Ontario tribunal to hear racial discrimination case brought by Jamaican and Trinidadian farm workers
Published:Friday | November 19, 2021 | 2:40 PM
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is on Monday set to hear applications by Jamaican and Trinidadian farm workers claiming racial discrimination by the police in a sexual assault investigation.
The 54 migrant farm workers are being supported by the interest group Justicia 4 Migrant Workers.
It is being alleged that in October 2013, after a sexual assault occurred near the community of Bayham, Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police conducted a DNA sweep to collect samples from approximately 95 migrant farm workers employed in the region.
DNA samples were reportedly taken from Indo and Afro-Caribbean men from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
It is being claimed that the police, in the investigation, disregarded the detailed suspect description that it had obtained from the victim.
The applicants are alleging that the farm workers were targeted solely on the basis of their skin colour and their status as migrants.
Subsequently, 54 of the farm workers came together to jointly file human rights applications with the tribunal.
The applicants are arguing that the DNA sweep and the manner in which it was conducted by the police was racial discrimination that violated their rights under section 1 of Ontario's Human Rights Code.
Justicia 4 Migrant Workers says this is the first human rights case of its kind in Canada to examine allegations of systemic racial profiling and discrimination by the police towards migrant farm workers.
It is anticipated that it will expose not only the inherent vulnerabilities that workers are exposed to under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Programme, but how those vulnerabilities were exploited by the police in their execution of the 2013 DNA sweep, the organisation is contending.
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