CUPE supports campaigns of migrant justice in Canada

[Link] The Canadian Government has made a series of troubling announcements over the last few months that will have a significant impact on temporary foreign workers, international students and their families.

According to the Migrant Rights Network, "we are witnessing one of the most significant rollbacks of migrant rights and access in Canadian history". Despite recent promises of rights recognition and permanent resident status for migrant workers, student and undocumented people, the government announced permit caps, cuts and other changes that will do the opposite. You can find a list of changes here.

We agree with Migrante Canada who claim that while status is important for migrant workers, addressing low wages, decent housing and precarious working conditions are also pressing issues.

As a union representing many workers under these programs, we join the migrant justice movement in Canada to demand justice and respect for all migrant workers. We call on the Canadian government to reverse the changes, fix these exploitive programs, and stop blaming migrants for the government's policy failures.

Earlier this year the government started blaming international students for allegedly putting pressure on the housing market and on public services. Instead of blaming the real culprits - speculative investors and corporate landlords - the government chose racism and xenophobia, which lay the groundwork for changes to the temporary foreign worker program that unfairly punish the workers.

UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Prof. Tomoya Obokata, was in Canada last year and released a report stating our temporary foreign worker programs were a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery. He urged Canada to do more to protect workers and offer a clear pathway to permanent residency for all migrants. With these changes, Canada has chosen to ignore these critical recommendations.

CUPE supports the campaigns of migrant justice organizations such as the Canadian Council for Refugees who are calling for closed work permits to be replaced with unconditional open permits (not sector based permits) and barrier free pathways to permanent resident status for all migrant workers.

The current government is not listening to the demands of these critical communities and are instead pandering to the needs of employers and the aspirations of racists. It is time for us to double our efforts and to mobilize against these changes.

Send this petition to Trudeau before November 1^st Permanent Residency &Rights, Not Cuts

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