Some of our recent reports and submissions:

• Mémoire à la Commission de l’économie et du travail de l’Assemblée nationale sur le projet de loi nº 59 (2021) – In October 2020, the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale introduced a new bill that would modify Quebec’s work, health and safety regime in order to end the discriminatory treatment of domestic workers, who have historically been excluded from the automatic protection extended to all other workers. However, the new bill incorporates an exclusion for domestic workers based on the number of hours worked. The ARHW submitted a brief arguing that the new exclusion perpetuates the discrimination and calling for the government to extend to domestic workers the same type of protection offered to all other workers.

• Joint Response to the CBSA’S Trafficking in Persons Questionnaire (2021) – As part  of  Canada’s  2019  National  Strategy  to  Combat  Human  Trafficking,  the  CBSA’s  Trafficking  in Persons  Analyst  Group sought the input of NGO’s in order to produce a baseline national and regional assessment of the scope of trafficking in persons in Canada. The ARHW, in partnership with Services Étoile Filante (SEF) submitted a brief, outlining how Canadian immigration law contributes to the trafficking of individuals who come to Canada as temporary foreign workers. The brief included a summary of a recent Quebec case that aptly illustrates how the trafficking of migrant workers happens through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

• 2019 Regulatory and Policy Developments in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (2019) – Important reforms to Canada’s temporary labour migration programs were implemented in 2019, and other possible changes were also announced. This is a broad overview of four significant policy changes at the federal level; two that have been implemented and two that are still under development.  Available in English only. 

• Migrant Care and Farm Workers, Canadian Law, and Unfree Labour (2018) – Synthesis contextualizing the launch of our Break the Chains legal action project

• Migrant Careworkers, Canadian Immigration Policies and Human Trafficking (2018) – Written submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights about the role played by Canadian immigration law in the human trafficking of migrant caregivers.

• Care Workers Voices for Landed Status and Fairness (2018) (Collective publication with Pinay, Caregivers’ Action Centre,Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights, Caregiver Connections, Education and Support Organization, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and Migrante Alberta)

• The Caregiver Program: Necessary reforms for the respect of migrant caregivers’ fundamental rights in Canada (2018) – Written submissions to IRCC by MigrantWorkersRights and the ARHW.

• Employer-tied Labour Migration vs. Migrant Workers’ Right not to be Held in Involuntary Servitude: Lessons from the UK, Israel and USA (2018) – Paper presented at the Migrants at Work legal conference at Queens University

Research and publications by our members:

• 2020 Le recrutement des travailleurs agricoles saisonniers en vertu du programme des travailleurs agricoles saisonniers : Étude des conditions de recrutement des travailleurs et travailleuses provenant du Mexique (Gabrielle Morneau El-Hajal)

• When governments create unfreedom: rehumanizing migrant domestic workers (Myriam Dumont-Robillard 2019)

• Les permis de travail lié à un employeur donné: Barrière à l’accès à la justice pour les travailleurs et travailleuses migrant.e.s (Marie-Èveline Touma 2019)

• Labour Migration Program Declared a “Modern Form of Slavery” under Constitutional Review: Employer‐Tying Policy Impact vs Mythical “Harm Reduction” Measures (Eugénie Depatie-Pelletier 2018)

• 2018 L’obligation de résidence chez l’employeur imposée aux travailleurs agricoles et domestiques migrants au Canada : une atteinte à leur droit constitutionnel à la liberté (Vathi, Lissia)

• 2015 Moving the Temporary Labour Migration Debate to the Fundamentals: Employer/Agent-Bonded Migrant Workers as Victims of State Violations of Human Rights (Eugénie Depatie-Pelletier)

• Accès à la justice pour les travailleuses domestiques migrantes : une illusion? (Myriam Dumont Robillard 2015)