MIGRANT AGRICULTURAL WORKERS' RIGHTS

A Muse Bouche | Dominica Tang and Lindsay Chisholm

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Our previous article, “The Museum In My Kitchen: Trying WWI Recipes,” centered on the role of food in museums during a pandemic, specifically within the context of food shortages in Canada. We explained that the rise in food shortages in Canada were brought on in part by the travel ban that prevented many agricultural migrant workers from entering the country. Agricultural migrant workers have since begun work on farms again, but that does not mean our food industry should return to business as usual. Many Canadian farmers violated the basic rights of these workers, and continue to do so. This has only worsened during the pandemic. Although discussions of these human rights problems are only now becoming dinner table conversations in many Canadian homes, these issues are endemic to Canada’s colonial structures and have occurred for generations.

Fresh produce at a grocery store. Source. 

European settlers in Canada have been exploiting people of colour for cheap labour since the late 1800’s. According to the Royal BC’s Museum research project on “Ethnic Agricultural Labour,” the workers were Indigenous, Chinese, Japanese, Doukhobor, and Portuguese. Today the agricultural sector is heavily dependent on seasonal migrant workers, mostly from countries in the Caribbean and Mexico, through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The agricultural industry is labour intensive and requires highly skilled workers. In the bee keeping sector, for example, one must have the ability to identify the queen among tens of thousand of worker bees and detect mite infestation. A day’s work can consist of long hours, working with dangerous machinery, and under difficult climatic conditions. Workers must adhere to these strenuous working situations with inadequate pay. Living conditions on these properties are no better. They are often cramped, dirty, and receive little ventilation. The authors of “Canada jeopardizes migrant workers amid pandemic,” likens these conditions to an “open-air prison.” The sordid living and working conditions have become a hotbed for the rapid spread of the virus. Given the cramped conditions, workers cannot quarantine or work while social-distancing. Consequently, there are three reported deaths and hundreds of new COVID-19 cases springing up within these farms. Recently, the Nature Fresh farm in Ontario has shut down due to an outbreak of COVID-19. This situation truly speaks to the inadequacy of Canada's food infrastructure. Graeme McKay put it best in their editorial cartoon: "Covid grows in Ontario."



Currently, there are no formal structures in place, either in the programs that bring workers to the farms or in the federal government, that effectively hold these employers accountable for the mistreatment of their workers. Additionally, migrant workers have very few rights to express concern as they are not permanent residents. Their unstable and uncertain status with lack of ability to unionize, makes them vulnerable to exploitation by their employers. The work permit visa stipulates that migrant workers may only be affiliated with one employer per temporary residency contract term. Since they are tied to one employer, speaking out against them would risk their deportation.

The mistreatment and exploitation of migrant workers is inherently racist, and a violation of their human rights. Additionally, some Canadians felt emboldened by COVID-19 to express their racism more explicitly through racial profiling, barring these workers from entering shops, and surveilling them. To document the completion of the self-isolation period for individuals who have recently arrived in Canada, The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit created identification cards. However, the health unit only distributed the cards to migrant agricultural workers and have since discontinued the cards. The association of plague with racialized bodies is not a novel phenomenon in the discourses of white supremacy. Recall just earlier this year when many attacked Chinese people — both verbally and physically — and vilified their food, because some scientists speculated that COVID-19 originated from wet markets in Wuhan, China. Mainstream culture treats racialized bodies as if they are “a risk, rather than at risk.”

A banner for migrant workers rights at the May Day of Action rally. Source. 

Museums, such as the Canadian Museum of Human Rights and the Royal BC Museum, have researched and exhibited these issues to some extent, but museums are more connected to migrant workers than in the collection of migrant workers’ oral histories or in educating their publics on the injustices that these workers face. Many museums offer food programming or provide food services, making them part of the food supply chain where they likely benefit from the labour of migrant agricultural workers. As part of the food supply chain, and as cultural institutions, museums should practice ethical food consumption. Indeed, museums have discussed ethical food consumption practices in the past and there is already a responsible procurement policy published in A Sustainable Development Guide for Canada’s Museum Food.  However, museums, as cultural institutions who are beholden to their publics, ought to take a more active and outward stance. Jordan Fee opined, in “‘Where Does This Come From?’: Pondering Provenance In The Global Supply Chain,” that the food industry ought to take a page from museum’s collection policies on provenance, but perhaps there is mutual learning to be had. Food provenance can persuade consumers to stop purchasing from unethical businesses, such as the farmers who are guilty of exploiting and discriminating against migrant agricultural workers, and demand that guilty farmers be held accountable and regulations be put in place to ensure worker's rights are upheld. This approach is already taking place in the museum's collections as seen in the repatriation of stolen objects, but museums ought to dissolve that silo-mentality and investigate other parts of the museum as well. If only abandoning the practice of stealing artifacts is not good enough, then only halting business with farms that violate human rights is not sufficient either.

As individuals, what we collect and ingest must follow these same standards. This is a time of introspection. Are the foods you consume ethically sourced? How are you supporting migrant agricultural workers? Armando Perla's chapter "Representing Agricultural Migrant Workers in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights," in The Idea of a Human Rights Museum, underscores that while some farmers- typically those who own larger farms- are the ones violating the worker's basic rights, the Canadian "government's inactivity has allowed the perpetuation of a system that discriminates against and exploits foreign workers without any accountability." As such, we ought to hold our government accountable for their inaction and for upholding  these oppressive systems. You can sign the Migrant Rights Network’s petition to call on federal, provincial, and municipal leaders to provide migrant workers with health care, with worker’s protection, and to grant them permanent resident status.

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