United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Apr 2011
UFCW Canada and the Agriculture Workers Alliance – two of the country’s leading migrant worker advocacy organizations – are applauding and defending the findings of two new reports that make a direct link between worker illness and the shortcomings of Canada’s migrant worker system.
Samantha Power / samantha@vueweekly.com. Apr. 20, 2011
While the Conservative party campaign boasts of the highest rates of immigration in 50 years, the facts aren’t quite supporting the claim, though that hasn’t stopped the Conservatives from launching an aggressive campaign attempting to secure the votes of Canada’s diverse ethnic communities. Conservatives are hoping to repeat some of the success of 2008 when Tory strategists targeted ethnic communities across Canada to capture new seats. According to a fundraising document accidentally revealed by Jason Kenney’s office in early March, Chinese voters in downtown Toronto neighbourhoods make up 40 percent of the vote and are increasingly voting Conservative, from 18 percent in 2004 to 25 percent in 2008. In BC, targeting South Asian communities almost doubled Conservative votes. Continued missteps by campaign strategists in the last few weeks are helping to bring attention to poor Conservative immigration policy in the last four years, however.
By ALISON AULD The Canadian Press Tue, Apr 19 – 4:54 AM
Many migrant farm workers who come to Canada every year are not given proper safety training, live in hot and cramped quarters, have no access to clean water and see their health suffer as a result, say two new research papers. Researchers found that many workers from Mexico, Jamaica, the Philippines and other countries develop ailments linked to the gruelling work they do on Canadian farms, largely in British Columbia and Ontario. The authors say in their papers, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, that workers are suffering from persistent back pain, eye and skin disorders and mental health problems due to a combination of factors.
Workers from Myanmar have been heading to Thailand’s rubber plantations in search of money to build a better future. But life in Thailand’s restive south, where most of Thailand’s rubber is produced, is hard and many migrants live in fear of being caught up in Thailand’s southern conflict. Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan reports from Surat Thani in southern Thailand.
Harsha Walia, Vancouver Sun, April 5 2011
Federal politicians have been attempting to gain sympathies with immigrant voters, while simultaneously spouting racist rhetoric. A Conservative party ad depicts the MV Sun Sea carrying 492 Tamil refugees as “criminals who target Canadian generosityâ€. Despite the fact that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney must be (or should be) versed in refugee law and the internationally upheld reality of irregular migration, he justified the ad: “Anyone who’s coming to Canada illegally is breaking our laws. Such statements are not only misleading, they are deliberately irresponsible in facilitating and feeding off a growing anti-migrant sentiment. An Ottawa Sun editorial, for example, parroted that the migrants are “queue-jumpers, scam artists, back-door home invaders, plus a terrorist or two…Truth is, none is even a bona fide refugeeâ€, and suggested firing on the ship: “Lock and load would be our approach.”
