A scathing report from the United Nations about Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. The UN calls it a breeding ground for contemporary slavery.
It allows Canadian employers to hire foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when there are no qualified Canadians to take them.
The United Nations reports say in 2018, Canada issued permits to 84,000 temporary foreign workers. By 2022, that number had grown to about 136,000 and will again reach new highs by the end of this year.
Most of the jobs are in agriculture and related industries.
The program, according to some, is rife with problems and puts the workers at a disadvantage. If a worker is fired, they could be deported. Some are not informed of their rights and others are too fearful of complaining about working conditions, fearing they could lose their jobs. There are also complaints about underpayment, wage theft, physical and verbal abuse, excessive hours, and lack of protective equipment.
Marco Luciano is the director of the Migrant Advisory organization, Migrante Alberta.
Luciano says it’s not the first time the temporary foreign workers program has been called a form of slavery.
"Once they come into Canada they can only work for one employer," said Luciano. "In cases of abuse, for example, they are not able to leave that employer or find a new employer, they are forced to stay in that employer. And you know, choosing, or balancing between food on the table, for the families back home or staying with an abusive employer is not really a humane choice."
Luciano says the stories and patterns of mistreatment are the same across Canada, and the temporary foreign workers program has created an environment where workers cannot speak up about violations of their rights.
"The cases that come to our organization are often non-payment of wages," said Luciano. "That’s a common violation. Workers will be trained for example, without getting paid for two weeks. And after those two weeks, they get terminated. There are also cases where wages are being clawed back. There are many complaints of sexual harassment as well. In order for these migrant workers to be promoted and have access to permanent residency, they're sexually harassed."
But Ottawa has taken exception to the UN report. Marc Miller is the Federal Immigration Minister. He says he objects to the characterization of ‘slavery’, but he acknowledges there are problems.
"I think to some extent, it’s quite offensive to treat people that have employees that have temporary foreign workers as slave owners," said Miller. "I have met a number of them. I don’t want to deny the underlying facts. There are abuses. I think the characterization is inflammatory. At the same time, I have a job to make sure that these abuses stop. Any person in Canada regardless of who they employ, needs to treat people with dignity and respect according to law. And that isn’t happening in some sectors."
A spokesman says the government has recently increased fines for companies that don’t provide appropriate working conditions to their foreign workers. Last year, there were more than 2,100 inspections resulting in fines of more than two million dollars. One company was also banned from the program because not enough effort was given to ensure the workplace was free of reprisal and physical, sexual, and financial abuses.
The UN’s special reporter on contemporary slavery is Tomoya Obokata. He’s a professor of international human rights law at the University of York, in Britain. His report came after a visit to Canada last year.