Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller rises during Question Period, in Ottawa on Oct. 31.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
A United Nations official who said that part of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program constitutes “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” is standing by his comments, saying some agricultural and low-wage workers are subjected to unacceptable conditions, including surveillance.
Tomoya Obokata, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, said in an interview he found some temporary migrants were working in appalling conditions in Canada, and could not escape their employers because their work permits tied them to a single employer.
The UN rapporteur produced an end-of-mission statement in September after his visit to Canada in the summer, saying that “the agricultural and low-wage streams of the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”
This finding was criticized by Conservative MPs on the immigration committee who questioned whether it reflected the true situation in Canada. They asked if the rapporteur had spoken to farmers employing temporary foreign workers.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller questioned whether the conditions the rapporteur had found, although reprehensible, could be characterized as slavery.
“I don’t know what descendants of former slaves would think of that characterization in relation to the abuse of their forefathers and foremothers,” Mr. Miller said at the November committee.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail from Britain, where he is a professor of international human-rights law at the University of York, Prof. Obokata said he was surprised by some of the conditions he discovered when he came to Canada in August and September. He called it “an eye-opening experience.”
“I didn’t realize that the problem was this serious particularly with regard to migrant labour,” he said. “It was heartbreaking to be speaking to migrant workers who have been exploited.”
Prof. Obokata said such abuse is not widespread but suggested that Canada bring an end to closed work permits that bind some categories of temporary migrant workers to a single employer, which he said makes them vulnerable to abuse. He said they may face deportation if they leave their job, which makes them wary of complaining about working conditions.
“Slavery is mainly about exercising control over another individual. They can’t escape. They have no other means to escape, so that’s a kind of state of slavery, and that may, indeed, occur in a Canadian context,” he said. “I’ve heard stories of constant surveillance, being stuck in a place that they’re prohibited from going out. Really, that is an exercise of control that in some instances may amount to slavery.”
He said he had met some female migrant workers in Canada who have turned to sex work to survive after leaving their jobs, because they can’t work elsewhere, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation and deportation if arrested.
“Migrants cannot provide sexual services, so they’re automatically deported. They don’t have an employer and they don’t have other ways to sustain themselves and if they get caught they can face law enforcement action, and I think that’s a vicious cycle,” he said.
The UN rapporteur said some migrants in low-wage jobs experience a form of “debt bondage” because they have to pay off large sums to agents who helped them find the jobs and correct documents to come to Canada.
He said it was not just temporary migrant workers in agriculture who were open to abuse but people doing domestic work, in health care, seafood processing, the hospitality industry and other low-wage sectors in Canada.
He said domestic servitude is difficult to detect because it takes place in people’s homes, but “some women and girls are vulnerable to servitude and that may amount to slavery. If they are being sexually abused, it may amount to sexual slavery also.”
While in Canada, he said he had met close to 100 workers and heard examples of some earning less than the minimum wage and not being consistently paid, a form of exploitation that “may amount to forced labour.”
Prof. Obokata told The Globe that since publishing his mission statement in September he had spoken with a Canadian UN representative about his findings. He said he is planning to gather more evidence, including from Canadian farmers employing foreign workers, before publishing his final report next year, and may water down some of the language depending on the information he receives.
“Depending on how that goes, I may change the tone of it,” he said, adding that he had not come under pressure from the Canadian government to change his wording.
“I am sure there are many good farmers who protect and respect the rights of workers,” he said. “I want to highlight some of the good things that they do as well because I don’t want to paint a picture where all the farmers are rogue and exploitative, which I don’t think is true.”
“It is unfortunate that because of the few bad apples that the reputation of the entire industry is in tatters,” he added.