Sexual harassment highlights Canada's temporary worker abuse

Migrant justice activist protest Canadian immigration policies and deportations in Toronto. | Photo: The Marxist Leninist Daily

A landmark human rights win in a sexual harassment case by two Mexican women who went to Canada as migrant workers has brought attention to systemic exploitation in the country's Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Canadian labor union UNIFOR reported Wednesday.

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled in favor of the two Mexican women complainants and found fish processing company Presteve Foods Limited guilty of discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment, and a “sexually poisoned work environment.”

Both women were repeatedly sexually harassed by their employer. One of the women was coerced into performing sexual acts under the threat of her work permit being revoked, which would result in her deportation back to Mexico.

One complainant received a settlement of about US$120,000 and the other about US$40,000 in the case.

"I want to tell all women that are in a similar situation, that they should not be silent and that there is justice and they should not just accept mistreatment or humiliation,” said one of the two complainants via UNIFOR, remaining anonymous with the initials O.P.T.

“It has been eight years to obtain justice but eight years and justice is finally here today.”

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program brings migrant workers to Canada on a short-term basis without pathways to permanent residence or citizenship. With immigration status tied to the worker's employer, rights groups have criticized the program for enabling exploitation through essentially holding workers hostage in a system akin to indentured labor.

"Workers in these programs are held hostage by a single employer. There is no way to leave. While we are satisfied the tribunal ordered financial compensation to two of the women who were assaulted and threatened with deportation, the case cries out for a systemic overhaul of the programs and protections for migrant workers," said Grace Vaccarelli of Human Rights Legal Support Center in a statement.

Rights groups have called for major changes to Canadian immigration policy to protect temporary foreign workers, including providing permanent immigration status to migrant laborers to end their precarity and vulnerability.

On April 1, 2015, an estimated 70,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada faced mass deportation as contracts expired. Unable to renew contracts for four years under federal immigration policy, those who chose to stay in Canada would be undocumented without access to basic services.

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