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Alberta's most expendable workers
67 Plays4 years ago
Filipinos in Alberta are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 in Alberta as outbreaks in meatpacking plants and continuing care facilities hit our province. Around 60-80% of the workers in the Cargill meatpacking plant, the largest workplace outbreak in Canada, are Filipino. And now they're feeling unfairly blamed because of the government's and even Dr. Deena Hinshaw's statements on the matter. We talk about this and the Healthcare for All campaign with Migrante Alberta director Marco Luciano. Full show notes at www.theprogressreport.ca/filipino_community_and_covid_19
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Background
00:00:15
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here from my bedroom recording studio in Amiskwichi, Waskagand, otherwise known as Edmonton, here in Treaty Six territory.
Mission of Megrante Alberta
00:00:28
Speaker
And today we're talking with Marco Luciano. He's the director of Megrante Alberta. And if you haven't heard of Megrante Alberta, it is a nonprofit advocacy and mutual aid group dedicated to addressing issues faced by Filipinos in Canada, regardless of their immigration status.
00:00:44
Speaker
It's also a part of Magrante Canada, a national alliance of Filipino organizations that stretches from coast to coast. And we were very lucky to have Marco on the podcast.
Filipino Workers' Challenges and Health Campaign
00:00:54
Speaker
The rest of the podcast is going to be a telephone interview between Marco and I. I unfortunately have screwed up on the audio end and you're not going to get this silky, sweet, smooth
00:01:04
Speaker
microphone voice for the rest of the podcast. It's just going to be the conversation between Marco and I, but it is an incredibly important conversation. We touch on the issues facing Filipino workers in meat packing plants and continuing care facilities. Two sectors of the economy hit incredibly hard by coronavirus.
00:01:22
Speaker
We also talk about McGranty Alberta's Health Care for All campaign, which is a campaign that started a couple weeks ago and is incredibly important. And you might think that, hey, what do you mean health care for all? Doesn't Alberta, doesn't Canada have universal health care? Well, not necessarily for the 70,000 undocumented folks who live and work in Alberta.
00:01:43
Speaker
And these are our neighbors and they might not be able to go to the
Healthcare Access for Undocumented Immigrants
00:01:46
Speaker
hospital. They might be scared of getting tested unless they're actually told that it's OK. And health care is a community issue, making sure that people who don't have the like particular piece of paper that says they're this that the other thing doesn't really matter to me. What I'm interested in is making sure that we beat coronavirus. And that means there needs to be clear messages to folks that they are able to get tested, that they are able to get treatment when they're sick. And that's the kind of crux of their health care for
Advocacy Work by Megrante Alberta
00:02:09
Speaker
all campaign. So enough of my talking. Let's get to it with Marco.
00:02:14
Speaker
Today, we're talking with Marco Luciano, the director of Magrante Alberta. And if you haven't heard of Magrante Alberta, it is a nonprofit advocacy and mutual aid group dedicated to addressing issues faced by Filipinos in Canada, regardless of their immigration status. And Magrante Alberta is part of Magrante Canada, a national alliance of Filipino organizations that stretches from coast to coast. And I know Marco, our guest was even involved in the creation of Magrante Canada. So Marco, welcome to the private support.
00:02:44
Speaker
Uh, thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Okay. So I know I kind of gave a very brief description of what the grantee does, but, but what is the organization doing? What's
Filipino Community in Alberta
00:02:54
Speaker
it doing right now? Like, how is it helping people? What is this kind of day to day work in these kinds of strange, you know, coronavirus times right now? Well, um, nothing much has changed really, you know, except, you know, more zoom meetings, uh, more online, um, you know, conversations and, um, things like that. But,
00:03:14
Speaker
But we continue our advocacy and referral work with the SWs around the status. We continue to do our advocacy around migrants issues, but paying more attention to non-status migrant workers. And this advocacy is around healthcare. We also are part of the advocacy of migrants through the Migrants Right Network across Canada.
00:03:42
Speaker
We are a founding member of that network, which is a loose network of migrants, grassroots organizations from Vancouver to PEI. And of course, the Gran de Canada, which is the umbrella organization across Canada. No, we have also, in particular to COVID, we have also, and the Gran de Canada is part of a network of Filipino organizations that created
00:04:11
Speaker
They kick started this project called Capit B. C. Glabant COVID or roughly translate to linking arms to fight COVID. And it's a hub of resources for volunteers across Canada that our members and their friends and their families can access. So that's the project particularly in this times of COVID. You know, and we were talking on the phone too just the other day, you know, in preparation for this and you were talking about
00:04:40
Speaker
The other things that you're doing, you know, like grocery drop offs and keeping track of people, making sure that they're being taken care of medically. That's another part of the thing that you and the grant the Alberta does. Right. Right. Right. Now, now we, we sort of consolidated that into this whole topic DC global coverage. So it is, uh, um, you know, um, grocery runs. Uh, we try to also raise funds, uh, by, uh, grocery cards. Um, and this is particularly to those who,
00:05:08
Speaker
are in the most vulnerable and the most precarious situation. It's really the fundraising and the grocery runs and the bread runs are mostly for the most precarious and undocumented migrants in Edmonton and Calgary. And I mean, one thing that I don't think a lot of people know is that the single largest country of origin for newcomers to Alberta is the Philippines, right? Yes.
00:05:36
Speaker
you know, white people don't typically think of like the single largest immigrant group in Alberta is Filipinos, but like, that is the reality on the ground, right? Yeah, Alberta is, you know, in Alberta alone, there's approximately 175,000 Filipinos, and that is the, you know, stats in 2016. And that does not even include, you know, the temporary foreign workers or the undocumented migrants.
00:06:03
Speaker
Um, and Alberta has became, um, a hub of, uh, temporary fund workers since 2002. Um, you know, they work, um, here, you know, um, and many, many, um, employers, um, in, in, uh, city centers in Calgary, Edmonton, uh, and most particularly Northern Alberta, um, TV oil,
00:06:29
Speaker
industry there are also filled with migrant workers, not necessarily the highest skilled workers that work the oil sands, but the servicing around the people that work at the oil sands. The people who cook the meals and clean the rooms and do that sort of work, right? Exactly, exactly. Their camps, you know, have to be clean.
00:06:50
Speaker
their canteen has to be, you know, make sure there's food there. The hotels in Fort McMurray, for example, are staffed by Filipinos. Even the tourist industry in Alberta, which is based in Jasper and Ban, for example, are staffed by migrant workers that came from the Philippines.
00:07:18
Speaker
And this temporary foreign worker program, I mean, it wasn't invented by Jason Kenney, but he did really supercharge it and kind of put it on steroids when he was immigration minister, right? Well, yeah, the temporary foreign worker program was kickstarted by the father of the current prime minister. And this is really created just for a temporary basis on construction,
00:07:48
Speaker
you know, high-skilled industry. But during the conservative government, and Jason Kenney being the minister of that government, they opened up the doors to, quote unquote, the low-wage, low-skill sector, which is, you know, pretty much your industry's food services, like the fast food,
00:08:17
Speaker
caregivers are also accelerated during those times. And within that period from 2002 to 2013, there's more and more Filipinos going into the food production industry and farms. And so, you know, this temporary foreign worker program was kind of, you know, not kick-started, but really like juiced up by Kenny.
00:08:45
Speaker
and temporary foreign workers like really flowed into Alberta at this time.
Temporary Foreign Worker Program Issues
00:08:50
Speaker
Like, let's kind of make, we kind of were talking about them in general terms, but like, you know, what kind of, I think we talked about what kind of jobs that they were doing and how they got here, but like, you know, what are the challenges that they faced? Specifically, you know, the people who face uncertain immigration status, what are the challenges that they face and how do people kind of find themselves, I know everyone's story is different, but how do people find themselves
00:09:14
Speaker
in kind of immigration status, which is kind of uncertain or unknown or undocumented, however you wanna frame it. Well, the whole migration issue is not a clear cut issue, right? It is very complex, you know, for Filipinos, you know, even I guess if you could start backtrack on how they get to Canada, you know, many are recruited
00:09:41
Speaker
by brokers from their barrios in the villages in the Philippines. So these migrant workers or potential migrant workers would pay amount of money just to be able to leave the Philippines. And so the Philippines itself has created a labor export policy where they systematically send Filipinos abroad. Filipinos leaving the Philippines amount to
00:10:11
Speaker
6,092 Filipinos that leave the Philippines every day and they go to 192 countries around the world. Canada is a favorite destination because Canada have this carrot on the stick. It offers this quote unquote pathway to permanent residency, as opposed to Saudi Arabia, for example, or Hong Kong, where there's a lot of domestic workers, Filipino domestic workers.
00:10:36
Speaker
So Canada is the destination of choice. So many migrant Filipinos, for example, would work for five, six years in Hong Kong as a domestic worker, but would apply for a nanny in Toronto.
00:10:52
Speaker
So those are the certain, you know, the patterns of migration of Filipino migrants. And of course, when they come to Canada, there's this whole requirements that they need to fulfill in order for them to become, quote unquote, eligible to become a permanent resident. And that's usually is a two-year, for nannies it's two-year living with your employer.
00:11:17
Speaker
which creates a whole lot of labor issues. And there's this TFW pilot project which goes to the low-wage sector, your food industry. And with those working conditions, it's not really just the actual work that they do, like any other workers, but the fact that they're working
00:11:46
Speaker
relationship between them and the employer is tied to what they call the LMIA or labor market impact assessment, which means that a work permit of a migrant worker is tied to an employer. A migrant worker that works for an employer cannot leave that employer. Otherwise, they lose that work permit.
00:12:13
Speaker
That sounds like it would make it hard to complain about them or say join a union if that employer didn't want a union formed in the workplace or like any type of way to kind of hold that employer accountable when your entire existence in the country is dependent on them saying, yes, we want this person in the country. Exactly. You know, imagine a caregiver who's working for a family living in their basement.
00:12:41
Speaker
and the work permit is tied to that employer. The worker, the power imbalance just in that workplace is problematic. And even a home, while they are considered workers, home is not defined as a workspace, a workplace. So a caregiver, for example, really having a hard time airing grievances, because where would they go to?
00:13:09
Speaker
If they go to the labor board, they will still have to go home to their employer's house. So it really creates an imbalance within the workplace. And they're very susceptible to abuse, whether it's labor abuse of long hours of work, non-payment of wages, to sexual abuse, to harassment, and things like that. And they have nowhere to go.
00:13:39
Speaker
On the other end, though, is that the fact that they needed, the fact that they left the Philippines to provide for their family, losing their job is really not a choice. It means, you know, they cannot send money back home. It means fear of deportation, right? So it's really, you know, complex in dealing with these issues.
00:14:08
Speaker
with the ones working in low wage sector, for example, is not different except, you know, they have their own home, quote unquote, where they live along with other migrant workers. Many employers that import them have bought their own homes that they rent out to their migrant worker.
00:14:35
Speaker
Right? So they, it's double whammy, right? They exploit them in the workplace, but also they rent, you know, rooms to these migrant workers. And if the migrant workers tell their employer that I cannot rent you a room anymore because it's too expensive, they're always threatened of, you know, termination, and termination for them is deportation, right?
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, and then the final kicker is when they bring in the company store where you have to buy all your groceries from the company as well. For sure. I mean, that's what's going on in Cargill, right? You know, there are many homes there that are bought, you know, there's a landlord that bought several houses and they rent it out to these migrant workers.
00:15:29
Speaker
So, okay, so we have this kind of tremendously exploitative kind of immigration and migrant worker, temporary foreign worker regime in Canada. And while it might be better than Saudi Arabia, it's still very bad. And these Filipino folks who are caught up in it find themselves in situations that are often untenable and are tremendously exploitative and bad. And
00:15:56
Speaker
You know, and in this case, people also got caught up in uncertain immigration status, right? Where they like, the system is this Byzantine, you know, like system where, you know, if you don't fill out the right form at the right time, all of a sudden you're now like, not a person that's supposed to be in Canada anymore. And it does, it does kind of deny people their kind of fundamental existence because, you know, as we have seen,
00:16:26
Speaker
with coronavirus, like I don't care whether you're by the law supposed to be here or not. If you have coronavirus, I want you to get tested. I want you to get treated because if you are not and you are running around, you know, working at a workplace and being forced to work because of your situation, like that just means that every like this coronavirus pandemic is only going to get worse before it gets better if we don't address this problem. Right. And that's where
00:16:56
Speaker
your health care for all campaign comes in, right? And I got a release from these folks a few weeks ago. You know, I think folks might be familiar with kind of Medicare for all from Bernie Sanders, but I'm gonna say Alberta has this health care for all campaign. Can you kind of run us through what you're asking for, what the demands are, you know, what people need to do to help kind of thing? Yeah, you know, I mean, it's not of the Bernie Sanders, we reveal plan, right? It is a specific,
00:17:26
Speaker
ask is a specific call, particularly around health care for undocumented migrants.
Health Care for All Campaign Explained
00:17:34
Speaker
And like you said, you know, because of the situation of migrants and even the whole process of applying for permanent residency is very restrictive. There are many, many migrants that fall into the cracks and they have made those tough decisions to stay.
00:17:55
Speaker
simply because there's nothing back home for them. Meanwhile, their family have to eat and they have no jobs for them there. They made that hard decision to be separated from their families and stay in Canada, no matter what. And of course, when you are undocumented in Canada, in Alberta, there is nothing for you.
00:18:23
Speaker
government services that you can access and that includes health care. Just to segue a little bit in 2017 there was a campaign like we're part of it also to have Edmonton be a access without fear city and the city of Edmonton actually have designated the city as an access without fear city but
00:18:53
Speaker
What does that mean? It does not mean anything. It does not mean shit. It allows you to get a library card and access to recreation center. And I'm not sure there's many undocumented workers rushing to go swimming. So we are really still trying to push the city to provide the little board service or at least
00:19:21
Speaker
you know, look into providing those services, and that continues. Along with that, of course, as you said, you know, we have this campaign called AHS4ALL, and it's a very targeted campaign to include healthcare for undocumented migrants, and particularly in this time of global pandemic. And just imagine if,
00:19:51
Speaker
if an undocumented migrant contracted the virus, they might do what they usually do. You know, they call Dr. Google, right? And just figure out how they, you know, how they cure themselves. But it is scary. It's scary, not just, you know, their lives will be at risk, but also their neighbors and their communities and Albertans in particular.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, so hashtag AHS4ALL is the hashtag that you're using, right? Yes. One of your specific demands, as far as I can tell, is getting a statement from Dr. Dina Hinshaw that she has said that everyone has access. But I think she needs to be absolutely explicit that no matter your immigration status, that if you are sick, get tested. If you are sick, go to a hospital.
00:20:47
Speaker
Right, like that is kind of, I think, key to this whole thing is that in communications from our leaders of our health systems, that like, regardless of your immigration status, if you're sick, you need to get tested. And if you're unwell, you need to go to a hospital. Right. Right. And I think that that's what we are hearing also, you know, from different MLAs, you know, they said that, you know, they're not going to ask you for
00:21:17
Speaker
for the health card as you go get this. Of course not, you know, because you got symptoms. And, but I think, you know, the problem is the treatment and the cure or the treatment and the care. Is that a problem? Because at the end of the day, they will still go to the hospital, they'll get treated, but that, you know, but they get charged, right?
00:21:42
Speaker
Then they would walk away with like a $20,000 bill or something if they were in the hospital for a few weeks. Right. A good example is that there's a couple of pregnant single mom that's undocumented last year that we tried to help and find birthing centers and hospitals that could provide support. We didn't find anything. So they went to the hospital, gave birth the next day they leave. And what this mom told me is that
00:22:11
Speaker
They feel that they're stealing something, that they shouldn't feel that way, right? And now the hospitals are sending bills. You know, after six months, it's the collection agencies that are sending bills. It's not the hospitals anymore. You know, and these bills are not cheap. They're like, you know, birthing is approximately $7,000 to $12,000.
00:22:36
Speaker
So, and it's a right to give birth. I mean, we like to think we have this universal healthcare program at Alberta, but this universal healthcare program doesn't necessarily involve people who haven't jumped through all of the hoops for permanent residency or citizenship or whatever, which again, are these largely arbitrary things that the state has created. At the end of the day, if a person is standing in front of you and they're having a baby, they need help.
00:23:05
Speaker
They need all the assistance they can get to ensure that a healthy baby is born. And to think that we are making that conditional in Canada makes my blood boil. And I know we talked about it when it was happening, whenever that was last year. It's so sad that this is the society that we have. And your press release on this matter does bring up people who are afraid to use their real names, who are afraid of coming forward.
00:23:33
Speaker
Like the story of Lynn, like who is not her real name, you know, she came to Canada, she came to Ontario as a restaurant and bakery manager in 2010 as a temporary floor worker. You know, her contract was prematurely ended while she was waiting for a work permit. She got pregnant. Um, you know, give birth to a daughter in 2015, you know, by this time she had lost her status and her health coverage. You know, the quote from her is incredible. It's like the quote from this woman, Lynn.
00:24:02
Speaker
We do not want to be a burden to the Canadian economy. We were once part of the active members of the Canadian society who work diligently, contributed to the economy, paid all taxes, and hoped to eventually get a permanent residency. We have worked night and day to show our utmost desire to eventually be part of Canadian society. These are real people who are here, who are like our neighbors.
00:24:26
Speaker
And our system, this cruel system that we've created has kind of left them feeling as if they have done something wrong, as if they can't go to the hospital when they're sick, right? Yeah. And there's a couple of, and some of the reactions that I get from Canadians, some of our burdens are, so why don't you just go home? Or, well, isn't that illegal?
00:24:57
Speaker
So it really needs a lot of awareness and education also among Canadians, among Albertans in terms of what are the lives or what these workers have gone through to be here. The mere existence of someone, someone cannot be illegal. A person standing there just living is not illegal. And countries are fake.
00:25:27
Speaker
And to think that this special status that we've created for ourselves somehow inoculates us from taking care of the people who are literally next to us and in need of care is psychopathic shit, right? And the more we talk about it and the more we have conversations like this, I don't care what your immigration status is. I want to make sure that you are happy and healthy and are able to live a full life.
00:25:53
Speaker
these people want to work and they don't want to be exploited. They want to go to the hospital when they get sick. Like these are not kind of, these are not demands that are unreasonable in any way, right? Right, right. Yeah. And, and you know, on the other side, they're the ones that are washing the dishes in the kitchen, making, you know, $7 an hour, $5 an hour, right? I mean, these quote unquote invisible workers,
00:26:22
Speaker
are getting paid slave wages to be able to feed us, to ensure that our buildings are clean. So they work in the shadows. And people don't see that. They don't understand why are they here. And to go back to the AHS For All campaign, the provinces of BC, Ontario, and Quebec
00:26:50
Speaker
have made the announcement that they will cover the cost of COVID-19 services for people who are uninsured and who might not necessarily meet the criteria necessary for health care coverage, right? Right. I think they relaxed the requirements a little bit, particularly around this time. And I think it's recognizing the fact that everybody, regardless of your status, will or can contract the disease.
00:27:21
Speaker
And so I also think we can't have you on and not talk about the ongoing disasters that are facing that the Filipino community is facing, especially the workers who work in the meat packing plants and the continuing care facilities.
COVID-19 Impact on Filipino Workers
00:27:36
Speaker
I mean, those workplaces have a lot of Filipino workers, as we are discovering, and they are disproportionately facing the brunt of this pandemic, right? Like the latest numbers we have on coronavirus cases and just for
00:27:52
Speaker
for the sake of our audience, we're recording this on Thursday, April 30th. 821 cases combined when you look at both the Cargill and the JVS plants, that's the High River and the Brooks plant. That Cargill outbreak is the single largest outbreak in Canada. And it's absolutely wild. It's a disaster that's unfolding in front of us. It's incredible that this is when it's come to.
00:28:21
Speaker
And then the other thing is that there have been 503 cases in continuing care facilities with 59 of those residents of those facilities dying. And we don't have numbers necessarily on workers, specifically workers at continuing care facilities getting sick as well, but they are directly, I mean, there are multiple outbreaks at multiple continuing care facilities, and a lot of those workers tend to be Filipino as well. And while not only are they getting sick, but they're also seeing their clients die
00:28:52
Speaker
in front of them, which has to be traumatic. What do people need to know about how this outbreak is affecting the Filipino community? Well, the outbreak, many would say it's really exposed the divide between classes, the divide between employer employees and how the employers
00:29:22
Speaker
really employs attitudes towards workers, right? And it's not different. I think the only difference is the fact that, you know, these sectors are sectors where most Filipinos are employed. You know, for example, the care sectors, many caregivers under the caregiver program, when they become permanent residents, they continue the care work. They start taking courses on
00:29:51
Speaker
personal support work and work at those nursing homes, elder care facilities, and which is now, you know, at the, you know, it's ground zero for COVID, right? In Toronto and Scarborough, there's already Filipino care workers that have been dying, and it's just a matter of time that actually just died and dying. It's just a matter of time here in Alberta that we get the same
00:30:21
Speaker
same thing. Similarly, in Cargill, you know, Cargill sponsors TFW. Back then, they have processes in how they sponsor TFWs to work in their facilities. And many of those TFWs back then have become permanent residents, but still continue to work there because that's the biggest
00:30:49
Speaker
you know, employer in that, in High River. So they, you know, they will work there. I think that the question would be more is how, you know, how does the worker protect their work? How does the employer protect their workers? And for Cargill, their concern is like, you know, when are they going to open? And for JBS, until now, they haven't shut down.
00:31:17
Speaker
According to the workers in JBS in particular, you know, two shifts have already merged into one shift. And that creates a problem in terms of social distancing. And so the workers there are kind of concerned, you know, about their health and how they will be able to prevent, you know, the spread of the COVID if they are stuck in a very close proximity with each other in this facility, right?
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's quite clear that I think this outbreak was made worse, you know, thanks to decisions by employers and government and even healthcare leaders, you know, like Dr. Hinshaw. Like when we look at the timeline of the cargo outbreak, like the very first confirmed case of COVID-19 at the cargo plant was April 6th. On April 12th, you know, 250 Filipino residents signed a letter addressed to the High River mayor guiding Craig Snodgrass
00:32:18
Speaker
calling for the cargo plant to be closed. A quote from the letter is this, we the workers and our families are worried and scared for the possibility that we might bring the virus with us at home. They're begging for the plant to be closed on April 12th. On April 18th, cargo holds a telephone town hall with workers. There's no union representation on this call, but there is
00:32:46
Speaker
representatives from government, specifically the Agriculture Minister, David Grecian, as well as Dr. Dina Hinshaw. They were on the call, they were present, they took questions. Finally, on April 20th, a worker dies of COVID, and it's quite clear from the stats that the outbreak is out of control, and they finally close the plant on April 20th. So just to go back on the timeline, April 6th, first confirmed case, April 12th, plant
00:33:13
Speaker
The community begs for the facility to close April 18th, agriculture minister and Dr. Dina Hinshaw are saying everything's fine. Two days later, April 20th. Finally, they closed the plant. Yeah. Exactly. Right. And now, and now we're in the position where cargo is saying they're going to open the facility back up again on Monday, May 4th. They would be idling for two weeks, right? Yeah. This coming Monday. And.
00:33:42
Speaker
I don't see how you can with the single largest outbreak of coronavirus is like literally still running through everyone who works at that plant and the city that surrounds the plant. No, for sure. I mean, it's a concern by workers that we talk to, is that the, you know, what's going to happen to them when they go back to the plant?
00:34:10
Speaker
How would the plant work? There are concerns about immigration status. Many of the temporary fund workers there, and according to the union, it's around approximately 100, whose work permit is expiring in May. They don't see any actions from the employer in terms of renewal and so on and so forth. On the other hand, though,
00:34:39
Speaker
when the death happens, you know, the news that I saw in CBC is that the reason for the spread of the virus is because the workers there, predominantly Filipinos, are living together, right? And they go carpool. And it just blows my mind
00:35:06
Speaker
on how they kind of shift the blame on the workers. And then a slew of media articles after media articles now focus on this community, on this Filipino community. In the end, of course, the backlash happens where
00:35:34
Speaker
you know, groceries don't allow Filipinos in. It's like the sixties again, when, you know, in California, when Filipinos and dogs are not allowed in the building. It's just, you know, the racial backlash of those statements is just tremendous. Even a CBC story on this, right? It was, it was April 26th, CBC. Filipino workers at repacking plant feel unfairly blamed for Canada's biggest COVID-19 outbreak.
00:36:04
Speaker
And it kind of went through, it went through like the things that you're talking about there, some of the backlash that these folks have faced, as well as, you know, the statements made by Dr. Dina Hinshaw. And I think it's worth pulling them back up again, because I don't think she's helped the situation. I think, in fact, she's made it worse. There's an April 22 David Staples column in the Edmonton Journal, where she's quoted as saying,
00:36:29
Speaker
Many of the Filipino workers, it turns out, lived in large households where it is difficult for a sick person to isolate themselves. In some cases, their partners worked at health care facilities and senior residences without breaks of their own. Some of the workers also carpooled to work at Cargill. There's also a strong ethic in the Filipino community to not let the sniffles get in the way of a hard day's work, Pinshaw said. What were you thinking when you read that?
00:36:57
Speaker
I just stop. I can't continue reading. Immediately, it's shifting this blame to an ethnocultural group, to one ethnocultural group. And it just drives me nuts, pretty much.
00:37:23
Speaker
And interestingly, though, I think it also creates, you know, some kind of a backlash in terms of, you know, that statement. Because yesterday, at 7 o'clock, the Alberta government, along with three cabinet ministers, have called on Filipino town hall meetings. So the cabinet is there. The Dr. Henschel was also part of the conversation.
00:37:52
Speaker
and this ongoing message that we're not blaming the community. Actually, Filipinos are the hardest working community, just adding insult to the injury. Yeah, it's not like Filipino workers are choosing to live in large households or choosing to carpool. If they were paid enough money to live in their own houses or drive their own cars,
00:38:22
Speaker
they would live in their own houses and drive their own cars. There's no Filipino cultural construct that's like, golly gee, we really do love living seven people to a house. That's just the circumstances of the housing and employment situation that they find themselves in. There's a strong ethic in the Filipino community. There's a lot that the sniffles get in the way of a hard day's work. That's because if they don't show up to work, they get fired. And if they get fired, they get deported back home.
Racial Stigmatization During Pandemic
00:38:51
Speaker
like Hinshaw comes off as extremely kind of clueless about the actual realities of working people in this province, especially the folks who are working at these heat packing plants. Right. So it is, you know, it is, it is a, you know, a slap in our community, the Filipino community. I think, you know,
00:39:18
Speaker
The Filipino community also, on the other hand, have been trying to grapple what's going on with workplace issues, with healthcare issues, and then this, right? This whole racial attacks against them, you know, in High River. Yeah. Yeah, it really is a tragedy, and I think
00:39:47
Speaker
I mean, there really has to be, and there ought to be a public inquiry into what has happened at Cargill and JBS once the dust has cleared from coronavirus because, I mean, I don't know how
Call for Inquiry into Outbreaks
00:40:01
Speaker
you can't. It's the largest outbreak in Canada and people have died. More people are going to die. It is going to get worse before it gets better, and we deserve to know what happened there.
00:40:13
Speaker
For sure, for sure. I think that has to happen. But also, I think this should have a different mindset on how to approach this now, particularly among the working class communities, the working class people, on how the government deals with it, and also these employers.
00:40:43
Speaker
I think it's important to really reflect on these relationships between workers and employers in times of crisis. That, you know, workers, particularly the migrant workers are the parent fathers, right? They're babes, you know, in this crisis. Whether it's, you know, health and safety in the workplace, you know,
00:41:11
Speaker
or pitting workers against each other, right? Yeah, it really is disgusting stuff. It is enough to make you incredibly angry at these employers and at the government. Marco, I think that's a good place to leave it. How can people kind of help out in the Grantee Alberta, you know, how can they help out the campaign, you know, the AHS for All campaign? If they want to donate to the Grantee Alberta, how do they go ahead and do that?
00:41:41
Speaker
Um, kind of what's the, give us your plug. How do people kind of follow you and your organization? How do they help out? Um, yeah, I mean, we have, uh, existed our website, you know, uh, we grant the Alberta.ca. Um, uh, our campaigns are there, uh, the healthcare for all campaign is there. Um, you know, uh, I think progress Alberta is helping us out with, you know, uh, some kind of a tool, uh, for,
00:42:06
Speaker
for people to join in and chime in into our campaign. So everything's there. Also, you know, if you're on social media, visit us and like, you know, the Grantee Alberta on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on Instagram, or, you know, we try to promote the organization's our campaign. So look for us there.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, definitely, Marco. And Magrati Albert is an absolutely essential organization, and thank you for all the work that you do. And listeners, if you like this podcast, if you want to keep hearing this podcast, keep hearing different voices like the ones you're hearing today, there are a few things you can do to help out.
Supporting the Podcast
00:42:49
Speaker
Definitely share this podcast. Text it to your friends, post it on your wall. However, whatever your preferred way of actually sharing a piece of audio content is, please do that.
00:43:01
Speaker
the single most important way that we can get the word out on this podcast. The other thing, a real fast thing you can do as well is you can leave a review. Whatever podcatcher that you use, whether it's Apple Podcasts or an Android one, there's usually a way to leave a review. So if you can do that, that actually really does help the algorithm, help people discover this podcast. And the other kind of final thing that you can do to help us out is you can join the 250 other people who regularly contribute every month
00:43:29
Speaker
to help keep this independent media project going. So to do that, you just go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons. And there, there's just a form you can put in your credit card and, you know, five, $10, $15 a month. We really would appreciate it. Also, if you have any notes or thoughts or comments that you think I need to hear about this episode or other episodes, I'm on Twitter at Duncan Kinney, and you can reach me by email at DuncanK at progressuberta.ca. Thanks so much to Cosmic Family Communists for the amazing theme. Thank you for listening and goodbye.
00:43:59
Speaker
Did you know that Progress Alberta is part of a national community of leftist podcasts on the Ricochet Podcast Network? You can find the Alberta Advantage, 49th Parahel, Kino Lefter, Well Reds, The Progress Report, Lefi Sales, Out of Left Field, and Unpacking the News, as well as a bunch of other awesome podcasts at Ricochet Media or wherever you download your podcasts.