Report Card on the Protection of Migrant Workers to be presented to Premier of Ontario at Annual Patio Party

StarBuzz, Toronto-Who:  Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW)

What: Presenting Premier McGuinty with Report Card on the Province’s Progress in Protecting the Rights Migrant Workers

Where: Annual Summer Party Patio (260 Richmond St.West)

When: Wednesday August 15^th, 2012 (5 30pm to 6: 30 pm)

For Immediate Release

(Toronto)- Organizers with Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) will be presenting Premier Dalton McGuinty with a report card rating the effectiveness of the Provincial Liberals in enshrining the rights of migrant workers in Ontario. The report card, measuring access to labour regimes, enforcement of migrant workers' rights, and their access to adequate housing, healthcare and services such as Coroner's Inquests, will be presented to the Premier at the Annual Fundraising Patio party (260 Richmond St. West) at 6pm.

J4MW organizer Nicole Wall says "It has been a very difficult year for migrant workers: hundreds of them lost work and were sent home because of an early frost in the tender fruit and apple crops without any compensation; over a dozen workers were killed so far in workplace-related accidents, while many more have been injured or maimed because of working conditions. In the face of these challenges, we have seen an absence of legislation to ban exorbitant recruitment and placement fees; the refusal of the province to allow collective bargaining rights to agricultural workers; and their continued denial of calls for an inquest into the death of any migrant worker, despite ample evidence that doing so could provide much needed recommendations to prevent future tragedies. The province has been akin to its federal counterparts in shirking its responsibility to protect the rights of some of our society's most vulnerable."

Please join us as we present this report card to the Premier and the dozens of Liberal supporters who will gather tonight at this event. As J4MW organizer Nicole Wall suggests, "While Premier and his colleagues celebrate their accomplishments, we encourage them to remember that the locally grown fruits and vegetables that they will be enjoying over dinner were harvested and picked by thousands of migrant workers. Good things grow because of sweatshops in the fields across Ontario."