Thread by @RitikaGoelTO

I can not imagine ANY OTHER INDUSTRY where a worker is asked to continue to go to work while COVID positive (asymptomatic or not) - this is NOT because migrant workers are essential workers, but rather that their labour is essential, and their lives are not. #sdoh #COVID19

https://twitter.com/ShailRawalMD/status/1275944860344868871

We have had three deaths from #COVID19 of migrant workers in Ontario - all three are men from Mexico. One farm had almost 200 cases. Workers have described sharing a shower with up to 40 ppl, and being sent back to work after being swabbed. #sdoh #cdnimm cbc.ca/news/canada/lo…

31-year-old Bonifacio Eugenio Romero
24-year-old Rogelio Muñoz Santos
55-year-old Juan Lopez Chaparro

All three died of #COVID19 leaving their homes and their families coming to Canada. They have helped us put food on our tables. Did we help them do the same? #sdoh

Juan Lopez Chaparro had been coming to work on Canada's farms for a decade. His nephew continues to work in the same farm where his uncle contracted COVID and died. Neither of them had a path to permanent immigration status.

cbc.ca/news/canada/lo… #COVID19 #sdoh

How do we reconcile the ages of death of these men when in the general population the large majority of deaths are in people in their 70s and 80s?

These men were victims of their precarious immigration status and lack of rights, as a result. #sdoh #covid19

The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in its current form is unconscionable. Workers need permanent status on landing. Only then will they receive the workplace rights and dignity they deserve. This would not have happened if farms were staffed with citizens. #sdoh #COVID19

There are now 17 farms with outbreaks. Make no mistake - this program is another form of structural racism. The program consists almost entirely of Black and Latinx men who are forced to leave their families sometimes for decades on and off to work in brutal conditions. #covid19

We would never see such denial of dignity, rights and freedoms to migrants from Europe.

#sdoh #covid19

The Federal government is currently simultaneously saying they have strong protections for temporary foreign workers, and that the program needs a 'complete overhaul'. Which one is it? #COVID19 #sdoh

Mexico put a hold on its workers, but has agreed to let them keep coming. Remember the power differential between Canada and Mexico. When the govt talks about 'protecting Canadian interests' they mean ensuring cheap labour at the expense of these workers' lives. #COVID19 #sdoh

Pls share from @MWACCanada's- calling for reversal of decision to let #COVID19-positive workers work, issue stop-work orders and 21 paid sick days. "Ontario has responded to three migrant worker deaths by signing a death warrant for more migrant workers."

https://twitter.com/MWACCanada/status/1275884217696768001?s=19