Migrant farmworkers ask Trudeau for Permanent Residency in Canada as they announce caravan to Ottawa

January 22, 2016

Migrant farmworkers ask Trudeau for Permanent Residency in Canada as they announce caravan to Ottawa

Justice is 50 years overdue, migrant farmworkers call for real change in 2016


OTTAWA - Migrant farmworker group Justice for Migrant Workers is launching ‘Harvesting Freedom’, a year-long campaign for immigration status upon arrival for migrant farmworkers to mark the 50th anniversary of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP).

A media briefing by migrant farmworkers will be held on January 25th at 10 am, in the Charles Lynch Room of Parliament Hill to launch the campaign which will culminate in a historic pilgrimage of migrant farm workers and allies on to the nation’s capital. Justice For Migrant Workers will be travelling from communities throughout southern and central Ontario and converging in Ottawa on October 2 and 3, 2016 to insist that justice is 50 years overdue. Several other actions and events will be organized throughout the year as a part of the Harvesting Freedom Campaign. Migrant farmworkers have grown and packaged food that feeds Canada for half a century but have been denied the right to lay their own roots and live in the country.


WHAT: Media Briefing to launch historic ‘Harvesting Freedom’ caravan to Ottawa

WHEN: 10 am, Monday, January 25, 2016.

WHERE: Charles Lynch Room, Centre Block of Parliament

WHO: Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a grassroots advocacy group based in Toronto, Vancouver, and Mexico City. Composed of migrant workers and allies, we fight for improved rights and protections for workers in Canada's various labour-migration programs including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.


BACKGROUND

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) is a labour-migration program that brings tens of thousands of Caribbean and Mexican workers annually to toil in fields across Canada. Migrant workers who arrive under this program face many challenges working in Canada, including: having work permits tied to a single employer; being under constant threat of deportation by employers, and are ineligible for permanent residency regardless of how many years they have worked in Canada.

The call for permanent immigration status on landing for migrant workers is the joint position of all major migrant worker groups in Canada, see www.migrantrights.ca <http://www.migrantrights.ca>


For more information contact:
Tzazna Miranda Leal
Phone: 647-618-5325
Email: harvestingfreedomcampaign@gmail.com
Website: www.migrantrights.ca

Chris Ramsaroop
Phone: 647 834 4932