(Ottawa) A recently released international report says Canada’s temporary foreign worker program is a “breeding ground” for modern-day slavery.
The outcome document of a UN special rapporteur who visited Canada last year highlights that a power imbalance prevents workers from exercising their rights.
The status of workers depends on a closed work permit specific to an employer. If people are fired, they can be deported from Canada.
The report says workers are subject to a wide range of abuses and are not always aware of their rights. It points out that the government places much of the responsibility for informing workers of their rights on the employer, “despite the obvious conflict of interest.”
Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata lists various problems experienced by workers, such as wage theft, long working hours with limited breaks and insufficient personal protective equipment. The report also documents allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation, as well as physical, emotional and verbal abuse.
Mr. Obokata also found that workers struggled to access health care. In some cases, employers prevented people from seeking treatment, the report said, and some workers were denied necessary leave, encouraged to “take painkillers or home remedies instead,” or even fired.
The report notes that rules implemented in 2022 require employers to make a reasonable effort to provide workers with access to health care if they are sick or injured.
He also points out that many employers provide housing for their workers, but this can lead to overcrowding, such as 20 to 30 people sharing a single bathroom, he illustrates.
The report calls on Canada to “end labour migration agreements that foster exploitation by creating dependency situations that tie workers to their employers” and in which employers control housing, health care and the worker’s status.
The number of permits under the program increased by 88% between 2019 and 2023, although Ottawa recently indicated it planned to reduce the number of such workers in Canada.
Mathis Denis, a spokesperson for Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, said the government has increased fines for employers who fail to comply with the program. He added that the government issued 2.1 million fines for violating program rules in the last fiscal year, up from 1.54 million the year before.
He announced that the minister was considering increasing fees to fund “additional integrity and processing activities” and was seeking to introduce new regulations regarding employer eligibility.