Document Details

2004-12-20

Justicia for Migrant Workers

Justice For Migrant Workers

(TORONTO)-The family of Ned Livingston Peart, a migrant worker killed on the job in August 2002, is demanding from the Chief Coroner of Ontario, a coroner's inquest into his death. Since the incident, members of the Peart family have attempted to clarify the circumstances of his workplace death but have had their requests for a coroner's inquest denied. A press conference has been called to demand justice.

DATE: Tuesday December 21, 2004 at 11:00 a.m.
WHO: Family members of the deceased Ned Livingstone Peart and Justicia for Migrant Workers
WHAT: Press Conference to Demand Coroner's Inquest
WHERE: Chief Coroner's Office 26 Grenville St. (1 Street North of College between Yonge and Bay Sts.) Toronto, Canada

Mr. Peart died when a tobacco kiln crushed him while he was on the job at a farm near Brantford, Ontario. The important answers that would be addressed by a coroner's inquest to prevent these types of workplace fatalities from happening has not occurred. Conditions need to improve for the lives of migrant farm workers in Ontario.

Ned was one of the 19,000 migrant workers who come to Canada from the Caribbean and Mexico each year to work in Canada's agricultural industry. Workers are subject to exploitative working and living conditions while in Canada, and are not protected by basic health and safety legislation. This means that agricultural workers in general and migrant farm workers in particular do not have basic rights that workers in other industries enjoy.

These include: the right to refuse dangerous working conditions, the right to know what dangerous chemicals/hazards are associated with working conditions and the right to form joint management/employee health and Safety committees. These basic rights are being denied to workers in the third most dangerous industry in Canada.

"We have a responsibility to demand justice for my brother" says Wilbert Peart brother of the deceased migrant worker, "we must ensure that his death was not in vain and that changes must occur to improve the conditions of migrant farm workers in Canada."

For more Information, please contact: info@justicia4migrantworkers.org

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  Migrant Worker's Family Demands Coroner's Inquest into Workplace Death (http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/press_new.htm)
  

Agriculture and horticulture workers

Documented cases of abuse

Policymakers, Journalists, Public awareness, Employers, agencies and their representatives, Unions, and NGOs/community groups/solidarity networks

Labour standards, Health and safety at work, Right to equality (national origin), and Right to equality (social status)

Ontario

English