Van Crash at Hampstead

[sabotabby]

If you live anywhere near southern Ontario, you can't avoid the story of the van crash that killed eleven people near Stratford.

It was the kind of accident that isn't. The police are saying that the van driver, who ran a stop sign and shouldn't have had so many people in the vehicle, was at fault for the crash. I say that the real killer here is the vicious loophole in Canadian law that allows farmers to employ seasonal migrant labourers under conditions that Canadians with status wouldn't tolerate for a second. They are brought here—and have to pay for their trip—exposed to dangerous chemicals without proper protection or training, forced to work long hours for ridiculously low wages, and forbidden to organize or unionize. They live in dorms on the farms and their personal lives are up for scrutiny by the bosses. Here's a post about what it's like inside one of the vans. Protections enshrined in Canadian labour law do not apply to them. If they complain, they're blacklisted. They were put in the situation that got them killed by an unscrupulous agricultural lobby, a government that claims to be tough on immigration but is fully willing to exploit immigrants when it's to their own advantage, and a Canadian public that simply does not give a shit about the lives of migrant farmworkers.

The victims were mostly from Peru; one was from Nicaragua. Many were members of the same family. They came here because of the economic pressures we in the First World have brought to bear on Latin America, making a desperate choice to eke out the cruelest of livings.

Here are their names:

Jose Mercedes Valdiviezo-Taboada
Cesar Augusto Sanchez-Palacios
Enrique Arturo Leon
Corsino Jaramillo
Mario Abril
Oscar Compomanes-Corzo
Juan Castillo
Elvio Bravo-Suncion
Fernando Correa
David Armando Blancas Hernandez

Justicia 4 Migrant Workers has organized a day of action (I'm working so I can't go) and is calling for a coroner's inquest.

We owe it to their memories, and to their families, and to all other migrant labourers on Canadian farms to fight the ignorance and racism that perpetuates this exploitation.

And here's a song. This is not a new story.

Comments

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

That is horrible. We get things like that here too, but it hardly ever seems to be in the news unless there is a huge accident like when the Chinese workers were killed by the tide at Morecombe Bay, so I have no idea how much it happens or where, just vaguely that it does and is bad.

[sabotabby]

Really, the only time migrant labourers make the news is when they die in horrible ways. And usually not even then.

[firinel.livejournal.com]

Painfully aware of such things at the moment, I'm curious - do you know of any fundraising for the families to help defray the cost of funeral/burial/whatever?

[sabotabby]

The WSIB seems to be stepping up to the plate on this one, but if I hear anything else, I'll pass it on.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

In one of the articles I read yesterday, the owner of the farm pretty much shrugged and said, "I guess they have licences; they drive all the time." WHAT?!

[sabotabby]

Yeah. I pretty much want to counter-protest all the "Farmers Feed Cities" protests with "Exploited Migrant Labourers Feed Farmers" signs.

[sabotabby]

Why've I not heard the Billy Bragg version?

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Awful.

I sometimes wonder when compassion went out of fashion in the western world. But I guess when it comes to poor off-white immigrants it's never really been in fashion. Not sure whether things are getting better or worse on that score.

I was trying to work out which version of that song I have. But of course it's the Wolftones one you sent me.

[sabotabby]

I feel like there was a point at which it was less socially acceptable than it is now, but it might be that I just grew up in a left-liberal bubble.

I have three versions of this song. The original Woody Guthrie version is my favourite, but I couldn't find it on YouTube.