live for a long period of time. And so that's some of the things that have been raised by workers themselves and other entities. This deep-rooted racism that may exist in Canada and so on. So obviously in your role as special rapporteur, you're also looking at other places in the world where slavery or indentured servitude are happening. I'm wondering, where have you seen situations that are comparable to what workers are experiencing in Canada?

And the experience, for example, by indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, as well as migrant workers, are quite similar in terms of the exploitation, the power relationship they have between the employers and employees and so on. I thought that was quite comparable. And I also went to Sri Lanka, where they also have, for example, tea plantations. And the experience is much similar. tea plantations and the experience is much similar. The similar picture emerges of workers being exploited because of their kind of weaker status and position in their society. It's interesting, when I was reading the report, I was also struck by the similarities between the work contracts here and in Gulf countries that also use migrant workers like Qatar, which got a lot of attention recently because of the World Cup. Nepalese make up the highest numbers, but lowest paid migrant labourers in Qatar.

They're victims of a state-run sponsorship system which binds each worker to a single employer. They cannot leave their job or even the country without their employer's permission. And I was wondering, do you also see those similarities? Yes, yes, absolutely. And it's quite comparable to this. This is so-called a kafala system in the Middle East, so Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and so on. It's quite similar in that it's tied to a single employer.

So if they leave the employee, they become undocumented and lose their status. So that makes them vulnerable. Now, Canada does seem to have a better protection than those countries, but in terms of exploitation is quite the same. And this is also quite similar for other developed countries like United Kingdom, United States, European Union countries, where they also have so-called temporary foreign workers programs. And oftentimes they're tied to a single employer, and that leads to all sorts of problems. So I think, yes, Canada as a system is much similar to the Middle East

and the rest of the world where they have all these type of temporary workers programs. I also find it interesting, Canada has taken a number of steps to prevent importing goods from abroad that are a product of forced labor. They're banned as a part of the new NAFTA agreement. But based on what we've been talking about, is it fair to say that there are Canadian made goods that are also the products of forced labor? Potentially. I mean, if you're talking about agricultural products in Canada, I mean, they are made with forced labor through exploitation of migrant workers. So definitely, I would say yes. Yeah. So who in Canada needs to be held responsible for failing to make sure that workers' rights are respected? Well, the public authorities bear primary responsibility to protect the rights of all workers, whether they are Canadians or migrants. You should make that distinction. As long as they are within Canada, they should be entitled to the same rights and protection, labour law protection.

So I would say federal government as well as the provincial or territorial authorities, because many of the sectors that we are talking about under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program are regulated at the provincial level through the employment standards legislation, whereas the federal labor code only covers, for example, banking, finance, and transport, and so on. I wonder, Mr. Obokata, if you could just leave us with a message for Canadians. This is an issue that can be pretty easy to ignore because these workers are sometimes so removed from us and we may not realize how much difficult labor temporary workers are taking on, but we benefit from the goods and services that they're providing and how they boost our economy. So why is it important, you think, for Canadians to speak up for temporary workers? I think we're all same human beings and it would be wonderful to be able to

treat each other with respect and dignity that we all deserve. And I know that many Canadians are very welcoming of foreign nationals, including migrant workers. And I think that's a behavior I'd like to see more of. And in general, I think Canadian people are great, but it's a small number of employers who exploit these workers and then the reputation of the rest of the country goes quite bad. I think that's quite unfortunate. And I think my message to Canadian people is that if they suspect any instances of abuse and exploitation,

please do report, particularly because migrant workers often do not or cannot. So, you know, they could play a part in exposing all these rogue employers and hold them accountable for their appalling behavior. Okay, Mr. Obokata, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for your interest in this story. So before we go today, we reached out for a response from the office of Randy Boissoneau,

who's the Minister of Employment and Workforce Development. In a statement, his office said that it disagrees with aspects of the report, but it highlighted that it recently strengthened regulations protecting migrant workers, including prohibiting reprisals from employers, and just invested almost $50 million in a support program. It said the ministry is improving the quality of inspections. Finally, it highlighted paths to becoming permanent residents through an ongoing pilot program for agricultural workers and provincial nominee programs.

That's all for today. I'm Tamara Kendacker. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.