The reality of Canada’s labour apartheid enters the world stage with the international broadcast of Migrant Dreams on Al Jazeera for May 2^nd.  Throughout the month of May, Al Jazeera will stream the documentary for free worldwide.

 

The documentary Migrant Dreams tears a rupture in the myth of ‘Canada the Good’.

Migrant Dreams foregrounds the voices of migrant workers who work in farms in Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The film opens a conversation about the relationship between labour, race, class, gender and settlement — otherwise known as immigration — to Canada viewed through the prism of the Canada’s migrant worker programs.

In the film, workers from Indonesia battle an exploitative recruiter who extorts them for money under the threat of deportation if they don’t pay up.  Other workers struggle with crowded substandard housing, unsafe exposures to pesticides and unsafe conditions.  Workers in Canada’s migrant program are told to pay up, shut up or get out.

Under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, thousands of racialized workers are employed under a system of low-wage indentured labour. Their visas are ‘tied’ to an employer, and they are vulnerable to abuse because of the control employers exert over working and living conditions in Canada. Workers deserve freedom from discrimination and exploitation.

Let’s use this international spotlight to pressure the Canadian government to take action on migrant worker justice. Workers in Canada are standing up, fighting back and resisting systemic oppression. Speaking out in the documentary is an act of courage.  We ask you to support these workers – stand in solidarity with their demands for fairness and justice.

Let’s send a strong message that this isn’t simply about one ‘bad apple’ employer abusing the program. The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is rotten to the core. And it’s time the Canadian government addressed the rights of low wage, racialized workers who are treated like disposable commodities.

Phone and/or email your Member of Parliament (find them by postal code), and CC j4mw.on@gmail.com. You can also tweet @JustinTrudeau, @AhmedDHussen and @PattyHajdu.

Ask them to support:

• Landed status on arrival for all migrant workers;
• Equal access to all social programs (including Employment Insurance)
• Ending the unilateral repatriations of migrant workers, and implementing an appeals process so migrant workers aren’t simply deported because an employer says so.
• Taking steps to end recruitment fees

Here’s a sample letter you can copy & paste into an email:

Dear [MP/Minister/Prime Minister],

Migrant Dreams, a documentary about Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, just launched its international premiere. I am shocked and angered by the systemic injustice depicted in this crucial documentary. Canada claims to be a global leader on human rights, but Migrant Dreams tells a very different story of what is occurring in Canadian fields, greenhouses and packing plants.

This isn’t a story about a few bad apples: the entire Temporary Foreign Worker Program is rotten to the core. To end these injustices, I urge you and your government to take steps immediately to support the following:

• Landed status on arrival for all migrant workers;
• Equal access to all social programs (including Employment Insurance)
• Ending the unilateral repatriations of migrant workers, and implementing an appeals process so migrant workers aren’t simply deported because an employer says so.
• Taking steps to end recruitment fees

Sincerely,

[Your name and mailing address, so they know you’re a real person]