 Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional territories of the indigenous people across Turtle Island. It's thank them for allowing us to meet and learn together on their territories. To the original caretakers of this land, of which we stand, I acknowledge the land of the Huron Wendat, the Patton, Seneca, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is covered by the dish with one spoon wampum belt, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and the Ojiwi, and ally nations to be shared and cared for the lands and resources around the Great Lakes, which is the area where I am right now. And I invite you, each and every one of you, to acknowledge and recognize the territory and the land where you are. To all that was here for thousands of years before us across Turtle Island, we honor the struggles and the lives of those who gave themselves for it. For those here today, we acknowledge the ancestors beneath our feet, we acknowledge the land. Our ears to the ground, we can hear them. The Cree, the Meti, the Dene, the Soto, the Aries-Nabe, the Dakota and Lakota nations, the Inuit, the Black food, the Inu, and all nations that came before us and those yet to come. The infinity of footsteps of those who long called this land home, the unfolding of bundles, the undoing of colonization, and the opening of this land to allow treaty to come alive. We affirm our relationship to each other and to the land. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the indigenous nations and ancestors of this land. Once again, I acknowledge the land of the Huron-Wendat, Petens, Seneca, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory, again, is covered by this with one spoon, one pump belt, covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and the Ojihue, and the ally nations to peacefully share and care for the lands and resources around the Great Lakes, which is the area where I am right now. So welcome to this six webinar of Kairos, and I want to start by thanking each and every one of you for joining us today. Without further ado, I would like to start and introduce our first guest speaker for this afternoon, Amari, who is going to share with us his own experience with the subject of open work permit for vulnerable workers. Amari, on to you. Yes, hello. Good morning to everyone. I am Amari. First, I work in the Philippines before I work abroad. I was born and raised in the Philippines. And I had to work abroad to provide financial assistance to my family. So I work in Dubai as a veterinary assistant for 18 months. I was working like 57 hours a week without overtime pay in Dubai, as well as they cut my salary. They do it illegally, like one quarter of my salary, they cut it. So I search online for a job in Canada. Indeed, indeed. I saw this job as they're hiring for a canal attendant in Vernon, British Columbia. So I sent my resume. And the following day, I got a reply. So the employer told me that I will be scheduled for interview. So after the interview, she told me that she's going to process my papers. And then awaited for one year to finish all the paperworks. So I came here September 5, 2019 as a canal attendant in Vernon. As a temporary foreign worker. So I have a one year, one year contract. My job was canal attendant, which is a category C. So I'm thinking I would apply for a job which is like category B. So before my contract finish, I did send resume to some of the veterinary clinics here. So this veterinary clinic here in not to mention the name. They interviewed me and then I passed the interview. They, they process my LMIA. So I came here December 9. So I have like two weeks. I need to quarantine for two weeks in one of the hotel here. So I started working December 23. But I noticed there's like some other attitude problem with my employer. It's like I came here, it's really very cold. And I have to walk from my cabin to, to the bus station. It's a long walk. Then I felt really exhausted. So, and then before working, working. The employer didn't treat me well. I always, they always shouted on me. And then it's like, so it was not a good experience for me. This one time we had a surgery. It happened that, you know, the gas anesthetic machine, it's isochlorine tank spilled. I mean, yeah. And then the doctor got mad. He drove the status quo away. He told me many, many things. He told me go back to my home country. Then I left. It was January 6. Her, his wife advised me to just to go home. And then January 8, I received a call from them stating that he said that he's going to relocate me. But it didn't happen. So January 10, they picked me up. But instead of relocating me. We went to his office. And then he gave me the termination letter, which states that once I sign, they'll give me ticket back home. They didn't give me at least two weeks notice. So I don't have any, any, any place to sleep. No food at all. So the only, the only option is to sign the documents, the termination letter. So what I did is I found the Filipino community. They don't have any, any office during the time. So I met a Filipino driver. So I took a chance to phone him. Luckily, he told me that I could go to his place. And so I told my employer, I will not sign the documents. I will seek legal advice. So he didn't really push me through that. So I went to my friend's apartment. I stayed there for two weeks. And then look for a cheaper room for rent here. So his wife helped me with to go to like immigration and service Canada. I did apply for EI, but it, it took a bit of time before I get before I received my EI. And lots of work with the to apply for open work permit for vulnerable worker. So I have to, you know, budget my money. So the immigration helped me with application of my open work permit. My sworn statement. I did. I did. I gather all the documents that was needed for application of work permit. So, once it's done, I, I mailed it to, to immigration office. And eventually it was denied. They are stating that it was stated that they are not satisfied with, with my, with the, with all the requirements that I sent them. So my wife and I agreed that we apply for express entry. So it's just like we need like. Education requirements, language test. And a proof of finance. So now we are waiting. We are gathering all the documents that we, we need, we will be needing. And hopefully we can, we can finish the express entry. Right now I'm, I'm still in on EI. And a Filipino, still a Filipino friend of friend helped me to find a, it's like a cheaper room for rent. So I'm staying here right now. Yeah. That's my story. It's quite short. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks so much, I'm already really appreciate you taking the time to, to experience with us. No, that is not easy. So we sincerely thank you. And we invite you to remain with us for the rest of the webinar so hopefully you might be able to get some information that may be useful for you in the future. Yeah, we're going to move along here. And I'm going to invite now to. I'm going to invite Mithy as Gerard to speak. Mithy comes from Kesson city in the Philippines. She moved to Canada at a very young age, and upon upon right arriving in Canada she became involved with the Filipino community youth organizations. It was both a way to deal with her home sickness, but also she saw connection and common challenges among immigrant youth like herself. Most of 100 children of immigrant or migrant caregivers themselves. Mithy has was also a board member of the Community Alliance for Social Justice, a coalition of Filipino community organizations advocating for various or various issues in the Filipino community. Mithy has a community worker diploma from George Brown College but she also went to Ryerson University for undergrad studies in social work, and eventually decided to focus her time and energy on community organizing and also raising a beautiful family. So Mithy is all yours. So if you can unmute yourself and speak with us. Thanks. Thank you Alredo and thank you everyone for giving MRCC chance to share our experience in today's webinar. So I am currently working as the program coordinator at the Migrants Resource Center Canada. I know I've met some of you in through the Cairo's partners meetings, but for those who aren't familiar with MRCC, we're a non-profit service organization serving migrant workers through three major program areas. Yes, so the first one is through our info and referral program where we provide one-on-one service and support for migrant workers. We also have an education and training program where we provide building workshops and information sessions for for migrant workers to build individual as well as organizational capacities. We also have our research and advocacy program where we collaborate with post-secondary institutions and academics to facilitate community-based research to support our advocacy for migrant workers rights. So today I am going to be speaking directly from our experience in working with migrant workers and exploring the applications for open work permits for vulnerable workers because our client base is really mixed. We have some clients who are temporary foreign workers, we have some caregivers, we have some who have also lost their status, they've had different, they were here with status from varying situations and then they've lost it for reasons beyond their control. In terms of handling cases of applications for open work permits, we have very few but we have learned quite some very useful lessons which we feel could guide us and are useful for other organizations to learn who have no or little experience with it. So looking at government provided information about the open work permit for vulnerable workers, this option is available for workers who have a valid employer-specific work permit or have applied to a new one and are being abused or at risk of being abused. So in our experience really it's caregivers and temporary foreign workers who are in this kind of particular situation and the types of abuse that we see can range from the more typical ones like the financial abuse, non-payment of wages, non-payment of overtime like Amari was talking about. And because for these workers typically there's the element of living in a place that is provided by the employers, for caregivers it's their workers home, for farm workers it's in the farm. So the physical abuse can also be in the form of unsuitable living conditions. Other types of abuse can be that are included or considered in applications for OWP for vulnerable workers is of course sexual abuse, psychological abuse. So these are things we've seen from our clients but to illustrate it in more concrete terms I'd like to speak about two particular cases that we've handled. One is the first one is a case in which we were successfully able to get an open work permit for the worker and the second one is where we presented the option of applying for the OWP but the workers chose not to proceed and I'll draw lessons from both. So for the first one, sorry can you still hear me because my screen is frozen right now so I'm not sure if I'm still connected. Thanks, no we can hear you, we can hear you. Okay, so in the first case this is very recent and this is the successful one that we've handled is the case of an in-home caregiver who had already experienced in another province but she had already experienced abuse from there and she moved here to Ontario. Started working for another employer and ended up being abused again and this all happened during the time of the pandemic. So and I asked for her consent to share some of the information about her case and she consented to and I assured her that I won't divulge. She wasn't paid holiday pay, overtime pay and I think even her regular pay was not complete. She also experienced psychological abuse and that when she tried to assert her rights in terms of she was being made to do excessive work that was not even in her contract. She has tried to assert it and the employer responded by threatening to have her deported. Spoke to her in a very meaning and demeaning and very detailed but so this is from the first employer. Second employer when she moved, the employer was limiting her mobility and using COVID-19 as an excuse. She was already in this situation when we met her and she had already been working with a trusted lawyer in our network. So the lawyer actually approached us and said can you provide some support for this worker? I've already started gathering information and evidence to support an application for me. So for this one, for this particular worker, what we did in working with the lawyer, first thing we had to do was to get the full story and get the story, be able to have a clear idea of the sequence of events and the types of abuse, the nature of the abuse that was happening. So we got the worker to document that and the same thing that we find with other workers in distress is that when they tell their story, they will, whatever it's the most, I guess, severe or the most prominent event in their mind or the most traumatic event, that's the one that they keep repeating and repeating. So in the initial contact with the worker, it was kind of challenging to discern the sequence of events and everything that was happening. So the first step had to be to document all of that and then verify with the worker if we were understanding it correctly and asking her to fill in the gaps where we think we didn't have a clear understanding of what was happening. So once we established that these were the types of abuse that she had been experiencing, what we had to do was look at the requirements that required documents or that we needed to provide to accompany the application to substantiate the claim that there is abuse happening. So for the financial abuse, we got copies, we got the worker to provide copies of the e-transfers, you know, the documentation of those e-transfers and also WhatsApp messages exchanged between her and the employer discussing financial matters or financial arrangements. Oops, it actually looks like we might have lost connection with maybe, but in the meantime, we can move on and I would like to maybe ask Luis, our next speaker to get ready and I'll just do a quick introduction. So Luis Alberto Mata is an anti-human trafficking migrant workers program coordinator at FCJ Refugee Center in Toronto. Luis is a refugee from Colombia and in Canada has worked with migrant and refugees during the last 11 years. In his native Colombia, he was a writer and a human rights activist. And so it is an honor and a privilege to have Luis share with us his experience with these issues that we are discussing today in this webinar. So Luis is all to you. The microphone is yours. Thank you Alfredo. Thank you for the invitation. It's an honor for me to be with Kairos and this group of amazing people that I know committed with human rights and migrant workers in Canada. I'm coming here in representation of FCJ Refugee Center when I work. I imagine most of you know of FCJ and I'll be very brief. It's a non-profit organization, a community-based organization, offering holistic services, approach and services to migrants and precarious status and refugees in Canada, particularly in Ontario and Toronto. We have our programs for refugees. We have our programs for popular education, supporting those who have no access to education because of the situation of not immigration status. We have a primary health clinic offering support with a doctor who is a volunteer and a nurse, offering the basic attention for those who have no... In Toronto and also, sorry, we have an anti-hemotrafficking program that is the program I am one of the coordinators. The head of the program is my supervisor and co-director of the FCJ, Lori Rico, who is the founder of the program and also the founder of the organization. Move on. Very briefly, in FCJ we have several programs right now related to migrants in precarious situations, particularly victims of human trafficking. And we focus in cases, means those who are foreign workers who are here in a very precarious situation in the immigration. And most of them we attend, we serve those who are in a non-status at all. For that we created the migrant workers mobile program that is a program that before the pandemic we used to go. We went to the different locations in Peel region and even in Windsor in a coalition with the legal of Windsor there. And we have been in several parts of the province, but now with the pandemic we have been operating mostly online. We have adjudal lines, migrant workers, counter-human trafficking aligns. We have been leading these initiatives, trying to get connection as a partnership collaboration and sharing best practices and trying to get together against labor exploitation. For today, I was invited to talk about the open work permit for vulnerable workers. One of the remedies we have on place in this moment to support migrant workers who have been victims of exploitation, labor abuses or other situations on the places of work. Just very briefly about the open work permit, because I know my colleagues and the other speakers I'm going to talk a little bit more in depth about the technicalities of the open work permit. Just to mention that the human trafficking or labor exploitation, labor abuses happen everywhere, even just around the corner can be happening. But especially in those places that are isolated or in those places where migrant workers who have limitations in communication with the language or precarious situation in their immigration, then those are more vulnerable, are more easy to be victims of labor abuses and labor exploitation. One of the situations we have seen in the last period is that workers who come here with tight work permits, tight means with the name of the employer in the work permit. We have seen a lot of abuses, especially in the factories and in the farms, also in restaurants. In the past, in which those workers who came here with a specific employer and a specific tight work permit, they have been victims of many abuses. And that was the reason that after the advocacy and several initiatives from the community when the organizations and advocates finally the government created this tool that is called the open work permit for vulnerable workers. Basically, it's an avenue for the workers to leave the place of abuse and to get an open work permit, but I'm going to talk a little bit about this, this open work permit. Some things that we have seen in the open work permit that is a little bit gaps or negative is then consistency in the way what the evidence of abuse is accepted, the way the workers can sustain that they were facing abuse in order to be granted with this work permit. I'm going to explain this one example. There was a group of Guatemalans in BC. They were working in a farm. They were abused. They were not paid in the overtime. They were suffering discrimination, especially one of the administrators was also from Guatemala, Guatemalan, Canadian person. And this person was taking advantage of the situation. He is Spanish and English. And he went taking a little over the workers with tasks also maltreating them with words, discriminated them, and the owner of the farmer was admitting that this to happen because that was happened between the Guatemalan, what was the way he described the situation. And the worker was suffering a lot of psychological abuse and they were classifying the good but workers. And the official ask that those good workers were those who didn't complain, those who work without saying that they were sick, that those who were not asking for permissions, etc. Those were the good workers but those who were just complaining because the overtime because illegal deductions from the payment. For instance, they were getting a deduction from housing that was an abusive situation because it's not contemplating the in, in, in, at least in that contract in that farm, but they were getting deductions abusive deduction for housing, no deductions for transportation, etc. Then those who were complaining they were classified as a bad workers and threatening that they're not going to be invited to come the following year. So a group of them three of them just left, they flee the place because one day there was a flight and they were accused that were violent they were accused that they were threatening that police was going to come and to take them to jail, etc. Then they decided to leave the place in, in, in BC, because they had a friend in, in London, Ontario, they decided to come to Ontario just because they have a friend for them was like an adventure to cross all Canada. They were coming from a very small country in Central America, and when they describe the situation the traveling for them there was an adventure, but they were just scared with this situation trying to find where to escape and where to leave and where to find a job. So somewhere in, in, in London, one of the friends, fortunately was attending sometime a webinar, an info session we provided in London with one of our partners. We were supporting him with humanitarian compassion application and agency. This person connected the workers with FCA refugee center. We didn't let the workers, we were surprised all of them had the work, the work permit valid, still valid for several months. And they were telling us the story about what happened in, in BC, we tried to find colleagues and partners in BC to find a little more information. And we discovered that in that fun, it's not the first time several times have been happening issues in that place. When we presented them to the, to, to, we did application for the, for the open work permit. The only proof we couldn't submit was an affidavit, a declaration, a note made for the workers saying that they, that what they were saying was true. They just have, they just have a little, some a few chats in the WhatsApp, a few pictures, but they don't have enough evidence. Even though in the website and in the, in the guidelines of this application say that evidence is not mandatory, is not, is not, has not to be one condition in order to be granted with this, with this open work permit. They were denied with the open work permit because two things, one. The officer said that they didn't make any complaint in BC. Second, they abandoned the place and they came to another province until they didn't have any, any, any physical or any proof, like a video recording or something in order to show the evidence that they were abusing that in that place. We found very difficult. These workers were in distress. They were crying. They were saying, no, we did, we did well. The only thing we complained that we were not involved in the fight, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, we did as much as possible, as many as possible things. We, we try to, to put letters and also fcj wrote a letter, et cetera, but anyway, this application was not approved. This is one of the gaps we have been fine in the, in the, in the, in the, this open work permit for all workers. The other one is when, when the permit is allowed when this granted, we have found another gaps. There is no family reunification, there is no pathways to permanent residency. It is just a temporal solution just to extend the suffering of the worker for one more year. So let's say extend because I'm going to explain this with another case. We have a worker from the Caribbean. Kail, I'm just using fake names. Kail, a super a lot of abuses in a, in a farm. Also deduction illegal deduction maltreatment as a person as a human being. And he, he, he wasn't getting enough pay for the overtime, et cetera. Fortunately, he had some pictures about the housing condition, he had some recordings, and this open work permit was granted to Kail. But Kail got this, this open work permit, and he tried to find job, a job, an employer willing to, to give him an LMA AI and to hide him again to get back to a tight work permit means a close work permit with an employer. He couldn't find this employer on time. And then now Kail is in the situation that his work permit is not going to be extended because another gap. This, the open work permit for vulnerable workers is not possible to be extended has no pathways to extension. Then this is another gap I wanted to explain with, with the, with the open work permit that, that apart from having any possibilities for the worker to extend the stay in the country to have some pathways to family reunification to to permanent just one year for the worker to find, to find another employment. We have clients from Mexico, for instance, that they have limitations in language. And then also to find another job. Then the second, the plan B we have for the, we have for these cases is to apply to support then applying for agency for humanitarian and compassion application. But in general, that, that is that I wanted to tell about the open work permit. The open work permit was introduced in 2019 is valid only only for 12 months is, is available for individuals who hold a valid work permit, or who have an employee status, or who are exposed and exposed and dependents may be eligible if they are here only, but it's a, it's a, it's a no easy, an easy possibility. Fortunately, the only thing is they don't have to pay any fees for the application. And unfortunately, again, they must provide evidence of exploitation in the workplace, even though in the guidelines say that is no mandatory. That are the things I wanted to mention about in this tool and I open to questions or to comment in in the next stage. Excellent. Thank you so much, Luis. That's, that's, that's great. I wanted to before moving on to moving on to Francine Francie our last speaker. I wanted to take maybe a couple of minutes in case meet he has something that you wanted to tell us to close and conclude her presentation because unfortunately, she got cut off it. Thank you so much for your mind, Francie. And we'll just give me a couple of minutes. Is that okay, meet you or you're okay. Yeah, yeah, I just, I have some a few things to add. Okay, great. So let's take a couple of minutes. Thank you so much. I'm sorry if I got disconnected for some reason. But anyway, what I was just sharing is just the things that we, the measures that we took in the evidence that we gathered in order to support this worker in her application for an open work permit. So we, you know, we gathered all those documents to present as evidence. And even before submitting the application for the OWP, the lawyer had also filed employment standards claim for the worker. And that was also presented along with the application. Now, this is like, this is, you know, a situation where we tried as much as possible to cover all the basis, like to prove all those abuse and present evidence for each of the claims. But like Louis said, it's there's inconsistency in what is what is accepted as evidence in working with other service providers. They, they found them didn't have to go through that whole process and didn't have to submit all those types of documents. But, you know, I think the lesson for us is there is if it's possible to to gather as much evidence. But the other experience that we've had in this time it's with farm workers is for them they were their issues were the unsuitable living conditions, the verbal abuse by a also conflicts in the workplace that, you know, are not addressed by the supervisor or by management. And injuries that workers experience that are not properly properly responded to. So obviously there's there's basis but and we're approached by three workers from one workplace and for this one, our approach was first to you know to do to gather them and give them rights education and show them yes you are correct in saying that you are experiencing abuse and your rights are being violated. And we presented we didn't tell them to apply. We didn't say here you should apply for OWP, but we said to them this is an option. But in this case, the workers had different you know they had different things in mind. One thing we suggested to them is if you can you can approach your the higher management and tell them about what's happening with the supervisor. And then if they if the manager refuses to address it, we can add that as evidence for your application to OWP, but they said it's not going to be effective because we know what the response is going to be. We know the politics inside the workplace. And so in the end they all the three workers who had spoken to us, one of them left the workplace a couple of months after the other two left the workplace. And now they're just trying to find other employees. So you know, but what we were telling them is when we presented the option of the OWP to them, we said this is an option. It's not permanent. You have an open work permit forever after this. It just buys you some time. If you know if your work permit for example is about to expire, it will give you some more time to find another employer. And retain, you know, stay here and work because they've got families that they're sending money to back home. But for them, it was, you know, rather than going through all these, you know, the process of writing everything out, gathering evidence and all of that. For them, the urgent thing was the most urgent thing was to continue to earn money so that they can continue to support their families back home. And for us, you know, if that's the choice of the worker, it's fine because ultimately it's up to them to determine with what they think is the best course of action for them. But out of, you know, these experiences, I think for us as service providers, when we are, when we have workers approaching us, who are, you know, based with situations, of abuse, like I said before, the onus is on us to really gather the information and, you know, make the recommendation to the worker. But let them decide, if they decide to go for the open work permit, then as much as possible, what we have to do is cover all the bases. And then for me, in the case of the caregiver, who did get the open work permit, the collaboration among different service providers was really very instrumental because, you know, the letters of support, all these people that she had approached or even talked to after each instance of abuse, they were able to provide something in writing to say that, yes, I heard, I was approached by this worker and she told me that she experienced this. So that's it. But lastly, beyond the service approach, I think really it's true, like Luis was saying, this is a very small measure that it really doesn't solve the greater issues and challenges that are faced by migrant workers. For us, in approaching workers, even as we're presenting the option of the OWP with them, we give them the rights education because we think that when they understand what their rights are and they, you know, they feel confident that they are, they're not imagining things and it's not just in their mind that abuse is happening, then they're more empowered and they're more willing to also work collectively with other migrant workers to address the bigger issues. And that's all I wanted to share. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Mithy. I think I, before we move on, I want to thank you for the effort of coming back in despite the connection problems, but so thanks so much. And I want to introduce our last speaker today and also want to encourage you if you have any questions, please make a note of the questions and after Francis presentation, we will have a question and answer. In the meantime, if you want to put your questions in the chat, that would be also acceptable and we're going to try to keep track of that. But I want to introduce our last speaker for this afternoon. Francia, I want to check with you. Your last name is Munoz or Munoz? It's Munoz, but you can say Munoz. It sounds strange to me so if you don't mind, I'm just going to say Francia Munoz, Community Legal Work. Thank you. Francia has worked at the Windsor Assets bilingual legal clinic for 10 years as a community legal worker. She speaks Spanish, has a law degree and a master's degree in administrative law from her home country in Colombia. She studied the paralegal and the language interpreter program at St. Clair College, and is currently a candidate awaiting her call to the bar of Ontario. Since 2017 she has led successfully the Care for International Workers program and the Spanish speaking clients program at the Windsor Assets bilingual legal clinic. Thank you Francia for accepting to be with us and I'm just going to get ready here to open up your presentation. Okay, thank you everybody. Good afternoon. My name is Francia Munoz from the Windsor Assets bilingual legal clinic. Thank you so much for the invitation to participate in this webinar. Windsor Assets bilingual legal clinic is a nonprofit community clinic funded by Legal Ontario. We serve people with low income living in the regional Windsor and Essex County. And we provide legal services in different matters like employment law, immigration law, housing law, social benefits, small claims, etc. Because minor workers are vulnerable workers, we offer free legal services for them. We are able to provide legal advice and representation when they need. I'm going to talk about the legal requirements to apply for an open word permit for vulnerable workers. This is a disclaimer. This presentation is not going to replace immigration and refugee protection regulations. It's just used for legal information to provide legal information for you. And it's not going to think as a legal advice for everybody is not a solicitor client relationship that arise as a result of these access to the video presentation. And for information and advice, you can reach the other legal clinics or experienced lawyers in your jurisdiction. We are going to review your file according to your specific situation. We have two types of word permits. One is the employer specific with is also called the close work. Work permit is specific work permit that allow workers to work accordingly to the conditions on the work permits. So workers can only work for a specific employer for a specific occupation and for a specification. All of that so and see what are the conditions to stay here. Workers cannot apply to extend their work permits. So if the employer may want to rehire the new worker that worker country before they can apply for another. To the string that is the other string that they will gain to Canada worker cannot apply for an extension also and it workers wants to change jobs or change employers. They can do it, but they must apply for a new work permit from inside of Canada. To change the employers workers might apply to change the conditions of the work permit and the employer must give the workers some requirements to the employer has to give the workers a new job offer letter. A new labor market impact assessment number. A new contract signed by the workers and the future employer. Also for the temporary foreign workers, there is another option available. They actually can extend the participation or change the international experience Canada work permit. Either they will be working at the same employer and at the same location and their duties won't change in the future future. The other type of work permits in Canada is the open work permit. The open work permit for vulnerable workers is the permit that we are talking today. And the open work permit allows workers to work in for any employer in Canada. Now there is a new program, you know, no new is in 2019. It started as the open work permit for vulnerable workers. So I'm going to refer in the second slide to their requirements and eligibility for this kind of program. Generally, people who obtain an open work permit in Canada have some other type of status in Canada. So you can see that the people that immediately get an open work permit is people that is under the protection program. That means protected person or first stage approval of the Human Italian Compassion and Grounds or refugee claimants or permanent residents or our citizens. Now with an open work permit workers, they are allowed to extend their conditions on the work permit. This is the exception of the other work permit. So if you have an open work permit, you can extend or change their conditions on the work permits in generally, but it's not applicable for the temporary foreign workers under the vulnerable application. This work permit doesn't confer a temporary resident status. It's just an open work permit is just a permit. Okay, and now the open work permit for vulnerable workers. It was launched as Luis mentioned, it was launched in June for 2019. The section 207, it was changed and the IRP gave the IRCC the authority to issue an open work permit for temporary foreign workers that holding an employer specific work permit and who were experiencing abuse or are in risk of abuse in the context of their employment. So in summary, the open work permit for vulnerable workers is a program that allow migrant workers in Canada who are experiencing abuse or who are at risk of abuse in the context of their employment in Canada that to be eligible to receive an open work permit that is extend from the labor market impact assessment. LMI process. What are the requirements? Okay, the requirements in order to apply for an open work permit for vulnerable workers are the following. The temporary foreign worker must be in Canada. The temporary foreign worker must hold a valid employer specific work permit. Or have submitted a work permit extension application for the same employer and is currently in Canada on imply status. What is imply status? This means a temporary foreign worker that is precluded to apply for an individual work permit if he has lost the status. But the government give to the worker, not the government immigration regulations give to the worker a 90 days period or imply status period for restoration of the status. Okay, the temporary foreign worker that is either experiencing abuse or resolve experience abuse is eligible for the apply for this kind of work permit. Okay, the eligibility to be eligible workers must be in a status that means they have to have a valid open work permit that require LMI. Or they have had a valid closed work permit that is exempted of LMI. Or they can be authorized to work without a work permit under the imply status that I already mentioned to you, that is the 90 days of imply status. There is no fee to apply. This application is free. The land of the permit is up to the officer. So the immigration officer decide how much you can stay in Canada under this kind of work permit usually is one year. Okay, now I'm going to I'm going to talk to you about the abuse. What is abuse abuse can be a physical abuse that include assault or forcible confinement. It can be sexual abuse that include sexual contact without consent. It can be psychological abuse that include threats and intimidation. It can be financial abuse that include fraud and extortion or not paying wages away to the worker, or maybe stealing or taking a worker's money, salary or checkers or coercing them into giving them something like the same like happened to Amar. Okay, the next please Fredo. Thank you. I'm going to tell you what are some of the examples of the abuse or risk of abuse. For example, the employer, the recruiter, or both have coerced the migrant workers into paying job placement or recruited fees. For example, the employer on several locations doesn't pay the wages away to the migrant worker. Another example, the migrant worker on several locations is harassed. What does mean harassed is for example, he doesn't want an unwanted physical or verbal behavior that is offending or humiliating the person. Everything is in the environment of the workplace. So if he doesn't feel comfortable with that kind of unwanted behaviors, this is a kind of abuse. Another example, the migrant worker is treated by the employer if they complain about their work conditions. If for example the worker tried to reach the Ministry of Labor or tried to reach another agency or community in order to know about the rights. And the employer just treating the work and I say, no, you cannot. This is abuse. Another example, forcing or pressuring the migrant worker to perform work that contravenes the conditions of the work permit. That's me. I mentioned before, the work permit has some conditions imply if you see the work permit as soon as the immigration gave the work permit you can see what are the conditions that you have to meet. And if the employer say, no, I'm going to change your conditions, you are not going to work here, you are going to work in a different farm, you are going to work for a different kind of activities. This is an abuse. Why? Because it's contravening your work permit. This is also a form of coerce engagement in illegal activities, not allowed, and maybe also accompanied by enable for their threats, intimidation or abuse. So there is abuse when the employer insults the worker, intimidating the worker, humiliating the worker, harassing the worker, treating the worker with respect to the immigration status or deportation. Sometimes the employer say, if you don't do this, I'm going to call the immigration office and you can be deported. And this is not right. This is an abuse. And also it's an abuse against the temporary for a worker program in Canada. Also it's abuse when the employer name calling you or yelling you or blaming you or shaming you or ridiculing the worker or disrespecting the worker or criticizing the worker in front of others. Also it's abuse when the migrant worker may not be directly experienced abuse, but he see that there are other workers that that experience the abuse. So he will be in risk to be another worker under the abuse situation. With the new COVID-19, we experience more clients just complaining about different kind of abuse. So it wasn't enough just all the abuse that we already mentioned that there are more abuses during the COVID-19. So what kind of abuses happened during the COVID-19 related to the working and living conditions of the migrant workers? So we can see the employer doesn't provide wages always during the mandatory quarantine or isolation period, or the migrant worker is forced or pressured to perform work that violates the conditions of mandatory quarantine or isolation period. Or the worker is forced to work when showing symptoms of COVID. Also the migrant worker is prevented from seeking medical assistance. We have some clients that they call us because at the beginning of the pandemic, they didn't receive any treatment. They didn't receive any even water, no water, no medication, no Tylenol, no anything. So it was very hard time for them at the beginning. After that, everything was changed and new regulations were just encouraged employers and also gave recommendations to employers to follow the mandatory requirements and measures of COVID. But it happens at the beginning. Also it's abuse when the worker is not provided with adequate tools and working conditions to implement public health and social distancing protocols. We also notice in some farms, also at the beginning, they are working in forros, between forros. So one worker here and the next worker next to the other worker in a distance of, how do I say, no more than 10 centimeters? That doesn't mean one in the forro, well, the other one in the other forro and the other one in the other forro, not keeping any measures, any distance for COVID-19. Just after a few months later, the government and the other regulations that start changing that and putting more regulations and more recommendations to the employers into the farms. Another kind of abuse that we experienced during the COVID is was the reprisals, many reprisals actions against workers for taking sick leave or for refusing to work, or because of course they were sick, most of their workers in Limitton, especially they were very sick. They were working even with COVID, they were working even if they don't have COVID, they were forced to work with the other workers with COVID. So it was crazy times. What did that happen? It was abuse. Also it's abuse when the employer, for example, doesn't provide appropriate and adequate accommodations for quarantine during the state isolation period or the prevention of virus spread. It was also when the employer didn't provide workers with cleaning products or with the employer didn't prevent the spread in the shared accommodations, like for example in the rooms, if they are sleeping, there is not the requirement in distance and there are not cleaning products. There are not any accommodations for the people that are sleeping at the same room. So it was a hard time of abuse also. So we saw the employer prevents the worker from obtaining essential items during the quarantine or isolation period. For example, the employer usually at the beginning of the pandemic was reluctant to let the worker to go outside to buy groceries or to get medication or provide any adequate things, basic things that the worker needs. So this is also abuse. Sometimes I remember the workers was complained because the employer didn't provide the basic thing like, for example, I know it's basic, the internet now is basic. So sometimes the employer just refused to provide the internet or refused to let the worker to get pickup food or sometimes even connected with the family or something like that or even use the cell phones. We noticed some kind of complaints during the COVID-19 at the beginning. So this is another ways of abuse. Okay, how to apply? In order to apply for this kind of application, open work permit for temporarily vulnerable workers, you can apply online directly to the IRCC website and you can include supporting evidence of the abuse that all of the speakers to the dimension is not easy to provide the support documents that they need and they want to see. But usually that in my experience and as a service provider in the bilingual legal clinic, we provide the enough support in evidence in order to get approval of all work permits that we submit. So we usually attach to the application a description of the abuse. We usually attach a letter statement of report from the abuse. We usually provide a statement or affidavit of the worker. We provide a copy of an official complaint for file with an enforcement agency. We, for example, usually in bilingual legal clinic, we have many clients that apply for that complaint, no, apply that complaint directly to the Ministry of Labor or to complain directly to the police or complain directly to the human rights tribunal. So all of these complaints are very important and have the basis to be approved or successfully in an open work permit for vulnerable workers. So I really recommend all the agencies or service provider have the complete documents. I know it's not mandatory, but it never is enough. So as you can provide more, more and more everything is works in this kind of work permit, but the most important thing is the official document provided by the authority, the informants agency. It can be a police report. It can be a human rights application or it can be a Ministry of Labor application. Also, the worker can attach the copy of the acknowledgement, the letter of the receipt of the tribunal and submit the application, copy of the application of the number provided by the agencies. Like the, for example, the employment standard branch, they provide a reference number when a worker provide an application or also the human rights tribunal. When you apply, they provide you a reference number. So attach the reference number if it's possible, attach all the application of human rights in order to get approved or the police report. There are also supporting additional materials that you have to provide, like, for example, the victim impact statement, you can provide hard copies of email messages, you can provide photos showing inquiries or working conditions, showing, for example, the bad conditions of the workplace or, for example, showing what else. The conditions, yeah, the conditions in the, even in the workplace, so you don't have the tools or you don't have a safety conditions in your workplace, everything counts. So, did you have the possibility to take pictures? It's okay. Sometimes the workers, when approached, clearly they ask, what can I, what can I submit to prove my, my abuse? And I recommend you, please take pictures. I know sometimes it's not allowed for the, you know, the first, they didn't allow the workers to do that. But most of them they can, at night or at any time, they can take pictures. I also receive videos. I also receive audios. Also, I receive many meetings during the, the meetings with the farmers and the farms are treating the workers and all of that evidence, it counts. So we can submit a DVD, we can submit a USB, we can submit any proof. And even witness testimonies. It's always requirement to have a witness testimony. Okay, here you can see a list of resources available for migrant workers. It's not an exhausted list that are more, of course, more resources. There are more agencies that are able to provide different kind of services. This is just in the Windsor region and the other. I think the justice for migrant workers and there are others also here that are not just in the region. You can reach any agency community agency or legal clinic or any agency that can provide you any assistance or help during this application will be fine. You can contact any list of any of the agencies in the list. The form numbers are here on the screen. So you can contact us or contact any of the agency that you prefer. Next please Alfredo. Oh, the next one. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. If you had any questions and so happy to provide the answers or any other speakers also will be so happy to explain or answer your questions. Thank you so much. Perfect. Thank you so much. This is great and thanks to everyone. So this is your chance. I, before we open it for questions. Okay, I can see a Suani floor is yours. Yes, thank you. I have actually a lot of questions. But I don't know let me know when can I stop I start with the first one. And this is to Francie. Francie. So what happens when the work permit ends that you say that is the work permit is for a specific time of period. Then ends. So I am imagining at that time the worker has to go back to their country. But for the situation of agricultural workers, they go back to their country and they can they apply the next year again to come in the permit of the swap program or there is some kind of restrictions. Okay, and any particular situation is different. So this is just a general explanation about my experience as a service provider, but we have to see any particular situation of any worker because everything is different. But usually, at the end of the open work permit for vulnerable workers, they don't have any option for an extension. So if the open work permit expire, the only option is, if it's under the seasonal agricultural worker program is just come back to the to their countries and wait for a new offer of employment and apply for a new work permit to came to Canada, probably next year or two years depends on the recruitment step or depends on the mandatory requirements from the treatment. And then just for the convenient. What is the name for the trade Mexican and Canada trade. So it depends. There is another situation. For example, and I have cases with some workers that we were successful in the application. They got an open work permit for vulnerable workers and they were lucky and they find a job, knowing the far area, they find a job in a different area activity, they find a job in a tomato factory, they find a job in a construction company, and they were hired full time. What happened with them, they were hired full time, the employer gave the opportunity to work, of course, more than one year, but what happened when the work permit expire. Before the work permit expire, they had the opportunity to continue working there because they had a full time job, so they can apply no for an extension, they can apply for a new work permit. So what happened if they have the permanent, the open work permit in the past, and if the vulnerability ends. That's mean you cannot apply for a new open work permit for vulnerable workers because your vulnerability expire, right. So the option is if you had a full time job is you go the full time and you were lucky you can apply for the other kind of visas or permits that are allowed in Canada. For example, for the workers that I mentioned, we had the opportunity to apply for a nomination program, we had the opportunity to apply for the new pathway that started one week ago. We already submit three applications for the new pathway of workers that had previously an open work permit. So they meet the requirements. One of the requirements is to be for more than one year in the company under the knock or classification knock number, the job description that is in the pathway of permanent residence. So this is different kind of situation, but we have of course another workers that as soon as they expire the work permit, they have to come back to their contents because they don't have any option. For the agricultural stream is different. They cannot apply for an extension, but they had the opportunity to get another offer of employment and another labor marketing pack assessment number and the opportunity to apply and apply for restoration of the status under the employee status. So this is another way, but most of the workers really most of the workers they have to come back to their contents because they don't have their requirements for a permanent resident or they don't have an offer of employment or they don't have a labor marketing pack assessment number in order to apply for a new work permit. This is the situation. So, sorry, just continue with my question. So they normally like they won't get like a red flag back in their countries and that will kind of like affect the process of applying for these jobs when they go back to their country. Yeah, it's a really hard situation. It depends. It depends if the worker is lucky and say lucky because if it's under the seasonal agricultural worker program, they have the all guarantees, all guarantees provided by Mexico and Canada. So if they finish their work before that means at December 15 every year they come back to their contents and they come again the next year under the same the same treatment between Canada and Mexico. But the bad part is for the other agricultural streams, the other agricultural workers that they didn't come under the seasonal agricultural worker program. Why? Because they are recruited by different agencies, private agencies that they didn't guarantee anything. They didn't guarantee if you come to Canada and find a job, if you came to Canada and the terms of the contract is going to meet in Canada, you never know. So this is a hard story for the other streams. So it's now you say it is not easy. You sometimes if they come back to their countries, they even don't have the opportunity to come back to Canada because there are no the recruitment office is not working, or sometimes they are recruited for inescapable people and they are subject to human rights trafficking or something like that. So it's very hard, especially during this pandemic is really hard for them to find another job after the work permit expire. Yeah. Great there is a question in the chat here that do they continue to receive benefits that they receive before entering work permit and if they and if they're staying with their same with the same employer. To him knew the question. I would I would assume this is probably for you but if it was want to want to comment that would be great too but I would assume it is for you. Okay, so the benefits that what kind of benefits are you talking about the employment benefits to me does mean the employment insurance. Are you going to talk about the parental benefit that they are allowed so there are some benefits that they are that they are allowed because they are minor workers they are under the employment standards regulations and also under the other temporarily foreign workers regulations specifically for them. So what I don't know what benefits maybe you are talking about that kind of benefits and they will receive the benefits if they had an open word permit. I say and if they are staying with the same employer. Of course if they are staying at the same employer they will receive the same benefits if they change employer they need to get a new benefits from the other employer. That's mean about the government benefits or they never lost the benefits. That's mean it because they are regulated on the employment standards act. So, if you are a worker under the open word permit or the closed word permit you have benefits what benefits the employment insurance, the parental insurance and the other kind of benefits as the government gave. But if you are talking about the benefits of the company the far when the worker is working is different because depends on the employer because depends on the far. But if you change the employer you have to see what the far is offering you under the contract. And I know that Connie has her hand up. Connie get to finish with this question. Loretta added their supplementary benefits like dental medical prescriptions. Depends of the employer I say in general all workers in Canada are allowed to any benefits under the open word permit. And that is also depends on the employer because if the employer in the company, the contract that you got with the employer is not a full time permanent job. Of course you don't have any benefits because it's a temporary contract. If you get a temporary contract for six months or for three months of course you don't have benefits like dental or medical. Depends of the company that is hiring the worker. Thank you. Thank you very much, Alfredo and thank you to all the speakers friends provided a very clear picture of, you know, the open work permit for vulnerable workers but also the other screens and other types of work permits. And of course, Mickey and Louise for for the many examples that you presented into a Maori. I just want to add a little bit more and also making like clarifying that when we're talking of the open work permit for vulnerable workers. This is kind of a special work permit that is granted to workers who are at risk, or in an abusive work environment. So it has limitations, and this is very short term. As what friends, friends to mentioned, it is, you know, the, the prerogative or the discretion of the IRCC for how long, you know, the work permit is going to be but normally it's one year. So, when you are in this open work permit. You have, you are given, you know, a time to look for another employer to be able to get back to a tight work permit situation. Otherwise, the when, when, you know, when you wait for this work permit to expire, and you renew the chances that the IRCC officer would not renew this open work permit for vulnerable workers because they would say you are no longer in that vulnerable situation. This is, I guess, a very big clarification that we need or information that we have to provide to, you know, workers who are approaching us for support. So the other, the other limitation that, you know, as already mentioned by everyone, the, the honest of proving that you're, you are in a vulnerable situation that you are abused that you are at risk, lies on the worker. And I would take, for example, the case of Omari, when, you know, he was arbitrarily terminated, he was not given, you know, two weeks notice, he was literally thrown out from, you know, from his workplace. He had nowhere to go. And Amari, when you apply, I'm very familiar with your case, Amari, because we've talked about this on the phone for a long time. And, you know, when he went to IRCC to, you know, to apply for an open work permit, he was sent back to get all the proof. He has to report to the authorities, he has to file a complaint to the labor of Ministry of Labor and all of this. For a worker who, who might not know all the, you know, all the requirements and not knowing how to navigate the system. And in Yellowknife, where it's so far away and not many service or community organizations providing support, not only that he was already terminated and abused, he was also kind of thrown in a situation where he's, he's completely not aware what to do. So, so while we have, you know, this, this kind of, you know, short term solution, but the information that is being shared to workers and to community organizations is also short in terms of us being able to really provide, you know, the assistance and the information needed for, for, for workers to be able to benefit from this open work permit for vulnerable workers. The other thing too that we need to remember, with the public policy, for example, now that is open, allowing, you know, migrant workers to be able to apply for permanent residency. In an open work permit for vulnerable workers, you cannot qualify. Because one, you are not in, you are not in a particular NOC or NOC or the National Occupational Category, because you are, you know, you are in this special situation or special circumstance. So, for you to be able to access, you know, this permanent public policy, you have to have a valid, although the open work permit is valid, it's a valid work permit that is tied to an employer or tied to a particular NOC. So, that is another kind of misleading information when, you know, everyone thought, oh, I've completed, you know, 12 months working in this category, but I am on an open work permit right now. Unfortunately, this, that disqualifies you from, you know, from being eligible to apply under the new public policy. Um, it's, it's, it's while we are saying that while we are, you know, we're conducting this webinar in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic that we are all in and how it's impacting migrant workers. I think, um, yeah, what you've mentioned Francine in terms of what are the experiences of migrant workers currently in Canada and currently impacted by COVID-19. So, some of the forms of, you know, I would say vulnerability that you mentioned would actually qualify, you know, migrant workers to apply for this work permit. But again, it goes back to the responsibility for the worker to collect this information and proof for him or her to be able to access this, you know, this, this short term solution. So I just wanted to, you know, to add that information. Thank you so much, Connie. We are getting close to the hour. But we probably room for a couple more questions and I know, or comments to, and I know that at least from FCJ Refugee Center wanted to say something so please go ahead. Thank you, Alfredo. I just wanted to corroborate to support what Connie said and about the, I understood the extension of the vulnerability. And the vulnerability finished in the play that the worker was working before. However, the vulnerability continues, because this is an apricot migration status anyway. The regulation has been put in a way that they present like an ideal world. However, the lowest skill workers, labor particularly those involved in the labor area. In the real life, they have, they have difficult, it's very difficult for them to access the benefits for instance of the employment insurance, for instance, just to mention, to mention one sample. Then there are limited access to the employment standards in the real life. And that is the reason why we, the FCJ as a part of the CCR and other organizations, we have doing some criticism. We say this positive is a good step, employment, this open work permit is a good beginning, but it's just the beginning. Because now it's a band-aid, because it's just temporal. We have been successful as well. We have a lot of significant number of open work permits approved for our clients. By the way, most of them have been referred by, from that area by Justicia, Justicia for migrant workers, another organization based, grounded organizations. We, alongside with then and the migrant network, the MWAC, another organization, we are still asking a better solution, like for instance, status for all, permanent residency for those who are in a precarious situation. Those who already are here with experience, with work experience already they are integrated or they know the labor market. Then those are a good asset for Canada to be granted with the permanent residency and to be incorporated in the economy in the proper way, but also in the social services, etc., granting them with the permanent residency. That's just, I wanted to mention, we're still doing some criticisms to the gaps of this application. Particularly during the pandemic, it's very difficult for a worker to find a new job and to find an employer willing to provide a labor market. And then somebody, I don't remember now, it was a Suani or somebody mentioned their red flags. And for those who get back to the country, we have found that they are not invited the next year to come when they have been involved here in any kind of claims or problems. So the red flags exists definitely as Suani. And it's very difficult for them to get back to Canada. That is the reason we consider this remedy, this immigration remedy has a lot of gaps. I would like to mention something maybe quickly to what just Luis said too, and yes, many gaps. And I think the other gap that I can see or I am thinking of is like the job. Who helps them or who supports them to find a job? And now they don't have a place to live. Where do they go in the meantime? They have to pay for that. How do they find housing and living? So sorry, I'm thinking maybe can they apply to EI to support themselves in that period of time? So there is many gaps that I can see. Thanks Suani and I'm going to let Connie speak and then after that we are going to say some closing words as we are getting close to the hour. So go ahead. Yeah, Suani just very briefly, this is that we're trying to address under this project when we are during the pandemic and the impacts of pandemic on workers that we are in a position to provide emergency support to workers who are finding themselves in this situation. So when you ask about who and where can they go for support, we have 15 community partners who are currently funded under the Empowering Temporary Foreign Workers during COVID-19 project that they can workers or partners can go to and support workers in navigating, for example, the application for EI, the application for open work permit and other emergency support, including housing and assisting them in filing or filing for other benefits and possibly looking for new employment as well. So this is part of the temporary service and support that we are providing. Great. Thanks Connie. Thanks very much. Before I thank everyone I just wanted to remind you that the next webinar will be on June the first and the subject of the topic is the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers during COVID-19. As we know there are several regulations that each and every one of us need to follow, but it's always good to discuss them and ask questions and clarifications. So you are all invited to attend on June the first that will be two weeks from now. You should receive hopefully shortly an invitation, so hope to see you then. It is always great to see, I don't want to say, oh well, I don't want to say all faces, I want to say familiar faces. It's good to see some of you whom I haven't seen you for quite a number of years probably now. So it's always great to see you. I want to say thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the speakers. I sincerely appreciate your efforts. I want to wish you all the best in your work and also in whatever processes you're involved with. Maria, I wish you all the best to you and your family. And thank you so much. I hope that you will be able to be in touch with some of us here now that we have the pleasure to meet you. And without any further ado, I just want to thank each and every one of you for being with us today. And I want to wish you all the best for the remaining of your day. And since we have a maybe three, four minutes, I'm going to let Azwani, because she put her hand out, Azwani. It was not my hand, I was just clapping for the really good presentation. Oh, good, good, good, all right, thank you so much. It was a really nice presentation. All right, well, let's give the speakers a hand. Thank you so much guys, really appreciate it and see you next time.