The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has decided to hold its
own inquiry into the death of a migrant worker on an Ontario tobacco farm more
than 10 years ago.
The office of the province’s chief coronor has already
rejected calls for an inquiry.
This new hearing is expected to take five days in Toronto,
looking into the death of Ned Livingston Peart on a tobacco farm near
Brantford. He was crushed by machinery.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has been
pressing for decades for the right to represent farm workers, lobbied the
Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to take on this case.
The tribunals have been heavily criticized, especially by
Maclean’s magazine, for sticking their noses into affairs that are already
governed by legislation and other enforcement bodies.
They have typically been used by those with an axe to grind
who have been unable to persuade regulatory channels to do what they want.
What the union clearly wants is the right to organize migrant farm workers. It has not been successful using normal channels, so it's using ancient history to try to dredge up public outrage about conditions for migrant workers.
It's time to simply scrap these tribunals because they're expensive nuisance.
As for migrant workers, I do believe some reforms are necessary. The way the system works, it's far too convenient for employers to hire them rather than recruiting people already in Canada.
A couple of years ago, I befriended a group of refugees from Myanmar who were farmers. They would have loved to work on local farms, but needed contacts and transportation.
When I asked farmers why they don't hire these farmers, they said it's so much more convenient to have migrant workers living on the farm and able to start work at 7 a.m. And work until dusk.
And, I might observe, not able to leave for a better job. Their situation is very much like that of slaves.
Canada can and should do better. And our salt-of-the-earth, moral-fibre-of-the-nation farmers (or at least they like to think they are) ought to be leading the way.
