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Articles by Chris Ramsaroop
From Fields to Kitchens, the Fight Against Extreme Heat Is a Fight for Workers’ Lives | Common Dreams
As temperatures across North America this summer, Jeremiah, a greenhouse worker in Ontario’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker program, stepped inside a plastic tunnel where the heat doubled the 32°C (89.6°F) outside. Within hours, workers fainted and vomited, while supervisors worried only about the plants. Another day, Jeremiah himself had to be carried out on a cart after collapsing.
Chris Ramsaroop
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OPINION | What I see today in Canada is the exact system of plantation labour that has ravaged the Caribbean | CBC Documentaries
Black Life: Untold Stories reframes the rich and complex histories of Black people in Canada, dispelling commonly accepted myths and celebrating the contributions of both famous and lesser-known individuals. The eight-part series spans more than 400 years with an eye toward contemporary issues, culture, politics, music, art and sports. This article is by migrant advocate Chris Ramsaroop, who is featured in the episode "Migrations." I came into organizing migrant workers by accident.
OPINION | What I see today in Canada is the exact system of plantation labour that has ravaged the Caribbean | CBC Documentaries
Documentaries·Opinion Chris Ramsaroop says when we go to a grocery store or farmers’ market and celebrate eating local, we perpetuate the ‘big lie’ about our farming industry. Chris Ramsaroop · CBC Docs · Posted: Nov 20, 2023 4:26 PM EST | Last Updated: November 20, 2023 Migrant worker Gabriel Allahdua in the 'Migrations' episode of Black Life: Untold Stories.
An unwanted guest at the Thanksgiving dinner table
As families gather this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving, you might have an unwanted guest join your holiday festivities. Who is this guest? A relatively unknown but highly toxic herbicide called Chlorthal-dimethyl (also known as DCPA or Dimethyl tetra chlorotere phthalate).
An unwanted guest at the Thanksgiving dinner table
As families gather this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving, you might have an unwanted guest join your holiday festivities. Who is this guest? A relatively unknown but highly toxic herbicide called Chlorthal-dimethyl (also known as DCPA or Dimethyl tetra chlorotere phthalate).
Season Three: Becoming Data
Whose values get embedded into the algorithms that increasingly govern our lives? How are these data infrastructures complicating what it means to be human?
Canada Is Pushing Climate Refugees Into Migrant Worker Programs
Above Photo: Wenting Li. Climate change is displacing millions of people worldwide. The Canadian government is expanding temporary foreign worker programs and funneling migrants back onto the front lines of the crisis. In 2017, wildfires in B.C. captured headlines around the world. Canadians from coast to coast donated generously to those whose homes and businesses were impacted.
Pushing climate refugees into migrant worker programs
This story originally appeared in Briarpatch on July 6, 2023. It is shared here with permission. In 2017, wildfires in B.C. captured headlines around the world. Canadians from coast to coast donated generously to those whose homes and businesses were impacted. But there were some agricultural workers whose precarity rendered them nearly invisible, even as they continued to labour in the heat and the smoke.
Remembering Carol Wall
Published:Saturday | June 24, 2023 | 12:18 AMChris Ramsaroop/Contributor The labour movement lost a leading trailblazer, educator and activist with the passing of comrade Carol Wall. A lifelong labour activist,Wall began her union activity while employed at the Toronto Star. From there, she rose up the ranks to be elected to the position of vice-president representing workers of colour at Canada’s national federation of unions, the Canadian Labour Congress.
Discipline and resistance in southwestern Ontario: Securitization of migrant workers and their acts of defiance
1 INTRODUCTION In times of crisis, identity and nationhood work together to define who belongs to a community and those demarcated as not (Sharma, 2020). In Canada, numerous policies and practices were used by industry, state and civil society to demarcate and reaffirm those who are Canadian and those who will permanently be foreign.
Uprooting the racism in our ranks
From our earliest childhood memories, each of us can recall times when we endured racial taunts, harassment and, in some instances, overt racial violence. Whether it was from seemingly benign children’s rhymes or the proverbial “Go back to where you come from,” our lives have been, and continue to be, etched with the idea that we are perpetually foreign. As we grew older, we saw that the overt racism we faced went beyond the surface.
Opinion | Migrant workers make our agricultural industry viable. Why do we treat them as disposable?
This March 21, injured migrant workers are demanding to be treated with fairness and respect. It’s time the WSIB heard their calls for justice. By Maryth Yachnin Chris RamsaroopContributors Mon., March 21, 2022timer3 min. read We write today, the International Day for the Elimination of Racism, to demand justice for migrant farm workers who are hurt or sickened on the job. What the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) does to injured migrant workers is deplorable and discriminatory.
Opinion | Migrant workers make our agricultural industry viable. Why do we treat them as disposable?
This March 21, injured migrant workers are demanding to be treated with fairness and respect. It’s time the WSIB heard their calls for justice. By Maryth Yachnin Chris RamsaroopContributors Mon., March 21, 2022timer3 min. read We write today, the International Day for the Elimination of Racism, to demand justice for migrant farm workers who are hurt or sickened on the job. What the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) does to injured migrant workers is deplorable and discriminatory.
Opinion | Time for justice for migrant workers
Migrant workers get unequal health care, fewer return to work services, and less compensation than other agricultural workers, writes Maryth Yachnin and Chris Ramsaroop By Maryth Yachnin Chris Ramsaroop Sun., March 20, 2022timer3 min. read On March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racism, we write to demand justice for migrant farm workers who are hurt or sickened on the job.
Report details gov’t’s failure to protect C’bean farm workers during pandemic
Early in December, Canada’s Office of the Auditor General (OAG) released its report into the conditions that migrant agricultural workers face during this pandemic. The report was nothing short of jaw-dropping, validating what migrant farm workers from the Caribbean have been saying right from the start of the pandemic.
Opinion | Who is listening to migrant farm workers?
By Chris Ramsaroop Tue., Sept. 28, 2021timer4 min. read Dr. Matt Strauss is no doubt a controversial figure. Shooting from the hip on Twitter, much of the medical community is an uproar over his many tweets. Whether he remains acting medical officer of health or not in Haldimand-Norfolk, the accompanying furor should not be limited to his interim appointment but rather to his hiring process of the local public health board.
Episode 2: Data & Labor
How has data been used to organize labor, and how do we make ourselves visible to data-centric systems? Featuring: Shaka McGlotten & Chris Ramsaroop Scholars Shaka McGlotten and Chris Ramsaroop join our host, Natalie Kerby, to discuss data in the context of labor.
Public Picks 2021
Each May we send our readers into summer with a curated list of the titles that dazzled, challenged, and inspired us most over the past year (or so). For this, the ninth-annual edition of Public Picks, section editors for Global Black History, Literary Fiction, Literature in Translation, Print/Screen, Sports, TV, and Systems & Futures; series editors for Public Thinker and B-Sides; and one of our editors in chief tell us about their favorites.
Chris Ramsaroop and Kevin Edmonds | Critical, but expendable - Migrant agricultural workers in the era of COVID-19
Published:Saturday | May 2, 2020 | 12:10 AMChris Ramsaroop and Kevin Edmonds/Guest Columnists On April 13, the story emerged of a courageous Jamaican migrant worker who had shared a copy of the egregious contract that they were required to sign in order to participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) this year.
Canada Two Faced on Mexico Labor Standards - Toward Freedom
Canadian smugness was on full display recently as Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s senior minister in charge of NAFTA negations for Canada, berated Mexican officials over poor working conditions and the absence of labor protections for Mexican workers. The comments came in the wake of negotiations that culminated in the signing of NAFTA 2.0, now called the United States-México-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Cuts to legal clinics a sinister plan to harm the most vulnerable
Cuts to legal aid are personal to me. As a community organizer I have seen first-hand the incredible advocacy legal clinics undertake in their communities and across the province to end discriminatory practices by applying pressure on both provincial and federal governments. These cuts are significantly impacting vulnerable communities, such as temporary foreign workers and non-status communities.
Trudeau must pay attention to complaint filed by temple workers in Canada, change immigration system
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced a slew of controversies during his week-long India visit. From accusations of close ties to Khalistani separatists to talk that the Indian government snubbed him, Trudeau has had a rocky few days. Amid this maelstrom, any conversations on human rights or labour rights has been lost. Usually these conversations are one-sided, where Canada lectures developing countries about their abysmal human rights records.
Canada's Independent Labour Magazine
Glued to my social media news feed for the past few weeks, I have been left speechless by the latest bloodletting in Canada's labour movement. The fight between the Canadian Labour Congress, Unifor, UNITE HERE and many more affiliates has opened a hornet's nest in the house of labour.
Season Three: Becoming Data
Hosted by: Natalie Kerby This season is produced in partnership with Data & Society. How long has human life been quantified as data, and in what contexts? What are some major implications of humanity being measured as data? How are people pushing back against the datafication of human life, work, health, and citizenship? How long has human life been quantified as data, and in what contexts? What are some major implications of humanity being measured as data?
The inherent racism of the temporary foreign worker program | Toronto Star
Politicians are responding to demands to protect Canadian jobs from “foreign workers.” Public pressure has led the federal government to ban the restaurant industry from using the program, and opposition parties and labour unions are calling for the moratorium to be extended to the entire Temporary Foreign Worker program. The minister in charge, Jason Kenney, is expected to deliver key changes to the program any day.
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