Want to know your rights as a migrant worker in Nova Scotia?
Join us for a presentation in English / Patois on Youtube Live. Hosted by the Migrant Worker Rights Working Group.
Global Afrikan Congress
Migrant workers’ rights still on backburner in Nova Scotia
Shavan is a father of three from Jamaica who’s been coming to Nova Scotia as a migrant farm worker for eight years. This past year, his bunkhouse was overrun with large rats. He says, “I know that’s not part of Canada’s standards.” Even during the heatwave over the summer, Shavan and other migrant workers were working 10-hour days in the blistering sun for minimum wage.
As we brace for the second wave of COVID-19, Stacey Gomez, Asaf Rashid, Jessica Tellez and Wanda Thomas call for uregnt action to end systemic racism faced by migrant workers.
PSA: Film Screening El Contrato + Q and A
PSA: Join us for a screening of the groundbreaking documentary “El Contrato” (The Contract), directed by Min Sook Lee. This film follows the story of Teodoro and other migrant workers who come from Mexico to work in tomato greenhouses in Leamington, Ontario. We’ll also hear the story of Shavan, a father of three from Jamaica who’s been coming to Nova Scotia as a migrant farm worker for 8 years (through a pre-recorded interview). This will be followed by Q & A discussion.
PSA: Petition calling for reparations for Afrikan/Black people in Canada
The DPAD Coalition has created a petition requesting the House of Commons and Canada formally recognize their active role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, its legacy and apologize to Black Canadians.
Status for all: The urgent case for racial justice in Canada’s immigration system
Stacey Gomez, Asaf Rashid, Jessica Tellez and Wanda Thomas explain how racist immigration policies keep migrant workers temporary. “In Nova Scotia, approximately 2000 migrant workers arrive each year through Temporary Foreign Worker Programs, to plant and harvest crops, and to process our agriculture, as well as seafood products. Abuse of migrant workers is rampant in Nova Scotia and across Canada. The recently released report Unheeded Warnings includes accounts from migrant workers in Nova Scotia about being coerced into speaking positively of their employers during a government inspection under threat of deportation. Other workers report having racist slurs used against them when they spoke out about poor conditions. We’ve also received reports of migrant workers being unlawfully prevented from leaving Nova Scotia farms.”
“There’s an awful lot of people out there that have been made aware of this in a way that they never have before” – On the staying power of the anti-policing protests
The current protests against police brutality and systemic racism are about more than individual misdeeds by racist cops. Calls for abolishing and defunding the police are entering the mainstream, indicating that people want the underlying systemic causes addressed. We talk with Errol Sharpe of Fernwood Publishing and Dr. Lynn Jones to understand what is new about the protests.
Statement on inclusive safety and health – Community responds to Nova Scotia declaration of COVID-19 state of emergency (updated)
Letter: The state of emergency recently declared in Nova Scotia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic raises many concerns, in particular that Black, Indigenous, and other racialized peoples, people living in poverty, and homeless, the mentally ill, and other vulnerable groups will not be disproportionately targeted.. We must embrace this crisis as an opportunity to develop and implement practices that produce inclusive and equitable public health and safety practices,
Angela Bowden: Let’s talk about reparations
Activist and poet Angela Bowden reflects on the urgent need to start talking about reparations to the Black community in Nova Scotia. “The evidence and framework for reparations is already embedded in the wisdom and trauma of our elders and our youth, we require all of you to get this job done,” she writes.
Community meeting explores the case for reparations to African Nova Scotians
Last night I attended an excellent panel discussion on the case for reparations to Black communities in Nova Scotia. It’s hard to write about these kinds of things, here is just some of what I heard.
Slavery is a crime against humanity, and there will be no impunity, Halifax audience told
A compelling lecture last Friday by David Comissiong, a progressive politician and diplomat from Barbados, suggested that the movement calling for slavery reparations is about much more than dollars and an apology from former slave trading countries.