The Worker Solidarity Network is made up of precarious and vulnerable workers from all corners of the world, including migrant workers. We are alarmed and disappointed at the news that Bill C-12 has passed in the House, and is on its way to becoming law. Bill C-12 threatens the fundamental rights of migrants, refugees, and citizens across Canada; gives sweeping powers to government to revoke immigration status without individual evaluation, to limit asylum seekers’ right to a hearing and ability to appeal decisions, to share personal information without adequate safeguards, and to expand deportations.
As we watch in horror at the activities of ICE across the border in the United States, Bill C-12 seeks to bring Trump-esque border policy to this side of the border and is a stark reminder that what is happening in the U.S. can happen here. Canada itself has a history of anti-migrant racism, suppression, and deportations, and that the so-called U.S.-style border politics are also Canadian border politics. We have seen it with recent events of attempted deportations of hotel workers in B.C. We rely on migrants to take care of our elders, take on valuable jobs that keep our economy running. They are a fabric of our society that is quietly being undercut, not just in terms of pay, but basic rights as a worker.
By seeking to further criminalize migrants, Bill C-12 is opening the floodgates to further exploitation and abuse of migrant workers. Not only does it not offer a solution to the problems facing our country such as the crisis of affordability, the housing crisis, the rise of austerity politics; but by scapegoating migrants, pushing them further underground, and limiting their ability to access their rights, Bill C-12 will actually exacerbate these issues. Migrants, unable to access their rights due their precarious status, are often forced to comply even as they are being exploited. This situates them as a permanent underclass unable to receive fair wages, fair conditions, fair benefits; then used by bosses to depress wages of all workers. If migrants were able to access their rights, access fair and equal conditions; then this would curtail the ability of employers to push down wages as they would be unable to scapegoat migrants forced to work in unequal and horrific conditions and forced to accept lesser pay.
Standing in solidarity with migrants is a human rights issue, but it is also a labour issue; and workers standing in solidarity with other workers, with migrant workers, only benefits us all in the long run. We cannot only stand in solidarity when it benefits us personally; none of us are exempt from this, and the deprivation of rights of other workers can also happen to us.
In the coming weeks, the Worker Solidarity Network will unveil a campaign to expand protections for migrant workers and all workers in this province, here and now. If you have been watching in horror at the activities of ICE; at the passing of Bill C-12; at the normalization of horrific human rights abuses; and of the proliferation of U.S.-style anti-migrant and anti-refugee scapegoating and hate, know that there are things we can do now, before it passes in the Senate when they return to debate on February 3, 2026, to try and protect the migrant workers in our communities. Until then, we encourage our membership to follow migrant advocacy organizations and their work; including the Migrant Rights Network and their petition at MigrantRights.ca/VoteNOC12, the Migrant Workers Centre of BC, Migrante, and others.
