I chose this title, Other Homes of the Underclass During Covid-19: Meat Processing Plants, Prisons and Reserves, because I had already started a thread on long-term care homes where seniors are exiled. All of them are characterized by being undervalued in society and pushed to live in conditions that seriously affect their health.
I had been thinking about doing this for a while, but life, other threads, and inertia kept from beginning this thread. The final impulse to start this was the news that 64 Cargill employees tested positive at its meat-packing plant near Montreal. So I will start there.
When the union for food inspectors complains that its members face dangerous conditions when entering these plants, you know the conditions for plant workers must be beyond wretched.
Cargill Ltd. is suspending operations at its meat-packing plant near Montreal after more than 10 per cent of its work force tested positive for COVID-19, marking the company’s second shutdown in Canada because of the novel coronavirus.
The company on Sunday said it will “temporarily idle” its facility at Chambly, Que., after 64 employees tested positive. The closing comes one week after the global agribusiness reopened its slaughterhouse in High River, Alta., the site of the country’s largest outbreak. The plant was closed for two weeks because nearly half of its 2,000 employees had tested positive for the virus.
Most of the workers at the High River facility have now recovered, and the company has ramped up health and safety measures there, including installing partitions between workers on the line. However, the Agriculture Union, which represents federal inspectors, is raising new concerns. It says that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is forcing its members to train for dangerous work in meat-packing facilities. In a statement late Sunday, the CFIA said that in order to protect the food supply and ensure employee safety, the agency is hiring new inspectors, bringing employees out of retirement, paying for additional overtime and reassigning staff to high-priority areas. When it comes to reassignment, the agency said it looks first for volunteers and, as a last resort, asks employees to take on slaughterhouse work. “Employees always have the right to refuse work if they have reasonable cause to believe there is danger,” the statement said. “There have been no cases of refusal to work to date." ...
Meat-processing plants in North America have emerged as COVID-19 hotspots. A recent Globe and Mail investigation into the Cargill outbreak in High River revealed an environment where employees, largely immigrants and temporary foreign workers, say they felt pressure, even incentivized, to continue working. They say this occurred despite testing positive for the illness, recently travelling abroad or having COVID-19 symptoms. The company did not start requiring employees to wear face masks until mid-April. ...
Cargill’s facilities in High River and Chambly are represented by the same union, but their experiences stand in contrast. In Chambly, the union said Cargill implemented physical distancing measures at the plant, provided personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves and visors to employees early in the pandemic, and responded to workers’ requests.
In High River, the union is seeking a stop-work order, arguing that the slaughterhouse remains unsafe after resuming operations on May 4 because protections are inadequate; the union has also filed an unfair labour-practice complaint with the provincial labour board, with a hearing slated for later this week.
In Alberta, workplace safety authorities have determined that Cargill’s High River plant failed to include worker representation during its health and safety investigation into the outbreak, according to a May 8 Occupational Health and Safety report obtained by The Globe. OHS gave Cargill an extension to May 18 to investigate the circumstances around COVID-19 infections that potentially stemmed from the plant, engage with the joint worksite health and safety committee, and resubmit its report.
A Cargill worker told The Globe this weekend that safety measures at the High River slaughterhouse have improved since the reopening last week, and that the company appears to be more responsive to health and safety concerns. The worker, whom The Globe is not identifying because of privacy concerns and fears of workplace reprisal, said employees still feel pressure to work.
Fabian Murphy, the national president of the Agriculture Union, which represents federal inspectors, is raising new concerns after the CFIA indicated that it intends to train inspectors who typically work in other sectors for reassignment in meat-packing plants. He said federal officials told him in a recent weekly call that if an inspector were to decline a reassignment for fear of contracting COVID-19, it could be considered an act of insubordination.
“Our folks are in these plants for eight hours a day, working shoulder to shoulder,” Mr. Murphy said in an interview Sunday, adding that it is not feasible for trainees to maintain proper physical distancing while shadowing trainers in noisy meat-packing plants. “The employer is not being realistic here or respecting the level of hazard that these employees are facing.”
Inspectors with concerns are free to file a grievance under their collective agreement, but are expected to accept their reassignment as they await a decision, Mr. Murphy said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cargill-shuts-down-montre...
Here's more on the failure of Cargill in its High River meat processing plant to work with the union to create safe working conditions and the failure of the Kenney Alberta government and Trudeau federal Liberal government to offer the workers any significant protection.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/disturbing-review-shows-cargill-failed-to...
Meanwhile Trudeaufederal help in the form of promised funding for worker protection may not arrive until the end of September, according to news reports, while federal and provincial governments at the same time are demanding that workers and federal inspectors work now. How many will die waiting for this?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/funds-to-fight-covid-19-in-meat-plants-m...
The urgency of getting PPE (personal protective equipment) to workers and food inspectors at meat processing plants hit home with the announcement of the third death of a worker at the High River Cargill plant just a few hours ago, while at the same the federal government says promised PPE and safety funding could arrive as late as September 30th.
While the name of the third worker to die has not been revealed yet, the names of the other workers suggest they were foreign born and/or ethnic minorities, something that is typical of the low pay, high risk work these people often face in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/3rd-covid-19-death-cargill-meat-p...
The following article from April 20 predicted exactly what has happened in North American meat processing plants, even though it is written for a close corporate ally of the meat processing industry, namely the grocery industry.
http://www.canadiangrocer.com/blog/covid-19-meat-packers-need-to-mitigat...
Here's more on the problems of Canada's and America's meat processing industries, its ".last Occupational Health and Safety assessment of the plant before its closure was conducted via cellphone video, ...increasing corporate concentration, industry deregulation and growing dependence on the low-waged labour force of racialized and often exploited workers, ... Throughout the food chain, extreme corporate concentration has seen the slice of the economic pie grow dramatically in these companies’ favour, ...most farmers and nearly all workers are on the losing end of this".
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-as-meat-plants-shut-down...
We are also facing a predictable crisis in Canadian prisons because of Covid-19. On April 24th, Canada's prison ombudsman, Ivan Zinger, warned "Measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country's prisons violate their human rights even if authorities are acting in the context of a public health emergency".
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-prison-ombudsman-calls-covid-isol...
Canada's prison ombudsman, Ivan Zinger, did visit a Canadian prison to help him write up his report on the violation of prisoners' human rights. As is so often the case, in the example of prison human rights violated in this article, the example is a First Nations person.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/canada-prison-conditions-covid-1...
The largest Covid-19 outbreak in prison has occurred at the Mission Institution near Mission BC where "133 inmates and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 by May 3rd. Across Canada, 290 federal inmates have been infected. Among correctional officers, 84 have tested positive and 41 remain active cases." Prison advocacy groups are demanding major reforms.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-rally-calls-for-safe...
First Nations in Canada and the United States are facing increased problems with the arrival of Covid-19 because poverty, poor living conditions and low levels of health care are a prescription for infectious disease disaster.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/covid-19-in-canada-indigenous-c...
By May 7th, there were " 164 confirmed cases on First Nations reserves", causing "First Nations, Inuit and Metis leaders are raising concern about a growing number of outbreaks of COVID-19 in Indigenous communities and say it’s getting harder to find the money and supplies to deal with them." As usual the Canadian government response to the crisis does involve indigenous input.
The Metis have largely been left out of the limited help the federal government has provided to other indigenous groups.
https://www.nsnews.com/first-nation-metis-inuit-leaders-concerned-about-...
Because of the many problems created by the poverty, poor living and health conditions found on most reserves, "some communities have issued lockdowns, erected checkpoints, and implemented curfews to curb the spread of the pandemic. In one First Nations community "Seventy-five per cent of our residents have compromised immune conditions. One case of COVID-19 will have such an impact that will be very difficult to overcome.""
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/curfew-checkpoint-first-nations-coron...
An example of how devastating Covid-19 could be to Canada's First Nations comes from the United States Navajo Nation, where the infection rate is among the highest in the world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-navajo-nation-crisis...
The Yellowhead Institute has released a report that points out the federal government's Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is not providing accurate data on how widespread Covid-19 is in indigenous communities, underestimating the infection and death rates by of indigenous people by only counting those living on reserves. The Yellowhead Institute found three times as many deaths as those reported by ISC.
https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/05/12/colonialism-of-the-curve-indi...
Several human rights organizations and a prisoner have filed a lawsuit against the federal attorney general for putting the health and safety of prison inmates at risk during Covid-19.
https://www.cp24.com/news/convicted-murderer-sues-feds-over-prison-condi...
Standoff Over Homeless Encampments
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/homeless-toronto-encampments-1.55...
"...Jason Philips says an eviction notice went up a few days ago on the tent where he lives, underneath the Gardner Expressway. He says the city offered him a spot in a shelter, which he refused because he feels safer outside during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a woman stood in front of a bulldozer that was set to take his tent down, Philips says the city offered him a hotel room - which he accepted."
'It is Shameful...'
https://twitter.com/TODropinNetwork/status/1261393095884750854
"It is shameful that this is where our advocacy lies right now. Not shameful from our end, but shameful because this is how little the city has done for people sleeping rough during the pandemic. The battle is so dire that the line in the sand is goddamned tents and encampments."
Some in Hogtown face more serious dilemmas than what to order in or what's on Netflix...
Prison rights groups hold ‘Where is Bill Blair’ marches in Ottawa and Toronto
A group that advocates for people incarcerated in Canada’s penitentiaries held “Where is Bill Blair” marches in Ottawa and Scarborough (Toronto) in the hopes of forcing the minister to take action to protect the inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blair, as minister of Public Safety, is responsible for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and the Parole Board.
“We looked for Minister Blair in Ottawa and Scarborough to answer questions about how he is handling the COVID-19 pandemic behind bars and to demand he take meaningful action to prevent COVID-19 transmission in federal penitentiaries,” said a statement from The Abolition Coalition which, according to the group, is made up of dozens of prison abolition groups across the country including the Toronto Prisoner’s Rights Group and the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project.
“We did not find him. Did you?”
Indigenous prisoners, which make up more than 30 per cent of Canada’s prison population, are particularly at risk, say advocates who are pushing for more protective measures including release.
According to the group, “343 federal prisoners and more than 123 Correctional Service Canada employees contracting the coronavirus,” said the statement. “Two federal prisoners have died from COVID-19 that we know of. He needs to be held to account and have to answer for his lack of compassion.”.....
Coronavirus cases skyrocket in South Dakota after governor dismisses quarantine measures
South Dakota’s coronavirus cases have begun to soar after its governor steadfastly refused to mandate a quarantine.
The number of confirmed cases in the state has risen from 129 to 988 since April 1 — when Gov. Kristi Noem criticized the “draconian measures” of social distancing to stop the spread of the virus in her state.
Noem had criticized the quarantine idea as “herd mentality, not leadership” during a news conference, adding, “South Dakota is not New York.”
The state is now home to one of the largest single clusters of coronavirus outbreaks, with 300 workers at a pork processing plant infected with the deadly bug, according to the Washington Post.
'We'd Just Rather Pay These Games'
https://twitter.com/DesmondCole/status/1261703379438493700
"this is a photo from yesterday's police action to evict people living under the gardiner. the man in the foreground appears to be a cop, and his job is to film people. you can see a cop on a horse in the back. it's not that we can't afford housing, we'd just rather pay these goons."
Many of the workers at meat processing plants are immigrants, who face increasing isolation and discrimination in their communities because of the hundreds of cases of Covid-19 the workers have endured through no fault of their own. Even Premier Kenney has spoken out about the discrimination, but he is the same guy who ordered the workers to go back to the plants despite 949 positive Covid-19 tests at just one Cargill plant, and the fear of 85% of the workers, according to their union, that this could lead to further infections and death.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/cargill-workers-many-of-them-new-to-cana...
"Majority of NYC homeless shelters have covid. Homeless people are forced to choose between shelters and public transit. NYC mayor opposes bill to use empty hotel rooms...Status quo is inhumane."
https://twitter.com/ZephyrTeachout/status/1262405540581343232
Here too.
"This Thread! Very pleased to see settlement just announced. City to enforce 2 metre distancing in shelters. Thanks to the work of Canadian Civil Liberties Association..."
https://twitter.com/nlstoronto/status/1262764325401440256
The Toll COVID-19 is Taking on Canada's Homeless
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/the-toll-covid-19-is-taking-on...
"Not only have these measures made it difficult for people who are homeless to connect with the community around them but measures have also made it hard to secure a space in existing shelters..."
"Indigenous peoples are 5% of the population. If they got at least 5% of the pandemic measures, that would be $4b,' said Pam Palmater, reacting to today's $75 m top-up for off-reserve Indigenous peoples (and vid)
https://twitter.com/CTV_PowerPlay/status/1263587167198011404
Premier Jason Kenney has started a Trumpian minimizing approach to Covid-19, as noted by President of Alberta Federation of Labour Gil McGowan and others, to justify the opening up of the Alberta economy by referring to Covid-19. In the legislature he also noted that “The average age of death from COVID in Alberta is 83, and I’ll remind the house that the average life expectancy in the province is 82, ... We cannot continue indefinitely to impair the social and economic as well as the mental health and physiological health of the broader population for potentially a year for an influenza that does not generally threaten life apart from the most elderly, the immunocompromised and those with co-morbidities.” (https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/braid-kenney-begins-to-normalize-covid...) The subtext of the message is the elderly don't count, so we shouldn't worry about this vunerable population as we consider opening up the economy.
Kenney's comments are also misleading in that a large portion of Covid-19 infections and some deaths have occurred at meat processing plants in Alberta, so in this case he is justifying opening up the economy while overlooking the major risk of infection and possibly death in one of the industries most impacted by Covid-19, in addition to the elderly and all the other most vunerable groups, such as First Nations and prisoners.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7000260/alberta-premier-jason-kenney-covid-19...
According to the Correctional Service of Canada's own data 360 of 1242 prisoners who have been tested for Covid-19 have tested positive, an infection rate of 29%. (https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/001/006/001006-1014-en.shtml)
It is well past time to let non-violent prisoners out of prison for their own safety.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/04/28/opinion/covid-19-should-stee...
HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS: OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR TORY
Dear Mayor Tory and Toronto City Council,
The pandemic has been utterly devastating to homeless communities in Toronto. Congregate living arrangements in packed shelters continue to leave thousands of homeless people exposed and the City has failed to open up sufficient housing units and hotel rooms. A lawsuit was necessary for the City to agree to implement basic physical distancing standards in all its respites and shelters – which still has yet to take place. People staying in the homeless shelter system contract COVID-19 at a rate of 19 times that of Toronto’s housed population.*
The situation has forced hundreds, likely well over a thousand people, to seek protection in tents outdoors. Despite this, you’ve reversed a prior moratorium and are now actively clearing homeless encampments.
We call on you to follow the advice of international health experts by immediately ending the dismantling of homeless encampments and open up vacant housing units or hotel rooms for homeless people. Moving forward, we further call on you not to worsen the already pre-COVID shelter crisis by implementing deadly austerity measures; rather, to have the foresight to recognize low income housing as an urgent health need and create more units.
The shelters are full. Homeless people and front-line workers experience the inability to access beds on a daily basis.
The City is using “health and safety” as an excuse to destroy the encampments but the United Nations and the Center for Disease Control both say it is unsafe to do this. The CDC says:
It outlines supports the City should be putting in place instead – like ensuring people have washroom access. The US National Law Centre on Homelessness and Poverty says:
preserving individuals’ ability to sleep in private tents instead of mass facilities through repealing—or at least pausing enforcement of—ordinances banning camping or sleeping in public would ensure people can more safely shelter in place, maintain social distancing, and reduce sleep deprivation. Encampments should be provided with preventative solutions—like mobile toilets, sanitation stations, and trash bins—to further reduce harm.
Instead, the City says it has a policy of guaranteeing people “indoor placement” for people who are evicted from the encampments. There are two serious problems with this claim. The first is that this has not been the case in several instances. The second is that these are often shelter or respite placements; they put people right back into the conditions they left.....
Canadians have farmed out tragedy to the migrant workers who provide our food
On May 30, Bonifacio Eugenio Romero, a 31-year-old Mexican migrant farm worker in Windsor-Essex County, became the first known temporary foreign farm labourer to die from COVID-19 in Canada. One week later, a second Mexican migrant in Windsor-Essex, 24-year-old Rogelio Munoz Santos, met the same fate.
Elsewhere in Ontario, hundreds of farm workers have tested positive for the virus and dozens have been hospitalized, with the biggest outbreak occurring at the Scotlynn Group farm in Norfolk County, where about three-quarters of the migrant work force has contracted the novel coronavirus.
Lamentably, for these men and women, risking their lives in the course of their work is nothing new. Instead, in the half-century in which they have laboured in Canada, seasonal farm workers from the Global South have found themselves in a permanent state of risk – of illness, injury and death – while governments and employers have demurred on enacting meaningful reforms. These latest tragic deaths and the swell of infections during the pandemic are part of a rotten, decades-old regime of racial and economic apartheid and amount to nothing less than the systemic sacrifice of human lives at the altar of profit.....
Vancouver Island hard hit as B.C. records highest-ever monthly fatal overdoses
British Columbia's health officer fought back tears as she addressed the province’s deadliest month ever for illicit drug overdoses at a COVID-19 briefing Thursday.
In May, 170 people died from overdoses, as the supply of street drugs continues to be increasingly toxic, the coroner’s office reported.
B.C. has recorded a total of 554 fatalities from illicit drugs in 2020 so far, and more than 100 deaths in each of the past three months.
“I cannot express how difficult this news has been to hear,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said, distressed, and adding that the province’s resources are stretched to the limit trying to address B.C.’s dual health emergencies.
“My thoughts and condolences go out to family and friends who have lost their loved ones, and I share your grief.”....
A homeless encampments sprang up here in the days after the City if Vancouver shut down the Oppenheimer Park homeless encampments over fears that COVID-19 could spread quickly through the community.
Arrests have begun at CRAB Park in Vancouver - about a half-dozen people arrested so far - dozens more to go:
With more than 1,000 migrant farm workers infected with Covid-19 from the terrible working and living conditions that they face in Ontario, these workers represent one of the most discriminated groups in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/migrant-farm-workers-demand-secto...
The plight of migrant Ontario farm workers has shown in a Covid-19 how these temporary foreign workers have not been abused in having to face poor working, living and pay conditions in Canada. However, there is another group of migrant workers besides this legally imported group, the undocumented workers, that are hardly ever talked about and even more abused. Canada just pretends that, unlike the United States, the problem doesn't exist in Canada because it pretends there are no undocumented workers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/leamington-migrant-workers-1.5633032
The failure of the Trudeau Liberal and provincial governments to deal with the problems faced by undocumented has resulted in protests triggered by the risks to these workers lives from Covid-19, but going well beyond this deadly problem to the many issues these workers and students face.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7138902/coronavirus-canada-migrant-workers-risk/
The death of a French bus driver beaten to death after asking passengers to wear a mask as required by law on public transportation and the death of a Detroit bus driver after complaining about a passenger coughing on him while not wearing a mask shows why 'essential workers' repeatedly see themselves as expendable workers by some in the public as well by the elite.
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200712-family-of-french-bus-driver-beaten...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/detroit-bus-driver-dies-coronavirus-tr...
Horrible how both public transportation drivers met their death. How demanding is it to just wear a freaking mask or to not purposely cough or sneeze on someone? People may be frustrated, angry or just plainly inconvenienced but the lack of consideration in these cases is just depressing. It's like all the people who refused or continue to refuse using condoms even though it prevents the spread of disease.
Tear Gas Deployed as Anti-Govt Protesters Clash With Police on Bastille Day (and vid)
https://on.rt.com/alqc
"The protesters accused President Emmanuel Macron's government of failing to provide sufficient aid to the nation's healthcare system amid the COVID-19 pandemic and denounced wage agreements signed just a day before as a fraud..."
Both the federal Liberal government and the Ontario PC government have failed to protect the lowest sector on Canada's economic ladder during the Covid-19 crisis, migrant farm workers. The following article shows the Trudeau Liberals failed to inspect housing for the workers adequately, in some cases accepting three year old inspections as proof good living conditions, or if there have been no inspections photos supposedly showing healthy living conditions for the workers during the Covid-19 crisis. They also failed to carry out any inspections during the first six weeks of migrant farmer worker season, allowing the virus to spread throughout the migrant population and creating the current largest health care problem in the country, with more than 1,000 migrant farm workers infected in the Windsor-Essex region alone.
Furthermore, despite 32 Covid-19 related complaints, not a single penalty has been applied to the agricultural sector, creating the belief that failing to comply with federal regulations will not even produce a wrist slap, let alone a penalty that changes negligent behaviour by employers.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-ottawas-enforcement-r...
I absolutely agree jerry. The real reason for the spikes have been revealed, however politicians are still trying to scare people that anything they want to do that people normally do is potentially lethal. And yet, health inspectors are going after minor infractions while the bigger workplaces are nearly never touched.
Prisoners are another group at the bottom of Canada's social pyramid that have suffered greatly from Covid-19 with provincial prisoners having five times the infection rate of the general population and federal prisoners even worse off with an infection rate nine times that of the general population. Prisoners still have little access to PPE or even soap and water. A total of 3,000 prisoners have been placed in isolation, which is highly detrimental to mental health, supposedly to help prevent Covid-19 spread. A prison guard even called the isolation 'torture'.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prisons-jails-inmates-covid-19-1.5652470
In a tragic irony facing Canada's migrant farm workers, many of them are facing food shortages during Covid-19 while they help feed Canadians.
https://rabble.ca/news/2020/07/migrant-agricultural-workers-experiencing...
Below is an url with a connection to the global crisis facing migrant workers with a webinair that " brought together farmworker advocates who have been organizing and working alongside farmworkers in Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, the United States and across boundaries. In these countries, while farm work has been deemed 'essential,' the lives of farmworkers have been treated as disposable; states and private companies have done very little to ensure the health and safety of these workers. In fact, there are reports that some farmworkers have been asked to waive their rights in case they contract the virus. The webinar explored local and international strategies that could be adopted to challenge the political, legal and economic structures that result in farmworkers’ subordination."
https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/needs-no-introduction/2020/07/migrant%C...
The vulnerability of migrant workers itself is pandemic. There has been a new spike in COVID-19 in Spain and lots of the hardest hit are migrant agricultural workers.
Not to mention also detrimental to the propsect of rehabilitation.
It's happened again, this time in San Francisco.
https://sfist.com/2020/07/24/muni-driver-attacked-with-bat-after-telling...
The death of a French bus driver beaten to death after asking passengers to wear a mask as required by law on public transportation and the death of a Detroit bus driver after complaining about a passenger coughing on him while not wearing a mask shows why 'essential workers' repeatedly see themselves as expendable workers by some in the public as well by the elite.
Ford is at it again. After apologizing on July 3rd "for 'misinformation' after he accused migrant workers of hiding from COVID-19 tests" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-doug-ford-says-he-was-wro...), he now wants to find out if he can force migrant workers to take a Covid-19 test.
Jenna Hennebry, associate professor with the International Migration Research Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University and co-founder of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group, points out that singling out a group to impose mandatory testing on "can breed xenophobia. It can create conditions where people don't understand that the risk isn't necessarily from those people — that, in fact, those people are at risk."
The Migrant Workers Alliance For Change demanded that Trudeau needs to take action on the crisis faced by migrant workers by giving them permanent immigration status to solve the crisis.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ford-mandatory-testing-constituti...
There is growing evidence of how systemic inequalites are increasing the risks faced by indigenous people in Canada during the Covid crisis despite the perception that overall Canada has done a good job in handling the problem amongst many people.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/09/systemic-inequities-increase-covid-1...
Facing increased risks from Covid-19 has also increased the mental strain that indigenous people have faced. according to a survey done by Stats Canada.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7096615/coronavirus-indigenous-mental-health-...
The Government's Weapon Against Reality Winner: COVID-19
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/64239-the-governments-we...
"COVID-19 is raging through the US prison systems at every level - federal - state, and local - at a rate far higher than in the general population. To make matters worse, many prisoners are forbidden from cleaning and disinfecting their cells. Whistleblower Marty Gottesfeld has written that as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit FCI Terre Haute, where he is being held, prison authorities stopped providing soap and shampoo and forbade prisoners from using detergent to clean their laundry. No explanation was given.
Similarly, NSA whistleblower Reality Winner reported to her family that she and other prisoners at the federal women's prison at Carswell, Texas, are not permitted to clean their cells. Five hundred women - nearly 50% of all prisoners at Carswell - have been infected. Winner is one of them..."
The whistleblower and journalist Julian Assange is being held in similarly bad, COVID-ridden conditions in London's Belmarsh prison. To anyone contemplating whistle-blowing on the public's behalf, the message is loud and clear - don't. There will be no solidarity and support for you from that public, who doesn't much care anyway, and you will be abandoned to the tender mercies of a malevolent state and probably forgotten. Incidentally, NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, found herself in this predicament after being compromised by her publisher The Intercept. Moreover, she is not the only one.
Trudeau today announced "that it will be investing $58.6 million to protect migrant farm workers from COVID-19 and to address outbreaks on farms." He also said the government will review the Temporary Foreign Worker program, admitting that:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/federal-government-59-million-mig...
This and previous governments have done nothing for decades to protect the working conditions of the migrant workers. Only when Covid-19 resulted in more than 1,000 migrant workers becoming infected in the Windsor-Essex region and freezing the regional economy and the Mexcian government threatened to cut off the future supply of migrant workers was any consideration given to what was happening to these workers. Furthermore, the Trudeau government is now further subsidizing the agricultural industry in the region with the $58.6 million, a large part of which is big agribusiness firms, rather than demanding they provide conditions even before the migrant worker season began. Notice the announcement contains no mention of an increase in wages for workers.
On TV, Trudeau also recommended that students take up these low wage, high hazard jobs following the shutdown of his We charity pet project that was to pay students less than minimum wage and only in 100 hour increments, so that if you worked 99 hours you got nothing or 199 hours you got the same amount as working for 100 hours etc. Obviously, the unsafe conditions that led to more than 1,ooo migrant workers being infected would be the same as those faced by students, because even if the $59 million were to be used to improve working conditions, that is not going to occur in the short time students have left before school starts. In other words, students are another group in Trudeau's underclass.
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