GENEVA, SWITZERLAND–(Marketwire – Nov. 18, 2010) – The UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) has ruled that Canada and Ontario, through Ontario’s ban on farm unions, violate the human rights of the more than 100,000 migrant and domestic agriculture workers in that province. It follows a complaint filed in March 2009 by UFCW Canada — the country’s largest private-sector union and a leading advocate for farm workers’ rights for over two decades. The ILO is the United Nations agency responsible for formulating international labour standards including basic labour rights.

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Published On Tue Sep 21 2010, Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter, Toronto Star

A study of more than 600 Canadian court rulings on immigration and refugee appeals has found favourable outcomes aren’t always based on legal merit. It often depends on access to a good lawyer and the political leanings of the judge, says a paper by a joint Canadian and American research team. The rulings relate to would-be immigrants and refugees who appealed to the Federal Court of Canada after their claims were denied by immigration officials and refugee adjudicators. The findings are significant since immigration appeals can make up 85 per cent of the federal court’s caseload. And once denied by the court, a case is dismissed.

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By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun August 13, 2010 Comments

VANCOUVER — B.C. Labour Minister Murray Coell said Tuesday that conditions described by workers in a bush camp near Golden are “completely unacceptable.” And he said he will carefully review the results of two on-going investigations into Khaira Enterprises Ltd. which had a $280,000 B.C. government contract to clear brush in the area. The contract was suspended after 25 workers, many of them recent African immigrants, were found living in squalor late last month without proper accommodation, drinking water or bathing facilities. Now both WorkSafe B.C. and Employment Standards are investigating the workers’ claims of threats, racist comments, insufficient food, 15-hour work days and bounced pay cheques.

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By KIM BOLAN, Vancouver Sun August 10, 2010

VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has terminated a contract with a Surrey forestry company after 25 workers – many of them immigrants from the Congo – were found living in substandard conditions near Golden in late July. And Forest Ministry communications director Robert Pauliszyn said Monday Khaira Entreprises Ltd. will be banned from bidding on other contracts in the region for a year. Most of the 25 workers had travelled from eastern Canada for jobs clearing brush near Golden. They were living in a bush camp and complanied of a lack of food and inadequate facilities, a church worker in Golden told The Vancouver Sun.

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By Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service. November 24, 2009

Two-thirds of university-educated recent immigrants to Canada are underemployed in jobs requiring at most a college education or apprenticeship, according to a Statistics Canada report released Monday. Looking at Canada’s immigrant labour market in 2008, the report found that immigrant wages were lower while involuntary part-time work and temporary employment were more common than among Canadian-born workers. However, after 10 years in Canada, immigrant employment looks similar to that of their Canadian-born counterparts.

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