“These workers live in conditions most Canadians would not accept, often with no access to phone or transportation,” she added. In July, 32 workers lost all of their possessions when the Brant County barn in which they lived burned down. This summer, a reporter for The Globe saw a farm workers’ dorm where 150 people slept in one open-air barracks.

A few years ago, I was terminated from my farm labourer job. My employer had discovered Foreign Workers and decided to lay me off, to be replaced by a fellow from Jamaica.

I've read a lot of articles since then about how nice it is for farmers to do this, and how it really is charitable of them, and there are no Canadians to take these jobs... what is really meant is that there are no Canadians who are willing to take the jobs under those working conditions.

Employers like staff from countries that haven't had a history of Worker's Rights movements, where expectations of safety and respect are not ingrained in the culture.