“Canada’s Dirty Secret”: An Interview with Gabriel Allahdua about migrant farm workers’ pandemic experience

On 21 January 2022, Gabriel sat down with guest editor Edward Dunsworth for a conversation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers in Canada.

Gabriel Allahdua is a former migrant farm worker from Saint Lucia who participated in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program from 2012 to 2015. Now based in Toronto, he is an activist with the grassroots collective Justicia for Migrant Workers. On 21 January 2022, Gabriel sat down with guest editor Edward Dunsworth for a conversation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers in Canada.

“Migrant Farm Laborers,” Image by Gerry Dincher (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Edward Dunsworth (ED):

Thank you for speaking with us, Gabriel. To begin, could you tell us about your experience as a migrant farm worker in Canada? How did it match up with your expectations of what working in Canada would be like?

Gabriel Allahdua (GA):

Thanks for this opportunity. In my home country, St. Lucia, we believe in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. I was raised to believe that a good job takes time. In Canada, we give more than a fair day’s work, but we do not get a fair day’s pay. We work overtime but are not paid overtime. We are exempted from many labour standards. We do not get these things because there are legal tools that employers can use to prevent them. The program itself (the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, or SAWP) is employer-driven. There’s a power imbalance in favour of the employer. It is legal in Canada for employers to exploit workers. It is legal for employers to exploit the soil. It is legal for employers to exploit the environment. All of that is legal. In St. Lucia, we hardly hear those stories from Canada. Because “no news is good news”, the silence led us to believe that everything is okay in Canada, and that is not the truth. These challenges are a result of decisions at every level of government.

ED: 

When did you join the SAWP and why? Where did you work and what kind of operation did you work for?

GA: 

I first came to Canada in 2012. I was forced to come to Canada because Hurricane Tomas pulled the carpet out from under me. [Editor’s note: Hurricane Tomas hit St. Lucia in the fall of 2010 and wreaked havoc on the country and its economy, including devasting Gabriel’s largely agricultural-focused livelihood.] It brought me to the lowest point in my life. I was unemployed but I still had a family to support, so I was forced to come to Canada. I worked in a greenhouse in Leamington, Ontario, growing and harvesting tomatoes and organic sweet peppers for eight months of the year, from 2012 to 2015.

“Leamington, Ontario,” Image by Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0).

ED:

What has been the experience of migrant farmworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic? Has the pandemic worsened conditions for migrant farmworkers, or has it simply exposed pre-existing problems?

GA:

The pandemic has both exposed and worsened the situation. It has exposed Canada’s dirty secret. Up until recently, vulnerable migrant workers have been invisible, but the pandemic has forced mainstream media to place the camera on them. In fact, what it has taken activists twenty years to do, the pandemic has exposed in a couple of months.

During the pandemic, the borders were closed and for a time open only to permanent residents and citizens. But it didn’t take long for the prime minister to open borders for migrant workers. Migrant workers are treated differently at the border now. They run through customs. They’re now considered essential workers. Essential. That’s a transformation. But, aside from speeding up their entry into Canada, migrant farmer workers were not treated like essential workers. They never got hazard pay. They were not treated like other frontline workers.

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?,” Image by Shawn Harquail (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Migrant workers’ living and working conditions are both isolated and overcrowded. It is a recipe for Covid-19 to spread like wildfire. Many, many migrant farm workers have gotten sick, and some have died.[1]

In mid-January 2022, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit put a stop to migrant workers entering the county. Why? Because there were so many migrant workers in quarantine that there was no more space for them. That highlights the dire living and working conditions faced by migrant workers.

ED:

Can you tell us a bit about how migrant farmworkers’ housing conditions helped facilitate the spread of COVID-19?

GA:

In the bunkhouse where I lived, there were typically eight workers per room. Newly constructed bunkhouses typically have up to fourteen people per room. The kitchens are communal, and bathrooms are shared. None of this complies with social distancing protocol, which made it very easy for Covid-19 to spread among workers. The program is focused on profit and not on the health or welfare of workers.

ED:

What has been the response of various levels of government to the pandemic as it affects migrant farmworkers? What does this tell us about the value placed on migrant workers’ lives?

GA:

The response has been varied. Let me start with housing. In Norfolk County, the chief medical officer wanted to have three workers per bunkhouse. The farmers pushed back because they thought it was an inefficient use of bunkhouses. Municipal governments have not done much and have always acted in favour of the employers. Ontario has never provided us with the hazard pay that it provided to other frontline workers. That shows that migrant farmworkers are in a different class. Every level of government has been giving lip service, but not taking action. The fact that the federal government opened the border for migrant farm workers highlights how important migrant workers are to the economy. With high unemployment, I thought Canadians would work on the farms. But Canadians still do not want to do that work, because the conditions are neither attractive nor just. The federal government’s policies are geared towards putting food on Canadians’ tables, not creating the conditions that are attractive for workers. They do things that favour the profits of employers and not the well-being of workers.

ED: 

How has Covid-19 affected St. Lucia? What have been the ramifications for St. Lucian migrant workers?

GA:

St. Lucia depends heavily on tourism, which Covid-19 has affected significantly. The main sources of tourists to St. Lucia –  the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States –  all banned flights early in the pandemic. Hotel workers and taxi drivers were laid off as a result. Because of that, unemployed people could not pay their loans. Less income per household meant less money available for food, utilities, and so on. Mass unemployment around the world has also affected our exports.  COVID security measures, such as tests and quarantine, have both affected workers ability to travel and put them at risk of infection. The lack of flights meant that many had to rely on charter flights to travel. Most worryingly, the government of Jamaica required workers to sign a waiver declaring that they were traveling to Canada at their own risk. So, many workers decided not to travel, because they were not sure where they stood or what support they would receive from their own governments.

ED:

What has been the experience of migrant workers during their two-week quarantines after they arrive in Canada?

GA:

The common issues that they face revolve around food. Some farmers do provide quarantined workers with adequate food. But in many cases workers either aren’t given enough food, or they are provided with food that is culturally inappropriate. In one case, the only bread provided to workers for their fourteen-day quarantine was a single loaf, and the only meat provided was a single whole chicken. To top it off, the workers were charged exorbitant prices for this insufficient amount of food. Workers at hotels or government facilities also complained about the food.  They send me pictures of the breakfast given to them: a banana and a yogurt. That is not a West Indian breakfast. Other companies did not allow people to bring food to quarantined people. Another issue was pay, specifically quarantine pay. Workers were quarantined because there was an outbreak at work, or in their homes, or in their bunkhouses. It was not clear who would pay them and how much they would get paid.

ED:

Do you want to say anything about the migrant workers who have died of COVID?

GA:

When workers who come to Canada, not only are they risking their health, but they’re also risking their lives. The high number of infected workers shows that they are always in danger. Quite a few of the workers have died in suspicious circumstances and the cause of death has not always been confirmed. As with many issues surrounding migrant workers, we are left in the dark.

ED:

Yeah, there were a very unusual number of workers who died during their quarantine. Especially since in Ontario, migrant farmworkers were 10 times as likely as the general population to contract COVID-19. That’s a really staggering statistic that speaks to how much the living and working conditions contributed to the spread of the disease.

GA:

Exactly, and to top it all off the government has been relaxing requirements and making it easier for farmers to bring in workers.

ED:

Can you tell me a bit about the work that you’ve done with migrant workers during the pandemic, both as an activist and as a staff member with a service providing agency?

GA:

Let me start with the Trinidadians. In 2021, the borders in Trinidad were closed. This meant that, as winter approached, many Trinidadians couldn’t return home after they completed their seasons picking ginseng and tobacco. Because their contracts had ended, they were not entitled to EI. They were also not equipped to spend the winter in Canada. I worked with them to provide the clothes, food, and other supplies they needed to make it through the winter comfortably. My group, Justice for Migrant Workers, also pressured the government to get these workers an open work permit so they were not stranded in Canada without legal status.

I also worked with a group of twenty Barbadians in the Blue Mountain area. They were not farm workers, but instead were working in tourism. After the hotel closed due to Covid-19, they had no more wages coming in and were not receiving employment insurance. They were moved to smaller, cramped accommodations with malfunctioning heating. Despite these extraordinary circumstances, their employer was still charging the workers rent: over $100 a week, the same as they had been paying at their original lodging. I provided them with the same sorts of winter supplies as the Trinidadians.

An idyllic scene belies the hardships of migrant labourers. “Blue Mountain,” Image by Alvin Woon (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

I also received calls from workers (especially Jamaicans) who were either forbidden – or strongly discouraged – from leaving the farm property. This outrageous overreach of employer control meant that workers had difficulty sending money home, or buying necessary items (such as rubber boots). They also could not get culturally appropriate food. In a few cases, we were able to provide some of these items, but often we could not get onto the farm because of the strict oversight by employers.

I have also been working with TNO (The Neighbourhood Organization) as an outreach worker to get personal protective equipment (PPE) for migrant workers, helping workers to keep themselves safe. TNO is funded by the government through KAIROS. I have also been running workshops to educate workers on their rights in Canada, distributing materials from ESDC (Employment and Social Development Canada) on health and safety, who they could call if they weren’t paid properly, and if they needed help more generally.

ED:

Is there anything else you want to add?

GA:

Yes, two things. First, in Norfolk County, a migrant worker from Mexico, Gabriel Flores Flores, was fired and blacklisted for speaking up about his situation.[2] Second, workers have the right to go wherever they want and do whatever they like in their free time. But in reality, this is not the case on a lot of farms, where workers’ movement and activity is policed by their employers. The government knows about this yet fails to act. That inaction indicates where the power lies.


[1] On deaths and illnesses among migrant workers during the pandemic, see, for example, Edward Dunsworth, “Insecurity via Exclusion: Migrant Farm Workers in the Age of COVID-19,” ActiveHistory.ca,30 June 2021, Link to source.

[2] Link to source.