 Well, welcome again everybody. Thank you for attending. Before we get started, I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional territories of the indigenous people across Turtle Island. I want 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 traditional territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples where I am right now. 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 all those here today, we acknowledge the ancestors beneath our feet and the land on which we stand. With our ears to the ground we can hear them, the Cree Nation, the Metis, the Dine, the Anishinaabe, the Dakota and the Kota Nations, the Inuit, the Blackfoot, the Inu, and all of nations that came before us and those yet to become. An 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 a treaty to come alive. We affirm our relationship to each other and to the land. We acknowledge and pay respects to the indigenous nations and ancestors of this land. Once again, I acknowledge the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples where I am right now. With that, I will hand it over to Connie Sorrio to guide us into our workshop today. Thank you, David, and good afternoon everyone and welcome to the migrant justice workshops, Equal in Rights and Equal in Dignity. And for today we will have with us partners from the Maritimes, Ann, and from the Cooper Institute, and also Roland Moreno from the Filipino community of New Brunswick. And also with us is a jasser, who's going to be speaking about, you know, her relation, his relationship with Kairos, and the empowering the temporary workers project team members SL and David. I would like to start off with, you know, painting a global picture of migration. We all know that forced migration or movement displacement of people from their home countries has become a very, you know, worrisome phenomena. In 2000, for example, hundred and the organization, the international organization of migration has recorded 150 million international migrants. And this includes international or foreign temporary workers who left their countries to seek, you know, better job opportunities in the countries where they come from. In 2020, there's about 281 million international migrants in the world today, and 164 million of that are international temporary foreign workers. People had been, you know, forcibly displaced from their communities, because of climate change, because of militarization, because of environmental destruction or mining activities in their communities, and the lack of job opportunities. And the countries forced this migrants or migrant workers to leave home, be separated from their families and sacrifice to work in countries where they are completely strangers to be able to provide support to their families and extended families back home. In 2001, when Kairos, you know, started. We look at the international situation of migrants at the global level. So our work in under the Asia Pacific international partnerships or global partnerships. We started supporting in Asia the formation of migrant workers organizations in Hong Kong in the Philippines in Thailand and Indonesia and other countries in the Asia Pacific. We also supported the formation of global alliances of temporary foreign workers or migrant workers organizations. We supported the formation of international migrants alliance. In the formation of migrant international, we supported the, the holding of international assembly of migrants and refugees parallel to the global forum of migration. In those, yeah, in the various years. So moving forward, I would like us to look at, you know, what is happening in Canada. What is the situation of migrant workers in Canada and how is Kairos, or how has Kairos responded, you know, in the last 20 years and moving forward. What are we doing to support the migrant workers in Canada, and also in relation to our overall advocacy for permanent status of migrant workers in Canada. So, so I would like us to welcome David. And yeah, for, for this part of, you know, the presentation or information sharing. Thank you. So, today I'm going to be taking a look back at Kairos's migrant justice actions over the years. I did a lot of digging to find quite a bit of information. And I have a timeline that I'm going to be sharing in the chat later on but I'm going to be looking at two specific submissions. First, in 1966, a worker representing 13 Jamaican laborers who were some of the first under the newly founded seasonal agricultural workers program, asked his employer for a light bulb for their lodging. The employer had a friend over for a few drinks at the time and the friend did not take kindly to this request, threatening to fight the worker. He returned to his lodging without the light bulb and they all settled in for the evening. The employer's friend, however, being fully drunk and still fuming from having their evening interrupted, entered the workers lodging and threatened them all with a shotgun. Thankfully, no one was harmed or injured during this practice. All 13 workers fled the farm, walking in the dark of night to another farm nearby where other Jamaicans were employed. Under the SOP program, 10 of the workers were able to find jobs on other farms with three opting to return to Jamaica. The government paid back all of the expenses that the farmer had put in to bring the workers over and face no consequences for the threats to the workers. Through the 50 years of the SOP and temporary foreign worker programs, the number of migrant workers in Canada has expanded into the hundreds of thousands. They are an essential part of the agricultural and caregiving sectors with many workers taking TFW and SOP jobs for decades. There are supportive employers utilizing these programs, but like in this example, migrant workers have experienced violations of human and labor rights in Canada since the beginning of these programs. Even as policy has shifted to ensure the safety and rights of workers, both programs prioritize the needs of employers with benefits to migrant workers being an added plus. As we celebrate 20 years of Kairos, today I want to look at two key actions in Kairos's history, speaking out on the qualities inherent to these programs. First, in 2006, Kairos, along with FCJ Refugee Senator Center, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada and United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, made a submission to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development, and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Many of the recommendations from this submission are points that we are still arguing for. In particular, a transparent appeal process and dispute resolution mechanism, lifting restrictions on mobility of TFWs to allow for changing workplaces or living off site, bringing their immediate families as part of coming to Canada, and of course status for all upon arrival. The pessimist in me wants to see the continuing relevance of these proposals as a sign that there hasn't been much progress, but looking more realistically, change takes time, and with the government change takes an immense amount of time. I see the continuing relevance of these issues as a sign that we are dedicating ourselves to critical and necessary change for migrant workers in Canada. Also, there have been points where there have been steps forward, particularly in Point 8 shown here about providing resources. There have been great strides in creating a network of support services for workers, which has been supported by the government, and I'm sure we will hear much more about that as this presentation goes on. In 2016, Kairos put forward another submission to the Standing Committee on Community Resources citing concerns with the direction of policy around migrant workers. The six concerns raised in Kairos submission indicated a necessary change in direction. As a result of pressure from Kairos and other groups, the Standing Committee ended the four-year cap where you could have worked for four years, and then you would have to stay out of Canada for four years. And indicated that the government would work on eliminating the employer-specific work permits. These were steps in the right direction, but the committee also recommended yet another review of pathways to permanent residency. Of the 21 recommendations of the government, 13 applied to and benefited employers, and only two were favorable to migrant workers. Some recommendations seemed to benefit workers, but sought to keep workers as permanently temporary. There was and still is a long way to go to fix these programs to prevent abuse and exploitation of workers. Status for all upon arrival remains a critical issue. We continue to advocate for workers having the freedom to change jobs, to access government supports, and the ability to bring their families to Canada. Since the beginning of the temporary foreign worker program, when a worker loses their job, either through their contract not being renewed or being fired, TFWs have little recourse available to them. Severely injured workers, workers who are not being paid appropriately or at all, or workers asking for simple amenities like a light bulb, can be dismissed from farms and sent home. As the TFW program does not allow for movement between farms, there is the open work permit for vulnerable workers program that acts as a temporary fix for this issue. But it's not guaranteed to all workers experiencing abuse, and we're having a webinar next week about this very topic. So if you would like to know more. All that being said, I don't want to end on a sour note. In the 18 year period of Kyros's work in migrant justice saw passionate advocates like Connie Alfredo and many more bring the voices of migrant workers to the forefront. These are just two submissions in a long history of this work. The work that we are doing today is informed by the advocacy of this formative time. The tax change came slowly but Kyros has been speaking truth to power for two decades now and the momentum built from this period from 2001 to 2016 continues to grow and forms the strides we were making today. That is what I had. And stop sharing. I'm going to move along to and we leave from the Cooper Institute. So, hello. Hey, so thank you for that. That was really interesting. So Cooper Institute, which is in Prince Edward Island has been engaged in migrant justice work since 2010. And I should say thanks to some wonderful project coordinators started way starting with Josie Baker, Paula florist now Eliza McLaughlin and Ryan McCray working on the empowering temporary foreign workers project. We forged connections with and supported migrant workers in accessing services and in advocating for their rights for over 10 years now. We have organized workshops community events and activities carried out. We did different kinds of research develop practical information resources, facilitated the development of a community based action team for migrant workers rights. At the same time we've made connections with groups working across the country, and at the national level so including migrant rights network Canadian Council for refugees and of course Kyros. And that's really important at the time in 2010 we weren't aware of anyone else doing this kind of work in the maritime certainly not in Prince Edward Island migrant workers were essentially invisible here. So our connection with Kyros and the other groups was really important I think we first got involved and I think it was through the local Kyros group which really was Jim and myrna wicks are led by Jim and myrna. They were the first to connect with us and, but very shortly after it was Connie Soria of course who came to who had been coming to Prince Edward Island I don't think I knew her before around 2014 or 15. But when she came she was. She was with Kyros and she was already connected to migrant workers in Western PI. And for years has been supporting our work in spirit and in practice. She's been a presenter at several of our large community forums. And I think that one of the things, and she's actually spoke to about this a few minutes ago, was just providing the context for the work we were doing making the connection between what we're doing locally. And what was driving people to leave their countries to come here what were the, the circumstance the conflicts poverty. The, the, that was, I think, one of the sort of gift that Kyros and Connie has have given us also emphasizing the importance of working in community and ensuring that communities are understanding the situations of migrant workers. And now, of course, today we have the current the empowering migrant workers projects that have been facilitated by, by Kyros, and those have really allowed us to address some of the critical issues that face migrant workers and the gaps illuminated by the pandemic. Because, obviously, the things that COVID that we're talking about during the combat pandemic are not new. Those are the issues that were highlighted had existed long before COVID happened. The vulnerabilities that are caused by the temporary foreign worker program, the power that employers hold over workers the lack of freedom and mobility, unhealthy and inadequate housing. Unfortunately, it took a crisis a health crisis and workers deaths to draw public attention to many of those issues. I think one of the things that David asked us to speak to is what sort of gives us hope and I think, in general, the fact that people are just more aware of the workers in their communities and of the challenges they face that gives me some hope. I think also just the groups that are working across Canada in their own regions and collectively that gives me hope. I think in PEI will see temporary foreign worker legislation within the year we hope it may not have happened had the the pandemic not demonstrated the need for such legislation. And I think, you know, our connections with Kyros the migrant rights network those those connections have actually helped us to make this happen. There's a lot, there's a lot more to do. You know, as David pointed out some of the things that we've been asking for for many, many years still haven't happened so to me the most important issue is around permanent residency and pathways aren't working we need permanent residency on arrival access to health care, including provincial health care coverage for all workers, low the improvement of labor standards, and of complaint systems which are not adequate. I think advocating and organizing around those big issues involves creating opportunities for participation of migrant workers, empowering those workers ensuring that their experiences and form the changes that we're working for. And we still need to be working as Kyros has been doing for so many years, welcoming people into our communities whether it's faith communities or neighborhoods, making connections understanding that migrant worker situations really do need to be understood in the community in order for change to happen. That's, that's me. Thank you so much and great to hear from you and from your perspective in PEI. I'm going to hear from Roland Moreno from FCNB. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your organization. Let me, let me, let me thank Kyros for, you know, for this opportunity to share what our organization is and you know what is our aim as you know as a advocacy group for temporary foreign workers. The FCNB is basically we are engaged in multicultural, social, civic educational activities for the betterment of Filipino and Filipino Canadians in the province of New Brunswick. Our main objective is to preserve and promote the Filipino culture and ethnicity among its member, as well as to promote awareness of this heritage in the Canadian community. To encourage participation, cooperation and coordination of multicultural and civic activities among various communities in New Brunswick and other countries. And lastly to provide community assistance to Filipino nationals, other arrival in New Brunswick and help them adapt to a new lifestyle. So I asked my wife, when do we start, I can't recall how do we, how do we do, we met Connie. But she told me that I believe that Connie and us met in Toronto. Is that right, Connie? So, and you know, from that point, we know that she's very, she has a heart for her passion to help the migrant workers. And you know, we got connected right away there. And every time she comes, she came to, she came to Maritime, she always stopped over at Frederickton, where our office is. And then we chat and we talk about, you know, the temporary foreign workers, the employers, their status and what the government is doing to help them during their stay in New Brunswick. At that time, also, we had organized and become part of the workshops, meetings. And, you know, we met, I introduced Connie to a church that attended by a lot of Filipino migrant workers in Saudi at New Brunswick. So, through this project, the Empowering Temporary Foreign Works during COVID-19, it really is, you know, it gives FCNP a capacity to, you know, to provide such services. This is always my dream to have that, to have that kind of services offered to them. In fact, I applied in, I think a few years ago, I applied funding to the provincial government. They liked the idea about helping the migrant workers. But because migrant workers are not funded, so we didn't get the funding. And thanks for, you know, for the partnership with Kyros that we are able to do such thing now. A little to tell you about the Employment Standard Act in New Brunswick. Actually, during that time that we are helping temporary foreign workers, it happens that the vice president of a company here in New Brunswick is, you know, we always go to Sidiak and Capile. It's where the area is with a lot of migrant workers. It's a seafood migrant workers. And then we go there every week and we spend time with them. And then after our gathering, we document what we have discussed. And it happens also that that vice president is a friend of the premier of New Brunswick at that time, Premier Olberg. And he whispered about, you know, what the condition of foreign workers in New Brunswick. So to tell you the short story of it, so it, because of that conversation, because of that advocacy that we did, that the Employment Standard Act of New Brunswick has been amended. That includes now the recognizing that, you know, the migrant workers are, you know, are like an ordinary workers that also have rights and privileges under the, you know, the Employment Standard Act. So we also have now the promise of government now require the employers to register all the temporary foreign workers that go to New Brunswick. So it's a big help for us. Because every time we go to Employment Standard Act, if we have some issues or some complaints, we have a contact now inside the department. So I've also been, you know, been waiting and, you know, monitoring the implementation of this new changes to the Employment Standard Act. So that, you know, we can, we can assist the newcomers also and also the migrant workers as they come and enjoy their, their lifestyle in New Brunswick. So let me talk about the, go back to the project that we have with Kairos this year. So we were able to, you know, employ the three newcomers because of this project. And I end up going into a different parts of New Brunswick to deliver, you know, right now we are a track of delivering about a thousand welcome bags, which, you know, we are really passionate of doing it. Even my staff, our staff are really taking time to do that. And, you know, we're always excited to meet other people. Because for them, they see what I see before that, you know, it's always good to, it's a good feeling that, you know, you help migrant workers, even just listening to them or giving them a simple gesture of, you know, smile. And it helps them. So our purpose in here that I'm trying to do is connect all the migrant workers. So if there's a problem with one, the other one might have some solution to it. So those are the things that we learned from the project. You know, I thank you, Cody, for making us involved in this project. It's really a give us opportunity to provide assistance to the migrant workers. So from here, what we're hoping to do is more collaboration. You know, count as on some of the, you know, if it's birthdays to migrant workers, actually we're leading in the province. Other side of the organization, they're asking us, you know, how do we get funding from it? I said, you know, I have some friends in higher places. No, I just say, you know, I, you know, because they are, they're all provincial, provincial funded, funded one. And I told them that, you know, this is, this is the heart of CNB is to help the migrant workers. So we're hoping that in a couple of years that, you know, that we would, we would continue this advocacy organization to, to, you know, to, to assist the migrant workers. That's it. Thank you. Thank you so much, Roland. Good to hear from you and your place in New Brunswick. I'm going to turn it over now to Essel to introduce yourself and what you have to share about the program. Thanks Shannon. Hello everyone. And thank you for joining us for this workshop. My name is Essel Panlaki and I'm part of the Kairos Empowering Temporary Foreign Workers Project team, working closely with Connie, David Mitos and other colleagues at Kairos like Shannon, Alfredo and many others. So today, I'll be talking about the Kairos and the employment and social development Canada's empowering temporary foreign workers during COVID-19 phase two project. So this project, which is being funded by the federal government through its temporary foreign worker program aims to continue the successful implementation of the phase one project and supporting and assisting temporary foreign workers during the pandemic with a focus on the agricultural sector. So phase one of the project started December 27, 2020 and ended on July 31 this year, while phase two started in mid-August and then will end on December 15 this year. With the successful implementation of the first and second phase, we are expecting that the federal government will continue to support this work so we can continue to provide support to agricultural workers who are considered as one of the vulnerable workers in Canada. So the funding that we receive for phase two allowed us and our partners, like Roland and his group and many others, is to build on the success of the phase one project and help migrant workers during the pandemic by establishing a collaborative and coordinated approach with 14 community grassroots and faith based and service provider agencies and providing support and services to temporary foreign workers. We continue to advance our work in collaboration with our partners focusing our efforts in strengthening our partnerships with them and increasing their capacity so they can deliver more and better services for the migrant workers. So in terms of our scope of work, our amazing and dedicated project partners provide incoming migrant workers with welcome bags that include personal care equipment, language appropriate resources and non-perishable food items. Other programs and services that we offer include information sessions, webinars, virtual workshops and emergency assistance. Our partners are also visiting farms and public spaces for outreach and service delivery for migrant workers. Also very important aspect of our work has been the airport support services that we provide to welcome, inform and assist newly arrived migrant workers at Toronto Person International Airport by providing them information and quarantine measures, vaccinations and additional supports. We also recently started supporting workers leaving Canada as the Canadian planting season ends. So the outcomes that we wanted to see around increasing the number of migrant workers, success in emergency and non-emergency support services and increase their access to programs and services, and of course increasing capacity of the workers to protect themselves and exercise their rights and increase the capacity of our partners to improve their work, and also engage other stakeholders including employers and local businesses. And most importantly, in terms of ensuring that the concerns and service gaps being faced by migrant workers and partners are also being addressed. Next slide please, David. We are sharing with you this map to give you a better understanding of the geographical scope of our work, our efforts for face to our focus in southern Ontario and the three maritime provinces. We've also expanded our work to the Windsor Essex region. Next slide please. And three out of our 14 partners are from maritime provinces, which include New Brunswick, the Filipino Canadian community of New Brunswick, which is being led by Roland, the NOVA, the No One Is Illegal Halifax in Nova Scotia, and of course the Cooper Institute and already mentioned about the great work that they've been doing with migrant workers. And next slide please. So for phase two project, we are expected to serve 7,000 temporary foreign workers, including up to 1,000 migrant workers at Pearson Airport. We are pleased to share that on the second month of our project implementation for second phase we have exceeded all these targets and especially many of our deliverables. Now we are so happy and proud to be working with our amazing partners like Roland and the rest of the 13 partners. We can't emphasize enough their hard work and dedication and their important contribution in addressing the challenges and concerns of migrant workers to improve their access to services and programs and advancing their rights and dignity and recognizing their vital contribution in sustaining the Canadian chain and food security. Thank you. Thanks, Essel. That was quick. I wasn't quite ready for you yet. So we will have chance for questions later, but we have one more speaker before we get to the Q&A and so we are looking forward to hearing from Jazer who is also on Cairo staff and has been a migrant worker. So Jazer welcome here please introduce yourself. Hello, I'm Jazer Montiliano. I'm in Canada last year like February 2020 just before the lockdown. So I'm Jazer. I'm a Jazer nurse in the Philippines and I came here as a student. I'm studying the postgraduate course of advanced healthcare and management. I'm also studying for a worker as well. So, yeah, just a bit background what happened to myself last year. So when pandemic started and when pandemic started, I responded to the need for the healthcare workers. There's a very big shortage of manpower in the long term cares and nursing homes and retirement areas. So immediately, it's because Canadian PSWs are not working anymore. So they have families to take care of. They are afraid. They have fears that they will be transmitting to their own families. So the ones available are we, the migrant workers, living alone in Canada. So I responded to the call. So in the same day, I was hired as a temporary emergency worker staff on the COVID stricken long term care. I was facing the same vulnerability with the other workers. So I worked more than the regular hours like an average of 50 hours a week. Yeah, it's more hours, but the worst time is when I guess when I when I'm infected with COVID. So thankfully it's a very mild physical symptoms, but what's more that time was the mental stress like just imagine yourself you are living in a foreign country as a foreign worker with no family, no health insurance and and everything like no connections and yeah, I feel that I'm the most vulnerable worker around that time. And, and the thing is like around April this year, when Canada is trying to end the lockdown, the regular full time PSWs are coming back to work. And now since I was just a temporary worker, so I was given to less to no more hours to work. So, yeah, I don't know what to do, but very timely, like the Cairo's time, I want to call this the Cairo's time because Cairo's time means like gadget point of time. So I was hired, I was able to apply and work under Cairo's ETFW support program and getting involved in welcoming the foreign workers and newcomers in Canada. So when I learned about the totality of this program, I was in big O like, oh, if I've only known of this program before, I wouldn't say that my life would be easier, but maybe it would be less difficult for me that time. So from my experience last year, and as one of the empowered temporary worker, I want to convey the spirit of empowerment to other migrant workers as well. So right now we are working on the Toronto Pearson Airport. One of the challenges we have encountered over there is that migrant workers like not everyone, but most of them, they are so hesitant in giving their information. It's innate to them that they have a fear of something unknown or I don't know. But until I told them that I am a temporary worker too and Dorian and partner is a successful immigrant, until then they were more open about the real situation here in Canada. And because of that, we are receiving more calls from them. And yeah, the advocacy is starting to work. So also I would like to acknowledge the partnership and collaborations we have with the community partners because of them, like the delivery of services are more faster and efficient. And right now what I'm feeling is that it's so heartwarming that to see that yesterday's problem is today's Thanksgiving to those people we have helped. And yeah, in my perspective, migrant justice is still a work in progress and empowering every migrant worker will make a big difference. So to end as a fellow migrant worker, I wish to share this feeling of encouragement and empowerment to every migrant workers in Canada. Thanks so much, Jazer. So now you have heard from these resource people. So a little bit about Kairos and the work from Connie, from David, from ESL, and from the, and from Jazer a little bit about our work as well. He is on the airport staff. And, and then from Anne and Rowland, who are in the Maritimes with that on the ground work, not part of the country. Do you have questions for these folks I would invite you to put them in the chat if you can or consider putting up your hand but I know that David has prepared some questions so why don't we start with one question from David for this panel of experts that we have with us. And spoke to this wonderful presentation. But sort of opening it up to the other panelists. The pandemic has fundamentally changed the landscape of migrant work in Canada. Where do you see hope in the path forward. Where do you see motion forward, either spring from the pandemic or due to the, the awareness of migrant migrant workers that has come from these shifts according to the pandemic. So I would invite you to just unmute and jump in or if we get a lot of folks. We might even ask you to put your hands up panelists. Where's your risk. What is your response. Connie, are you trying to get my attention yourself. Well I was having a hard time finding the reaction. Thank you and thank you Roland and jazzer for, you know, for for sharing and as you were sharing it reminded me when exactly we met and what we did and you know all the fun things that we've done. Going to the different remote areas, both in my in in P I and also in New Brunswick, reaching out and finding where the migrant workers are particularly those in the seafood, you know, processing and packaging industry. So I remember before I respond to the question. David, I remember my first tip to P I I was invited to speak in a forum in O'Leary. There was a big, big snowstorm, and I was stranded there for three days, because the airport was closed, the the bridge was closed as well. And I was staying with Joe, formerly the the leader of the NDP and and his family. So that was my first time and to be to meet you and be joined the Cooper Institute. And Roland in New Brunswick. That was in 2015, when we organized the Atlantic Forum on migrant workers. We met there and not in Toronto and after that we've been to the different remote places as well in New Brunswick, their island, company and and reaching out to migrant workers in the province. So David responding to the question. Well, is there hope or what's, you know, ahead of us after the pandemic, but let me start first with what we did during the pandemic. One, we shifted from our usual or the regular advocacy work and information and and awareness, you know, work that we've been doing. Because of the need that migrant workers are particularly those in the in the farms and also the undocumented migrant workers face during the pandemic, the fact that they were excluded from the benefit packages that both the federal and the provincial government had put in place last year. We shifted a bit to provide direct support. And so we we also shifted in, you know, we're not able to do face to face or in person meeting, but we, we organized a series of webinars to get everyone connected to have the situation for example of migrant workers in P I and new Brunswick, known to the other people in other areas so there is that flow of information and support. In in December of 2020, we get funding from the federal government to provide direct support to temporary foreign workers, particularly in the agriculture sector, and this is, you know, a public knowledge. Kairos got $2.1 million to do this work and immediately we put in place a community coordinated approach where we went to the community level and searched out, you know, partners who are already doing the work at the community level. So the, the chart that SL presented in terms of the out the results. As I said, you know, we give thanks to the work the hard work of our community partners, because they are the ones in direct communication and relationship with migrant workers in in their respective community. The pandemic has given us some opportunities to be able to provide this direct support, but it also does not limit us from just doing that. We continue to do the advocacy we continue to call for permanent residency and continue to call for policy change to improve and really respond to the situation of migrant workers at all levels. So in all sectors. So, think forward when we get to the pandemic recovery period and hopefully soon there will, you know, the pandemic ends, we want to do a more in depth programming in relation to still responding to the needs and the gaps, but really increasing, you know, the advocacy work that we're doing. Thank you. I have some thoughts, but I'm welcoming any other panelists if they want to hop in before I do. I was just going to say, and it's probably repeating what I said earlier, but I'm just saying, I mean those things that the pandemic really highlighted in terms of the need for everybody to have access to to comprehensive healthcare, you know, in public healthcare insurance, health insurance, I think that's perversely an opportunity that the pandemic offers us that I think it strengthened our argument that we need that. And yeah, and then again, I agree with with Connie that permanent residency pathways are okay but they're not enough and in fact they sometimes make workers more vulnerable in already very vulnerable situations. Because there's a lot more at stake and they're a lot and they may be less likely to complain about abuse and those sorts of things. So, yeah, I think that it's an opportunity it's for people are aware of some of these the problems with the temporary foreign worker program and the need for advocacy, and that we, you know, the whole idea that we can't go back to normal we need a new normal or you know I think that that migrant labor is part of that whole discussion about how we move forward from the pandemic and how we ensure that that nobody gets left behind. Roland, did you want to jump in? Well, I can say a couple of things so I'm very hopeful that, you know, the partnership with carers will, you know, will become stronger because way back in 2012, you know, become involved with migrant workers and their, I have known what they've been going through. So, you know, some foreign workers are taking their passport, you know, they're working permit. So that's why they are not able to complain or you know, to complain to whatever hard work that they are doing. But now, you know, I have not seen anybody like that. So there's our presence there, you know, the work that we all do makes the employers and, you know, the environment better. And, you know, we are starting, we're starting with the wood ground and, you know, we can continue, you know, to provide direct services to them. Because we want to make sure that all those migrant workers that are about to come to Canada will be in a better spot. You know, New Brunswick has been looking for, you know, 7500 new commerce and this year I think we only get 2000. So there's a lot more migrant workers that will be coming in to Canada. And that's the answer to our, you know, problem with the population growth is to bring in more immigrants. And so that we can help the economy. We can help everybody. We can continue the services. And, you know, our migrant workers is our back of the economy. So thank you. Thanks. So David. Yes. So, sort of echoing what's been said like the pandemic was a crisis that brought much needed attention to the issue. Certainly, I prefer no pandemic over having one. But the amount of change that has come from having a specifically health related crisis to bring necessary care and attention to the issue of migrant work. I think, and even before I was involved with Kairos or the project. There were more news stories about the agricultural job market and the necessity of migrant work in Canada. So I think the sort of baseline public consciousness of, of these programs being. Yeah, the awareness level has certainly risen. And that the government of Canada is supporting these currently emergency measures but like with such a strong network of support. And there's, I see a lot of justification for continuing this program forward beyond because that community coordinator approach includes those 14 partners but those 14 partners are also partnering with further organizations so the, like the, the massive people who are interested and engaged with this topic has increased through this program but also with that general awareness raising that's been going on so the hope I see in this is that we have more engaged people doing what they can to support migrant workers and putting pressure on the government to, to change policy for, for the better. I think there's a lot of really great work going on in Kairos but I think overall I think the issue is, is coming to the fore, because things have needed to change since 2006. And some of those things happening so. Yes, thanks to David for that great question about hope. And there have been a few questions coming in in the chat box and I maybe jumped in where I didn't need to. Peter was asking about the future of funding asshole made a very quick reference to it. Are we in a position to expand on that at this point in terms of longer term funding. I know it's our hope. I wonder if anyone else is prepared to say more if not we have other questions. And are you jumping in or are you saying let's hear what else. Yeah, no just very briefly to respond to father Peter's question. I would say we are in a very good position to negotiate for a more longer term multi year project programming, just because we're able to show to the government and to the public as well that you know the community coordinated approach is is successful in terms of really being able to one and and and I think this also connects to the other question in the box in terms of the chat box in terms of lessons learn. The very important the the very important aspect of this is partnership collaboration, working with organizations and grassroots communities that are already doing the work, recognizing their work and leveraging on those, you know, activities. So that's one, I guess important principle. The other one is respect that you are working together in this project in providing support and services as equals. And we, you know, we, we, we, we support each other. We try to, to rich, you know, the objectives, but in a very mutual and respectful way. We are obligated in some ways to the funders, but that is, you know, I guess, the very important aspect is relationship relationship partnership and respect and and mutuality. So, having said that, and also picking on what David has mentioned, we have 14 organizations across four provinces, Ontario, New Brunswick, PI and Nova Scotia. And this 14 organizations are in network and in collaboration with other grassroots organizations or community groups as well. So in my report. The 14 organizations are actually bringing with them about 150 to 200 smaller community grassroots organizations involved in engaging this project. So we are, you know, so having said that, I reiterate we are in a very good position to, you know, to negotiate for a long term project. Thanks, Connie. And maybe someone else would like to jump in on what's the, the word in reality here about hospitals do hospitals deny healthcare to uninsured people in Canada. Do you folks who are assisting migrant workers on the ground have a definitive answer to that. Well, I'm not sure about denying, but I know that, you know, if migrant workers are eligible for healthcare for provincial healthcare coverage their employers are required to provide private health insurance. So migrant workers will have coverage, not so undocumented people likely, but the private, the private insurance might not cover everything it's, it's more sort of like tourist type health insurance. So, so that's one issue. But and when you do arrive at the hospital, I believe that you have to pay a fee. You're asked for a fee at the hospital if you don't have coverage. So, I'm not sure about turning somebody away if they're in an emergency I don't know that that would happen but I do know that you would be expected to pay. I don't know. Other people might have better, better or more. Any other experience you want to throw in? You know, in New Brunswick, basically, that's the same experience we have. We have a couple of therefore for workers that needing an advanced healthcare. And, you know, the only things they have to pay because it's not covered by the insurance that they have with the employer, like it's just a travel insurance that has a limited coverage. So through Kairos, we're still doing an assessment if we could help them assist them for that, for that need. So, thank you. And that's not the only issue with healthcare, you know, health access to healthcare language is a huge one where translation services in this province anyway, maybe by telephone in the hospital they're not offered at all in any other healthcare provider setting. So, so that and also just private insurance, you know, you do often workers are asked to pay upfront and be reimbursed afterwards and that's not a really fair or workable system. I was just going to add one of the unique problems for the farm workers is the accessibility. As far as I know I haven't heard too many cases of denial because of insurance but one of the issues that arises is getting to the clinics and hospitals. And sometimes employers are responsive and sometimes they're not so responsive I know we have to escort sometimes and even service translators. So there are some of those other issues as well around healthcare. Anyone else I want to add to the healthcare conversation before we take another angle at the lessons and learns. I just want to add that, yes, as Anne said, we don't know about being trained, you know, trained down or, you know, at the hospital level. But we know that workers are going to be billed or they're going to be asked to pay before the service provided. But also to include, you know, the situation and the vulnerabilities of undocumented workers. Like they are, you know, not able to, they were not and they're still not able to access healthcare because they don't have the credentials and the status, you know, to present when they approach the hospital or the clinic and so forth. So they are sick and they are suffering in the shadows because they are afraid to come out and access support and services because of fear of being reported and deported so just, you know, to put that out there. And I also wanted to invite other, we have partners who are with us at this workshop and, you know, you're free to jump in if you have information to share with the guide so specific question that is being asked. Thank you. I just wanted to add to that. Fundamentally, this is about us treating migrant workers as as inferior as not deserving of the same, the same services and benefits as everybody else. So it's just, it's just one example of how we practice inequality in this country and, you know, and healthcare is one of the things that Canadians always brag about everybody, everybody apparently has access to, to no cost, to full coverage by the public healthcare system and that's painfully not true and it's just one way that we treat migrant workers unequally. And you have mentioned undocumented workers I wonder if someone would jump in and just give a couple of quick reasons or why someone might be undocumented. Can that be for you or you go ahead with what you were going to say. Yes, I'm supposed to talk about the access to healthcare but I can also share my experience. I can also answer your question why people become documented, especially in the past few years there has been so many changes regarding policies, not only to agricultural workers but to the whole spectrum or program a temporary foreign worker program and sometimes the policies are good. The way you look at it, but when you dig deeper, they're very discriminatory at some point and they're causing the migrant workers to suffer more right considering they're already vulnerable so, you know, the program around the migrant caregiver program, many of the people who were excluded from the pathways that were presented in the last few years already don't have status and now struggling with accessing many of the services and just sharing some of our concerns in helping them provide the access and health services. The hospitals usually don't turn around a dandan away especially here in Ontario, but they've been asked to pay, sign a promissory note, and in some cases, my caregivers and other migrant workers ending up paying thousands of dollars to pay back the hospitals for access and services. Thanks for adding your wisdom to that. So just to be clear, would it be true to say that the vast majority of undocumented workers you've met came into the country through some legal means and something happened here? Yeah. It's something that I didn't realize until I was working at Kairos and started hearing more. So that gives a very different perspective to the term. Shannon, before we leave that topic, I want to add something this is very important. When the conservative government put in place the four years in four years out rule, this cost a lot of migrant workers to become undocumented. What the four years in and four years out rule was workers who are admitted to Canada as temporary foreign workers can only stay for four years. And after four years they had to leave. And then wait again for another four years before they can come back as a temporary worker. As Essel had mentioned earlier, workers, majority of the workers who come or came to Canada paid exorbitant recruiters fee, placement fees, and other government executions. So for them to leave, you know, after four years, they're not even, or they haven't even paid for what they owe in paying for the recruitment fees and other expenses in coming to Canada. So the workers option is to go undocumented and not leave. So that policy alone had created so many migrant workers who came to Canada legally and became undocumented in the process. Thanks for sharing about that Connie. Carolyn, did you have another question? It's all you put your hand up and then you didn't. No, I didn't. I just had the question about what's happening in the Western provinces. Well, that is, that is a question I think that some of our staff or partners could address. We are in the Eastern provinces. What's happening in the West. If you know as much as I do, Kairos is one of ways at six or seven organizations that the federal government is funding and some of those other organizations are receiving similar funding while having different organizational approaches to the supporting migrant workers at this point. So, Kairos is also trying to spread a way of working across the country as Connie and others are invited to sit at that federal table and, and at the federal government level that collaboration is starting to happen so we hope that that will happen in other provinces too. David, do you want to add. And the, the empowering temporary foreign workers program is modeled in part after a program in BC that was doing that networking between organizations, I would say in a different way I find this program in sort of the comparison is doing more of that sort of like further supporting down the line. But there are, there are networks supporting the Western provinces as well. And we hope to continue collaborating with them to ensure that those supports are available across Canada. The airport services, we have some connection to pass on to workers that are carrying on from Toronto to the Western provinces as well. And we are hoping to sort of strengthen that so that the support services from Kairos at the airport can follow a sort of stronger chain of supports through the different airports to the West. To be very specific. So our friends who are with us at the workshop today, and wherever a location you are. So for example, for the West Coast, there is mosaic and I'm saw the umbrella organization of in BC that's providing that support to migrant workers and migrant workers support organizations. This is Calgary prairies. This is covering money Toba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. There is CCIS. This is the Catholic settlement and immigration society, sorry CCIS. So, yes, Catholic, Calgary Catholic immigration society. That organization is similar to Kairos in terms of getting funding from the federal government to support migrant workers and migrant workers support organizations in, in the three provinces and the prairies and there's one in Quebec and Kairos being, you know, covering for provinces, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. Thanks, colleagues and thanks Carolyn for your question. Folks if you want to put another question in the chat you'd be welcome to we are, we probably have about seven more minutes for the Q&A. And I have a question just to go back to the lessons learned and Connie you use address this and Lee summarized it nicely for us in the chat relationship partnership respect and mutuality. I wondered if you might expand on this idea about does funding curtail our advocacy with the government or is it in fact helpful that you are now sitting at government tables. Can you expand on that. Is that something we can learn and spread to other aspects of our work. Thank you Shannon for that question. Actually, in the beginning, you know when we, when we receive the funding, my first fear was becoming isolated from the advocacy network and groups. There is that assumption that when you receive funding from the government, there's, there's some strings attached to it, including, you know, doing advocacy. Fortunately, we're not affected by that we're still able to do our advocacy and at the same time providing direct support to migrant workers. And we, we continue to call for the status for all permanent residency upon arrival, who will speak to members of parliament senate about our position with regards to status. At the same time, we cannot deny the fact that you know where we're working on that bigger call or there, there are emergencies and immediate needs and, and gaps that that have to be responded so we were able to combine both. That fear of being isolated didn't happen and I want us to be able to continue that that we're not giving up our advocacy positions, our advocates advocacy call, just, and just, you know, keep keep our work in limited to providing direct support and services in in fact, this is helping a lot to in terms of empowering the workers in in in helping the workers report allegations of abuse and using government, government tip line and government resources were able to provide support and equipment for them to be able to do that, and we're able to provide emergency assistance for example when when a worker submitted a report using the tip line and they have to leave the, the, the place of work or where he's working and is being, you know, accommodated, we're able to provide emergency housing, but we have to be. We have to have a plan in order to make sure that when we empower the worker to to exercise their rights that we are able to provide them the information and sit and support they needed to be able to do that and being and sitting in different tables with regards to the work, the support, we're able to advocate again, you know, and and show to them cases that we encounter on our day to day implementation of this project. So it is very helpful. I wonder if you might even add about some smaller examples the advocacy for good procedure. I'm thinking of things like when the COVID health line check in if you're in quarantine you need to check in every day. At the beginning of this, there was no Spanish translation. And so one of our partners was calling the workers every day and doing three way calls just so that they could help tell the health department I'm doing fine today. And, and that was changed with some advocacy was it not. Yes. I just, I want to mention that, you know, most of our community partners and our staff at the airport is very diverse are very diverse and speak different languages to be able to provide support and some level of comfort, you know, to the workers who are coming in. So at the airport, for example, we have chaser to go speaking staff Spanish is speaking and also part of the Caribbean dial it. Similarly, many of our community partners are provide those languages to be able to really support the workers. We've also shown, or we've also advocated for the government to ensure that information handouts or information materials that they are producing are translated into different languages. So that workers would have access to it. We've also advocated that visuals and audio resource informations are produced, because many of the information that they've produced so far are heavily text loaded. And workers would not have time to read all the well what's in the document. So there's there's movement in making sure that the the information are are easily accessible to the workers and we are doing that to us part of the project we're translating documents in different languages were developing infographics and videos using government sourced information. Yeah, I'm just gonna pop it quick before we shift over but I think to like I've the focus of my work is on communications media and webinars are a big part of that. And from our last webinar on the sixth, I think it's important that, like, while engaging with the government in the running of this project, we've also been able to forge connections with people to be part of public sessions that allow workers to work with themselves as well as people working with directly with workers to be able to speak to their experience with the tip line, for example, like, being able to give them not just the ideal of how these programs operate but how they are experienced by people working directly with migrant workers, I think is an important avenue for pushing for the improvement of these programs. I think having those real experiences and having challenging questions yes brought in those forums and allowing space for an understanding of how these programs are supposed to operate I think is a sort of useful bridge between that our community partners that we're working with and service Canada who is funding the program I think those, those bridges are really important and how we're continuing that advocacy even while doing a program funded by the government. David I was thinking the word bridge just before you said it and I really think that recent webinar was such a good example of Kairos invites the community partners and Kairos invites the government and everybody shows up and they're in the same room. Here's the bridge. So thank you to everyone who has put forward some questions into all our panelists for participating and responding to these questions know that these partners are available to to be in dialogue with you all you can find contact information for all the partners on the website. Thank you for that link well Connie is going to share a few concluding thoughts with us. Thank you very much Shannon and thank you to and to Roland to Jassar to asshole and to David for sharing with us at this, you know, this workshop. So all who joined this workshop, your, your questions, your support and passion for this break is also very important. We won't be able to get to this point without your support. I think that is very, very important to recognize. You know, as we practice our faith, we believe that we are all created equal that as and said, not because you're a migrant worker, not because you crossed the border, you are less human. When you get to the other side, we all have the same rights you all have the same dignity. And they should not be taken by from us just because we have to flee militarization, we have to flee the impacts of climate change, we have to flee poverty in the countries where we are from or this migrant workers are from. So, we've, we've done quite a bit, a long way in terms of our information sharing in terms of our organizing in terms of our awareness racing, we've developed some tools. And you can see it at the Cairo's web page to migrant justice webpage to help communities to help to help faith groups on how to establish relationship with migrant workers to listen to their situation and be able to provide accompaniment and We'll continue to do this work. The 20, 20 years of Cairo's this 20 years anniversary is just the beginning of more years, you know, to dedicate and provide service to our, our, I would say our migrant workers are fellow men who are in different situations than us, but we all we are all the same in the eyes of God in the eyes of supposedly law and so forth and we will continue to reach out to you for support for accompaniment to join and participate in the campaigns that we're going to be launching to push for what we're calling for permanent status and status for all permanent residents, Canada should bring in more permanent residents, people with permanent status to meet labor demands and not migrant workers who are disposable and can, you know, can be easily sent back to countries where they are from. This is, this is our hope. This is our dream in the years to come that Canada that Canada gets to a point where the temporary foreign workers program is eliminated and that everyone is welcome here as permanent residents. So, again, we thank you, and we hope for your continued support and accompaniment as we continue to our work for migrant justice. Thank you.