Agricultural workers in cannabis cultivation operations are often unaware of the risks involved if they work in an illegal business, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Often, [les travailleurs] you have no idea what they are doing is criminalaccording to Peter Donnelly, of POP.
Although the consumption and sale of marijuana is legal in Canada, production is controlled for commercial purposes.
Mr. Donnelly added that several recent raids have taken place on plantations in Essex County. However, he says, agricultural workers are almost always not knowing the consequences they may face.
Part of Mr. Donnelly’s role is to manage the Provincial Joint Cannabis Enforcement Team, which works with local police departments. His team is particularly focused on organized crime and its tentacles are reaching the cannabis market he said.
The people involved despite themselves are sometimes local farm workers, sometimes migrant workers, who believe they are working in a legitimate cannabis operation.
What they don’t know is that these people are beyond the scope of their license and they have it [plusieurs fermes], said Mr. Donnelly. He said he saw illegal businesses with about 40 cannabis planting sites.
Sometimes working conditions are difficult, according to Donnelly, and in most cases the workers are very cooperative because they do not know the situation.
So they openly tell the police who they work for, what exactly they are doing and how long they have been doing it.
Migrant workers were imprisoned
In November, Santiago Escobar, national representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of Canada, said he had received calls from migrant workers in such situations.
He said some of them left what they described as an abusive employer, sought another job through a temp agency and were put into an illegal operation given to them as legit.
These workers told us they were cheatedsaid Mr. Escobar. They are voiceless, abandoned, faced with many obstacles, and because of their precarious situation and lack of representation, they are easy targets for unscrupulous and criminal bosses.
He added that it can be overwhelming for migrant workers to be charged criminally when they think they are working legally, in addition to having to find financial resources for legal representation.
According to POPin most raids, workers inadvertently participating in an illegal cannabis cultivation operation face no prosecution.
If the person is a migrant worker, Julie Lafortune, spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told CBC News that she will not be criminally unacceptable as long as there is no condemnation.
A spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for admissibility screening and dismissal, said a temporary foreign worker who lost his job through no fault of his own would not be automatically repatriated.
In some cases, according to the spokesman ofCBSA, a migrant worker may be eligible for employment insurance. There are also government supports to help them find a new job or placement in Canada.
If the migrant worker wants to go home, it is usually at the expense of the employer who brought him there, it added.
A spokesman for Employment and Social Development Canada told the CBC that it does not condone any abuse or misuse of migrant workers under the temporary foreign worker program. The federal agency says a review process determines whether the job offer made to each migrant worker is genuine and legal.
Source: Radio-Canada