“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man.” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016.

Terron Baptiste, a 30 year-old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, had his contract terminated at the farm he worked because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Although farm workers in Ontario are legally entitled to refuse unsafe work, Terron’s story illustrates the tremendous gap between migrant workers’ rights on paper and in practice.

Terron’s employer routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers in order to bully them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he and the others were routinely treated “worse than an animals”, being routinely punished for needing water or being injured, given 15-minute lunches and having wages stolen for unexplained reasons.

Photographs courtesy of Christopher Katsarov Luna. 

“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.

“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.

“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.

“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.

“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.