Harvesting freedom: The fight for migrant farm worker rights

Dignity and Joy

For our first-ever in-person recording of Dignity and Joy, migrant rights activist Gabriel Allahdua sits down in the studio with host Sheldomar Elliott to discuss migrant worker rights in the context of Canada’s deeply flawed approach to staffing the agriculture sector. Gabriel shares the ups and downs of his relationship with this country as an immigrant and former migrant agricultural worker. The conversation came fresh off the drop of a United Nations report denouncing Canada’s temporary foreign worker program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” and citing wage theft, excessive work hours and physical abuse among the conditions migrants are forced to endure. Gabriel makes clear that while this isn’t news to him and his comrades who have long been advocating against the abuses toward migrant workers, it is crucial that we continue increasing awareness and ending the silence around the harms caused by the agriculture industry in Canada, and demand better for the workers who make it possible to put food on our tables.

Thanks to the Digital Innovation Hub at the Toronto Public Library for providing the space to record this episode. Check out this great, FREE resource at select branches across the city!

Full episode transcripts available at foodshare.net/podcast