Migrant farmworker advocates have alerted Prime Minister Mark Carney that they will be submitting a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee in December to mark International Migrant’s Day. The complaint will highlight what advocates say is the government’s failure to act on the preventable deaths of migrant farmworkers. 

The complaint will be filed by Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a grassroots political organization with more than 20 years of organizing experience. 

“What we’re seeing is that agricultural work, by design, is violent, dangerous, dehumanizing and it’s dirty,” Chris Ramsaroop, an longtime J4MW organizer, . “Structurally, we create workplaces such as agriculture where people’s lives – particularly racialized workers – are not valued. We want to shed a light on this.” 

The International Labour Organization (ILO) classifies agriculture work as one of the world’s most dangerous occupations. Workers are exposed to agrochemicals and can also sustain injuries when handling heavy machinery. The ILO estimates that 170,000 people working in agriculture die each year. 

These risks paired with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which has been called a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, and has left migrant agricultural workers especially vulnerable to injury and death. On top of the common risks associated with carrying out agricultural work, migrant farmworkers also deal with high levels of anxiety and

stress due to family separation, unsafe and abusive workplace and precarity of their low-wage employment and immigration status.

“Racism and white supremacy are central to the creation of these programs,” Ramsaroop said. “In the 60s, when it came to talking about labor shortages, politicians were championing freedom, dignity and respect. They  spoke about how they couldn’t have controlled, contained or contracted labor when it came time for white Europeans. We had no qualms whatsoever about creating these conditions, first for black workers from Jamaica and then for workers from across the world.” 

J4MW wrote in their letter to the Prime Minister’s office that they will continue to demand inquests in migrant farmworker deaths, call for investigations and fight for justice. 

“We refuse to accept a system where indentured servitude is not merely a legacy but a clear and proud practice across this country,” the organization wrote in their letter. 

The Prime Minister’s office received rabble.ca’s request for comment but was unable to respond before deadline. 

Ramsaroop said he has felt unimpressed with past responses from the government to J4MW’s complaints.

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“These are template responses and and there hasn’t been any real changes,” he said. “It’s not just that the government refuses to act. The government very much supports the agricultural industrial complex.” 

He said he hopes this complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee will push the government to finally take the action needed. 

“Historically, progressives have failed and have fallen to the tropes of white supremacy,” Ramsaroop added. “At this moment, while we’re calling for changes, it’s about ensuring that people have the ability to come as free and equal. Just because they’re from the Global South, just because they’re racialized, doesn’t mean they should be facing a certain differential and very racist set of exclusions.” 

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