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Protect our Workers – When will Ontario start protecting their agricultural workers?

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2 months ago

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BY MICHAEL THOMAS

This is probably round two or three of me calling out those Ontario farmers who hire overseas help from predominantly Caribbean islands, and the mistreatment and inhumane conditions that exist on their farms.

Before I dive into this article, I have a question for these Canadian: farmers, employers, or owners of these enterprises. How would you feel if your sons, or daughters were imported to the Caribbean, overworked like mules, underpaid, treated like hogs, and threatened with deportation, and, or loss of employment when they complain?

All this and more are what Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is accusing you of. Just who is Justice for Migrant Workers? Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is an all-volunteer collective comprising current and former workers, labour, community activists, and scholars who advocate for: fairness, dignity, and respect for agricultural workers.

In an open letter to Premier Doug Ford and David Piccini, Minister of Labour. Immigration, Training and Skills Development dated July 8th, 2024, (J4MW) made a plea for justice on behalf of the migrant workers. Here are some of what was said.

“2024 is once again becoming one of the hottest years on record. In the last few weeks alone, temperatures have soared, and Ontario has become a heat dome while tens of thousands of workers labour without heat protection. Farmworkers are 35 times more likely than the general public to die of heat exposure.”

In this open letter, J4MW reminded Ford and his government that, “The province should not wait for a tragedy to happen before it passes legislation to protect the foundation of Canada’s food system: farm workers.”

On June 24th, 2024, J4MW released a public statement imploring the provincial government to take immediate action to protect farm workers. J4MW released a similar statement in July of last year, to which the Ontario government responded with platitudes for farmworkers and a commitment to enacting heat regulations. Nearly one year on, no such laws have been enacted.

Does the Ford government need to be reminded that The Ontario Human Rights Commission has stated that access to cooling is a human rights issue and that people with disabilities, Black, and low-income community members are disproportionately affected when heat waves and other heat events occur? Denying migrant farmworkers, who are overwhelmingly racialized, who are more likely to be injured on the job, and who work long hours for little pay, is a form of environmental racism.

According to Justice for Migrant Workers, other jurisdictions have enacted protections, such as: Washington, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. The United States itself has proposed a national heat standard. When will Ontario become a trailblazer for workers’ protections, instead of implementing piecemeal standards that exclude agricultural workers?

A farm worker from Trinidad and Tobago named Johnathon is quoted as saying, “A lot of us are afraid to raise any attention, or speak out because we would be victimized, or not be requested back to work the following year in Canada if we did. A few days ago, while harvesting apples at approximately 2:00 pm, management told the bin operators to remove the bins of apples out of the fields because they were getting sunburned.”

Even the apples were treated better than Johnathon and his co-workers on these farms here in Ontario. “A lot of workers that are on farms work in conditions that a normal Canadian citizen will never do,” Johnathon said.

Here is a list of what the J4MW is asking Ford for:

  • Workers who work in the heat must be central and key decision makers in any proposed regulations regarding heat stress
  • Shutting down farms and paying workers in extreme crisis events
  • Paying workers when they are not employed as a result of climate-related issues such as: forest fires, extreme heat, major thunderstorms and heavy rain
  • Enacting heat stress protections for workers that are in the interest of workers
  • Strengthening anti-reprisal measures and proactive inspection
  • Implementing paid breaks and providing permanent paid sick days for agricultural workers
  • Providing sufficient shelters, functioning bathrooms and drinking water for workers at the expense of the employer
  • Providing first aid, hydration stations, and on-site medical support (RN or RPNs)
  • Permitting third party complaints at the Ontario Labour Relations Board
  • Ending agricultural exclusions under the Employment Standards Act
  • Incorporating race and gender analysis in both occupational health and safety and employment standards
  • Ensuring that agricultural harvesters are being paid holiday pay
  • Implementing clear trigger temperatures for extreme heat and humidity, including indoor temperatures (e.g., greenhouses)
  • Preventive measures to avoid overheating that include specific requirements for shade, acclimatization for new and returning workers, mandatory cool-down rest periods during high temperatures, along with access to preventive cool-down measures as needed
  • Extend OSHA protections to cover agricultural worker accommodations
  • Implement protections for both extreme heat and extreme cold temperatures

In fairness to the other side, we have decided to publish the PR and Vice President of FARMS response to the workers, and what he calls the media’s numerous misperceptions and inaccurate generalizations.

Here is his statement.

“Myth: Unemployed Canadians who want to work on fruit and vegetable farms are being denied jobs because growers are hiring temporary seasonal workers through SAWP.

Reality: SAWP was created in 1966 to help farmers respond to a shortage of agricultural labour and the program continues to serve the same role today. SAWP is a Canadians-first program, which means that seasonal labour is hired from participating countries only if agricultural operators cannot find domestic workers to fill vacancies.

Myth: Seasonal labour hired through SAWP are paid less than Canadian workers.

Reality: Seasonal workers hired through SAWP receive an hourly wage set by Human Resources & Skills Development Canada. The hourly rate is not less than the provincial minimum wage rate, or the local prevailing rate paid to Canadians doing the same job, whichever is greatest.

Myth: Seasonal workers hired through SAWP aren’t covered by the same employment rights as Canadian agricultural workers.

Reality: Workers hired through SAWP fall under the same employment rights as Canadians receive, such as WSIB, certain Employment Insurance benefits, occupational health and safety and provincial health care during their term of employment.

Myth: Housing for seasonal workers on agricultural operations is not subject to any guidelines.

Reality: Seasonal housing — provided at the expense of the employer — must be inspected annually by local Ministry of Health officials. Water is tested to ensure it meets safety standards and the housing unit is inspected to ensure it meets provincial guidelines. Employers are required to maintain seasonal housing units in good repair.”

Stephen Murdoch (Vice President, Public Relations)

I was not completely satisfied with the above statement, so I requested an interview with Mr. Ken Forth, a farmer, and President of FARMS (aka Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Service) and he was not happy with what was reported, he called them lies. I read to him the workers’ complaints, then gave him the floor, and these are his words. “So, they say, they very rarely identify a farm like saying this happened over here on this farm and by who, so who knows.”

When I mentioned to Johnathon the worker from Trinbago’s case, and the fear of reprisals, I could hear the displeasure in Forth’s tone as he replied, “I don’t know where that reprisal is coming from. Reprisals, reprisals, reprisals I hear that name all the time, I hear about abuse all the time from the advocacy groups, and those advocacy groups never set foot on a farm.”

“They talk about the heat, it is summer now, they talk about the cold, we are never going to win the argument with these people. The seasonal agricultural program has something we do not have, it has the nationals from those countries in our country looking after those workers.”

Forth went on to explain, “If they went to a farm and they saw all this widespread abuse, and all this nonsense, they would take the workers out. These advocacy groups just say anything that comes to their mind, I am here to tell you the truth.”

“Certain newspapers eat that stuff up like crazy, and they do not want to hear the rest of the story. They don’t want to hear the people that have worked on farms here for 30, 40, 50 years. I have been on this program for 55 years now.”

“Some politicians eat this thing up all for the sake of votes. Last year we had the Jamaican Minister come in here and check things out, and he found out that what was said in the press was not true,” FARMS president told me.

I asked Forth in his 55 years on the job, did he have to kick any bad farmers out? His answer was, “We don’t have that power, Service Canada has that power, and the ultimate power is the liaison service.”

He told me if he had to rate the program, he would give it a ten, because of all the regimes that have changed over the years in Canada and the Caribbean yet, the program is still in progress.

Ken Forth had a message for those advocates of farm workers and those he called uninformed media, “Be truthful with your accusations, pinpoint them, if there is an employer who is doing the wrong thing, identify him. Do not line up and shoot all the farmers.”

After showcasing both sides and wondering why these workers who complain keep going back to these farms, I came up with this; it is all good to request things from a government, but, if this government has a track record of not listening, just know that you are wasting your time.

We established long ago that these inhumane treatments are reserved for predominantly racialized folks. Around 30,000 – 40,000 migrant agricultural workers from: the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and other Global South regions work in Ontario farms each year, with southwestern Ontario employing most of these workers.  How can this be remedied? Here is my humble opinion.

Sometimes as needy folks, we must learn to deny our needs and say NO to an oppressor. This could mean not coming to work on a modern-day slave master’s farm in Ontario.

It is a supply-and-demand game, remember? When an oppressed people stop supplying the slave master with their blood and sweat, he or she will have to look for other means to meet the demands.

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In his new role as a reporter and Journalist, Michael can he be described in two words: brilliant, and relentless. Michael Thomas aka Redman was born in Grenada, and at an early age realized his love for music. He began his musical journey as a reggae performer with the street DJs and selectors. After he moved to Toronto in 1989, he started singing with the calypso tents, and in 2008, and 2009 he won the People’s Choice Award and the coveted title of Calypso Monarch. He has taken this same passion, and has begun to focus his attention on doing working within the community.

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Community News

Book Battle: Ontario University students struggling with textbook costs

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2 days ago

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September 17, 2024

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BY SIMONE J. SMITH

The cost of higher education is a common concern, and for university students in Ontario, the road to academic success is paved with challenges—one of the biggest being the high cost of textbooks.

As tuition fees continue to rise, many students find themselves battling yet another financial burden—the soaring prices of required course materials. “I spent nearly $800 on textbooks this semester alone, and that’s just for four courses. It’s insane. I have to choose between paying for books or groceries some weeks,” shared a student with me last week.

Her story isn’t unique. A recent study showed that nearly two-thirds of university students in Ontario struggle to afford their required books, but today’s students have options for saving money without compromising the quality of their post-secondary experience. Education should be about learning, not about how much money you can spend on books.

With most published course materials now delivered in digital formats, “textbooks” for university and college courses cost students much less than the heavy hardcover books of the past. Beyond that, innovative programs like Inclusive Access are designed specifically to reduce cost barriers that many students face when acquiring course materials.  These programs deliver course materials to students on, or before the first day of class at reduced prices.

“Inclusive Access programs are already in place on many campuses across Canada and students benefit and appreciate the measures their institutions are taking to help them secure the right course materials, right from the beginning of the semester at the best price,” says Leigh-Anne Graham, Senior Advisor with the Canadian Publishers’ Council.  “There is a growing body of evidence to support the efficacy and benefits for students and instructors participating in Inclusive Access programs, including: increased transparency about costs, increased access to valuable learning materials and better learning outcomes.”

The Canadian Publishers’ Council, as Canada’s main English-language book publishing trade association, represents the interests of publishing companies that publish books and other media for: elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, professional and reference markets, the retail and library sectors. Founded in 1910, its members employ more than 2,800 Canadians and collectively account for nearly three-quarters of all domestic sales of English-language books.

Materials in an Inclusive Access model are typically delivered through a learning management system (LMS) and students always have the choice to opt in or out.

Inclusive Access has saved students over $15 million over the last 10 years at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. Their Digital Textbook Access program offers students 40-55% discount relative to the legacy price of printed textbooks and discounted rates for equivalent digital access.  Course materials are conveniently available on the first day of class and students can access their resources anytime, anywhere.

However, this model was largely ignored by the Ontario provincial government in a recent directive issued on the costs of educational materials under the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act. The directive aims to ensure students and families can easily access information on costs of materials beyond tuition.

While the directive includes a requirement that information about additional features and benefits of digital textbooks also be provided, it falls short in ignoring programs like Inclusive Access that provide value for students and quality content and accessories that will enhance their education.

It’s time for a more comprehensive look at how student affordability is supported.

“In its directive, the government surfaced Open Educational Resources as the only way institutions can support affordability, and that simply is not the case,” says Ms. Graham. “It’s in the students’ best interests that the government not only provide information on programs like Inclusive Access, but also note that all course materials selected by instructors play an important role in supporting student success.”

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Trying to eat clean in an age of the dirty food industry

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2 days ago

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September 17, 2024

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BY MICHAEL THOMAS

“The oils, found in almost all processed foods, are heavily subsidized because agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the oils, are funded by the industries that produce them.”

The above quote is from RFK (aka Robert F Kennedy Jr., Chairman and Founder of CHD, aka the Children’s Health Defense) while speaking about the family’s health in today’s profit-driven world.

The type of oils in question here is known as seed oils, which are produced using a very high volume of heat and are less beneficial to the body in comparison to oils that are cold pressed like: avocado oil and olive oil, which provide several health benefits.

Another hazard to our health is the coloring in the foods we consume. Do you know that food colors like red no 40, yellow no. 5, and yellow no. 6 are petroleum-derived? These substances are banned in places like Europe but are approved for use by the North American consumer, and what is more troubling is that they are linked to psychiatric and autoimmune problems.

There is scientific evidence that shows how diets high in ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are associated with an increased risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, as well as cognitive wasting and mild cognitive impairment. These foods are often high in unhealthy fats, salt, added sugar, or artificial sweeteners, like sucralose and aspartame.

Avoiding the pitfalls of ill health due to faulty diets is no walk in the park. This is especially true with today’s hefty grocery bills, but one must remember that the body is an investment, and you cannot withdraw what you did not deposit.

That said, a lifestyle rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

In 2022 a prospective cohort study was published in Neurology and included the data of more than 700,000 people in the United Kingdom. After examining ultra-processed food consumption and various forms of dementia, the researchers found: “In the fully adjusted model, consumption of UPF was associated with higher risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia, respectively.”

“In addition, replacing 10% of UPF weight in diet with an equivalent proportion of unprocessed, or minimally processed foods was estimated to be associated with a 19% lower risk of dementia.”

The same researchers concluded, “Our findings highlight the contributory role of UPF consumption to the development of dementia and that coordinated global and national public health policies, and clinical guidelines are needed to displace consumption of UPFs with fresh, minimally processed, easily affordable food, to tackle the societal burden of dementia.”

So, the big question here is how we as consumers prevent all this dementia and other degenerative illnesses from taking us to the undertaker sooner rather than later.

In the opening of this article, we looked at the main culprits, namely the Food and Drug Administrations, and the industries that produced the food in every country that you the readers live in.

These are entities that need to be held accountable for giving the green light on importing and exporting such toxic goods, and the industries too should not be allowed to produce such fake foods.

Another major contributing factor to ill health universally is the pesticide that the industry is allowed to use on most of the fresh fruits and vegetables. If consumers do their homework and reject these heavily sprayed foods, this will send the folks behind this deadly game a financial message. “You spray and we keep away.”

“Despite the abundance of science linking exposure to pesticides with serious health issues, a potentially toxic cocktail of concerning chemicals continues to taint many of the non-organic fruits and vegetables eaten by consumers,” said Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., EWG toxicologist.

With this information in mind, there has never been a better time for us the people (aka consumers) to try and watch what we eat, know where our food is coming from, eat only organic food if you can, and apply pressure on the people in the food industry to do better.

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One would think that transparency would be mandatory when it had to do with people’s health

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2 days ago

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September 17, 2024

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Photo Credit: Raw Pixel

BY ADRIAN REECE

COVID-19 shook the world for years—quarantining countries and stripping people of their individual freedoms. Conspiracy theories were rampant during the lockdowns claiming that it restricted the rights and freedoms of most of the world. Misinformation and conflicting “truths” caused people to split over all information that came out during the course of the seemingly deadly virus.

Social media has for a while now been a source of information that is constantly updated and readily available. Many prominent and trustworthy news sources leverage social media to get information out to the public. Professionals of every discipline use social channels to provide information and updates on content relevant to their field to the general public in a less formal manner, while still maintaining 100% of the authority they hold in their professions. This content is subject to peer review. The content is public and a widely accepted practice that is almost encouraged to make correct information that much more accessible.

However, COVID-19 saw information disappear from social channels. Experts across every platform were silenced, banned, or their posts removed, hidden behind the guise of “giving out real information.” Doctors with years of experience, nurses who have been working in the healthcare field had their posts either shadow banned (the process of not letting others see their content), or outright deleted. Meta (the company that hosts Facebook and Instagram) was encouraged to censor information pertaining to the COVID-19 virus and vaccine.

Even experts who freely shared information on these platforms previously were being censored. Subject matter experts, with the intellectual authority to say what they want pertaining to a topic, had posts that were taken down, and professional reputations were in danger of being ruined due to the Covid information being spread.

The government seemed to want to push a particular narrative, and anything that didn’t align with that kind of information wasn’t accepted in the pipeline of allowable information. Measures like social distancing and masking were unnecessary. It made no sense as to why such measures were put in place when it can travel the same distance and space as the common cold. Also, the mortality rates of COVID-19 were widely unknown, many sources were relaying different information.

Healthcare professionals were talking about their experiences in hospitals with some doctors talking about how deadly it was while others were saying that the death rate was heavily exaggerated. We may never know the truth about what those rates really were, and what deaths were Covid related, or had other causes. Information about these sorts of things tends to come out generations later when people are no longer affected or interested.

Companies creating vaccines were not beyond reproach either, information related to the Covid vaccine was, and still is widely unknown to the general public. Companies wanted to release information regarding the contents of the vaccine in 75 years, or at the very least 10 pages at a time over a long duration.

One would think that transparency would be mandatory when it had to do with people’s health, but so much information was and still is hidden from the public eye that as more time goes by the truth will get more and more distorted until it is impossible to know what COVID-19 was really about and why we were forced to quarantine and take vaccinations for a brand new virus.

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