Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada

by Gabriel Allahdua, Edward Dunsworth (Primary Contributor)

In this singular firsthand account, a former migrant worker reveals a disturbing system of exploitation at the heart of Canada's farm labour system. When Gabriel Allahdua applied to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada, he thought he would be leaving his home in St. Lucia to work in a country with a sterling human rights reputation and commitment to multiculturalism. Instead, breakneck quotas and a culture of fear dominated his four years in a mega-greenhouse in Ontario. This deeply personal memoir takes readers behind the scenes to see what life is really like for the people who produce Canada's food. Now, as a leading activist in the migrant justice movement in Canada, Gabriel is fighting back against the Canadian government to demand rights and respect for temporary foreign labourers. Harvesting Freedom shows Canada's place in the long history of slavery, colonialism, and inequality that has linked the Caribbean to the wider world for half a millennium--but also the tireless determination of Caribbean people to fight for their freedom.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada

186 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Care]

As a Canadian, I knew very little about the working conditions of our temporary migrant workers before reading Gabriel Allahdua's powerful call to witness. I'd read This Has Always Been A War by Lori Fox, but that account is of a Canadian-born white person. Still educational and appalling, but a more privileged perspective.
This memoir is revealing of our country's inequities and abuses of those who grow our food and prop up our society. Allahdua illuminates what those in power want to keep us in the dark about. Harvesting Freedom starts with Gabriel's life in St. Lucia before he travels to Canada for work and experiences gruelling expectations where employers profit on toxic culture of exploitation, fear, and silence. He exposes truths essential to the discussion of labour rights in Canada.
Especially useful are the questions Gabriel poses and The Twenty Injustices of Canada that he outlines later in the book.

Twenty Injustices of Canada

"1. We have tied work permits. Migrant workers work permits tie us to our employer. To be tied to an employer with the power to deport you for speaking up is a recipe for exploitation. As the experts say, we are "unfree" workers.

2. We can't apply for status (or rights). In other words. it is nearly impossible for migrant workers to transition from a tied work permit to an open one. Having permanent immigration status would help us to access decent work with better conditions, and allow us to be united with our families. Not having status in Canada means being denied basic human rights and labour standards. It also means that migrant workers are an unstable population-and an unstable population can't fight back.

3. Employers control our housing. Our housing is typically overcrowded, substandard, and poorly regulated. We live in isolated homes on farms. Our employers are also our landlords We are treated as property.

4. We have no say in our contracts. While Canadians might "thank a union" for the benefits of collective bargaining, we migrant farm workers have no say in the terms and conditions of our employment. The contracts are determined at annual meetings between government representatives from Canada and the participating countries. Workers have no seat at the table.

5. The threat of deportation keeps us quiet. At any time, for any reason, farmers can send us home, where unemployment is high and wages are lower than in Canada. Our employers even control the travel agency that books our flights in and out of Canada. The threat of deportation coerces migrant workers to work under dangerous conditions and discourages us from speaking up.

6. The migrant labour system is racist from top to bottom. The SAWP is based on the idea that some lives matter less —namely, the lives of Black and brown migrant workers from the Global South. Racial injustice is inherent to Canada's migrant farm labour system, which exploits the labour of racialized migrants to subsidize the lifestyle of a few, in a system where food is a commodity and not basic human right. This racism trickles down from the structures of the program to the day-to-day experiences of migrant workers, who are subject to police harassment, slurs, verbal abuse, and other forms of mistreatment in the communities where — since 1966 — they have worked and lived for part of each year.

7. We are denied overtime pay and often denied minimum wage. Farm workers have a different set of employment laws and are denied basic labour standards. Workers in other sectors get overtime pay after working forty-four hours in a week. Migrant farm workers often work as much as eighty hours per week (or more), but do not get overtime pay for those hours. Paycheque deductions and a variable piece rate often bring workers' pay to below minimum wage.

8. We work in dangerous jobs with very little or no protection. Agriculture is one of the most dangerous sectors for workers, with the fourth-highest fatality rate out of all employment sectors in Canada. The absence of unions makes it all the more difficult to ensure safe working conditions. The constant threat of deportation and prospect of not being able to provide for our families coerce us to work under dangerous conditions.

9. Medical repatriation. Doing such dangerous, non-unionized work injuries are common. But when migrant workers get injured on the job, it is a common practice to send us back home.

10. There hasn't been a single inquest into work-related deaths of migrant farm workers in Canada. Despite the fact that an average of two workers in the SAWP die each year and that inquests into workplace deaths in other sectors are common, there has never been an inquest into the death of a migrant farm worker.

11. Employment laws and program regulations are not enforced. Even the small number of protections that do apply to migrant farm workers are often not enforced. For example, all workers in Ontario, including farm workers, have the right to refuse unsafe work. But the pressures on migrant workers to keep quiet discourage us from speaking up. In fact, there have been multiple documented cases of migrant workers being blacklisted from the program after complaining about conditions Of course, they have no recourse.

13. We pay into employment insurance but can't receive benefits. In this way, it is legal for all stakeholders of the program, including the federal government, to milk migrant farm workers. That is what I call an "association of exploiters." Working eight months in Canada on minimum wage and then spending four months at home un- or underemployed is tough. Not being able to access employment insurance ensures that we live at the margins of society.

14. Family separation. We are physically separated from our families because we do not have status and we cannot bring our families with us. This is the cause of so much stress, heartbreak, and family trouble. Family separation, in my opinion, is the single greatest injustice of Canada's migrant farm labour system.

15. Unjust immigration and labour laws. From the Chinese railroad workers to today, Canada continues to use unjust labour and immigration policies to deny migrant workers equality by denying them basic labour standards and human rights. In the past, many European immigrants were granted permanent status upon arrival to Canada along with land. Black and brown migrant farm workers have a very different experience. Unjust labour and immigration laws and policies work in tandem to keep migrant workers vulnerable and precarious.

16. We have to pay to work in Canada. Migrant workers have deductions from our pay for airfare, a work permit, utilities, employment insurance that we can't benefit from, and sometimes other costs. All of this brings our take-home pay to below minimum wage. Essentially it means that we have to pay for the privilege of working in Canada, even though we are here to do the dirty, difficult. dangerous, and non-unionized jobs that Canadians do not want to do. It can be even worse for migrant workers outside the SAWP who sometimes have to pay outrageous fees to recruiters to get jobs in Canada (upwards of $8,000, in many cases).

17. Farm workers in Ontario are excluded from collective bargaining. Farm workers are excluded from Ontario's Labour Relations Act, which sets out the rules for collective bargaining. The same is true in some other provinces as well. Not having the representation of a union is another human-made layer that makes us invisible all adding to the recipe for exploitation.

18. There is a stark power imbalance between employers and workers. As many of the other injustices show, the SAWP is an employer-driven program, and migrant workers have very little power. Employers lobby and have a lot of sway with government, while migrant farm workers can't even vote.

19. Up to now, the Government of Canada has not signed, ratified, or implemented the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. On the world stage, Canada portrays itself as a leader, a champion on human rights issues, a place of refuge, and a place of great diversity and inclusivity. But quietly, Canada hides the eighteenth-century working conditions that persist in sectors like agriculture and exploit migrants from the Global South.

20. Migrant farm workers' grassroots organizations are either not invited, not consulted, or paid to keep quiet. There are a few grassroots organizations with and for migrant workers across Canada. Of these, Justicia for Migrant Workers is the most political that I know of. Our demand is status upon arrival for all migrant workers. We will not accept funds from anyone who wants to keep us quiet or control our work.

Questions I Pose to the Audience:

1. Are you concerned whether your food is being produced by those who respect or exploit the soil the environment, and migrant workers?
2 . Whose story are you familiar with: the victor's or the victim's?
3. What motivates you: a life of fear or a life of hope?
4 . Which one do you prefer: a kiss or a slap? What if the kiss is a lie and the slap is the truth? What if the lie is like a painkiller, giving instant results but not a cure, and the truth is like surgery, painful at first but which eventually heals?
5. Do you pay attention to the comforting words of the politicians or their actual policies and how they impact workers?
6. Do you pay attention to how race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us, and wealth classified us?
7. Are you aware of the benevolence of Canada? When one hand gives under the flashing light of the camera, the other hand grabs in the shadow.

content warnings:
Graphic: Racism, Classism
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Grief

[Justin M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scathing indictment of Canada’s continued colonial practices. As someone who has grown up knowing the injustices committed against temporary migrant farm workers this was a good read, if leaning somewhat too academic at points. It was inspiring to hear from someone who had first-hand experience inside the program.

I would recommend this book for Canadians who are as yet unaware of how racism systemically pervades our agricultural sector.

This book contains numerous compelling and well-articulated points. Gabriel’s strong viewpoints are especially evident in the 20 injustices of Canada’s temporary farm migrant worker system. I would say that there is a lack of nuance when it comes to his preferred outcome, which ignores the possibility of dismantling the system entirely, and ignores the system’s negative impact on other racialized and working class citizens within Canada. It also is written for an audience that would already be easily persuaded to side with Gabriel on his viewpoints, and so falls short of being potentially impactful for those on the other side of the political spectrum. Similarly, the recognition of Canadian diversity is tempered by the authors view of religion as colonialist even as he mentions cases where he was greatly blessed by members of various congregations. However, I concede it is hard to have an even hand in social Justice writings such as these.

In the end, I’m glad that Canada has someone like Gabriel speaking up for those who aren’t similarly empowered to do so.

[Ferndk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book- it was succinct and well written, providing both facts, information and context about Canada’s Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program, but also the author’s personal story. I finished it in about a day and found it very compelling!

[Marie-Laure Riel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️
This book is an important read, especially for anyone who advocates for local food consumption in Canada (we cannot look at our food system without a critical social justice lens). I learned a lot about the conditions of temporary workers in Canada, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and its systemic injustice, but also about St Lucia. This is a beautiful story of activism and social justice.

I am not giving it 5 stars because in my opinion, the book was written in a style that was more similar to an essay, and I was hoping for a more literary story. The book was nonetheless very easy to read and accessible.

[Scott Neigh]

My review here.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read for anyone wanting to learn about the experiences of migrant workers, and written with a clear and compelling narrative style that I think would make this accessible for many ages and reading levels.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard Gabriel speak at a conference in October 2023 and knew I needed to read his book. I thought I knew the conditions of migrant farm workers. I had (and have) a lot to learn. Harvesting Freedom will open your eyes as it did mine. If you think exploitive or indentured labour is a sin of the past or of other nations, think again. Gabriel explains it better than I can, so I quote him here: “On the world stage, Canada portrays itself as a leader, a champion on human rights issues, a place of refuge, and a place of great diversity and inclusivity. But quietly, Canada hides the eighteenth-Century working conditions that persist in sectors like agriculture and exploit migrants from the Global South.” (129)

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this on Canada Day weekend and I’m not proud of what our country has done to migrant workers. Colonialism is alive in the 21st century. Thank you Gabriel Allahdua for sharing your life and welcome to Canada.

[Jessie MacInnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening firsthand account of the cruel, inhumane conditions of the SAWP (Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program). A must read for anyone in Canada who eats.

[Roxanne Fyfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

''A lot of pressure came from the structure of the program. As migrant workers, we are permanently temporary. In order to be sure of keeping our spot in the program, we need to be requested by our employer to return each year. Additionally, the threat of deportation hangs over our heads at all times. Employers in the program can send workers home if they are not happy with them, with basically no oversight. Making matters worse, migrant workers do not have a good understanding of what our rights are; we are isolated in rural communities, invisible, with neither support nor recourse.'' (p. 68)

''So when you put all of that together, you end up in a vicious cycle. You see, the program makes you dependent. You earn minimum wage and then have all these deductions - for your airfare, work visa, uniform, start-of-season loan, and bunkhouse utilities, in addition to all the usual taxes. So in eight months, it is like you only make four months' worth of wages. Then once you're back home, you have to stretch it. And you might not be able to find work for only four months. This then means that you have to go back to Canada again and go through the same thing. This all results in being dependent on the program.'' (p. 94)

''Later on, as I got to know a little more about the SAWP, I realized how low literacy was part of a broader design of the program, which ensures that workers are exploitable. The program is calling for people of colour. The program is calling for people who are illiterate, or who are struggling with English, or have English as a second language. The program is calling for people who are largely ignorant about labour issues and human rights issues.'' (p. 102)

[Minami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first became aware of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) while living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario in the summer of 2015. The SAWP is one of the most blatant examples of systemic racism in Canada today.

Allahdua's account is one part memoir, one part education. The result is a book that puts much needed humanity back into the reader's view of migrant workers, while also being easily digestible and informative on the political and economic powers at play. The book's structure, short 3-5 page chapters that read like short essays, make it a good book for anyone who can only focus on reading for short bursts at a time as its easy to pick back up where you left off (I read this on my daily commute on the TTC).

This quote from chapter 2 particularly stands out, "So I carry one leg of the indentured worker and another leg of the slave. In coming to Canada, I found myself participating in yet another exploitative labour migration movement, one that, like these older movements, features people of colour. In this way, like my mother and father, I, too, am wrapped up in a much larger history"

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

March 2025

I met Gabriel Allahdua in November 2024 at a conference and his story about being a migrant farm worker made me want to read more.


2025
The Spellshop
The Book of Doors
Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada

Forestborn

[Anelyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was such a pleasure to read this labour of love from two colleagues. Here is the blurb I wrote for their book:

By tracing the story of a hurricane in St. Lucia that spurred Gabriel Allahdua’s path from beekeeper and teacher to migrant farm worker and activist, this book provides the first published chronicle of the life of a migrant farm worker in Canada. Harvesting Freedom not only disrupts the dehumanization that’s baked into Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, but it also provides a galvanizing account of migrant workers’ collective struggle for justice and dignity. Given the expansion of unfree migrant worker programs worldwide amid the climate crisis, this firsthand account from a migrant farm worker and organic intellectual is globally significant.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible read. I admittedly knew next to nothing about Canada's seasonal migrant worker program. This was very eye-opening. Gabriel tells the story of his upbringing and his experience in the program. I definitely recommend this book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opening account of migrant workers in Canada. It documents the author's path and how it relates to the bigger picture. The 20 Injustices listed are impactful.

[Snakebird · Rating 5 out of 5]

gabriel the GOAT

[Colleen Cavanaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a vert interesting and informative book. I recommit to everyone.

[AinZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I learned a lot about the treatment and working conditions of migrant works in Canada. Our government should be ashamed of themselves.

[Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful first hand account of the oppressive policies and conditions that seasonal agricultural migrant workers in Canada face.

[Nikhita Dhiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

changed the way i view everything in life!!! the writing is so simple yet put a hole in my heart that will never be repaired. it’s powerful, eye opening, and exposes injustice- we need change immediately.