by Johsa Manzanilla
It’s been in the papers and on the radio, and your parents and family have probably mentioned it in conversations. The “Three Amigos,” three fathers who came to Canada on temporary worker permits and are now facing deportation, have in the recent weeks come to be a public example of the unfairness migrant workers face everyday.
Every year, thousands of migrants, including Filipinos, come to the country, seeking employment and overall a better, more secure future. And every year, many of these individuals endure abuse, discrimination and unjust policies which limit the scope of and in some cases even completely disregard their basic human rights. In the case of the Three Amigos, the injustice, in the form of the inequitable policies and unfortunate circumstances, has led them to face deportation.
If you aren’t familiar with the facts of the case, other than the basic ones aforementioned, here they are. Antonio Laroya, Arnisito Gaviola and Ermie Zotomayor came to High Prairie, Alberta in 2007 under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) where they worked at a gas station as the breadwinners for their families home in the Philippines. They each paid a recruiter about $3000 in order to find and secure these minimum-wage service jobs. After a year and a half, they were laid off and forced to find work elsewhere. According to the TFWP, if for any particular reason a work contract is terminated, the employer no longer has responsibility to provide a return flight home for the workers or to find them another place of employment. As such, the three obtained new valid work permits and moved to another small Albertan town, Peace River, where they worked at a restaurant. When their employer could not sponsor their permanent residency application through the Alberta Provincial Nominee Program, they left in February 2010 for Thompson, Manitoba, where they took service jobs at a gas station. In this Northern Manitoba town, they willingly pumped gas at minus 45 degrees Celcius in order to continue sending money home. They also worked with the understanding that their employer would be submitting the appropriate paperwork for work permits, having repeatedly discussed the matter with him prior and during their time in Thompson.
He never followed through. And the three were handcuffed and put in jail on June 24. They have since spent thousands of dollars, their life savings, paying consultants. Their families in the Philippines continue to rely on their financial support.
The Three Amigos’ story is one that is close to home. Whether we, our grandparents, or our parents came here as landed immigrants or temporary workers who applied for permanent residency, each one of us is familiar of the extensive process it takes to legally, and socially, integrate into Canadian society. In addition to the systemic and systematic abuse and discrimination new migrants face, in this particular case, Laroya, Gaviola and Zotomayor fell victim to the trust they had placed in their employer. As a result, their trust was taken advantage of ; their penalty reveals a weakness in the TFWP that denotes an unfair bias towards workers.
One major aspect of this case which gets me particularly fired up is the fact that the penalty of the Three Amigos is ridiculously unequal, compared to that of their employer. While their employer, having violated Federal regulation, employing foreign workers without valid work permits –which, I must add, he had promised to them, is not allowed to make use of the TFWP for two years. And the Three Amigos? They face getting deported, losing the sole income for their family, and potentially negatively affecting their chances to immigrate or work in Canada. In other words, a significant amount of time of rectifying an injustice that wasn’t even their fault in the first place.
In no way, shape or form am I putting down the TFWP. The program is extremely beneficial for many Filipino migrants, providing them with jobs and opportunities to eventually settle in Canada. I am confident when I say that I believe Filipinos are very grateful of this country’s policies that help us get work here; however, this doesn’t mean that we accept that the existing policies are perfect. Because a worker must wait to obtain another work permit before beginning another job, they are less likely to complain about abuses they experience in their current job out of fear they will lose their income. And what happened to Laroya, Gaviola and Zotomayor could happen to someone like you, your mom or dad, or your Kuyas, Ates, Titos, or Titas.
We as youth should care about this issue. We need to send a message that we are united with the rest of the Filipino community and stand by all migrant workers. While it is important to acknowledge the merits of this country’s policies, there is always room for improvement, especially in the realm of rights and welfare of workers. Let’s take a stand together.
On Saturday, December 18th, 2010 a National Day of Action has been organized in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to create further awareness about the case of the three. The day of action coincides with International Migrants Day. In Winnipeg, a prayer and fasting vigil will be organized on the same day at the Philippine Canadian Centre of Manitoba on 737 Keewatin Avenue from 4 to 6PM
