Farm hands deserve respect

[Article published at The Abbotsford Times.]

It's a litany that reads like a 19th century novel: field workers routinely exposed to pesticides and gases without appropriate gear or training; migrants who won't speak up about poor working and living conditions for fear of reprisals; seniors in the fields up to 20 hours a day during peak harvest with no overtime pay.

And this in British Columbia, where farm gate sales ring in at more than $2.5 billion annually, with a big chunk of that generated in the Fraser Valley.
The study released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is shocking.

It should have us hanging our heads in shame.

The story it tells suggests that we treat our farm workers like indentured servants at worst, as second-class citizens at best.

But this should come as no surprise. For years, farmworkers and their advocates have told us about tough and deteriorating conditions on the farm.

Not all farm operators treat their workers badly, and we recognize that.

However, while farm and migrant workers continue to work under unsafe and degrading conditions, the checks that could be protecting them have eroded.

The CCPA authors note that since 2001, farm inspection reports by WorkSafe BC dropped 62 per cent, prevention orders were down 73 per cent; safety standards are routinely ignored and immigrant workers are regularly transported by farm labour contractors in unsafe vans.

We're familiar with the tragic results of this kind of disregard: the horrific crash in March 2007 killed three local women and injured 14 others. The obvious changes that need to be made include reinstating regulations to protect this group and to give agencies real power to enforce the rules. We need to educate the farm operators, the workers and the public.

The irony is that the Fraser Valley's economy depends heavily on the labour and sweat of the 'lowly' farmhand. The workers are literally the backbone of an agricultural sector that provide us with some of the best and safest foods in the world.

It seems prudent then that we treat them with a little more respect and care.

Protect farm labourers: report
Study blasts conditions endured by workers
[Article published at The Abbotsford Times.]

Marcia Downham, The Times; with files from The Vancouver Sun

Seasonal farmworkers in B.C. are treated unfairly and are poorly protected compared to other workers in the province, according to a study released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The study, focusing on immigrants and temporary migrants in the Fraser Valley, revealed workers have to regularly deal with poor and sometimes dangerous working conditions, industry-wide violations of employment standards, of health and safety regulations, and a lack of enforcement by government agencies.

"They are extremely hard workers and cherished by farmers, yet they face lower standards of working conditions. There are regulations in place, but there is hardly any monitoring or enforcement of those regulations," said Gerardo Otero, a co-author of the report and professor of sociology with Simon Fraser University.
Farmers rely largely on immigrants from the Punjab, and today about 90 per cent of farmworkers in the valley are Indo-Canadian.

In B.C., the number of migrant Mexican workers has grown from 50 in 2004 to about 2,200 in 2007. To cope with a 'continuing shortage' of labour, B.C. berry growers are expecting to hire around 3,000 temporary foreign workers in 2008 - 40 per cent more than in 2007, said the study.

Otero and the study's other authors recommend policy changes be implemented within municipal, provincial, federal and Mexican governments to ensure B.C.'s agricultural workers are protected.

"We want their economic security enhanced and have the bar raised to the level of other workers in B.C.," said Otero, who has also done extensive research in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

"I know there is a big push by the Canadian government right now [for foreign workers] to address the labour shortage, and it is a program that can work if it is effectively managed," said Manpreet Grewal, manager of multicultural and immigrant services with Abbotsford Community Services.

Many workers do become permanent residents and become a large part of our society, said Grewal.

"I totally support any kind of effort to study and to ensure things run the way they are laid out to be," she said.

"These farmworkers need this and this type of study is a step in the right direction. It is important that we should all be treated equal as Canadian workers - hopefully farmworkers will have a strong voice sooner than later," said Ravi Dhindsa, full-time co-ordinator with the Abbotsford Agricultural Workers Alliance Support Centre.

Some of the study's key findings were that farmworkers lack secure income and generally earn an average of $8 per hour with no overtime pay; workers are extremely concerned about their safety and living conditions; they are routinely exposed to pesticides, gases and other chemicals without appropriate gear or training; health and safety standards are routinely violated; since 2001, inspection reports by WorkSafe BC in the agricultural sector dropped by 62 per cent, prevention orders went down by 73 per cent and not one participant interviewed reported being visited by WorkSafe BC; workers fear they will lose their jobs if they complain and immigrant farmworkers are regularly transported by farm labour contractors in vans that violate safety regulations.

B.C. Minister of Labour Olga Ilich finds violations for these workers disturbing, but said she's unsure of the study's accuracy, according to The Vancouver Sun.

She said the ministry is increasing inspections of farms and worker transportation vehicles.

Roberta Ellis, vice-president of WorkSafe BC, also told the Sun the report did not use WorkSafe BC's 2007 inspection report.

The report, part of the Economic Security Project, was done by the CCPA and SFU. It was co-published by Justicia for Migrant Workers, Progressive Intercultural Community Services and the B.C. Federation of Labour. The full report can be found at www.policyalternatives.ca

URGENT ACTION NEEDED!!! CONTACT MINISTERS FINLEY AND DAY!!!

On Friday, July 4, 2008, Maria Isabel Garcia Rivas lost her appeal for a temporary stay. Her and her family face imminent deportation to a life threatening situation.

The family has been in hiding the last two weeks, while supporters rally to have the deportation order against them removed.

We must act now as every day is crucial! Please see the contact information below and call Minister Stockwell Day on the National Days of Action!

Demand that he let the Garcias stay!

National Thursdays of Action – Phone/Fax/Email/Post
************** July 10, 17, 24, 31 and August 7 ************
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Demand that the Minister use his discretion under section 25
(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and suspend the removal order against the family, until a decision on both a) their Humanitarian application and b) a decision on the Judicial Review of their Pre Removal Risk Assessment is made.

Also, ask that the Minister look favourably upon their Humanitarian Application and grant them Permanent Status in Canada.
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To allow us to track petitions to the Minister, visit
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/garcias/ and fill out the form.

Please Cc emails to the Ministers to nooneisillegal@riseup.net and
copy faxes Attn: No One Is illegal at 416 633 9782

To print out a sample letter, visit,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3865888/Letter-for-Isabel-Garcia-and-Family

**********************************************************************
CONTACT INFORMATION
Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Phone: 613.995.1702
Fax: 613.995.1154
Email: day.s@parl.gc.ca
**********************************************************************
For Further Information
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/448804
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/fighting-to-stay/#clip64490
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080704/deportation_case_080704/20080704/?hub=TorontoNewHome
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/448804
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100646.htm
**********************************************************************
Financial support also needed:

Please also consider supporting this family by making a donation
towards their legal costs. Cheques can be made payable to Workers' Action Centre and sent to the address below. Please note on the bottom of the cheque that the funds are for the "Garcia Rivas" family. Please note that no tax receipts will be issued.

Workers Action Centre
720 Spadina Ave., Suite 223
Toronto, ON M5S 2T9

[Thanks to nahee for forwarding this info]

Justice for Barriere Lake! July 16-18

1. 3-Day Ottawa/Gatineau Picket
2. Barriere Lake Film Screening and Panel
3. Benefit Poetry Slam

Background

For twenty difficult years, the small Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, 3 hours north of Ottawa, has been struggling to hold the government to their word. In 1991, they signed a landmark resource co-management and sustainable development agreement with Canada and Quebec to protect Algonquin land uses, conserve the forest and wildlife, and give them a share in the resource revenue from the logging and hydro projects on their traditional territories. Corporations extract $100 million a year -- Barriere Lake receives nothing.

The Canadian government walked away from the agreement in 2001. To avoid fulfilling their obligations, the Federal Department of Indian Affairs has ousted the Customary Chief and Council and illegally appointed a minority faction as the leadership, in an attempt to scrap the agreement. Despite knowledge of his government's illegal actions, Minister of Transport Lawrence Cannon, Harper's Quebec lieutenant and MP in Barriere Lake's riding of Pontiac, has not ensured the federal government complies with the law.

• Despite several Quebec Hydro dams on their territory, the community is forced to use aging diesel generators to provide power.


• The housing crisis in the community has reached tragic proportions, with most living in moldy, often condemned houses. As many as 18 people live in one house.


• The Surete du Quebec has been used to forcibly impose and maintain the authority of the government-backed Chief and Council, supported by a community minority.


• Children have been prevented from speaking Algonquin in school by teachers hired by Third Party Management — a grim throwback to residential schools.

Join us in Ottawa and Gatineau, and support the community as it demands that the government respect the law and uphold their agreements.

More Background

Arthur Manuel's Submission to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 7th Session, New York, April 21 – May 2, 2008:
http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/04/canada-quebec-condemned-before-un.html

A message from the community of Barriere Lake:
http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/03/mission.html

Photo-essay, Occupying Cannon's office:
http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/search/label/action

MORE INFO: barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com
CONTACT: barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com

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3 DAY OTTAWA/GATINEAU PICKET in Solidarity with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake

NO COUPS D'ETAT in ALGONQUIN TERRITORY
HANDS OFF BARRIERE LAKE
HONOUR SIGNED AGREEMENTS

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WHERE: Lawrence Cannon's office at the Ministry of Transport
330 Sparks Street, OTTAWA, near the corner of Wellington and Kent
WHEN: Wednesday July 16 12:30pm-5pm and Thursday July 17 10:00am-5pm

WHERE: Department of Indian Affairs, Corner of Wellington and Montcalm in GATINEAU
WHEN: Friday, July 18 11:00am-5pm
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

* This is a peaceful demonstration in support of Barriere Lake community members who are in Ottawa to demand a meeting with their riding MP Lawrence Cannon, a leadership re-selection in accordance with their Customary Governance Code, which has been blatantly violated by the Federal Government, and that the Federal Government respect all signed agreements with the community.

* Bring banners, signs, placards, noise-makers...

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AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE STRUGGLE OF THE ALGONQUINS OF BARRIERE LAKE

*** A Film Screening and Panel Discussion *** Fund-raiser for Barriere Lake ***

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Wednesday July 16, 7pm
Club SAW, 67 Nicholas Street, Ottawa
Between Daly Ave and Laurier, in the basement of the Arts Court building
Pay What You Can/Suggested Donation: $5-10
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A Panel Discussion with:


Marylynn Poucachiche: Barriere Lake's Youth Representative to the Algonquin Nation Secretariat, she is involved in community education, as a teaching assistant and member of Barriere Lake's Educational Authority. A mother of five, she acts as a community spokesperson.

Michel Thusky: Band Manager from 1980 to 1996, he assists community members in their dealings with government agencies. He has been heavily involved with the Trilateral Agreement, coordinating land-use consultations and assisting with cultural aspects of the research. He
is a residential school survivor, and a community spokesperson.

Boyce Richardson: journalist, author and filmmaker. Since a visit to a reservation forty years ago, he has traveled through dozens of indigenous communities, written four books – including People of Terra Nullius: Betrayal and Rebirth in Aboriginal Canada and Strangers Devour the Land – and directed a half dozen films on indigenous affairs. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2002.


Film Screening: Blockade! Algonquins Defend the Forest (1990, 25 min)

Boyce Richardson's film offers a portrait of the Barriere Lake community as they launch a campaign to halt the industrial clear-cut logging that threatens their way of life, and gain a decisive say in the management of their traditional territories.

http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=18423

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POETRY SLAM!
Competitive spoken word in support of Barriere Lake Algonquins

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WHERE: Umi Cafe. 610 Somerset Street W at Percy
When: Friday, July 18, 7pm
Entrance: by donation
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For more information, closer to the date: http://www.umicafe.org/

Homeland Insecurity

This excellent article provides a lot of background to the ongoing situation involving Katenies. The article appeared in the Cultural Survival Quartery in 2006:

In 1842 the Mohawk community of Akwesasne was bisected by the U.S.-Canadian border, severing their communal lands into two equal Canadian and American sectors. Today Akwesasne is a kaleidoscope of cultural and political elements in layered complexity. Traditional practices and law of the Mohawk nation coexist with the philosophies, policies, and regulations of one state, two provinces, two federal governments, and their respective officials. The result is a shifting design of interactions and tensions. Since the hardening of the U.S. border after September 11, 2001, daily life on the reserve is even more difficult.

It’s a hectic lunch scene, and the steaming corn soup is in demand at the Bear’s Den Trading Post on the United States portion of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve. The soup is not as substantial as homemade—the ingredients are native; the chef is not—but the trading post’s abundant fare attracts the native peoples who work nearby, along with tourists to the reserve. In the next room fine jewelry by native artisans vies for space with toy plastic papooses and rubber tom toms. It’s a jumble of traditional and modern, authentic and contrived, much like life in Akwesasne.

Akwesasne is the nexus of a dizzying array of borders within borders and cultures within cultures. It is “the fire,” or capital, of the Mohawk Nation, which consists of eight communities spread across Quebec, Ontario, and New York. Akwesasne itself straddles all three. And the Mohawk Nation as a whole is part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, made up of the six nations of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. So residents of Akwesasne have to contend with regulations and government structures from their community, the Mohawk Nation, the confederacy, three states, and two countries.

Read the full story here.

Hard-working hands are lent a hand

Agricultural workers. 'This is about respect, dignity and quality of life'

[Original article is from canada.com]

Jan Ravensbergen
Montreal Gazette

Monday, June 23, 2008

Same as in years past, hundreds of Latin American migrants again this summer are working the rich, dark soil of our city's market-garden belt just south of Montreal Island.

Look carefully across the flat fields of produce that line Highways 209, 221 and other area roads. Far in the distance, you may see them, tiny figures silhouetted against the horizon.

But this summer, things are different.

Sure, those fertile fields are blessed as ever with the black earth on which Montrealers depend for locally grown lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions and other fresh, crisp vegetables. And the daily routine of sun, rain and toil for these migrants continues to feature an abundance of sweat and soil.

But now, these labourers have an extra place to turn should they run into any kind of problems - whether over working conditions, the treatment they receive from the big-farm operators that import and house them for five or six months of the year, or anything else.

Beginning at 3 p.m. yesterday, these workers now have a place of their own in St. Rémi de Napierville, about 30 kilometres south of Montreal.

It's a modest office that will also provide French-language lessons and help with income-tax forms.

The first such rural office for migrants established anywhere in Quebec, it replaces an old recreational vehicle that had been periodically driven into the area in recent summers.

Little wonder, then, that for these labourers yesterday was a time for quiet celebration.

Dozens of them, largely but not exclusively from Mexico and Guatemala, packed the sweltering, second-floor walkup next to the Canada Post office in downtown, 5,700-population St. Rémi to inaugurate the Patricia Pérez Migrant Worker Support Centre.

Pérez wasn't there, at least not in the flesh.

The life of the Montreal migrant-rights activist was cut short by cancer last fall, at age 52.

A plaque now hangs in the centre, both to embody her spirit and oversee the expansion of her work.

A modest photo of Pérez is accompanied by the Spanish phrase "Si, se puede!"

In case anyone hasn't been following the campaign of U.S. presidential aspirant Barack Obama, it's a soul-stirring slogan that means, in English, "Yes, we can!"

Several times during the dedication, Mario Delisle, his soul one of many in the room clearly stirred by the occasion, needed an extra few seconds to damp his tears.

"Patricia is the person," Delisle declared, "who taught me the meaning of commitment."

Delisle is a vice-president of Local 501 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is bankrolling the summer office.

The national union already operates seven similar offices in four other provinces, most notably in the market-garden belt of Southern Ontario .

Quebec "is 'home' to the second-largest temporary migrant population in Canada," Giselle Valarezo said in her detailed, 129-page master's thesis for Queen's University on the migrants of St. Rémi, completed last September.

The situation of migrants in this province "has not received the attention it warrants,"

Valarezo added: "Temporary migrant workers face a double disadvantage because they are employed in sectors that are defined as precarious and lack

access to citizenship rights."

The food-workers' union continues its fight to acquire collective-bargaining rights for these farmworkers, said Pierre Gingras, president of 11,000-member Local 501.

"This is the same as our battle with Wal-Mart," he said.

"This is about respect, dignity and quality of life.

"For everyone."

Binicio Leal Inzunza, 39, for instance.

He first met Pérez four summers ago, during a session where she explained his rights, during his initial sojourn in Canada.

He's been back every year since, between April and October.

"She was not allowed to hold her workshops (explaining migrant rights) at the farms," Leal Inzunza recalled, so instead Pérez chose "the sidewalk in front of Provigo and IGA."

He succinctly explained the economics behind his annual six-month stint at a big lettuce farm in the area, where he said he considers himself well-treated.

At home in Sinaloa, Mexico., he makes $7 a day when he harvests tomatoes or pumpkins. "Here, I make $8.52 an hour."

He is literally exiled into rural Quebec and away from his family half of every year.

How does that make him feel?

"Proud that I am taking care of my family," he responded, explaining that the $8,000 he can clear in an average harvest year goes a long, long way at home.

Although Leal Inzunza left middle school at age 16, he said, that won't be the fate of the five children he shares with his wife, Virginia Rivas Aguirre - Josué, 20, Vianey, 17, Alejandro, 13, Jazmín, 9, and Omar, 6.

They'll get a higher education, he vowed. "Their lives will be different."

"Patricia lives in my heart.

"She was part of our family."

On the Web: Report on the Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada, 2006-2007, at http://ufcw.ca/migrantreport

janr@thegazette.canwest.com

Solidarity with Katenies! "Canada" has no jurisdiction over Mohawk land.

This coming July 14, 2008, Mohawk grandmother and activist Katenies has again been ordered to appear before a judge in the Superior Court of Cornwall, Ontario. And again, Katenies will refuse to recognize the authority of the courts, and demand that Canadian officials prove they have jurisdiction over her as an Indigenous woman.

One month ago, on June 14, 2008, Katenies -- accompanied by Kahentinetha of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory – was targeted for arrest by Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) guards on an outstanding warrant for allegedly "running the border" in 2003, and offenses resulting from her refusal to appear in court and validate the colonial justice system.

Katenies has maintained since 2003 that border officials and the Canadian colonial courts have no jurisdiction over Kanion'ke:haka people or land. In January 2007, Katenies served court officials with a Motion to Dismiss, demanding that they establish jurisdiction, if any, over Mohawks and their ability to travel freely between "Canada" and the "United States".

[The Motion to Dismiss is linked here ]

During the CBSA attack, Katenies and Kahentinetha – who are both writers and contributors to Mohawk Nation News (MNN) – were treated brutally by border guards. Both were handcuffed and tackled to the ground. Katenies was jailed for three days. Kahentinetha suffered a heart attack and had to be hospitalized for several days.

[Reports about the CBSA attack, and background information, are linked here ]

As mainly non-native groups and collectives based in settler communities on or near Mohawk lands, we are publicly standing in support of Katenies, and demand all charges against her by the colonial courts be dropped. We also condemn the brutal attacks by the CBSA on both Katenies and Kahentinetha on June 14, 2008 and declare our solidarity with Indigenous struggles for land, freedom and self-determination.

Endorsed by:
Agitate (Ottawa)
Les Apatrides Anonymes (Montreal)
Block the Empire-Montreal
Kingston Indigenous Solidarity Network
No One Is Illegal-Kingston
No One Is Illegal-Montreal
No One Is Illegal-Ottawa
OPIRG-Carleton
OPIRG/GRIPO-Ottawa
La Otra Campaña (Montreal)
People's Global Action Bloc (Ottawa)
Solidarity Across Borders (Montreal)

[To endorse this statement, and to help efforts in support of Katenies, please contact indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com ]