by Julián Gutiérrez Castaño

On Sunday 4th, September 2011, I represented the Aboriginal Justice Team-Christian Peacemaker Teams in the Pilgrimage to Freedom II organized by Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) in Southeastern Ontario.

Mrs. Rochelle Bush was the first speaker to address the group at the Salem Chapel of the British Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Catherines, ON.  As the historian of the Chapel, she has chronicled the way Afro-Americans crossed the border between the United States and Canada during the nineteenth century in search of the freedom that white European settlers had stolen from them.  Bush concluded her speech saying that the Salem Chapel used to be a refuge for Afro-Americans looking for freedom, and that the Church members would be glad if it became also a refuge for migrant workers struggling against labour conditions that bear a significant resemblance to slavery.

We stopped next at Niagara-on-the-Lake, where the passengers disembarked from the buses and marched downtown, chanting in support of the migrant workers and distributing leaflets that revealed the exploitative conditions that the workers have been enduring.  For example, workers can be fired for speaking with union representatives, challenging abusive behavior at the work place, or questioning their lack of access to social benefits, even though they have taxes withheld from their pay.  One of the workers told me that they have to cover their faces during the action to avoid being recognized and expelled from the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, and that he was using the only free day he has had during the last two weeks to participate in this demonstration.  He said that on most days he has to work “from sun to sun,”—twelve hours a day.  Most of his colleagues did not join the action because they were afraid of losing their jobs. 

Tourists and residents reacted in various ways to this public action.  Some people were sympathetic with the workers and read aloud the content of the leaflets, expressing their rejection of the abusive working and living conditions that the workers face.  Others reacted with indifference, refusing to take even a leaflet, and some responded with hatred, ignorance, and blatant racism.  A woman told me, “I don’t care about the migrant workers because I don’t have to work for a living.”  Two women on a bench advised me  “to put away that sh--t,” when I tried to hand them a leaflet.  One man said, “I don’t understand why the rural migrant workers are complaining when they are allowed to come to Canada and be paid as if they were Canadians.”  I did not even dare to approach a group of hulking white folks who looked as if they were ready to punch me in the face.  I am a Latin-American and I could be one of the rural migrant workers.  It was not hard to imagine the kind of treatment that the workers receive under the supervision of managers that look and act like these hostile people.   

Niagara-on-the-Lake is home to the most famous wineries in Southeastern Ontario, wineries that rely on the labor of migrant workers.  When we were entering the town, we observed some of the mansions located next to the vineyards.  I cringed, recalling that a group of workers told me mere minutes before that twenty-one of them had to live in a house of five rooms in the Leamington area.

This action was only one chapter of the Pilgrimage to Freedom 2011.  There will be two more bus tours on 25 September and 2 October, 2011.  Get more information about these actions at http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/.  They are a great opportunity to learn about the Underground Railroad of the past and the present situation of migrant workers in Southeastern Ontario.